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Senator North

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loose. When a former private citizen belonging to the party out of power gets on his feet in it, he develops a species of hysteria for which there is no parallel in history. He seems to think that the louder he shouts and the more bad rhetoric he uses, the less will his party feel the stings of defeat. Some of them tone down and become conscientious and admirable legislators, but these are the few of natural largeness of mind. Party spirit, a magnificent thing at its best, warps and withers the little brain in the party out of power. But politics are out of place in this wilderness. There should be redskins and bows and arrows on all sides of us. I used to revel in Cooper's yarns, but I suppose you never have read them." Betty shook her head. "When can you come up here to stay?" "Probably not for a month yet. There will be a good deal more wrangling before the bill goes through. I don't like it in its present shape and don't expect to in its ultimate; neither do a good many of us. But I shall vote for it, because the country needs a high tariff, and anything will be better than nothing for the present. Later, the whole matter will be reopened and war waged on the Trusts." "Sally says they have bought up the atmosphere." "They may be said to have bought up several climates. I have spent a great many hours puzzling over that question, for they have put an end to the old days when young men could go into business with the hope of a progressive future. Now they are swallowed up at once, depersonalized, and the whole matter is one of the great questions affecting the future development of the Republic." He was not looking at Betty; he was staring out on the lake. His eyes and mouth were hard again; he looked like a mere intellect, nothing more. As Betty watched him, she experienced a sudden desire to put him back on the pedestal he had occupied in the first days of their acquaintance, and to worship him as an ideal and forget him as a man. That had been a period of intellectual days and quiet nights. And as he looked now, he seemed to ask no more of any woman. But in a moment he had turned to her again with the smile and the peculiar concentration of gaze which made women forget he was a statesman. "Not another word of politics," he said. "I did not get up at four in the morning to meet the most charming woman in America and talk politics. Do you know that it is over three months since I saw you last?" "You left Washington, so, naturally, I left it too." "I wonder, how much you mean? If I were to judge you by myself--Your few notes were very interesting. Did you enjoy California?" "California was made to enjoy, but I felt very much alone in it." "Of course you did. Nature is a wicked old matchmaker. You have felt quite as lonely up here since your return." "Yes, I have! But I have had a good deal to occupy my mind. Sally terrified me by asserting that Harriet and my cousin Jack Emory were in love with each other." "Who is Harriet?" "Oh, you have forgotten! And you made me take her into the bosom of my family." "Oh--yes; I had forgotten her name. I hope she is not making trouble for you." "She admitted that she loves him, but insists that he does not love her, and I don't think he does." "Probably not. I should as soon think of falling in love with a weeping figure on a tombstone." "What kind of women do you fall in love with?" asked Betty, irresistibly. She was sure of herself now. The passions of women are often calmed by the presence of their lover. Passion is so largely mental in them that it reaches heights in the imagination that reality seldom justifies and mere propinquity quells. For this reason they often are recklessly unfair to men, who are made on simpler lines. They had floated under the spreading arms of a thicket on the water's edge, and she was a brilliant white figure in the gloom. "I have no recipe," he said, smiling. "Certainly not with the women that weep, poor things!" Betty wondered what his personal attitude was to the tears of twenty years. She knew from Sally that Mrs. North had long attacks of depression. But his mind had been occupied; that meant almost everything. And his heart? "Do you love anybody now?" she broke out. "Is there a woman in your life? Some one who makes you happy?" The smile left his lips. It was too much to say that it had been in his eyes, but they changed also. "There is no woman in my life, as you put it. Why do you ask?" "Because I want to know." They regarded each other squarely. In a moment he said deliberately: "The greatest happiness that I have had in the past few months has been my friendship with you. If I were free, I should make love to you. If you will have the truth, I can conceive of no happiness so great as to be your husband. I have caught myself dreaming of it--and over and over again. But as it is I am not going to make love to you. When the strain becomes too great, I shall leave you. Until then--Ah, don't!" Betty, who had dropped her head when he began to speak, had raised it slowly, and her face concealed nothing. "I, too, love you," she said in a moment. "I love you, love you, love you. If you knew what a relief it is to say it. That is the reason I would not go up into the forest with you just now. I was afraid. I have been with you there too often!" For the first time she saw the muscles of his face relax, and she covered her face with her hands. "I shouldn't have told you," she whispered, "I shouldn't have told you. I have made it harder. You will go away at once." He did not speak for some minutes. Then he said,-- "Can you do without what we have?" "Oh, no!" she said passionately. "Oh, no! No!" "Nor can I--without the hope and the prospect of an occasional hour with you, of the sympathy and understanding which has grown up between us. I have conquered myself many times, relinquished many hopes, and I think and believe that my self-control is as great as a man's can be. I shall not let myself go with you unless you tempt me beyond endurance; for as I said before, if I find that I am not strong enough, I shall leave you. You are a beautiful and seductive woman, and your power if you chose to exert it would madden any man. Will you forget it? Will you help me?" She dropped her hands. "Yes," she said, "I'd rather suffer anything;

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