serious criticism by the self-constituted guardians of legislative
virtue, but if this bill goes through the Senate we shall invite from
the thinking people of the country the same sort of criticism which we
now receive from the ignorant. If the high standard of this body is to
be maintained, it must be by sound and conservative legislation, not
by grovelling to future legislatures."

Having administered this final slap, he sat down and began writing
again, apparently paying no attention to the Chairman of the bill, who
defended his measure with eloquence and vigour. It was a good speech,
but it contained more words than the one that had provoked it and
fewer points. Senator North replied briefly that the only chance for
the bill was for its father to refrain from calling attention to its
weak points, then went into the Republican cloak-room, presumably to
smoke a cigar. Betty, whose head ached, went home.




VII



That evening, as Betty was rummaging through a cupboard in the library
looking for a seal, she came upon a box of Cuban cigars. They could
have been her father's only and of his special importation: he had
smoked the choicest tobacco that Havana had been able to furnish.

She knew that many men would prize that box of cigars, carefully
packed in lead and ripened by time, and she suddenly determined to