PLAYmG THE MISCHIEF. % Noufl. By J. W. DE forest, AUTHOR OF "MISS RAVENEL'S CONVERSION FROM SECESSION TO LOYALTY, "EUROPEAN ACQUAINTANCE," &c. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. iS75- By J. W. DE FOREST. MISS RAVENEVS CONVERSION FROM SECESSION TO 10 V AITY. 121110, Cloth, $150. "A most brilliant novel. * • « The author's keen I pei-soufil observatiou, would hnve insured an enter- wit, tine humor, concise and tellinr; style,, fLUc", ubo/e t:\iulnjf Cction, e\en with materials of for less iutrin- all, sincerity ; his evident habit cf ^eein^'o'.ei'irly ana ri3 interest than those contained in 'Miss Kavenel's narrating faithfully facts that l^ave flalbnaiJidor t^j I Conversion." E UR OPE AN A CQ UAINTANCE : i2mo. Cloth, $1 50. One of the most readable, pleasant volumes upon Europe, or rather upon persons there encountered by The author, published for some time. The charm of Mr. De Forest's book is his utter want of pedantry. being Sketches of People in Europe. lie passes over what is called classic ground, and avoids referring to what other writers have said. He conveys his own impressions iu a very agreeable man- ner. — Boston Transcript. Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. Seni by mail, postage prepaid, to any part cf the U. S. or Canada, on receipt of the price. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S75, by Harper & Brothers, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. CHAPTER I. CATCHING A BEAU. JOSEPHIXE MURRAY was oue of tliose youug Avouieu whom every body likes very Kiuch on a lirst acquaintauce. She was haiidsome enough to make it an agreeable pastime to look at her ; and her manners, while proper and lady-like, were exceedingly facile, gracious, and winning, if one might not even say alluring ; and, fur- thermore, she was sufficiently bright, well- read, well-traveled, and fluent in speech to be remarkably entertaining; and, finally, she was gifted with a coqiiettishness which gave her a iirompt hold upon the attention of gentlemen. Because of these attractions, she made chance acquaintances easily, and jjlt'fiscd them greatly. Never did she journey alone but some agreeable stranger was drawn to pay her some notable devoir of courtesy, and to do his boldest and cleverest to engage her in conversation. Xor did this imjn-onqHti admirer ever fail to have a delightful triji, to feel that he was a thoroughly appreciated individual, to part from his companion of an hour with regret, and to think; of her many times a day for weeks afterward. Nor, indeed, was it un- oommon for him to confess and affirm to his bosom friends that, if ever he met that lady again, he should certainly marry her. In fact, Josephine Murray had a wonder- ful faculty not only for making people like her on short notice, but also for leading them to believe that she reciprocated the yearning. Her passing flirtatious had a semblance of being love at flrst sight, and love, too, of an impulsive, unreflecting, fas- cinated, life-long nature. When she conversed there was a mobility of expression in her delicate features, and a quick, nervons swaying and starting in her graceful ligure, which made her seem charm- ingly impressionable. It was not easj' for a man to resist the sweet eagerness with which she talked to him, and the air of ap- preciative, sensitive interest with which she listened to him, and the seeming tenderness with which her liquid black eyes gazed at him. After an hour or so of exposure to these witcheries he was generally ready to say that he sliould have to marry her some day ; not in the least doubting but that she would give herself to him for the asking, dropping her trustful head upon his bosom in the thankfulest manner. On the occasion of her present journey, which was a trij) by the day-train from New- York to Washington, Josephine had embez- zled the admiration and attentions of that eminent member of Congress, the Honorable G. W. Hollowbread. Mr. Hollowbread, wo ought to state, was easily caught by womankind, for nature had given him a keen hankering after tliat sure- ly unparalleled dainty, and he had rather increased than diminished the aiipetite by long indulgence. He was over tifty year^ old ; in fiict, we may as well confess at onct- that he was fully sixty ; yet not a session passed over his comely, iron-gray head with- out crowning it with some fresh flirtation. In all Congress there was not another eld- erly or middle-aged gentleman who did so much love-making. It was easy to discover signs of Jlr. IIol- lowbread's sweetness and strength of tem- perament in his face and person. He was a darkly florid man, with crimson veins in his shapely, solid cheeks ; his eyelids drooping straight across the pupils of his black, set- tled, ardent and, one might say, heated eyes ; his princely, aquiline iu)so somewhat over- full at the end, as if bloated with luxury; his lower lip rather too plump also, and slightly inclining to be pendulous ; his head large enough in the brow, but still larger behind the ears ; his grizzled neck extraor- dinarily thick and massive. As for his figure, people who could put up with a considerable circumference, and who did not insist upon statuesque length and sinewlness of ilmb, usually spoke of it as iiortly, tine, handsome. He certainly held up his face nobly, walked with an old-stylo st.ateliness far more impressive than tlie gait of modern days, and had an air which fre- quently made strangers turn to gaze at him, querying if he were not one of the great ones of the earth. Ho looked intelligent R «^ OiO-O/fllgivise. and, in truth, was a man of uucom- PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. mon natural parts, aud would probably hare cut a very notable figure in our political world, cilYy that h^ vtm^ S^'i^^7>W^y hampered by love ctpleasurCj fVnfl byiLizipess. Being tbe' b'bsei-ving'nlan' tMt be was in re- gard to >v,qmaKlsi'Ad',^Ii"v Hollo wb^esid began to takje ;j;uiniyto',nMo:of Jc^ofdyno^SMurray almost as feo-or( aS 'be lafd* fe j-^s o'n 'lier. He quickly became conscious of that charm of allurement, that indescribable something ap- proaching to invitation, which exhaled from her manner. He wanted to fix her attention, to enter into some sort of communication with her, to get near her. Aud get near her he pres- ently did, quitting the seat which bo had at first selected, and moving to another of more blessed proximity. What manner of woman was she ? She looked like a lady of culture and refinement, and yet she looked capable of a railroad flirtation. She gazed about her at people a good deal, and at himself she had glanced three or four times. Mr. Hollowbread, once a very handsome man, aud as yet unable to judge himself elderly, easily drew encouragement from such gossamer circumstances. He began to hope that she was goiug to Wasbington to beg for a clerkship, and that he had only to announce himself as a Congressman to be received with favor. He bad just prepared his little introduc- tory speech about the weather, with a sub- sequent remark concerning the splendor of palace -cars, when two passing gentlemen X)0unced upon him. " How are you, Hollowbread ?" demanded one of them, iu a loud, hard, hammering voice, at the same time slapping his shoul- der with a hand like a mallet. "Always among the ladies, eh ?" he added, emitting two harsh snorts of a horse-laugh. " I told Beauman we should find you here." Mr. Hollowbread had started smartly, for the salutation had been rousiugly vociferous, and the slap rude enough to sting his fat back. His tone was a little plaintive, and even a little remonstrative, as be answered : " Oh ! is that you, Mr. Drummond ?" Moreover, he put forth two pudgy fingers in a dilatory, cooling way, which was equiv- alent to saying, " Shake, if you must, aud then get along." Mr. Drummond smiled with insolent glee, took the two dougby digits between two of his own, and immediately drojipcd them. He was clearly a man not easy to aba.sh, aud prompt at rendering scoff for scorn. Ho was a bold spirit also in otber ways, for his wide-open eyes were already settled upon Josephine Murray's face, and ho did not withdraw tlicm until he had i)ut her out of countenance. As for ber, she had looked up quickly at the mention of bis name, as if it were a name of much interest to her. And so it was, for she was journeying to Washington on business which required the good offices of Congressmen, aud the member from her district was one Mr. Sykes Drummond. She did not know him by sight from Adam, and this might be the very man. Iu one instant she had judged him by his looks, and had decided that he might be endured as an acquaintance if he would serve as an advocate. He was about thirty years old, broad- shouldered, aud otherwise strongly built, with a virile, audacious, trooper - like face, and a devil-may-care, imgnacious bearing. His forehead was large, aud over the eyes singularly prominent ; his nose was Eoman, his chin vigorously defined, aud his jaws powerful. His complexion was dark, pallid, and yet seemingly healthy ; his black coarse hair was long and abundant. There was an interesting, and one might even say a fasci- nating, expression of mirthful recklessness about his flexible moutb, which was the handsomest feature of his countenance, aud was indeed really haudsome. On the whole, and taking into special consideration his ap- pearance of puissant virility, be wouldbe call- ed an extremely good-lookiug man — at least by those who like the Eobert-the-Devil type. Meautime Mr. Hollowbread had exchauged friendly salutations with Beauman, an olive- complexioued dandy of about Drumuiond's age, whose beauty and air of repose remind- ed one of the Apolliuo, aud who looked about as ill-fitted to grind in the mill of American life. "And so you are going as Minister to Spain?" said the Congressman. "I am heartily glad to hear it. We need a gentle- man there, if only for a changed Our last man at Madrid annoyed people by wetting his thumb iu his mouth when he dealt cards at wbist." "I don't feel so sure of Spain," smiled Beauman. " I rather think I shall only get a castle there." " What do the New York Exchange bum- mers say to your bill for unlocking tbe cur- rency reserve ?" interrupted Drummond. "I don't know in the least; I have only been to Baltimore," replied Hollowbx'cad, coutinuing to look quite unhajipy at Mr. Drummond's sticking to him. '•I sha'n't support you. It's a iioinilar whim just now, but a year hence it will bo considered a blunder. A fellow must keep his feelers out for his — well, his re-election." Aud here Drummond haw-hawed loudly, as if there were a delicious liumor iu this co.arso confession of mere egotism. " If the public dislikes the working of tlie bill, I shall be ready to move for its repeal," said Mr. Hollowbread, with a brevity aud iilooui which seemed to discourage continued PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 9 discussion of tlio subject, or further couver- sation of auy uatiire. "Just so — haw! haw!" laughed Druin- nioud, superciliously satirical. " It's a good plau to take the advice of the iiublic — haw! haw! — ouly it's a better plau to foresee it aud take it before it comes — haw ! haw !" Mr. Druuimoud certainly had a very ir- ritating laugh, and wo may as well state here that it made him enemies. In a gen- eral way iieoplc do not like to bo overcrow- ed and put down by mere boisterousuess of gufiawing. I do not think that ho habit- ually meant to hurt the feelings of his fel- low-men. lie purposed mainly, so far as ho had a iiurpose, to call attention to his own superior wisdom or wit, and moi-eover his cachiuuation resulted partly from mere im- pulse aud superfluous animal force. But all the same, ho did frequently ii-ritato people, besides getting the harmful repute of being a bear in manners. "Is Brother Bradford — Aristides Cato Bradford — aboard ?" continued Drummond, seeing that HoUowbread was indisposed to discuss the currency question, and indeed not cariug a straw to hear him discuss it. "I believe ho is in the smoking-car," re- sponded HoUowbread, quite lighted up with the hope of getting shut of his guft'awing friend. "If you will look about there, I think you will easily fiud him." "Come along, Beaumau," said Drum- mond ; " good-morning, HoUowbread ; luck to you I" And with a knowing, impudent glance at Josephine Murray — a glance which seemed to say that the next time he met her ho should speak to her — ho tramped away. Beaunian,who had seemed to bo a trifle ashamed of his ursine companion, raised his hat to Mr. HoUowbread, and also departed. Our mature Congressional beau was now once more at liberty to light up a conversa- tion with his pretty fellow-traveler. But his mind had been considerably perturbed by Drummond's rude assault upon his shoul- ders, his currency scheme, and his self-re- spect ; and he could not at once get himself into a frame of spirit sufficiently tender and alert for the requirements of even a railway flirtation. While he tried to collect his-wits and sen- timents, Josei:)hine was surveying him, cau- tiously but wistfully. She had been inter- ested in him from the moment she learned that ho was a member of Congress. She had glanced at the Honorable Drummond with even greater interest, and she had quite started at hearing the name of the Honora- ble Bradford. Here were just the principal- ities aud powers whom she would need for allies when she should commence her con- jurings in Washington. She was not ac- customed to be the first to si)eak when she made her traveling acquaintanceships. In general it was ouly necessary for her to turn l;cr graceful head a few times, and to flash Iier lustrous eyes hither and thither, in or- di'r to see some bewitched male creature flut- ter toward her, settle ^'ithin chippcring dis- tance, and open his eager bill. But hero was a chance to win jiotent friends which she must not let slip, nor waste through fas- tidious dalliance. She decided to volunteer a hail to this venerable legislator who was so obviously trying to drift in her direc- tion. "Aro yon going through to Washington, sir?" she asked, in a clear soprano voice, as light and fresh and sweet as a bird, aud all ^ the nicer for singing from that rosy nest, her prettj- month. " I am," smiled and bowed Mr. Hollow- bread, quite delighted with the invitation to speak, as such an old beau must be. " Can I be of service to yon on the way, or there ? It will give mo very great pleasure." " I wished to ask if I should have auy difficulty in finding respectable hackmea to take me about the city," said Josephine. " I will see that you find such a one, if you will allow me," declared Mr. Hollow- bread. " I thank you very ranch," smiled Joseph- ine, with a little bow and flutter, clearly as grateful as man could desire. " I had been told that the Washington hackmcn are so awkward to deal with! Too knowing in the ways of their world. An overmatch for strangers." " They are rather stupid than knavish," responded our legislator, Avho