send it to Senator North. She felt that it would be an acute pleasure
to give him something, and as for the cigars they were too good for
any one else. She took the box to her room and wrapped it up carefully
and badly; but when she came to the note which must accompany it, she
paused before the difficulties which mechanically presented
themselves. Senator North might naturally feel surprise to receive a
present from a young woman with whom he had talked exactly six
minutes. If she wrote playfully, offering a small tribute at the
shrine of statesmanship, he might wonder if she worked slippers for
handsome young clergymen and burned candles before the photograph of a
popular tenor. She might send them anonymously, but that would not
give her the least satisfaction. Finally, she reluctantly decided
to wait until she met him again and could lead the conversation up to
cigars. "Perhaps he will see me in the gallery to-morrow," she
thought.

But although he sat in his comfortable revolving-chair for two hours
the next afternoon, he never lifted his eyes to the gallery. She heard
several brief and excellent speeches, but went home dissatisfied. On
the day after her return from New York, whither she went to perform
the duty of bridesmaid; she had a similar experience, twice varied.
Senator Burleigh made a short speech in a voice that was truly
magnificent, and following up Senator North's attack on the bill
unpopular on the Republican side of the Chamber. He was answered by
"Blunderbuss" Pepper, the new Senator who had turned every aristocrat
out of office in his aristocratic Southern State and filled the
vacancies with men of his own humble origin. He was a burly untidy-
looking man, and frequently as uncouth in speech, a demagogue and
excitable. But the Senate, now that three years in that body had toned
him down, conceded his ability and took his abuse with the utmost