over the high nose, gave weight and intensity to anything she said. Her
husband, in coaching her for the coming campaign at Washington, had told
her earnestness was her strong suit; that her deep, deliberate voice was
her best card, but she held in her eyes, unquestionably, both bowers.

"Delightful of you, I am sure," he answered, taking the seat beside her,
with his for-the-public smile, "but I give credit to the air; you are
looking as brilliant at this outrageous hour as you would on your way to
an afternoon at bridge." Then, the chauffeur having closed the door and
taken his place in the machine, Feversham turned a little to scrutinize
her face.

"Now, my lady," he asked, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Mr. Tisdale," she answered directly. "Of course you must see now, even if
I do contrive to meet him through Frederic, as you suggested, and manage
to see him frequently; even if I find out what he means to say in those
coal reports, when it comes to influence, I won't have the weight of a
feather. No woman could. He is made of iron, and his principles were cast
in the mold."

"Every man has his vulnerable point, and I can trust you to find Hollis
Tisdale's." The delegate paused an instant, still regarding his wife's
face, frowning a little, yet not without humor, then said: "But you have
changed your attitude quickly. Where did you learn so much about him? How
can you be so positive about a man you never have met? Whom you have seen
only a time or two at a distance, on some street--or was it a hotel
lobby?--in Valdez or Fairbanks?"

"Yesterday, when we were talking, that was true; but since then I have