did not hesi- tate to speak demeaniugly of them, they not being his constituents. " Many of them are negroes who are unable to read, aud don't know one number from another." " I have often heard of you, Mr. Hollow- bread," continued Josephine, slipping away from a subject which was of no consequence to her, and hastening on, as one may say, to business; "I am glad that I have met yon, even in this unceremonious way." "If I had known what a pleasure await- ed me here, I should not have staid so loug in the smoking-car," was the surely praise- worthy response of the Congressman. He knew that it was a pretty compliment, for he had previously delivered it with good ef- fect to other chance acquaintances, aud had meditated cousidcrably upon tho neatness and pith of it. Ah ! what advantages these beans of immemorial experience have over men who have done very little iu tho way of gallantry ! " You are too good to tell nio so," nodded Josephine, flashing her bright young optics at tho old gallant, aud flashing them will- fully, knowingly, and with malico afore- thought. Mr. HoUowbread was encouraged ; this handsome creature was really making eyes 10 PLAYING THE mSCHIEF. at liim; lie decided that he might safely and wisely move nearer. "This intolerable rumble of the cars!" he complained. " If you Avill permit, I will take a seat where we can hear each other more distinctly." They were in a palace-car, and it was very still indeed, so that there was no difficulty whatever in hearing ; but Josephine wanted to make things entirely pleasant for her Con- gressman, and she sighed out, with an allur- ing smile, " So dreadfully noisy !" Thereupon Mr. Hollowbread arose, bal- anced himself as large men often have to do, journeyed with bulky dignity across the alley, and installed himself within arms- length of his prey. It is amusing to think that this able wire-puller and veteran tlirt did not by any means see both sides of his present situation. It did not so much as cross his statesman -like mind that, from this young lady's point of view, he was the mouse, and she the cat. Josephine, on the contrary, who was by nature i^reternatural- ly and almost diabolically knowing in the matter of coquetry, guessed accurately that the elderlj^ magnate intended to make some sort of a conqiiest of her. There was just one item of his behavior which she was not old enough to understand, or even to note. She did not divine why he so promptly let down the window -blind immediately behind his legislative cranium. It was to hide the cloudings of gray Avhich lurked underneath- the well-oiled waves of his ebony, or rather plumbago-colored, hair. "This begins to have the air of a confession- al," said Josephine, with a gay little laugh, which had not a particle of protest in it, and which was consequently very insi)iriting. " I shall be most happy to confess to you," simpered Hollowbread, with the cheerful air of a man who sees his way clearly, and likes the look of it. A faint Hush came into Josephine's smooth cheek, and the slightest possible spark flash- ed from her fine eyes. Ordinarily, a young lassie does not know what to do with an " auld man," and feels both disgust and in- dignation when she finds herself courted by one. But this young lassie was as wise as a serpent, and she stilled her annoyance with admirable i)romptness. " Oh, no !" she giggled, perhaps a little nervously. "xVt all events, I must have the first chance to say what weighs upon my mind." "It is impossible that it should bo any thing bad !" " No, it is nothing bad." "And it must bo something good." " But it may bo very tiresome to hear." " I hope and beg that you will put mo to the proof." " I shall. But, perhaps, not to-day. The greatest of all days is to-morrow." " There is a time for all things, and the best time is right away." " Sometimes it is the best time for hold- ing one's tongue." "But life will be a burden to me until I hear this wonderful confession." "Then you must make sure, if you want to live, to keep up the acquaintance." "I shall devote my existence to it, if you permit." "AVho wouldn't permit it? Perhaps I came to Washington for that alone." Now this was rather lively dialogue for Mr. Hollowbread ; he was not accustomed to such cantering repartee. He was a slow man in body given to husky breathing, and notably short-winded ; and his mind was so far similar, that, while he could make an excellent speech, any thing like debate dis- tressed him. Moreover, although a Wash- ington beau of much practice, he had not been accustomed to meet with the cleverest of women, so that this easy x^rattler both astonished and bothered him. Meanwhile she liked it ; felt not a bit the worse for her spurt of dialogue ; was ready to galloi) aloiig in that way an hour or two. But she had thoroughly roused his inter- est and his strongest curiosity. He won- dered with all his wits who she was, and whether she really had a confession of im- portance to make, and whether she would make it to him. It is astonishing, by-the- way, how rapidly two experienced flirts can become intimate. Mr. Hollowbread had not talked with Josephine fiv^minutes, and yet he felt as if he had been acquainted with her for years, and was resolved not to lose sight of her until he had seen much more of her. CHAPTER II. SENDING FOR MORE BEAUS. Yes, notwithstanding the searing of mauj- flirtatious, Mr. Hollowbread was much inter- ested in Josephine ; and notwithstanding an extensive and painstaking study of woman- kind, he was at least equally puzzled by her. That she could not bo a needy female of plebeian bringing-up, humbly intent on some crumb of a clerkshij) in the Treasury, he had already perceived. This fact, indeed, he had not been able to settle upon firmly by dint of mere optical study. True, it was obvious enough that she had good clothes and a stylish air; but then American women of all classes arc apt to caparison tlicniselves well, and to possess some refinement of bearing and expression ; and even our representative of the people had occasiojially been beguiled into tempo- rarily respecting a milliner as if she were the daughter of a social grandee ; a sort of PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 11 blunder, by-tbe-way, wbicb mortified bim, even -nheu be liked tbe milliner. But before Josepbiuo bad uttei'cd five sen- tences be bad taken note of ber cultivated voice, and bad set ber down for a lady. Tbere was no mistaking tbat neat, distinct, musical, deligbtfiil enunciation, witbout a stammer of awkwardness or a mince of af- fectation. It was as diliereut, bo tbougbt, from tbe wbiuing, drawling and mumbling of tbe lowly bred as is tbe step of a gentle- man from tbe sbuftle of a clod-bopper. \ Nevertbeless, be bad observed (witb satis- jfaction, we may add) tbat sbe was an auda- cious flirt. He could not quite understand bow sbe could belong on tbe select beigbts of society and yet coquet witb bim so prompt- ly and forwardly as sbe bad done. It occur- red to bim tbat sbe migbt be making game of bim ; and tbis tbougbt led bim to glance at ber once suspiciously and almost sternly. He knew tbat be Avas elderly, and tbat young people often scoff at old beans ; and consequently be felt a little — ^just a little — sby of being drawn into positions wbicb migbt subject bim to rebuffs ; for rebuffs be had sometimes encountered, even in office- worsbiping AVasbington. Once — and bis honorable blood boiled as be remembered it — a mere Treasury girl bad slapped bis face for — for just nothing at all, as he put it to himself. But on second thoughts it did not seem possible tbat this gracious and iiatrician creature would beguile a mature stranger into conversation with the vulgar intent of giving bim a humiliation. Sbe must have had some serious purpose in volunteering speech, in alluring him onward with tbat intimate tone of gayety, and in hinting at a confidence, so that be felt encouraged to continue tbe dialogue and to give it a cant toward love-making. On the whole, he felt safer in adventuring with ladies than with women of low degree. Tbe former were clever enough to divine him without blunt explanations, and they would know bow to check him without imnchiug his head. " Of course," he said to himself — " of course sbe wants somctltiug, and I shall have to get it for her. I wonder if it will cost me much trouble ?" he grumblingly added, for he was an indolent ohl public functionary, and hated to pay for even bis coquetries in hard work. " I am most anxious, perhaps I may ven- ture to say impetuously anxious, to know what your confession can be about," be con- tinued, aloud, looking at Josephine with a sort of trained and veteran teiulerness, such as sexagenarian eyes are capable of. "And I want very much to have you want to know it," she laughed, prettily. "AYben I think that your curiosity is really intoler- able, then perhaps I will tell yon something." " There is no use iu rubbing a match which is already lighted," ho said. " You are more likely to put it out than to make it buru better." Josepbiuo knew a clever speech when she heard it, aud she admired clever speeches very much. She was so pleased with Hol- lowbread's simile of tbe ligbtcd match, that she felt tempted to reward him for it by telling bim ber secret at once. But on sec- ond thoughts it seemed wisest not to con- fide such a weighty matter to bim until she knew bim better and could entirely trust his good-will. "Tbat is very well," she nodded with her intelligent little bead iu an approving man- ner. "Tbat is just as nicely said as can be. But you must keep alight a few days longer. When we meet again — Avben socie- ty has introduced us ceremoniously — then I will see." " But how am I to look you np and plead for tbis introduction unless I kuow your name ?" " My name is — do you think I am going to say Norval ? — no, it is Murray." Mr. Hollowhread bowed reverentially, but he looked a little blank. Of the hundred thousand souls of Washington, be, of course, knew only a few hundred, aud he could not, at the moment, remember that any one of them was a Murray. " I suppose that you political people are rarely acquainted with clergymen." " We are most anxious to be acquainted with them. Slander asserts that we neeil their intimacy." " I am a niece of the Eeverend John Mur- ray, of St. Albans." Mr. Hollowhread bowed again ; here was solid social footing at last; here was un- clouded respectability. " I shall hereafter hear him preach every Sunday," he said, witb decorous gayety. " I wouldn't, if I were you. He is a good and nice man, but he isn't at bis best iu preaching." " I shall at least have the pleasure of look- ing at his fiimily i)ew," added Mr. Hollow- bread, smiling pointedly at the young lady who would be one of the occuxiauts of that iuclosure. "The family pew shall show what grati- tude pews can feel." Mr. Hollowhread, despite of all his season- ing experiences with womanhood, began to be afraid of this young creature. Sbe was so self-possessed, so prompt in reply, and, as it seemed to him, so clever, tbat she was downright alarming. She had as yet said nothing disagreeable; but suppose sbe should try her adroit vrits at that business ? It was clear enough to bim that if she chose to be satirical she could take tbe skin off. Never- theless, her manner was so lady-like, and her smilo was so encouraging, that he ventured one more advance : 12 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. "I dou't sec how looking at the rector's pew will enable me to call at the rector's house." '•'Xor I," she laughed, and continued to watch him roguishly; but with a roguish- uess which was very enticing. " I shall have to discover some friend who knows the family, and who will do me the great favor of presenting me." "I hope you will not find it difficult," re- Sjionded the audacious Josei)hine. '■ No obstacles shall balk me," affirmed Mr. HoUowbread, absolutely coloring— the de- lighted old lady-killer — with pride and ideas- ure. After that there was much further talk, all of an agreeable, amicable nature, and some of it quite flattering to HoUowbread. It was a long time since he had had such an exciting, fascinating adventure with such a young and pretty and bright and aristocratic woman. To be sure, he did not yet know at all what he was to do with her, nor quite what he wanted to do. Youthful as she was, she could hardly think of being his wife ; and, on his part, he had not the least notion of getting married. In fact, he hardly looked into the future at all ; he was simply bask- ing in the coquettish present. It was deli- cious to be saying nice things to a lovely lady of not more than twenty-two, who did not resent or repel or evade his elderly courtship a bit, and who, on the contrary, seemed to relish it not a little. But, in being thus gracious, Josephine had other objects in view than merely securing the present company and future acquaint- ance of HoUowbread. After a time she be- gan to talk of Mr. Drummoud, and of Mr. Beauman, and even of the as yet unseen Mr. Bradford. "AVas Mr. Beaumau a member of Con- gress ?" she inquu'ed. No ; Mr. Beauman was not a member, he stated ; Mr. Beauman was a gentleman in search of diplomatic duty ; he was likely to go abroad before long. "Mr. Drummond is a member," she con- tinued ; " and, by-the-way, he must be from my district. I think I have heard that our representative is a Mr. Sykes Drummond." "Ah, indeed!" carelessly responded Hol- lowbread, who was not anxious to be sent after Drummoud. "Probably, then, this is the man — the rather loud -talking person who spoke to mo some time ago — a little rough in his manners, you may have no- ticed." Josephine perceived tliat hor companion did not like Drunnnond, and she turned aside from the subject for a little. " I am not acquainted with him," she said. The only Congressman whom I know is Mr. Bradford. He is an old acquaintance and friend. I should I'cally like to see him." This hint, although a disagreeable one to HoUowbread, was so plain that he could not evade it. " If you will excuse me a moment, I will go and search for Mr. Bradford," he volun- teered, if it could be called volunteering when he was thus crowded up to the busi- ness. " Oh, I am so sorry to trouble you I" she apologized; but as she flashed her eyes upon him, both flatteringly and imploringly, the poor man could do nothing but go. Had he looked behind him and seen the smile with which she contemplated his ex- pansive back, he would have been indignant ; and had she followed him and discovered the trick which he jilayed upon her, she also might have lost her temper, sweet as it was. ]\Ir. HoUowbread, steadying himself by the seats, marched with ponderous procrastina- tion down the alley, set his beaver on firmly before opening the door, got himself over the connecting gangway as carefully as if he were an elejihant, and, continuing to journey in the leisurely fashion of a iirocession or a caravan, at last arrived in the presence of Messrs. Drummond, Bradford, and Beauman. " How de do, Bradford ?" he sighed out in a husky way, and sat down to take his ease. "Ah! Mr. Chairman of Finance!" replied Bradford ; " glad to see you here. ATe have business with you." Bradford, by-the-way, was a man of about twenty-eight, well built, and above the aver- age height, with regular and slightly florid features, straight hair of a light chestnut color, contemplative and poetical hazel eyes, and a strangely varying expression of face, sometimes absolutely feminine in its sweet- ness, sometimes resolute, imperious, and al- most combative. It seemed as if he must be in temper and character a mixture, or, perhaps, one might say, an alternation of man and woman. " Oh, bother business !" groaned Mr. Hol- lowbread, as if he had nothing on his mind, and wished for nothing there. " Bradford and I are a unit," said Drum- mond. " We both think the same small- beer of your bill for issuing more counterfeit money — haw, haw!" he added, with one of his insolent bursts of merriment. " There is too much water in our finaucial whisky already. Every drop that you add only spoils the iiunch. We shall vote against you." " I am sorry for it, gentlemen," sighed HoUowbread, who rather hated the subject, even Avhcn i)eoplo agreed with him on it. Small- talk was his forte, and he ought to have been on the House Gossiping Commit- tee, if there is such a tiling. " I am exceed- ingly sorry for it, on your account. You will get yourselves at loggerheads with the American people." " If the American people wants more de- based money, it is an ass," loudly affirmed PLAYING TIIE MISCHIEF. 