"Handsome Ludlow isn't an ideal adviser for young girls," dropped
Shelby, quietly.
"He's a victim of gossip; he told me so. You and I know too well what that means to countenance it. Besides, you're going to appoint him commissioner of something or other—I read it in yesterday's papers; but that's politics, I suppose."
Shelby gloomed in his corner, but made no answer.
Bowers essayed a diversion.
"I saw Bernard Graves's wife in the assembly chamber this morning," he remarked. "Seems to me she's looking rather peaked since her marriage."
"Ruth Graves here!" exclaimed Cora.
"I saw her too," said Shelby. "She congratulated me later in the executive chamber. She has been living in New York this winter. Graves is still lecturing around the country, telling how he wrote his poem and what it's all about."
"I presume she couldn't resist coming up to see how we would behave,"
Cora reflected, aloud.
"She is visiting Mrs. Van Dam," added the governor.
"Of all people!" Mrs. Shelby's wonder was unrestrained. "I do remember, though," she continued presently, "that she made friends here when she was in Vassar College. It's plain enough why Mrs. Van Dam has taken her up again. She wants to know all about us."