good-nature. Betty recalled his biography as sketched by Senator
Burleigh, and noted that almost every Senator wheeled about with an
expression of lively interest, as his reiterated "Mr. President, Mr.
President," secured him the floor. They were not disappointed, nor was
Betty. In a few moments he was roaring like a mad bull and hurling
invective upon the entire Republican Party, which "would deprive the
South of legitimate representation if it could." He was witty and
scored many points, provoking more than one laugh from both sides of
the Chamber; and when he finished with a parting yell of imprecation,
his audience returned to their correspondence and conversation with an
indulgent smile. Betty wondered what he had been like before the
Senate had "toned him down."

That night she addressed the cigars to Jack Emory and sent them off at
once. "I do believe I came very close to making a fool of myself," she
thought. "What on earth made me want to give those cigars to Senator
North?--to give him anything? What a little ninny he would have
thought me!" She puzzled long over this deflection from her usual
imperious course with men, but concluding that women having so many
silly twists in their brains, it was useless to try to understand
them all, dismissed the matter from her mind.




VIII



"How many politicians are coming this afternoon?" asked Mrs. Madison,