13 Drummoiul, uitli another of his insolent horse - Linghs, scattering chopped feed and bran, as it were, iu the face and eyes of his senior. Mr. Ilollowhrcad simply yawned and hroathed hard, as if ho were utterly weary of the topic. He hated Drnnunond, and con- sidered him an insolent, noisy brute, and nev- er talked to him when he could help it. " Of course we understand that increasing the volume of irredeemable currency doesn't increase the amount of money in the coun- try," put iu Bradford. " You diminish the purchasing power of the paper dollars just in proportion as you add to their number." " I know that," rather sulkily conceded Hollowbread. "I suppose that only our carpet-baggers and wild-cat members, and self-made gentry, are ignorant of that. But my policy is not one of permanent inflation. It is au alternation of judicious inflation and judicious contraction. For instance, I would make money abundant, to move the crops, and then draw it iu again after thej^ have got East." " In other words, when the Western farm- ers are selling their corn you would debase the currency, so as to let New York pay them a few cents less on the bushel. But when those same farmers come to pay for their winter and spring goods, you would tight- en the money market, so as to fleece them a little on every axe and shovel. Up to a cer- tain point the plan works well for the mid- dlemen and the sxieculators, and the manu- facturers and the importers ; but how does it work for the farmers ? If they knew just what you are trying to do, they would curse the day when you were born." " The great West is all for an issue of the greenback reserve," seemed to Mr. Hbllow- Lread a sufficing answer. " I agree with it. The reserve should be issuable. We must have an elastic end to our currency." ''A coin currency, with one end of the rope in our gold-mines and the other iu the markets of Europe, is the only elastic one jiossible." " We can make one out of paper." " Let me give you a jilan," said Brad- ford. "Enter into a monetary convention with Austria. Agree to take her shin-plas^ ters if she will take ours. Then when we run short of paper dollars, we can call in a few hundred millions of paper swanzigers, and vice versa. There would be a sort of elasticity iu that, especially if each Govern- ment printed and issued vigorously, to get ahead of the other, or to move the crops." " Haw ! haw !" roared Drnmmond, who was quite able to enjoy another man's clev- erness wheu it heaxied scorn upon still an- other man. '•' Of course that is pushing the idea to an absurdity," returned Hollowbread, address- ing himself to Bradford, and turning his Aja- ccan shield of a back upon Drnmmond. "I understand as well as any man the folly of the i)hrase 'cheap money.'" " Then why not explain the folly of it to your fcllow-iuflationists ?" demanded Brad- ford. "There is your Sea Island friend, Chevalier, elocutionizing away for cheap money, and swearing that the South must have it or collapse. Has ho forgotten the time when he had cheap money, and when it took a bale of it to buy a bale of cotton ?" " Oh, Chevalier explains that what ho wants is cheap interest," grinned Hollow- bread, the false-hearted trinnnor, who ha " Yes, of course," said Josephine. " I am sure of the date." There was a brief silence. The story of destruction was such a meagre one as to be awkward to tell ; and our heroine had a vaguo' hope that she would not be obliged to rehearse it at all — merely to mention the sum which she had fixed upon as suitable rep.aration. " Was it a ba-rn ?" hesitated Mr. Hollow- bread. Ho did not mean to be malicious, nor witty; he rather thought it might be a barn ; it frequently was a barn. " Ye-s," confessed Josephine, with a sink- ing at the heart. " But a very valuable one," she eagerly added, laying as heavy an ac- cent on the very as it could well stagger un- der. "Barns sometimes cost twenty thou- sand dollars, I believe, even now." " Oh, frequently," smiled Mr. Hollowbread, remembering the cheap prices of old times and amused by that "even now." I have known the Government to pay much more than that for a burned barn," he added, al- luding to some scandalous Augean aftairs which he had seen pushed through Congress. Josephine started; perhaps she had not put her demand high enough ; and seeing how easily her legislator took it, she decided to raise it. " But there were other things destroyed at the same time," she continued. " More than I can think of." " Horses and cows," insinuated Mr. Hol- lowbread, who could not help seeing the matter more or less in a jocular light, and who remembered that he might grin over it in the darkness. " Certaiulj"," responded Josci>hine, very glad of the suggestion, and jotting it down in her memory. "Hayricks, farming-tools, carts, harrows, sheds and other outhouses," inirsued the Congressman. " Oh, yes ; all those. It would make a great deal more, you see." " I see," said Hollowbread ; but so did Josephine see. At that moment a flash of lightning revealed his face to her, and upon that face a smile of lazy amusement. In a second all was dark again, but our heroine had discovered that her confidant was laugh- ing at her, and she was both soundly fright- ened and roundly miffed. " This is all in confidence, sir," she said, in a tone so changed that ho noticed it, and feared lest she had discovered his merri- ment. " Oh, certainly — upon honor!" he protest- ed. " Well, I will endeavor to advise you to the best of my ability," he added, serious- ly. " But I must have the particulars — ex- act date, place, circumstances, and so forth — every thing, you understand, that can bo learned. Was it during a battle that this occurred? Please go on, Miss j\Iurray." But Josephine was quite hui't, luul become cautious, and would tell him no nunc. " At some more suitable time," she answer- ed, almost curtly. " Just now I wish I knew where we are. Does Washington reach to the Pacific Ocean?" " We certainly seem to have come .a great w.ay," admitted Mr. Hollowbread, who had already noted tliat tlio hack had passed his dwelling-place, and had half wished that he was in it. PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 17 Then, wbile tlicy talked of commonplace matters, there passed several minutes, or, as it appeared to them, a quarter of an hour, of monotonous, mysterious journeying. It ■was a Tarn o' Sliauter night, the Avind roar- ing and the rain rattling and splashing, and nobody abroad but the deil. Tiioy had got away from the ruddy shop- windows of the lower city, and -were trav- ersing some region which even Hollow- bread could not recognize, and which most of the time ho could not see. Ho began to fear that the driver belonged to some gang of murderers, and that the country might lose a Congressman. " This coachman is crawling !" exclaimed Josie, at last, becoming alarmed. So he was. He had driven very rapid- ly while in Pennsylvania Avenue, but since leaving that lighted thoroughfare ho had dawdled strangelj-. It was really very odd, for the rain kept on pouring at a wonderful rate, and it could not have been nice sitting out in it. <' I wonder if that rascal has lost him- self!" exclaimed Mr. Hollo wbread, trem- bling with sudden rage. Then the hack stopped, and Josie cried : '' We are there !" They looked ont ; but there was no house visible ; there was absolutely nothing visi- ble; the whole space around them was dark- ness. '•'Why don't you go on?" howled Mr. HoUowbread, flattening his bulbous Roman nose against the front window. The only response was the hissing, seeth- ing, spattering, and splashing of the abso- lutely maniacal rain. CHAPTER IV. A SOAKING FLIKTATIOX. Mr. Hollowbread wrenched the hack- door open, and shouted again ; stuck his head out in the pitch-black storm, and fair- ly yelled ; still no answer. " They must be dead," put in Josephine ; " or what is the matter ?" " Jehu ! — you rascal, there ! — Jehu !" stormed the thundering Mr. Hollowbread, who would have lightened also if he had only been electric. " What will the horses do ?" worried Jo- sephine, getting thoroughly frightened. Mr. Hollowbread was alarmed, also, about the horses, and about things in general. It was dreadful to get out in that deluge with- out an umbrella ; but to that pass, it seem- ed to him, he must come, or perish. Out he clambered, very hot with confinement and wrath, but cooling with disgusting rapid- ity, for his feet alighted in a rivulet ankle- deep, and the driving rain fairly spanked through liis clothing. Wliat was worse, if worse crmld be, a Hash of lightning revealed to him the awful fact that there was no one on tlio box. Where was Jehu? Had the infamous scoundrel run away ? Or was tho poor devil lying about somewhere dead ? And what Avas the honorable, and corpulent, and rath- er delicate Mr. Hollowbread to do under such circumstances? At first he did noth- ing but bellow and bawl toward all tho points of the compass, " Jehu ! Jehu ! Je-hn ! Jehu!" Then he put his dripping beaver, running a stream like a churcli-roof, insido the hack, and said, hoarsely : " You had bet- ter get out." I " Get out !" gasped Josephine. " Why, I shall be wet through." "No; you had better stay in!" groaned Mr. Hollowbread. " That rascal has gone ; but don't be alarmed. I'll — I'll try to get up there," he pufted, " and drive the scoun- drelly horses myself. Only, the Lord knows where I shall drive them to !" "Oh, dear!" murmured Josephine, guess- ing that ho was not used to driving, nor otherwise well adapted to it, and fearing lest his passenger should meet vrith acci- dents. Then followed a considerable period of silence, during which she at first imagined Mr. Hollowbread struggling up to tlie box, and afterward began to wonder if he had fallen olf it, and broken his fat neck. Even in this situation she had intelligence and humor enough to say to herself : " What if all the men in the world should drop down dead ? What would become of the women ?" Meantime Hollowbread had not got on the box at all, but had been vainly search- ing for the supposed steps which led up to it, and cursing the stupidity of the coach- maker in making no steps, or in putting them where a gentleman could not find them. Having completely circumnaviga- ted the vehicle by feeling his way gingerly around the horses' noses, then more confi- dently along tho traces, wheels, and rack, and having thus got back to his starting- point without discovering any means of as- cent, he fell into a state of complete despair, and raised a fresh yell of " Jehu !" "Yore me," answered a voice close by him ; and Jehu re-appeared, demoniacally, in a flash of lightning, tlie wettest gobliu that ever was seen since the flood. " Yere you !" broke out the drenched Hol- lowbread, in such a state of indignation that he nearly had a fit on the s]iot. "You black fool I wher've you been to ?" " I done loss tho coach," explained Jehn. "Golly! Thought I never should get back to't." "What did you leave it for? Are you drunk ?" roared Hollowbread, to whom the 18 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. ^vikl idea came that Jehu might have got down to obtain a glass of whisky. " Jes' stepped ott' a minute to look for de road, sail," confessed this wonderful coach- man. " To look for the road ! Oli, you blunder- ing, lying rascal! Well, Avhere are we?" "Fo' God, I dunno, sah. They -was a name on the cawuah, but I couldu' read 'urn." " Oh, get on !" groaned Mr. Ilollowbread, ■who was struggling into the hack — " get on, and drive somcKhere. Drive till morning, and be hanged to you ! I will keep as far as possible from you," he added, to Joseph- ine, taking the front seat. "I am wetter than all the Egyptians in the Red Sea. I would have gone on the box if I could have found it." " Oh, I am so sorry for this!" she answer- ed ; " and it has all been on my account !" She was not thinking just then of her claim, nor planning to make him friendly to it. She was occupied with her present sit- uation, and wanted to be on good terms with the only male person within reach, and had quite forgotten her vexation at him for laughing at lier. Nevertheless, he did not believe that she was sorry enough for his soaking, or in- deed that any human being could be sorry enough. He picked at his clinging trowsers in the darkness, and wished himself at home very frequently, and said very little. Meanwhile the hack wandered and wab- bled about the slippery streets of the invisi- ble city. Sometimes the horses started on a trot, and the passengers had high hopes ; then the gait subsided to a walk, and they understood that Jehu was in a quandary. At last our legislator a-soak could stand it no longer. He attacked the rickety front window so fiercely that he actually forced it to shove up ; next he howled through the writhing, hissing, venomous rain : " Where are we ?" "I'm gwino to git down again," respond- ed Jehu, coming to a halt. " Gwine to look around fur de name." "And you wouldn't know it if you should see it!" absolutely shrieked Hollowbread. "Good Lord, I wish the niggers were all in slavery again!" ho added, ns if that would make them read better. " You ought to be horsewhipped, you stupid rascal ! DonH j'ou get down ! Those horses will run away. / shall have to get out myself." And get out he did, cursing all things compendiously as ho emerged into the piti- less storm, without caring whether