When they reached the dining room she was relieved to discover that the
party in the corner had gone.

In the afternoon there were many more sights to be viewed, but they were
back in the hotel again by half-past four, because Ephraim's Wilderness
leg had its limits of endurance. Jethro (though he had not mentioned the
fact to them) had gone to the White House.

It was during the slack hours that our friend the senator, whose interest
in the matter of the Brampton post office out-weighed for the present
certain grave problems of the Administration in which he was involved,
hurried into the Willard Hotel, looking for Jethro Bass. He found him
without much trouble in his usual attitude, occupying one of the chairs
in the corridor.

"Well," exclaimed the senator, with a touch of eagerness he did not often
betray, "did you see Grant? How about your old soldier? He's one of the
most delightful characters I ever met--simple as a child," and he laughed
at the recollection. "That was a masterstroke of yours, Bass, putting him
under that tree with that pretty girl. I doubt if you ever did anything
better in your life. Did they tell you about it?"

"Yes," said Jethro, "they told me about it."

"And how about Grant? What did he say to you?"

"W-well, I went up there and sent in my card. D-didn't have to wait a
great while, as I was pretty early, and soon he came in, smokin' a black
cigar, head bent forward a little. D-didn't ask me to sit down, and what
talkin' we did we did standin'. D-didn't ask me what he could do for me,