"Yes," he observed, slowly, "unless you've got the right sort of a woman."
Rising, he led the Mississippian to one side.
The lobbyist heard the Southerner give a short exclamation of astonishment as Peabody whispered to him.
"It's all right. It's all right," he then heard the Pennsylvanian say, irritably. "She'll understand. She can be trusted. She expects you."
Stevens gave a violent start at the last assurance, but his colleague hurriedly helped him into his coat.
"Go in a closed carriage," was Peabody's final warning. "Be sure to tell her to get hold of his two daughters on some pretext at once. She knows them well. Maybe we can influence the old man through his girls, don't you see?"
And while Senator Peabody and Jake Steinert recurred to a previous discussion concerning one J.D. Telfer, Mayor of Gulf City, Senator Stevens started on the most memorable drive of his career on this bright winter morning, to the house of the fascinating Mrs. Spangler—who for the past week had been considering his proposal of marriage.
CHAPTER XXV
CAROLINA LANGDON'S RENUNCIATION
Senator Langdon's committee room at the Capitol presented a busy scene at an unusually early hour the morning after the entertainment at his home. Bud Haines, reinstated as secretary, was picking up the thread of routine where he had dropped it the day before, though his frequent thought of Hope and the words that had thrilled him—"I love you, I love you fondly"—made this task unusually difficult. He impatiently wished the afternoon to hasten along, as he knew he would then see her in the Senate gallery, where she would go to hear her father's speech.