Joseph- ine heard him or not. She, by-the-way, only smiled at his pro- fanity and at the causes of it. She Avas ac- customed to have men servo her, aiul to see them suffer considerably in serving her ; and sho usually gave them small meed of grati- tude for it, though she could utter thanks abundantly. The fiict that her present victim was eld- erly, and inconveniently pudgy and audibly short - winded, only made his martyrdom on her behalf the less estimable aud the more anmsing. W^e must try to pardon her ; she had the ordinary ignorance of youth with regard to the pathos of age and infirm- ity ; and Mr. Hollowbread was but reaping the usual reward of old beaus who yxWl wait on young ladies. He had a fearful time outside among the forces of nature. There were faint street- lamps in the distance, but they cast no more effective light thaii so many decayed mackerel, and he staggered gaiter -deep in streams and gutters which he could not see. By moments he wondered that he still lived, and. whether he should be alive that time to-morrow. At last he was rnn against by a building —one of those isolated buildings which are so frequent amidst the magnificent distances of Washington — a building which seemed to be out alone and lost, like himself. After search enough to discover the true site of the ruins of Troy, he found a door- bell, and rang it incessantly for the next minute. Presently the door was opened by some one holding a candle, but the candle M\as blown out instantly by the furious wind, and Mr. Hollowbread never saw the person. " Has every body gone to bed in this city ?" he shouted, with that unreasonable indig- nation which leads aggrieved people to feel that they have a right to call the first indi- vidual they meet to an account. "I d — d — d — dunno, sah," responded a voice, which seemed to be that of an elderly negro man. "Is this Izzard Street ?" continued Hol- lowbread, not wishing to lose time in un- necessary conversation with a stutterer. " Y — y — yes, sah." "What number is it?" For a mercy the invisible one knew what his number was, and had the power given him at last to state that it was 90. "And No. 200 is off this way, is it?" con- tinued Hollowbread, slapping the right-hand beam of the door-frame. " Y — y — yes, sah." " Thank you," said our traveler, summon- ing up all his remaining grace to utter that courtesy. Tlien, after exchanging some A'ocal sig- nals with Jehu, he got himself back into the hack in such a state of moisture that it seemed as if ho should never bo dry again in this world. And here a fresh vexation filled up tho measure of his sorrow, and caused him to slop over in loud profanity. As ho climb- ed, dripping, yea, streaming, into the ill- PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 19 starred veliiclc, a flash of lightning revealed Josephine's face to liim, and showed that she was laughing. Of course ho could not swear at a lady, and 60 he swore at the coachman. On his knees, and Avith his haro head stuck out of the door-window, he cursed Jehu until he made himself dizzy. If Jehu had been sent where Mr. Hollowljread wished him, his wet rai- ment would have hecu dried to a cinder in iio time. " Yes, sail," was the meek respouso of that humbled charioteer. " But whar has we to go, sah ?" " I'll have you arrested, yon rascal !" con- tinued the aggrieved honorable. " I'll have your license taken away from you. Drive straight on. You ought to be put in jail, yon ignoramus! You are a hundred and ten doors from the place. I'll see whether this sort of thing is to be tolerated in the caitital of the country. Yoix are a mile from the place. Hang your stupid, black, woolly head ! Keep to the right, if j'oii know it. Beast ! lunkhead ! blunderhead ! Drive OS \" "Oh, isn't it outrageous!" softly ejacu- lated Josephine, beginning to pity him a little, and yet hardly able to snpjiress a Mr. Hollowhroad was out of breath. More- over, if he had had ever so much wind left, he was too angry to answer her. Not only had she cruelly laughed at his sorrows, but the mere contrast between her condition and his was most irritating, and enough to make him almost want to pitch her out of the hack. There she was, as dry as a bone, and as warm as toast, all curled and tucked up on her seat to keep out of his runlets and puddles. He, meantime, was so wet that he slopped and squelched, and was, more- over, pretty sure of a siege of rheumatism. Under the circumstances, he could not speak to her, either genially or otherwise, for a full minute. Pie wished that he had never seen her; wished that he had called in Bradford and Drunnnond to take charge of her ; wish- ed that ho were at home and abed and fast asleep. "Women certainly wrought vast trou- ble in the world, and had made him in es- pecial an immense amount of bother, and did not by any means pay their way, confound them! Time passed, however, and the dialogue revived. "With it, also, revived the beau in Hollowbread's nature, that fervent old lire which had made him a luminary in female society, and which could still enable him to shine through dami)ness, like a fire-lly in a swamp. He listened to Josephine's fresh young voice, and he liked the sound of it. Moreover, he saw, by a flash of lightning, how prettily she was bundled together on that back seat, and how carelessly her gar- ments were gathered about her, just expos- ing her little bootees. They were very lit- th', ho judged ; and certainly she was ex- ceedingly attractive to the eye; her figuro seemed to be as perfect as her face. Well, ho must forgive her for laughing. If a woman would only be handsome, ho must forgive her any amount of heartlessncss. That was what he always had done, and still must do. "I am so dreadfully sorry that you have suffered so much on my account !" apologized Josephine, who naturally guessed that he was in a temper, and who did not want him angry at herself, le^ he might oppose her claim. "You are not in the least to blame, of course," he responded, doing his soaked best to be gracious. "It is a terribly unfortunate introduction to you," she continued. " I had hoiied that our acquaintance was begun agreeably." "It has," he asserted, beginning to thiidc once more that she liked him, and that h<^ should yet have a good time in flirting with her — so easy is it for an ancient Lothario to cajole himself. " I admit that it is not iileas- aut to be humbugged and dragged about in the wet by a miserable ignoramus of a black negro," he pursued, warming np considerably as he recited his wrongs. " But, neverthe- less, I shall always retain delightful recol- lections of your part of this evening's ad- venture." " You are the best of men to say so," re- plied Josephine, tucking her skirts still far- ther out of the way of his draiuings. "I hope to hear from you verj' soon that you haven't suliered by the exposure." " Thank you," said Mr. Hollo wbread, and was about to add that he would venture to call without further introduction, wheu the hack stopped. " Hi ! Guess we's thar," Jehu was heard to bawl through the rain. " Shall I git down, sar, or will you ?"' " Confound the idiot !" howled Mr. Hollow- bread, in suddenly renewed fury.' "Get down yourself!" he thundered, opening the door with unchristian violence. "No! hold on. The horses might go off. I'll get down. You wouldn't know the number if it should be burned and branded into your stupid car- cass. I'll get down," he concluded with a moan. "So sorry! so rc/7/ sorry!" murmured Josephine, ready to shriek, however, with laughter. " Oh, don't blame yourself,'' answered Ihdlowbread, and went off through the com- plicated showers, muttering to himself, "Of course she isu't in fault. Pretty girl. — Hang that gutter! — I don't believe she was really laughing at vie. — By George, liow it drives, and how slippery it is! — And I don't blame her much, if she did laugh at nu\ such a sight as I must be. This must bo the house, hang it !" ho continued. 20 PLAYIXG THE MISCHIEF. Yes, it Tvas No. 200, and the horrid pil- grimage was over. Mr. Hollowbread's tiger- like riug at the bell soou brought a mulatto maiden to the door, "^ho said, "LaAV sakes!" at the sight of his dripping caparisons, and Trho promptly produced an umbrella. "Tell them Miss Murray has come!" he gasped, and hastened back to the caniage, shiniug iu the hall-light as if he Trere var- nished. " Don't go through the rain again," begged Josephine, -which was a kind of mockery, see- ing that he could not possibly get wetter than he was. "Let me take the umbrella and skip in alone. Good-night, Mr. Hollow- bread. To meet again !" She pressed his hand ; yes, she really, un- questionably squeezed it twice ; then she was flying up the steals. Under the i)orch which shielded the door a gray-haired, cler- ical-looking gentleman and a wrinkled lit- tle lady whose hair was almost white stood to receive her. I\jsses and words of greet- ing were interchanged in the sight of Mr. Hollowbread, who felt as if the bussiugs fair- ly belonged to himself, and would have liked one amazingly. Then, still staring through the rain-fall of his hat-brim, he saw Joseph- ine burst into a siiasm of laughter. Was she recounting his ridiculous misfortunes, and making mock of them? Well as he thought he knew women, he did not fully know how spasmodical they are at times, even the strongest of them and the cleverest. The truth is, the eveniug's adventure had made our heroine nervous, so that she could not help saluting its close with a burst of slightly hysterical merriment. But Mr. Hol- lowbread, irritable with fatigue, wettings, and a general sense of ill-treatment, guessed that she was holding him up to scorn ; and, forgetting that fiirewell pressure of the hand, he threw himself back behind his leather curtain, as full of humiliation and wrath as of rain-water. " Is this to be a specimen of my acquaint- ance with that little flirt '?" he said to him- self, as he rambled homeward, dripping and drizzling like a street-sprinkler. "If so — and I really think it will be so — the sooner I end it the better. And yet,'" he added, af- ter a time, "she is most astonishingly pret- ty — yes, and delightful." CHAPTER V. UNCLE JOUX AND AUNT IIULDAII. To her gray-haired, serious, reverend un- cle, and to her white-haired, invalided, old- fashioned, prim aunt, this Josephine of ours could make herself quite as agreeable as to That sparkling veteran of the world, Mr. Hol- lowbread. Nor was it a small triumph on her jiart, for they were not prepared to like her en- tirely. Indeed, they had heard things of her which had made them fear lest they should find her a worrying guest, and be obliged now and then to frown openly upon her behavior. Yet, before they had looked at her a min- ute, and before she had uttered twenty sen- tences, they were glad she had come to them, and wanted to hold her iu lap. A handsome young face, a lively and intelligent and ami- able expression, sparkling eyes which can be alternately pathetic and roguish, and a mag- netism of animal spirits playing through all, make up a j)retty sure passport to human fa- vor. Moreover, Josephine was a lady in car- riage, and was very clever for her age. She had courtesy of manner, an unusual tact iu adapting herself to people, and a ready fund of light, pleasant chitchat. " I have surprised you," she said, when she had kissed the two elders. "I have come as if I had rained down. But I thought it best to get on here without giving you the trou- ble of looking for me and going to meet me. And wasn't it well that I did ! Such a night for you to be out iu ! And such a time as I have had iu getting here ! I have driven a hundred miles, and through four Noachiau deluges, since I left that station. You shall hear all about it xiresently. I know it will amuse you." "And did you come all alone through this dreadful storm?" asked Mrs. Murray, poking out her thin lips and opening wide her gray eyes, like an infant expressing wonder. She was a singular-looking old lady, by- the-way ; remarkably small and lean iu fig- ure, with a little white, puckered face, an ea- ger expression, and jerky motions. "There was a strange gentleman witli me," said Josephine, not proposing to tell much about Mr. Hollowbread. " Hacks were scarce, and he had to come a long way out of his road, poor man, and got awfully wet iu looking for the house. Did you see him ? I do believe ho could have spouted water like a Triton." Old Mrs. Murray looked at her husband, as if for an explanation ; trembled all over, like a kitten aiming at a marble ; saw that a joke was intended, and giggled. "You have not changed at all since we saw you last," said the rector, smiling down upon Josephine's frolicsome face, as if ho liked her well just as she was, and wished that she might never change. He was a tall, portly man of sixty-three, with a large, pal- lid, dropsical but amiable face, his thin hair almost white, and his whiskers entirely so, his bearing at once ponderous and tremulous. He looked much older than his years, and yet he was clearly younger than his wife. "Ah! my life has changed," answered Jo- sephine, suddenly remembering the meeting of which he spoke and the sorrows which had PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 21 befivllen her since. " I bavo had onon^h to change me, you know," she added, lifting her eyes to his as sho uttered these last two words, and disclosing tears which were sure- ly honest enough. Tlien she jiut a love of a laco handkerchief to her pathetic face, and nuirniured, " Poor Augustus !'' Yes, wo must at last confess the fact that she was a widow. The poor Augustus in question was a nephew of the Reverend John Murray, and had died two years previous to the date of this historj', so that his lovely relict was already out of mourning. Prob- ably she could not now grieve for him A'ery keenly; but a bereavement has always two Bides of possible sorrow to it : the survivor can at least bemoan his or her own loneliness. "Yes,"sighedthe rector, taking Josephine's unemployed hand. "It is hard to have a husband swept away so early." " Swept away so early !" repeated Mrs. Murray, who had a curious way of echoing her lord's observations, as if she were re- sponding to a litany. " The Divine Providence seems to be very careless of our earthly happiness." " Careless of our earthly hapiiiuess !'' mur- mured the old lady. " But if we were blessed continually here, we should never desire the better hereafter." " Never desire the better hereafter!" gasp- ed Mrs. Murray, getting a little out of breath. " I need not tell you how we sympathize with you in a sorrow which is partly our own." " Oar own !" added the old lady, falling considerably in the rear. "We are glad, very glad, that you have come to us." " Glad j'ou have come to us !'' repeated Mrs. Murray, freshening up under the influ- ence of sympathy, and coming in almost even with him. They were, indeed, very sorry for their relative, this beauteous and piteous young Avidow, so fnll of graces and of grief. They