"Ah, Gracie, how can you refuse?" he exclaimed, but Ethel cried out pettishly:
"Papa, you have spoiled Precious until she is a perfect baby, and if she cried for the moon I believe you'd try to have a ladder built up to it. You always find it easy enough to refuse me when I ask imprudent things, and I don't think you ought to take sides against mamma in this. Let Precious wait a few years before she comes out."
But dismal sobs were the only answer to this plea, and Precious wept, persuasively:
"Oh, papa, darling papa, do say that I may go, for mamma will do anything you wish."
The senator's pleading dark eyes met the anxious blue ones of his wife, and he said eagerly:
"Dearest, she wants to go so very, very much, and it will break her sweet little heart if you refuse. Besides, this is different from a regular ball, for thousands and thousands of people attend the Inauguration Ball just to see the new president. There will be a great crush as usual, and you will bring the girls home very soon, I know. So for this one time I think we may humor our baby's curiosity. Now dry your eyes, my pet."
"Oh, you darling! you darling!" cried Precious ecstatically, and lifted her face, all lovely and damp like a rain-washed rose. She embraced him rapturously, then flew to her mother.
"Mamma, you shall never repent this, for I'll be as good as gold hereafter."
Ethel had turned away and left the room with a frowning brow and darkly flashing eyes.
"He loves her best," she murmured bitterly. "He would never have yielded like that to my entreaties for anything against dear mamma's wish. Ah, why is it so? Am I not beautiful and good, and his elder daughter? Why should Precious be always first in my noble father's heart?"