then he has to be seen, and shown that he is going against the interests of his constituents.  It is just as it is everywhere:  men have to be shown what their real interest is.  No; most Congressmen are poor, and they stay poor.  It is a good deal easier to deal with those among them who are rich and have some idea about the prosperity of the country.  It is just so in the departments.  You’ve got to watch things, if you expect them to go smooth.  You’ve got to get acquainted with the men.  Most men are reasonable when you get well acquainted with them.  I tell your husband that people are about as reasonable in Washington as you’ll find them anywhere.”

“Washington is certainly very pleasant.”

“Yes, that’s so; it is pleasant.  Where most everybody wants something, they are bound to be accommodating.  That’s my idea.  I reckon you don’t find Jerry Hollowell trying to pull a cat by its tail,” he added, dropping into his native manner.

“Well, I must go and hunt up the old man.  Glad to have made your acquaintance, Mrs. Henderson.”  And then, with a sly look, “If I knew you better, ma’am, I should take the liberty of congratulating you that Henderson has come round so handsomely.”

“Come round?” asked Margaret, in amused wonder.

“Well, I took the liberty of giving him a hint that he wasn’t cut-out for a single man.  I showed him that,” and he lugged out his photograph-case from a mass of papers in his breast-pocket and handed it to her.

“Ah, I see,” said Margaret, studying the photographs with a peculiar smile.

“Oh, Henderson knows a good thing when he sees it,” said Hollowell, complacently.

It was not easy to be offended with Hollowell’s kind-hearted boorishness, and after he had gone, Margaret sat a long time reflecting upon this new specimen of man in her experience.  She was getting many new ideas in these days, the moral lines were not as clearly drawn as she had thought; it was impossible to ticket men off into good and bad.  In Hollowell she had a glimpse of a world low-toned and vulgar; she had heard that he was absolutely unscrupulous, and she had supposed that he would appear to be a very wicked man.  But he seemed to be good-hearted and tolerant and friendly.  How fond he was of his family, and how charitable about Congress!  And she wondered if the world was generally on Hollowell’s level.  She met many men more cultivated than he, gentlemen in manner and in the first social position, who took, after all, about his tone in regard to the world, very agreeable people usually, easy to get on with, not exacting, or professing much faith in anybody, and mildly cynical —­only bitterly cynical when they failed to get what they wanted, and felt the good things of life slipping away from them.  It was to take her some time to learn that some of the most agreeable people are those who have succeeded by the most questionable means; and when she came to this knowledge, what would be her power of judgment as to these means?