knew all the while that she had been an aw- ful flirt ; they supposed that, short as her married life had been, she had given her hus- band no little uneasiness; and, moreover, they had held poor Augustus himself in dis- repute, as an idle, hare-brained, ridiculous spendthrift. Yet, when they saw his lovely young widow crying there before them, they could not help believing in the genuine pun- gency of her affliction, and sympathizing warmly with it. Old Mrs. Murray pulled out her own handkerchief, and moistened it with a few of the hard-wrung tears of age. "Don't let us talk of it," she said, softly. " I am so sorry we put you in mind of it I" " Don't blame yourselves," answered Jo- sephine, with surprising cheerfulness, at the same time removing her handkerchief, and showing bet fine eyes very slightly reddened. One would be tempted to say that there had not been above one drop in each of them. " I shall learn to bear it better some day, I suppose. People do learn such things." "God's will has l)een done, and it is our duty to submit," observed Parson Murray, with a somewhat ex-officio air and tone, for which we nuist strive to pardon him, remem- bering how often he was called upon to make such remarks, and also how little he had been able to esteem " poor Augustus." "Our duty to submit," echoed Mrs. Mur- ray, in her litany manner. A minute later Josephine was narrating to the elders her drive from the station, and making them laugh heartily over the damp calamities of Mr. Ilollowbread. She told ev- ery incident (except the flirting and thu claim-hunting) with an amazing miinitencss and with a picturesquencss and vivacity of language which rendered the story almost a work of genius. She was iirodigiously di- verting, and her hearers could not help being excessively amused, although they queried in spirit whether their merriment was quite proper. They were cheerful old jieople, but they had high notions of the dignity incum- bent upon the Murrays, who were an ancient and patrician family. "Mr. Hollowbread?" at last inquired Mrs. Murray. She wanted to get the name exact- ly, for she kept a diary, and sho meant to set down the gist of this tale in her current volume. " I thought you said he was a stranger!" she immediately added, with a puzzled air, bordering on suspicion. "Oh, I heard his name in the cars!" ex- plained Josephine. "Some people spoke to him, and called him Mr. Hollowbread." "A Congressman ? I never heard of him," observed the rector, who was something of a gossip, but took little interest in iiolitical personages, unless they were leading Aboli- tionists'. " I never heard of him !" litanied Mrs. Murray. "But don't you forget the name, Mr. Murray," she added, mindful of her diary. Then, as it was a late hour for the old lady, the jiropriety of getting to bed was suggested to Josephine, and she was shown to her room. " She is rcnj entertaining," said tlio rector to his wife, as they marched slowly to their own sleepiug-jilace, a vast apartment on the parlor-floor. Ho quite chuckled with satis- faction as he said it, not merely because ho himself had a weakness for gossii> and laugh- able narrations, but mainlj' because he was delighted at finding a new toy for Mrs. Mur- ray. He was that rare specimen of man who makes a pet of his wife; who watches over her well-being and happiness witli tho assiduity of a nu)ther watching over an only child ; who unflinchingly sacrifices his own ease and his own tastes for her comfort, or even for her mere amusement ; and who is disposed to use his fellow-mortals as mere 22 PLAYING THE mSCHIEF. assistants and instruments in this loving labor. Nature had made liim very affectionate ; nature bad made it imperative witb bim that be should have a pet, ■which should be all his own, aud subject to fondling by no other hands ; and fortune had devised that he should only obtain such a pet in the shape of a wife. The tenderness and the Bweet self-abnegation of his character were shown in the extraordinary choice which he had made. At twenty-five, while yet one of the hand- somest young men of his time, he married a lady fifteen years his senior, mainly because she had fallen desperately in love with him, but largely, too, because of his instinctive eagerness to be loved supremely. There was money in the match, but that counted for naught in his estimation ; he had abun- dant means of his own. He really married out of pity — out of gratitude for preference — out of affection, and a passionate yearning for affection. It would be difficult to imagine a more devoted husband than he had been. His wife had, of course, rapidly grown old on his hands, but his loyalty, his fondness, his at- tentions had never failed, and he had become only more tender witli the continuance of Ms service. He had ruled his life entirely to compass the one end of her happiness. When at one time her health failed, he gave up his clerical duties, and traveled years for lier sake ; and when she wished once more to see him publicly useful, he had, for her sake, resumed his labors. What must have been still more difficult, lie had subordinated his minutes as well as liis years to her comfort, watching all the livelong day to care for aud amuse her. If lie went out, it was because she wanted to go with him ; if he staid within, it was be- cause she was unable to go out. As she ad- vanced in years, and her mind lost somewhat of its early vigor, he sought trifling diver- eions for her. At sixty-three he was a gossip-monger aud an inventor of child-like babblings for the jileasure of this tottering woman of seventy- eight. Many people laughed at him for this seemingly misplaced tenderness, and this seemingly undignified frivolity of mind. But to one who looks closely into his mo- tives, and who does not object to a one-sided development and a waste of intellectual power, his life can appear scarcely less than beautiful. It was all the more beautiful because it had brought him suffering. Much watch- ing ; countless hours of confinement in close rooms or in sick-chambers ; daily intercourse with a person so much his senior ; lack of exercise, and consequent loss of digestion — these things had aged him early. His white hair, the paleness and ilabbincss of his face, his swollen joints aud feet and hands, the tottering of his heavy gait, were aU signs of disease. He was dropsical, rheumatic and dyspeptic, Avith a blister or two about him very frequently, and medicine-bottles always upon his night-table. Worse still, his nervous constitution had suftcred terri- bly, aud he was subject, in case of irritation, to attacks of spasmodic excitement, almost amounting to hysteria. It seemed, also, as if his mind had deteri- orated, so fond was he of small social gossip and reminiscences, and so much time did he spend in trivial conversation. There were people wlio declared that Mrs. Murray was a younger spirit and a sounder intellect than her husband. But strange as his life was, and deficient as it had been in exhibition of masculine power, it was moral- ly as spotless as the record of a human being can well be. Never had he done a deed which he might not have confessed without shame in the face of the whole world. " Yes, she is very entertaining," repeated the rector, rejoicing over his wife's new play- thing. "Why, so she is, Mr. Murray," answered the old lady, in equal gratulatiou. " What a story she made of that man getting out iu the puddles aud rain !" she giggled, iu a spasmodic way, as if laughing were sharp exercise for her. "What was his queer name?" she asked, looking for her writing- materials. " Hol-low-bread ! — H-o-l-l-o-w-b-r-e-a-d — HoUowbread," said the rector, pronouncing it very idainly, and then spelling it, aud then pronouncing it again. " Mr. HoUowbread — a Congressman," he explained, loudly. " I dare say the soaking Avas good for him. Most of those political lambs of the Lord's flock need washing very often." " Why, Mr. Murray I" exclaimed Mrs. Mur- ray, giggling again, but throwing up her hands in mild remonstrance. Her husband Avas a joker, and, like many other clergymen, he frequently used devout phraseolog}^ in a humorous sense ; but, al- though she had listened to this sort of thing from him for forty years, she was still not entirely Avonted to it. "Mr. HoUowbread!" she presently repeat- ed, and sat down to put the name on paper. It was her custom to make brief notes for her diary before going to bed, and then to extend them in the morning during the hour betweeu dressing and breakfast. "I don't Avondcr Augustus Avas bewitcli- cd," resumed Parson Murray, after Availing for madamo to finish her memoranda. " I don't discoA'cr beauty so fre(iucntly as some people are favored to do," he added, remembering, perhaps, that his Avife had never been hand- some — at least, not in his time. " But Jo- seiihine is certainly i^rotty, as Avell as a good talker." PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 23 "Why, so sho is, Mr. Jliirray," a^rocd tlio old lady, not only -svitbont jealousy, but with enthusiasm. " ko wonder Augustus was be- ■witchcd. I do hope she will behave herself as one of our family ought to. Wo will keep her always, and leave her something." Jlrs. Murray had a great respect for her property. It was inherited property ; it was old family property ; it was much uobler V than earned property. To leave such wealth as this to any one wouUl be much more than enrichment : it would bo like conferring hon- ors, decorations, patents of nobility. "Don't talk about your will, Huldah," begged the rector. " It always makes you sick — and me, too," ho added, remember- ing that he must not hint to her that she was specially feeble. " There will be time euough to consider about a legacy to Jo- sephine when she has shown herself worthy of one." " Well, I say so, Mr. Murray — that's just my opinion — there's always plcntij of time. You are always in such a hurry." We give this speech of madame's to show liow she emphasized words, and also wliat confusion she sometimes got into as to who Lad said which. " She must have been sobered since those times," continued Mr. Murray, referring to days when scandal had taken Josephine in hand. "She was a mere child then — only nineteen. Besides, Augustus was to blame. He had no business to love such society as he did, and to lead his wife into it. I can't believe anj- worse of her than that she suf- fered for being found iu the company of evil- doers." "He was a harura-scarnm. To think of his spending and losing all that money in six years! A hundred thousand dollars gone in six years!" exclaimed Mrs. Murray, lifting both her hands in excitement, as she had often lifted them before over this finan- cial tragedy. " How could he do it ? And he only twenty-seven! Why, he was only married two years. It wasn't her fault, Mr. Munay." "She was somewhat extravagant, I fear. Young women iu these days are brought up to be so. Bnt it was the stock-gambling which took the most of it." Mrs. Murray threw up her hands again. Stock-gambling was a sin which had come up since her mind had lost somewhat in vig- or, and she had never been able to compre- hend its nature precisely. She had a vague idea that stocks were gambled for over card- tables, and she could see clearly that that must be a frightfully wasteful and Avicked diversion. To bet gold and bank-bills was heinous enough, but absolutely to bet one's stocks — dear me ! "And that is the end of the Murray mon- ey on that side !" moaTied the lady. "All that part of the Undivided gone !"' This word, " undivided," slio pronounced with a sorrowful reverence whicli dcniand.s cxphuuition. Tlio principal wealth of the surviving Murrays consisted in an unshared estate, Avliich had been accumulating under wise management for nearly three-(iuarter,s of a century, and which had gradually be- come, not mcrelj' a great property, but also an object of family pride, and hereditary glory, 11 fetich. Out of this store the fatlier of Augustus had withdrawn his share, and Augustus had Avasted it. "TraA'cling is Aery expensive," continuelain, small brick house of the old-fashioned Washington type, Avith a rusty, painted front, Avhich look- ed high, because it Avas very narrow, and with a steep stone stairway climbing up to tlie shabby porch which sheltered its faded door. " I guess she liasn't gleased at be- ing recollected so well and embraced so cor- dially. " I wish you better fortune in fu- ture than you have had. Let me see, I don't want to be calling you Mrs. Murray, and my memory is a tattered old knapsack, and I am always losing names out of it — " "Josephine I was christened. It Avill be Josie here." " Josie ! It is a pretty name ; it suits you well," declared the old geutleman, surveying her handsome face with unmistakable appro- bation. "Well, Josie, you must pardon my not calling to see you yesterday. I was kept frightfully busy at my office till late in the evening by a demand for special returns. Those Congressional fellows can't under- stand figures imless we write them out for them as j)lain as baker. And so this is my first chance to get at you." " But you are going to make a long call now ?" said Josie. " I shall want to," rcjilicd the colonel, seating himself with unceremonious ease ia a great arm-chair, and stretching out his long, thin figure in a disjointed fashion. " I am very glad that you have come to join us, Josie. We will do what we can to make things pleasant to you. Wo will march you into society at once. John" — and liere ho turned to bis brother — " why couldn't you and Huldah go to the Presidential reception to-night ? Mrs. Warden has dropped me a sort of order to go myself and talvo Josie. She is quite right ; .Josie ought to see it. But how can an old bachelor like myself es- cort a young lady suitably ? I don't see but wliat you two will have to get on your uni- forms and turn out." " Wliy, certainly," broke out Mrs. Murray, her small, wrinkled gray eyes twinkling at the prospect of something entertaining. " Of course Josephine ought to see it. Don't you think so, Mr. Murray? And somchxh/ must go with her — somebody who can introduce her to people— some lady." PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 31 '•'Wo will risk it," agreed tho rector, -who perceived that his wife meant to go, and that he might as well like it. " "Wo must be care- ful not to trample on people," ho added, with a smile. " We will get into some corner and see tho crowd go by." " Have you all tho things you want, Jo- sephine ?" asked tho old lady, a lover of good stylo iu dressing, uotwithstauding her fru- gality. "Every thing," laughed tho young wom- an, remembering how she had spent her last spare dollar at Stewart's. " But do call mo Josie." " I would," said the prim dame of other days ; " but I am old-fashioned, ami don't fancy tho new uickuames. You must let it be Josephine." "Any tiling you like best," smiled Josie, and Mrs. Murray patted her on the shoulder — or, ratlier, on the trimming of her dress, so