The Honorable Senator Sage-Brush

s world to come and thrust its light-hearted happiness upon him when Patricia had said "No"? It was like bullying a cripple, he told himself morosely, and when he had read the single t

s on the lawn and the road-fronting verandas of the club-house were hung with festoons of Chinese lanterns. At the carriage-entrance smart automobiles were coming and going, a

his ignorance. For Patricia's "No" was not yet twenty-four hours old, and since it had changed the stars in their courses for Pat

was prosaic and practical rather than poetic or sentimental. But the fact remained, and when he sat back in his corner absently folding the lately received telegram into a narrow

basset club-house is spacious and the dinner dance minimized the hazards of a meeting between two u

or around Boston somewhere, but to run slap up against you here, when there seemed to be nothing in it for me but to be bored stiff-" He stopped short, finding it diffic

thinking of you a little while ago, Dick. I saw your name in the list of Transcontinental representatives to the traffic m

or a cigar. "I've been in Boston the full week, skating around over the chilly crust of things and never able to get so much as

u," returned Blount, remembering that Boston or Cambridge-which is Boston

broadly and lig

put it in choice Bostonese. I thought maybe it would when I heard you were taking the po

r," said Blount. "If you get into trouble with the Boston police let me know, an

its face and praise it consistently and pugnaciously elsewhere. "Are you ever coming back to t

I have never thought much about going ba

That's good; the old Sage-brush State is needing a few bright young lawye

hile he was at dinner across the interval b

ceiling-globe. Its date-line carried the name of his own city in the "greasewood country"-the capital o

Shelby

Apartment

an occasional sight of your face. If you are not tied to some woman's a

d Bl

s, but none the less a careful and methodical official of a great railway compan

hen the pause had grow

airly chummy in the old Ann Arbor days, Evan, and yet I never, until

e quiet reply. "I suppo

lize it, but what you don't tell people about yours

e was altoget

of banalities and commonplaces without the adding of any ma

to it. In an unguarded moment, back in the college days, as I have said, you admitted to me that you were Western-born.

it still is, I believe-a hard day's drive for a bunch of prime steers distant from the nearest shipping-corral on the railroad. At twelve I could 'ride line,' 'cut out,' and 'rope down' like an

He was not abnormally curious, but Blount's communicative

ne that can ever come to a half

ke him forgetful of its joys and sorrows. "That was hard-mighty ha

to school, to college, to Europe; then I came here to the Law School. In all that time I've

er of course. Though he might Sunday-over at the Winnebasset Country Club on the North Shore, it was well within the possibilities that

alize vaguely that there must be strong reasons; reasons which might lie beyond the pale

said B

-er-your father's political

ount's steady gray eyes, but this time it was shot th

man might mix and mingle in Washington society for a brief minute or two, he got himself elected to fill out an unexpired term of two months in the United States Senate-bought the election, some said. That was three years ago, wasn't it?-a long ti

when the half-bitter admissi

, Great Snipes, man! he isn't in it a little bit for the social frills and furbelows; he never was. Let me intimate a few things: Politically speaking, David Blount is by long odds the biggest man in his State to-day. He can have anything he wants, f

w-point he could look through the reading-room windows and on into the assembly-room where the dancers

"-holding up the folded message-"it is just possible that you can tell me what lies behind it. Why has my father sent it at this particu

asewood country, if that's what you want to

bout the business or the political situation in the West would fill a

unreasoning, bull-headed legislative fight against the railroads. I suppose our own case is typical. As everybody knows, the Transcontinental Railway has practically created two-thirds of the States through which it passes-made them out of whole cloth. Where you left sage-brush and bare hills and u

tariff the traffic will stand.' I can remember one year when my father rose up in his wrath and drove

State has filled up, we've tried to meet the situation half-way, as a straight bu

