All the other days in the week the great lady is occupied in returning
these visits, hunting for obscure addresses, trailing her rich
garments over third-story stairs; and it is no uncommon thing for her
to have the names of one or two thousand people in her visiting-book,
on whom she is to call, provided she can find them. Of course the call
is brief, the faces are unknown, the conversation is void, and the
only satisfaction attained is in checking off that particular name as
done with. Certainly this great lady's lot is not altogether enviable.
In the daytime she is claimed by calls, in the night-time by balls;
at nine in the morning people on business begin to clamor for her
husband, at ten, if he is a Congressman, he goes to his committee,
at twelve Congress meets to adjourn at five; and if after that some
political dinner, at which great things are to be adjusted, does not
take him to itself till nearly midnight, constituents, schemers and
lobbyists do. What sort of home-life there can be where the master of
the house is out all day and the mistress is out all night, remains a
matter of conjecture.

But there are wheels within wheels; and all the wheels are not so
thoroughly oiled as to make things run with perfect smoothness; and
thus in the progress of this very "calling" sad disturbances
arise. Shall the Senators' wives make the first call on the Cabinet
ministers' wives? By no means: the Cabinet ministers are but creatures
of a day, ephemera, who draw their breath by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate: they must respect their creator. Shall the
Senators' wives call first upon the wives of the justices of the
Supreme Court? There is a doubt: the Supreme Court is the last resort
of the law of the land, a reverend and hoary institution, and its
judges, having a life-lease, will be judges still when the Senators