fastidious and delicate was that wrinkled, tremulous old hand, even iu its endearments. But tho Eeverend Johu Murray was still a little troubled and anxious in spirit. Draw- ing his brother aside, he whispered, '' I don't know about taking Huldali into such a crowd and excitemeut. Won't it be fearfully crammed ?" The colonel looked vacant, and whistled softly : he knew that there was uo sense iu their discussing the matter. Tho old lady (af^ ho often called his sister-iu-law) would settle it all by herself. " Well, I think we had better risk it," continued the rector, after some further use- less pondering. " It will be very eutertaiu- iug." Entertaining to his old wife ho meant. Ho was always seeking to amuse her, often at the cost of much trouble, and sometimes at a little risk. Apparently he feared lest her mind should drop into dotage, unless it were kept constantly awake by gentle fillips and shocks. He, as it were, compelled her to incessant intellectual movement, as meu who have taken poison are made to walk con- tinuously, lest they should sink into mor- tal lethargy. It seemed also as if ilrs. Mur- ray had the same fear concerning herself, so averse was she to tranquillity, and so eager after now impressions. She caught at ev- ery hold on life; she let nothing pass her without putting forth her frail hands to grip it; trifling diversions, tattle — every thing was made use of as a stimulant. " Well, you will be hero to go with us, Julian !" anxiously concluded tho rector. " Certainly," promised tho colonel. And so this discussion betwceu the two brothers camo to an end, if discussion it miglit be called, where only one spoke, and he know that tho matter had been decided before- hand. " You came just at the right time, and I am glad of it," said the colonel, turning to Josie. He liked her exceedingly already, and was pleased at finding amusement for her. As wo already kiujw, sho was very agreeable on a first acquaintance, ami, more- over, sho had been making hor lovely eyes do their best to cajole him. Tiioro was no- body, excepting people who were blind and stone-deaf, whom sho was not capable of softening with Iier oglings and her cooings. "It was BO lucky!" answered Josie, who, by-the-way, had planned to be here just at this time. "And it is all so good of you! I have only seen you for a minute, and hero I am under obligations to you !" The colonel laughed in an easy, softly deprecating fashion, as if to saj' that sho was making too much of it. Josie studied him a moment, and guessed that sho must not flatter him too broadly ; he had an air of being very shrewd, as well as very mod- est, and he might not like compliments. " You must be my beau this evening, at least some of the time," she ventured to add. " You will have so many young ones that you won't want me," he laughed again. She thought of saying something about dear Augustus's relatives, and how much she preferred their company to all the world be- sides ; but her second impression was that this could not lie made to sound otherwise than spoony, and so she omitted it. " Do you never walk with young ladies, if they want to have you f she iiersisted, for she had really taken a fancy to the old sol- dier, and sho was eager to interest him. "I shall be very glad to walk with my young niece, if she cares for it," he declared with a simplicity which puzzled Josie, one of those young women who can understand almost any thing moi'o easily than frank- ness. Actually she could not decide whetli- er he were paying her some sort of court- ship, or petting her as he would a child. " Certainly I shall caro for it, and very much," sho said, trying again to enchant him with her smile and her eyes. Is it to be supposed that this pretty thing of two -and -twenty contemplated flirting with her husband's gray - haired uncle ? Well, she was perhaps capable of it, when there was no younger nmn to be got at ; and capable even of letting her mind stray into suppositions of something more than a mere flirtation. Tho colonel was a bachelor, and sho had heard that he had large posses- sions, ami she took it for granted that he was socially lofty and influential. It was worth while, for various likely and unlikely rea- sons, to be on tho best of terms with him. Moreover, smiles and soft glances came nat- urally to her, and were so habitual that she could hardly help them. But presently there commenced a conver- sation which set her gently on ouo side, as if sho were a listener, revealing to her that PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. these elderly people had an iutelleetual life quite outside of her narrow boundaries, and uiakiug her fear that she would not be able to command their respect and obedience. " I had a walk with Bradford this morn- iug," said the colonel, turning to his brother. "And we held another powwow over the de- velox^ment theory." Josie pricked up her ears; not that she cared for the development theory, or so much as knew what it was, but begause here was mention of one of her old beaus, who might perchance be a beau again. " ilr. Bradford, the Cougressman ?" she asked. " I am so glad you know him ! He is an old, old friend of mine." "Is he? Well, he is a splendid fellow," answered the colonel, and went on with his remarks to the rector. "Bradford agrees with me in thinking that the Church Uni- versal won't sulier the least jot of harm from the doctrine of develoximent or evolu- tion." " I don't want to hear from Congressman Bradford about the future of the Church Universal," broke in the rector, with the natural waspishness of a clergyman who sees his domain taken under the jirotection of a layman. "If he has any message to forward to me concerning finance or our In- dian relations, I will listen to it respectfully. But he is no more qualified to prophesy in religious matters than he is to work mira- cles." The colonel laughed in his noiseless way, not with any air of derision, but placating- h'- " Xow, see here, John. Look at this ques- tion in the light of history. Your Church Universal has learned a great deal from lay- men since they were first invented. Once it denounced astronomy, and sent Galileo to the guard-house. But at last it had to ac- cept the solar systems, and since then it has flourished wonderfully on them. See what shining discourses your modern divines, from Chauuing down to the Ecce Calum man, have made out of astronomy ! The Church actual- ly did not know what a great and beneficent Deity it worshiped until the vastness of His creation was revealed to it by the anathema- tized star-gazers. Well, it accepted astron- omy, and it has grown mightier on it. Some day it will accept evolution, and grow might- ier on that." "Xever! — never!" exclaimed the clergy- man, his pulpy and pallid face beginning to flush with agitation. " Evolution is not true, and the Church can not accept it. God's Church can not grow mightier on falsehood." "Don't, ISIr. Murr.ay!" softly inteijected his wife. " You mustn't get excited." She was eying him closely and anxiously. For years she had watched over his health with almost as much solicitude as ho had devoted to her. It would be hard ta find two other beings who cared for each other more tenderly and vigilantly than did these two elderly invalids. " I don't want to annoy John, you know, Mrs. Murray," said the colonel. "No; of course you don't," assented the old lady, nervously. " Of course, Mr. Mur- ray, Julian doesn't want to annoy you. And I do wish you wouldn't get excited." " But I do want him to see this thing from the right point of view," continued the col- onel. " If he once gets hold of the butt-end of it, instead of the muzzle-end, it won't hurt him !" "Certainly," nodded Mrs. Murray, with quite vague ideas, however, as to which was the butt-end, aud which the muzzle. "Do, Mr. Murray, try to discuss it patiently, and not agitate yourself." "I don't want to djscuss it at all," affirm- ed the rector. " It is an irritating piece of nonsense, and a matter of no imxiortance." "But you can't help discussing it," urged Julian. "It is in the forefront of the battle of modern thought. If you don't seize it, aud turn it to your own purposes, it will damage you badly." " I say never! — I say never!" asserted the old-school theologian. " The Church stands solidly on Eevelation, and needs no human science to support it !" " Suppose the Church had gone on deny- ing the Copernican system, and affirming that the earth is the centre of the universe, where would it be now ? Would any intel- ligent man respect its teachings ?" " Oh, I agree with you so fiir. I concede astronomy, of course ; there was a mistake there. Tlieologians should not set them- selves against merely physical science. But this development theory is an encroachment on moral domain. If the human race grew up from monads and monkeys, then I can't tell you where it's moral responsibility com- menced, and then you'll deny that there is any such responsibility." " No, I won't. Look here. Can you tell me in what week, or even in what month, of life the responsibility of the individual commences ?" The rector was silent. He did not at all like to be catechised by his brother. Jnlian had once or twice taken him down in a memorandum- book, and had very shortly brought him into a condition of contradic- tion to himself, or into a very deplorable slate of fiat heterodoxy. " You don't believe in the damnation of unborn infants ?" persisted the colonel. "Of course not. The Church never held such nonsense." "And how about infants a week old?" " I don't care to be put tlirongh my prim- er," said Parson ^Murray, seeing very plainly where he was being driven to. "But there is a time in the life of the in- PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 33 tlividnal ■wlieu moral responsibility lias com- menced?" "Of course; and that is the only point \\-liicli it concerns ns to know — tlio only point which a p^ood Christian will caro to investigate," ailirmed the tlicologian, be- coming fluent all at once, as ho iierceived a chance to instruct. "And there is a time in the life of the individual -when this responsibility has not commenced?'' " I admit it," conceded the rector, excited- ly. " But what of it ? It is a matter of no practical importance. Wo who hear the truth and understand it are responsible for our use of it. All the rest is of no account." "Very well," pursued the colonel, remorse- lessly pushiug on his columns of logic. "Now, if the time when this moral responsi- bility commences is a point of no conse- quence in the case of the individual, it is a jioiut of no consequence in the case of the race. You can accept evolution, and still hold fast to your doctrine of human respon- sibility for sin, and all the while be as logic- al as you are now. In fiict, evolution does not add to yonr diflQculties at all. Nobody queries when monads or monkeys become responsible ; they are not supposed ever to become so ; they are embryonic men. The great trouble is to say when the infant — not the monad or monkey infant, but the human cue — enters into responsibility." " I don't know any thing about it," grum- bled the reverend. " I want to leave all these mysteries in the hands of my Creator. And I can not endure to see finite men striv- ing to take them out of his sufficient and merciful grasp." " The scientists do not attempt to take things out of his grasp. They only seek to understand his method of working." "They have always been the foes of the clergy and the scorners of doctrine," asserted the rector, getting irritated rapidly under the repetition of that alarming word," scientists." " They are the advanced guai'd and the skirmishers of religion in the warfare of dis- covering truth and glorifying the Creator. Nine-tenths of them have been worthy men, as little given to sin and atheism as the clergy. The Church hierarchy is the only army I ever heard of that poured cannon and musketry into its own skirmishers and forlorn hopes." The rector became very much flushed, and seemed about to reply in high dudgeon. But his wife checked him ; she had been watch- ing him nervously all throngli this discus- sion ; and now, seeing the blood fly to his tired face, she put up her shield to save him. It was a very venerable Pallas withdi-aw- ing a very feeble Achilles from the combat. " Now, Mr. Murray, don't !" she said. "' You will get yourself excited, and have a rush of blood to your head." lie glanced aside at her, and saw that her wrinkled old hands were tremulous, and said to liimself that he must bo tranquil for her sake. "Oh, dear! this is a worrying sort of world," lio groaned. " I trust that when wc get into the other one, we shall have no mysteries to clear up. I don't want to bo troubled with lieterodoxies and queries and doubts ihnr,^' ho concluded, in a pathetic tone, which almost verged on a sob. "Well, let ns drop our discu.ssion," said the colonel. "I am sorry if I seem to be a foe, rather than an ally. Yon see," he ex- plained to Josie, "I have just got to read- ing, in my old age. I have had precious lit- tle time for it during the greatest jiart of my life. And while I was in active service among the Indians and along our dull front- iers, these follows in the rear were writing a prodigious qnantitj^ of the most wouder- ful books. What with Max Miiller and Whitney, and Dalton and Lecky, and Spen- cer and Darwin, and forty more amazing chaps, I am nji to my eyes iu new ideas all the while." "And who wrote about development?" asked Josie, thinking she would book her- self on a subject which so interested the col- onel. " Why, Darwin, chiefly." "Oh yes — Darwin. I have heard about him ; of course I have. Only I never quite understood what he wanted to prove." "You will never quite understand it," de- clared the unbeaten rector. " None of us will ever quite understand it !" "Don't, Mr. Murray!" expostulated his wife, fearful of seeing the blood fly to his head. Then they once more talked of the Pres- idential reception, and decided that they would all go to it together. CHAPTER IX. A TRESIDEXTLVL SQUEEZE. " We will go early to avoid the crowd, and then get away early," little old Mrs. Murray said any number of times during the day to Josie. " Certainly," the young lady would reply, with perfect readiness, and with a delight- ful smile. " It will be much the best way." " Yon see wo would like to have you stay aslate as any body," the ancient dame would add. " But neither Sir. Murray nor I can stand fatigue as we could once ; and so — " " Why, my dear aunt, you are only too good to go with mo at all," interrupted Jo- sie. "The instant you feel tired, give me a sign and we will leave. Now, promise rae that, or I shall be uneasy all the evening." So Mrs. Murrav imagined that the enter- 34 PLAYING THE JnSCHIEF. prise would be made sliort and easy for her old members, and for the rector's determiua- tiou of blood to the bead. Little did she know the nature and forces and possible or- bit of the indefatigable young comet of