As for the lady herself, Abel was so dexterous that she really began to believe that she might do rather more for herself than her employers. He brought to bear upon her the whole force of the fascination which had once been so irresistible; and, like a blowpipe, it melted out the whole conspiracy against him without her knowing that she had betrayed it. The point of her instructions from Belch was that she was to persuade him to be constant to the Grant at any price.
“To-morrow, then, Mr. Newt,” she said to him, as they stood together in the crush of a levee at the White House—“our bill is to be reported, and favorably.”
Mrs. Delilah Jones was a pretty woman, and shrewd. She had large eyes; languishing at will—at will, also, bright and piercing. Her face was a smiling, mobile face; the features rather coarse, the expression almost vulgar, but the vulgarity well concealed. She was dressed in the extreme of the mode, and drew Mr. Newt’s arm very close to her as she spoke. She observed that Mr. Newt was more than usually disposed to chat. The honorable representative had dined.
“Our bill, Lady Delilah? Thank you for that,” said Abel, in a low voice, and almost pressing the hand that lay upon his close-held arm.
The reply was a slow turn of the head, and a half languishment in the eyes as they sought his with the air of saying, “Would you deceive a woman who trusts in you utterly?”
They moved out of the throng a little, and stood by the window.
“I wish I dared to ask you one thing as a pure favor,” said the superb Mrs. Delilah Jones, and this time the eyes were firm and bright.
“I hoped, by this time, that you dared every thing,” replied Abel, with a vague reproach in his tone.
Mrs. Jones looked at him for a moment with a look of honest inquiry in her eyes. His own did not falter. Their expression combined confidence and respect.
“May I then ask,” she said, earnestly, and raising her other hand as if to lay it imploringly upon his shoulder, but somehow it fell into his hand, which was raised simultaneously, and which did not let it go—.