" warned Blount quizzically. "You are getting

ed to relig

ere is only one issue before the people and that is the Transcontinental Railway. The 'Paramounters,' as they call themselves, taking the name from the assumption that it is the paramount duty of

still resting upon the merrymakers twirling like paired automato

good bit of hard cash to be able to tell you in so many words just where he does stand. There are a good many people in our

wil

ti-railroad factions, there is a very comple

is identified w

gular lack of information discov

irony-"he isn't identified with the machine-not at all; he merely owns it and runs it. We may think we can swing a safe majority in the legislature, and the 'an

ut of touch with the Western political situation, as you've discovered." The

to-day. An hour or two on

ich you'l

train if I can make it. You couldn't hire me t

he dance-music rhythm with: "If I can close up a few unfinished bus

rain or so and worry out a few more of the chilly Bosto

e. I should bore myself to de

worded telegram. But it was a goodly portion of Gantry's business in life to put two and two together, and that

s-er-the present Mrs. B

lling discouragement he could crowd into the two-let

buffed but no

ty fine woman,

e Blount's reply was icy. But now Gantry's eye

try, Evan. Next to your father, she is the court of last resort; indeed, there are a g

e mocker may not drive his victim, and that is the ditch of sil

tereste

ooked his companion

. Will you take that for your answ

by adding worse to bad: "I didn't know it was a sore spot with you. How shoul

something else,

hen he began again he was still thinking of the

marry and settle down in this over-civilized neck of woods," he remarked, looking down

e things the civilization had done for him was to make him

astern young woman even by sight. She may be all that is lovely, desirable, and enti

th the air of one who had liv

ow up with the country-his father's country-was apparently a very sudden one. Had the decis

laughed. Then, with the friendly impudence which only a

making the response which adm

ged. "I don't often read a love

nce, with outward symptoms unmistakable to the dullest. But the time, the surroundings, an

self-pity. "I've known her for a year, and I've loved her from the first day. That

hy. Then: "But that's a good sign, isn't it? Haven't

and care-free to the outward eye, but in reality one who was carrying burdens of poverty and distress which might well have crushe

t suggestion," he returned. "When Miss Patricia

e the best judge. Tough, isn't it, old man? What's the obstacle?-if

ss Anners

you'll have to elaborate that a little for me

tion for social-settlement work in the large cities.

oung woman's fad-which it

But I couldn't talk against it. Confound it all, you can

querie

and never gets within speaking distance of the pr

girl has the Hull

's an ideal, and I can't smash it.

heart,' and hie me away to the forgetful edge of things. And it's simply astonishing how quickly the go

mpossibility of anything remotely approaching forgetfulness. This thought made him instantly self-reproachful; regretful for having shown a sort of disloyalty by opening the door of the precious

antry hardly knew it when he was shouldered awa

akeful enough to refill his pipe and well-balanced enough to be thankful for a little solitude in which to set in order his plans for the newly struck-out future. In the later talk with Gantry he had learned many things about the political situation in his native State, things which were enlightening if not partic

courts was slowly but surely giving place to the lawyer of business. Without attempting to carry the modern business situation bodily over into the domain of pure ethics, he was still young enough and enthusiastic enough to lay down the general principle that a great corporation, being itself a creation of the law, must necessarily be law-abiding, and, if

epossession in favor of the defendant corporation. In their later conversation Gantry had intimated pretty broadly that there was room for an assistant corporation counsel for the railroad, with headquarters in the capital of the Sage-brush State. Blount assumed that the requirements, in the pre

inspiring. If there were to be no Patricia in his future, ambition must be made to fill all the horizons; and since work is the best surcease for any sorrow,

and it was the only one in which he found the precious fillip of enthusiasm-was motoring. There was a choice collection of fine cars in the grouping on the lawn, and Blount had just awakened a sleepy

onnet and began to get his car ready for the road. Blount stepped back when the little group on the veranda came down the steps preceded by a club footman who was calling the number of the car

r Heaven's sake! you don't mean to tell

idity perhaps, but of that quality of serene self-pos

't you know that the Cranfords-the people w

n't know it; and because I didn't

Beverley told me you were here, and she added that you had particularly requested not to be intr

g to crank the motor. Blount was thankful that the new Italian engine was r

wouldn't, be anybody's good company to-night," he said. Then: "It was cruel

ing'?" she echoe

ew England to-morrow-or rather, Mo

eprecated, in the sisterly tone that always made him

rtion, Patricia," he retorted half-morosely. "If

white-haired old gentleman in the tonneau was calling impatiently t

refusing to quarrel with you now. It pleases you to believe that a woman's place in this twentieth-century world is inevita

ing West

going West, too-father and I-tho

eried. "Whereabo

the chauffeur was sliding into his seat behind the pilot-wheel, and t

parting. "Let it be auf wiedersehen." Then the clang of the closing tonneau door and the outgoing rush of th