so- ciety upon whose train she was trusting herself. She and her husband were des- tined not to return home that night until long after fatigue had begun to swell their ankles and tie knots in their muscles. "Yes, we will let you know when we are fatigued," said the confiding rector. " Of one blessed circumstance I feel comfortably sure this year: there will be no jam; there can not be one. They had au awful crush last year in the White House. But to-night the reception is to be in the Treasury, where the tag-rag and bob-tail will find plenty of room. We shall be able to keep together and to make the rounds without difficulty. See here." And he actually produced a plan of the lirst floor of the Treasury building, which he had got the colonel to draw out for him with all the accuracy of au old West Point- er, a lirecaution justified to his mind by the necessity and duty of taking good care of Mrs. Murray. "There we go in," he coutinned, pointing with his great pulpy forefinger to guide his Avife's investigations. "There is the en- trance-hall. There is the ladies' cloak- room. There is the gentlemen's cloak-room. We leave you there ; go here to get rid of our overcoats ; then go to this other door to meet you. Then we move on together to this room to shake hands with the Presi- dent. Then around through this long suite of rooms to the entrance-hall again. I think one tour, taken very leisurely, and without tiring ourselves, will answer our purpose." It was an excellent plan of campaign, but, like many another, it worked best on paper. When the Murrays drove up to the Treasury, they found it besieged with carriages, while the great entrance-hall swarmed with peo- ple, whose numbers were rapidly increasing. "It is going to be splendid!" exclaimed Josie. " Really something worth coming to." "This is awful," murmured Parson Mur- ray, aghast. " Huldah, I thiuk you bad better go back at once." "No, no! I can bear it — a little while," gasped the old lady, a trifle frightened, but »\ager to see somewhat of the revelry, after the social manner of women. So the two men scuffled along to the door of the feminine dressing-room, and poked their ladies, with much difficulty, through tiie jammed door of it, considerably mal- treating a number of other females in the conflict, and duly apologizing to the wrong people. Next they fought or manoeuvred their way to the masculine cloak-room, gave up their great -coats to an already over- worked, bewildered, and breathless servitor, and then commenced a fearful struggle to reach the exit-door of the ladies' room. Meantime, old Mrs. Murray was pretty nearly at her wit's end, with the crowd and the confusion. That dressing-room was a terribly tight fit for the number of ladies within it. Before our couple had fairly got rid of their wrappings and received checks for them, there was a woman to every square foot of the floor, and each one seemed to be doing her solid best to incommode, crush, cast down, and trample to death every other. "Dear me! I never knew before how hard ladies were," latighed Josie, as she push- ed herself and hauled her aunt through the press. " I begin to believe they are the real bone and sinew of the country." " I thiuk I can stand it a little longer," gurgled Mrs. Murray, from beneath the hoops and flounces of a giant dowager who was combating in front of her. "I wonder how the gentlemen are getting along," she added, laughing rather hysterically, yet with good pluck for one of her ripe and, indeed, wilted condition. Fortunately for their chances of advan- cing, there was no possibility of retreat. The general tendency of this phalanx of silks and satins was toward the exit-door, while a con- stantly thickening mass poured in through the eutrauce-door, rendering flight thither- ward a chimera. Furthermore, Josie had not the least notion of giving up ; she meant to see the reception, or perish in the attempt ; she would have fought her way to it over dead bodies. So on they squeezed, and on they were shoved, until the pressure became terrific. Could the rector have seen his dear old wife in that maddened throng of a thousand millineries, he would have lifted up his loving voice and wailed with fright. He never imagined that she could be in such dire exti'emity. He did not know, and no mau could suspect, without haviug physical experience of the fact, how savagely a thou- sand eager and frightened women can inish and kick and trample. He, meanwhile, clinging desperately to the arm of his elder but sturdier brother, was striving and suffering in the great hall cut- side. There also there was a wrestle as of giants ; for every man Avho had Avife or daughter or sweetheart inside of the dress- ing-room was butting toward the door of it; and the mightier were the obstacles in his way, the more anxiously he struggled to over- come them. Thus it happened that in that much- sought -for portal two fierce crushes met, composed in large part of people who, while jammed face to face, were strangers to each other. Smith was almost in the arms of Mrs. Robinson, but her ho did not want, and she did not want him ; and meantime Mrs. Smith was hidden from him by a solid silken pha- PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 35 lanx. As for Robinson, ho was rnltl)inromise to look into it serious- ly some day ?" " I will." And he was qiiite grave about it by this time, as well be might be, consid- ering its nature. " I am very grateful. If you do, I shall hope. Well, now introduce us to the great soldier of the age." She bad nearly said " the great man of the age ;" but it occurred to her that Mr. Hollow- bread might feel himself disparaged aud be- littled thereby ; she was clever enough to remember tbat, aud to use the word "sol- dier." "Colonel Bradford, will you lead the col- umn ?" said Hollowbread, with a ponderous jocularity for which we must pardon him, considering that a Congressman is not un- - der obligations to run over with wit, and has a good many temptations to be dull. '■ We veterans will support you." " Close up, then," returned Bradford, who had served his three years in tlie field, aud at times used a military i>brase uncon- sciojisly. They still bad a warfare to wage before they could attain to the exalted host of the evening. From the site of that colossus they were separated by a door-way guarded by two six-foot dragons of the Washington iwlico force, each setting bis shoulder firm against his o^-n door-post, and griping his comrade's hands across the passage. Out- side clung, bung, swarmed, and pushed a huge cluster of visitors, as closely packed as swarming bees around the mouth of a hive, and wearing the clothes off each oth- er's backs in their struggle for entrance. Inside stood an usher, who Avatcbed tbo bard-laboriug Grand Lama, noted vigilant- ly the progress which be made iu getting rid of bis worshipers, and from time to time waved the policemen a signal. Then np went the official arms ; a dozen or so of the outsiders plunged through, ducking, and stumbling, and treading on each other; then down came tbo official barrier again, amidst much fighting and scolding. Our three ladies bore this new trial with that patience and tbat courage which wom- an, as we have all heard a thousand times, displays iu the great emergencies of life, meaning parties, receptions, picnics, and the like. Tbo men were helpful, also, iu the brutish fashion of their gender, worthy of scoru and gratitude. Mr. Bradford pulled with all bis muscle, and Mr. Hollowbread pushed with all his avoirdupois. At last our adventurers were face to face with the brief, sturdy, simple-mannered, mucb-enduring man who wore out the most formidable of all insurrections, and "who saved his country. We will not report Mrs. Warden's speech : she no doubt said the cor- rect thing, for the Executive smiled upon her ; moreover, she nuist have been unan- swerable, for he made no response. Brad- ford, who still remembered his soldierly training, and who held in profound respect bis ancient commander, passed by him with an official bow, not even taking bis tired hand. Now came the turn of the elder Congress- man, and of bis two handsome young ladies. Josie Murray was tremulously alive to the greatness of the occasion, violently interest- ed in the tranquil hero whom she saw so near ber, and, to ber credit be it said, not a little awed by him. For half a minute she had been staring at him with two dilated, sparkling, black eyes, which fairly seemed to eat him up, so hungry was their wonder. There was a pathetic air of uncomplaining endurance in his otherwise expressionless face, which she was clever enough to note 38 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. at the first glaiics, and wliicli moved her deepest sympatliy. It seemed to say that he hated these ceremonies of triumph, and that he had found the labors "which won them more supportable. Moreover, the square-built man looked physically weary already, aud almost painfully anxious to have his ovation end. No wonder, for he had already shaken a thousand hands, and there were thousands more itching to grap- ple him. The laurels had been very well, hut the palms, or, rather, the fists, were too much. " Mr. President, I hope I see you well this evening," said Mr. Hollowbread, with rather more grandeur of intonation than became the commonplace words, being indeed a very loose fit for them. The President may have felt moved to an- swer, in the blunt language of pretty Molly Hopkins, " None the better for seeing you." But he did not ; he merely moved his lips mechanically, and smiled almost impercep- tibly ; he knew the Congressman perfectly, but he had nothing just then to say to him. "Allow me to present to you my two charming friends, Mrs. Murray aud Miss War- den," continued Hollowbread, waving his Iiaud superbly toward the ladies, and punch- ing the head of another lady behind him with his elbow. BelleWardeu, pitying the jaded great man, bowed profoundly in silence, and slid on to her mother. But Josephine Murray, though her temples were fairly throbbing with awe, was resolved to speak to the hero, aud get one precious word of response. " Is not this almost as bad as a victory ?" she asked, while all the blood in her heart rushed to her cheeks, aud made her daz- zling. " It is, madame ; they are both great trials," answered the modest, war- Avorn man, hreakiug out into a hearty smile, so ])leased was he at being understood. But that was all ; he had nothing more to say to her ; indeed, there was no chance to say more. Fifty fresh fellow - citizens aud citizenesses liad forced their way through the police bar- rier, and were upon him like tlie Philistines upon Samson. Josephine still hungered for executive conversation, but, much delighted with the memorable word she had got, was crowded and hustled into making her courte- sy of departure. " He is perfectly delightful !" she exclaim- ed to her Congressman, speaking so loud that the Pater Patriae must liave heard her, and, indeed, fully meauing that ho should hear her. "I am glad you find him so," grumbled Hollowbread, who had often criticised his chief magistrate for not being sociable. " No doubt every body docs his best to be charm- ing to Mrs. Murray," lie added, with one of those bows whereby an old beau usually italicizes his compliments. "The misfortune is that all of us can't please her." "All of you would just please me," laughed Josie, speaking the exact truth concerning herself, though she uttered it jestingly. " That is what I had suspected," he replied, not without a pang at his heart ; no great matter of a pang, to be sure; a mere twinge, but prophetic. " Then you have doue me great wrong," declared Josie, looking up to his many-vein- ed. Port- wine face with such innocent, be- seeching eyes as would have deluded a much younger Lothario. And Mr. Hollowbread, old and experienced, and knowing and wicked as he might be, was very considerably deluded. " Really likes me — tickled with a Congressman — wo shall hear about the claim soon," he chuckled in his heart, with an odd mixture of credu- lity and shrewduess. For he had learned by dint of many adventures that women, at ^cast such women as he usually stumbled upon in Washington, were not inclined to give themselves away, but rather to sell. " We must live aud let live," he used to say ; "we must pay for our luxuries, or do with- out." By this time they were alone in that huge, jostling, humming assemblage. BelleWar- deu, looking upon Mr. Hollowbread as Josie's special captive, had promi^tly and joyfully left him to her, taking the unoccupied arm of Bradford. Moreover, our adroit little he- roine did really propose to say a word con- cerning her claim, aud had, therefore, inten- tionally allowed the Warden party to drifi far ahead of her. " You called me Miss Murray the other day, and now you call me Mrs. Murray," she said. "Have you learned that I have been married in the mean time ?" " I have instituted investigations," confess- ed the legislator, with the smile of a man who knows that he pays a compliment. " I have gathered some particulars of your his- tory." Josie was encouraged ; it looked like fas- cination. Gentlemen, and especially elderly gentlemen of much business, do not usual- ly worry themselves with inquiries about a lady, unless they are considerably interested iu her. " You had better catechise we on that sub- ject hereafter," she murmured, weighing a little, just a very delicate little, upon the Hollowbread arm. "But now let us talk business. Will you really look into my claim some day, and see if it amounts to any thing f "I assure you tliat I will give my most serious attention to it, at any time and iu any place which you will designate." "I have heard that there are committee- rooms somewhere. Do ladies ever come to them r PLAYIXG THE MISCHIEF. 