Senator Bruner beamed. "That's just the point. He's caught my idea
exactly."

It went without a hitch. "I feel," said the Prince, as they were
hurrying him through the tunnel, "that I am a little boy who has run
away from school. Only I have a terrible fear that at any minute
some band may begin to play, and somebody may think of making a
speech."

They gave this son of a royal house a seat on a dry-goods box, so
placed that he could command a good view, and yet be fairly secure.
The final skirmish was on in earnest. Two State Senators--coatless,
tieless, collarless, their faces dirty, their hair rumpled, were
finishing the stair carpet. The chairman of the appropriations
committee in the House was doing the stretching in a still
uncarpeted bit of the corridor, and a member who had recently
denounced the appropriations committee as a disgrace to the State
was presiding at the hammer. They were doing most exquisitely
harmonious team work. A railroad and anti-railroad member who fought
every time they came within speaking distance of one another were
now in an earnest and very chummy conference relative to a large
wrinkle which had just been discovered on the first landing. Many
men were standing around holding their backs, and many others were
deeply absorbed in nursing their fingers. The doors of the offices
were all open, and there was a general hauling in of furniture and
hanging of pictures. Clumsy but well-meaning fingers were doing
their best with "finishing touches." The Prince grew so excited
about it all that they had to keep urging him not to take too many
chances of being seen.