little start of admiration that always manifested itself in the faces of the guests when she entered the drawing-room arrayed in evening costume:  she took comforting note of the fact that these guests directed a very liberal share of their conversation toward her; she observed with surprise, that famous statesmen and soldiers did not talk like gods, as a general thing, but said rather commonplace things for the most part; and she was filled with gratification to discover that she, on the contrary, was making a good many shrewd speeches and now and then a really brilliant one, and furthermore, that they were beginning to be repeated in social circles about the town.

Congress began its sittings, and every day or two Washington escorted her to the galleries set apart for lady members of the households of Senators and Representatives.  Here was a larger field and a wider competition, but still she saw that many eyes were uplifted toward her face, and that first one person and then another called a neighbor’s attention to her; she was not too dull to perceive that the speeches of some of the younger statesmen were delivered about as much and perhaps more at her than to the presiding officer; and she was not sorry to see that the dapper young Senator from Iowa came at once and stood in the open space before the president’s desk to exhibit his feet as soon as she entered the gallery, whereas she had early learned from common report that his usual custom was to prop them on his desk and enjoy them himself with a selfish disregard of other people’s longings.

Invitations began to flow in upon her and soon she was fairly “in society.”  “The season” was now in full bloom, and the first select reception was at hand that is to say, a reception confined to invited guests.  Senator Dilworthy had become well convinced; by this time, that his judgment of the country-bred Missouri girl had not deceived him—­it was plain that she was going to be a peerless missionary in the field of labor he designed her for, and therefore it would be perfectly safe and likewise judicious to send her forth well panoplied for her work.—­So he had added new and still richer costumes to her wardrobe, and assisted their attractions with costly jewelry-loans on the future land sale.

This first select reception took place at a cabinet minister’s—­or rather a cabinet secretary’s mansion.  When Laura and the Senator arrived, about half past nine or ten in the evening, the place was already pretty well crowded, and the white-gloved negro servant at the door was still receiving streams of guests.—­The drawing-rooms were brilliant with gaslight, and as hot as ovens.  The host and hostess stood just within the door of entrance; Laura was presented, and then she passed on into the maelstrom of be-jeweled and richly attired low-necked ladies and white-kid-gloved and steel pen-coated gentlemen and wherever she moved she was followed by a buzz of admiration that was grateful to all her senses—­so grateful, indeed, that her white face was tinged and its beauty heightened by a perceptible suffusion of color.  She caught such remarks as, “Who is she?” “Superb woman!” “That is the new beauty from the west,” etc., etc.