39 "Ob, tlic liigbcst latlios in the land," as- severated Mr. Hollowbread, without even wiping his mouth after the chimsy and slob- bering falsehood. His manner, however, was 80 buniid with humbug, that Josie instaut- ly suspected him of lying. " Perhaps you had better call on mc at my uncle's, if you would bo so kind," she said. "Since I h.avo been introduced to you by Mrs. AVarden, I can present you as an ac- quaintance," she added, not iu the least for- getting that there had been no such intro- duction. But it is necessary sometimes to suggest to a man what ho ought to say in case he should be asked au awkward ques- tion. '• I shall be happy to call to-morrow morn- ing, at twelve o'clock precisely, if convenient to you. You have some documents, some few little papers, I suppose ?" " Oh yes, and good ones. Mr. Frederic Curbstone, a New York banker, a friend of my husband, made them out for me. He heard of this claim somehow, and he said I ought to have the money." Now, Mr. Curbstone, as our Congressman knew, was a sort of elegant sharper. He was a broker in New York, and a lobbyist in Washington. He bribed Treasury clerks to give him guesses as to what the Secretary was going to do Avith the "elastic end" of the currency ; then he sold these guesses as solid facts to bankers, who valued themselves on being too much for their fellow-men ; and sometimes, when his "points" turned out well, he got, in addition, a percentage on profits. Mr. Hollowbread had not the highest con- fidence in claim-certificates which had been furnished by Mr. Frederic Curbstone. But he was too judicious to say any thing more or less than that he had no doubt all would be satisfactory. To keep this claim in his own hands, and thus to see as much as pos- sible of the lovely claimant, was a purpose on which he had already set his heart. Of course, if it was a swindle, he would not real- ly push it ; at least, so the respectable gen- tleman assured himself at present. But, meantime, he would have many agreeable interviews with Mrs. Murray, and perhaps be useful to her in some other way. "I nmst beg one thing of you," he urged, iu a tone of afi;octionato counsel. " Do me the favor, and, perhaps I may say, do your- self the serA-ice, not to mention this affair to any other Congressman, at least not till I have looked into it. The less it is bruited, that is, while we are getting it into shape, you know, the more likely it is to win. There is an awful amount of greediness and selfish- ness in this political Avitch- caldron. The number of claimants is simply — immense! The Treasuiy of this gigantically prosper- ous country has not money enough to satis- fy one-tenth of them. If your business were known, you would bo the mark of jealousy — a shining mark !"' he added, gorgeously. " Ri- val claimants, miserable, envious eluulatan», you understand, would work against your no doubt just suit, merely to favor themselves. The jackals of the lol)by would sneak in to demand a share. Oh, it is horrible!" and Mr. Hollowbread made a wry face over the corruption he was exposing. " Believe me, my dear Mrs. Murray, that your best hope of success lies in absolute silence and discre- tion; that is, until you are fully prepared to go before the House." "Of course," nodded Josie, thoughtfully. With all her coqiaetting and other levities,| she was entirely in earnest about this claim, and solemnly greedy for the public money. ^ " I promise you that no one but yourself shall know a word of it," she added, with such a look of earnestness and veracity that Mr. Hollowbread believed her, as, indeed, she believed herself for the moment. She was charming to look at just then ; much more charming even than usual. She indulged a blessed hope that she would soou be rich enouglf to dress better than most women, and, perhaps, to keep a carriage. She was thoroughly grateful to this old political trimmer, who had jiledged himself to support her cause, and whose assistance she believed to be synonymous with victo- ry, such Avas her faith in a Congressman and so little did she know of politics. Sho was in a condition to aftirm that she should thank him, and that she might come to like him very much, or, possibly, to love him. All these gems of emotion sparkled in her ex- pression, and gave her au air of being as good as she certainly was prettj'. Yet in another minute she had forgotten her gratitude, and wanted to get away from Mr. Hollowbread. She saw the Wardens snug in a corner, blockaded there by a splendidly gold-laced and copper-nosed old commodore, while Mr. Edgar Bradford was sailing about alone at his own sweet Avill. In a very short time she had towed her venerable beau alongside the young man, al- though Hollowbread did not at all want to cruise in that direction. "Have you seen my uncle and aunt, Mr. Bradford?" she asked, with an afiectionately eager look, as though anxious to find the old people. "I saw them a minute ago drifting into the next room. They were peeping and peering in all directions, as if their only ob- ject iu life was to find their niece." "I really ought to get back to them," sighed Josie. Here she gave her old friend an appealing glance, and at the same time made a piteous little wry mouth indicative of the fact that the good and great Hollow- bread was insupportable. Of course, the young gentleman could do nothing less than say: 40 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. " Do let me take you to them." "I am so much obliged to you, Mr. Hol- lowbread !" smiled Josie, giviug his arm a gentle jiressure, aud droppiug it joyfully. "Kecollect, I am to see you to-morrow!" Then away she flitted, leaving her vener- able admirer in a state of widower despond- ency, and not at all hopeful that he could make the rest of the evening pleasant to himself. CHAPTER XI. EDGAR BRADFORD AGAIX. " I TiiiXK your relatives are in this direc- tion," remarked Bradford, signing toward the right. " Oh, I dare say they are well enough off," returned Josie, inclining toward the left. " I want to talk to you for five minutes, if you can keej) away from Belle Warden so long." " I don't know that I need go back to the Wardens immediately," said Bradford, who Avas not disposed to joke about Belle, hav- ing a high respect for that young lady. "Do you fiit on Mrs. Warden's door-steps much ?" queried Josie. She was determined to learn whether ho was in love with Belle, and she knew that persistent and saucy cross-questioning would elicit some sparks of coufessiou from an enamored man, no matter how reticent he might strive to be. " I sit on her door-steps as much as I do ou any body's. I propose to sit on yours very frequently." " But Belle is really a very sweet girl. Don't you think so ?" " She is more than sweet," affirmed Brad- ford, obliged in conscience to eulogize the young woman, if he must treat of her. " She is singularly upright and high-minded ; one juight almost say chivalrous." " Do men fall in love with chivalrous la- dies?" asked Josie, much inclined to believe the contrary. " Perhaps they don't, much. I am inclined to fear that, as a general rule, they don't." "Possibly because there are so few la- dies who are chivalrous. Is that what you mean f ' " Partly that, and partly that men are not liable to fiiU in love with their own pecul- iarities. You mustn't understand that I am bragging about my own sex. It is a poor one enough, but it has its merits." " You may brag about your sex, if you care to. I like it well enough. But are you one of the exceptions ? Do you adore chivalrous ladies?" " Heaven help mo ! How one woman can bore a man about another woman ! I am not a bit in love with Miss Warden, if that ques- tiou interests you." Josie judged that he spoke the truth, and her manner took an immediate turu toward tenderness. "I am glad that you are not absorbed there," she said. " I want to see as much of you as you can let me, without boring your- self. You must know, and you must be good enough to remember, that, with the excep- tion of my Murrays and the Wardens, you are the only old friend I have in Washing- ton." Bradford perceived that he was being en- couraged to something more than friendship, and he was far from feeling displeased at the discovery. He knew, from experiences of other days, that Josie Murray was a flirt, but he also knew that she could make flirting a very agreeable pastime. He had coquetted with her before her mar- riage ; he had likewise coquetted with her, as the natui'e of our story obliges us to con- fess, after she became a wife ; and it seemed to him that she would be well worth some of his spare time, now that she was a widow. He was one of those variable men who be- come models of behavior when truly in love, but who are given to unscrupulous hazards of flirting when not touched bj^ that purify- ing providence. " You may be entirely sure that I shall not forget the old friendship," he declared, smil- ing to himself at the platonic name. "That is a very kind promise. It is so kind that it would be quite naughty to break it. I was afraid that the only Congressman I should sec any thing of would be Mr. Hol- lowbread." " He seems to admire you immensely. He looked at you in a really tragic way when you deserted him. What a beau he is! How he has kept the fire agoing on his venerable altar ! Y^our sex ought to raise a statue to him." " He is an old fool !" said Josie. " Oh ! — for admiring women ?" "No, not for that; but for believing that they can admire him. I was tempted to snub him just now, only — " This was a favorite trick of Josie's — to half say something, aud then wait to be ques- tioned, thus making it easier for herself to tell what she wanted to tell. " Only what ?" asked Bradford, of course. " Only that I may want a favor of him." "A favor of Mr. liollowbrcad ! Why don't you come to your old friends for favors ? You make mo jealous." "You see, I am here in Washington on business." "Ou business! I couldn't have guessed it. What in the universe have you got to do with any thing that can be called business?" "Afl'airs of state," laughed Josie, in a lit- tle, mysterious way, which was meant to ex- cite curiosity. Then she waited to be catechised, prefer- PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 41 ring to have her secret begged for ero she tolcl it, so that she might iu some sort grant a favor before asking one. But Uradford, through mere civil forbearance, failed to nrgc his query ; so she was driven to decide wheth- er she should frankly open her business to him. She hesitated; but it was not be- cause she had pledged secrecy to Mr. Hollo w- brcad; indeed, it was characteristic other that she hardly remembered that circum- stance. Probably, if she had been reproved for her faithless intent, she would have re- plied : " What right had he to ask me to make such a promise? He might have known that I wouldn't keep it, and couldu't." She hesitated, because she felt obliged to treat Bradford delicately. He was not a Hollowbread ; he was not an obvious old turkey-gobbler, whom a woman could entrap with a few grains of llattery and parings of flirtation ; she could not have won his re- spectful good-will by speaking to him in the cars and making him her coulidaufc within half an hour thereafter. He was a shrewd, jclear- headed, self-possessed young fellow, Avho, furthermore, had very high notions of his own character, and considered himself peculiarly bound to be a gentleman. To be sure, his notions of geutlemanliuess did not include strictness in some iiarticulars which society speaks highly of, when it has the coui'age to speak of them at all. Josie knew by experience that he could flirt with mar- -ried women, and even with the wife of a man whom he called his friend. But she had au idea that there were some otherwroug things, she hardly knew what, which he stigmatized as dishonorable, and which nothing iu the world could make hiiu do. Perhaps pushing extravagant demands for the payment of old barns might fall within this mysterious circle of improiiriety. How- ever, she decided to speak, and see what would come of it. '' Do you believe in claims ?'' she asked, iu a light, indifferent way, ready to start back from the subject if he should make a face at it. "Claims! What claims? I believe in your claims to admiration." "And I believe in yours to confidence," she replied, which was certainly turning it adroitly and effectively. He became graver as he looked down into her pleading face and asked : " Do you mean a claim on the Treasury ?" Josie nodded, meanwhile never taking her eyes oft' his, i>artly because she meant to fas- cinate him and partly because she was her- self a little fascinated. His eyes were like hers iu being dark and handsome, though they were only hazel, while hers were nearly black ; and they were meditative, while hers Avere mischievous. Now, when four such orbs look steadily into each other, the owners thereof are apt to feel a thrill of agreeable emotion. Each of these two young persons had a pciuiatiou that he or she was on the point of falling in love with the other. "Are you quite in earnest?" he asked, more tenderly than he had ever before put a question to a claimant. Again Josie nodded, still gazing at him with all the witchery that brooded under her long lashes, and adding to it the enchant- ment of a pleading smile. Her heart was beating close by his arm, and she almost hoped that he felt it. So he did, and his soul was considerably stirred by the sensation, and ho found it dif- ficult to meditate with statesman-like wis- dom. Was it possible that she really had a re- spectable claim on the Uuited States Treas- ury? He looked at her wistfully, hopiug that it might be so. She had been very sweet to him iu other days. Her departed husbaud, poor Augustus, had been a good aud even au overconfiding friend ; and he could not deny that hero was a fair demand upon his gratitude. Besides, her heart was thumping, aud his own was responding in that moving fashion ! " I have never yet taken hold of any thing of that sort," he said. " It hasn't seemed to come iu my way." It had come in his way, enough ; iu fact, it had repeatedly and impudently tried to force itself ujion him ; but he had uncere- moniously and arrogantly thriist it out of his way. He was an excessively proud young man; especially jiroud of his char- acter for honor, aud very touchy to any im- putation upon it ; marked, moreover, by a high, authoritative temper, which had grown the higher during his years of military com- mand. To one lobbyist, who had frankly of- fered him a large sum to put a claim through, he had responded by showing him the door and thrusting him out. Josie noted the reluctant fashion iu which he fingered the subject, and was more hum- bled iu spirit by it than one might have ex- liected, considering her saucy courage and her habits of ruling men. "Isn't it — resiiectable ?" she stammered.; Of a sudden the idea came to her that to\ bring a sham claim against the Government might be low. This suspicion, aud the thought that Bradford might be looking down upon her as unlady-like, gave her a painful sense of humiliation. The sting was, of course, all the keener because once she haroposed. "I shall be so glad to see you I" sighed Josie. In spite of the weight at her heart, she was tempted to smile. Congressman Brad- ford and Congressman Hollowbread were to call on her to hear her story. There were two of them ; the business marched. " Who does take charge of this sort of thing?" she said next. "Is there any body in particular ?" "There are members who do almost noth- ing else, and who make a great deal of mon- ey by it. They push a claim through for ihe half of it, or for what they can get. Of course they are contemptible scoundrels. No Congressman has a right to touch a dol- lar of the money which is paid on a claim. I hope that you don't need the services of such swindlers. They are a disgrace to themselves and to the body to which they belong, and to whomsoever employs them." Josie would have been angry at him if she had not been afraid of him. She was certainly angry at herself for having men- tioned her business to him so hastily. For once she had miscalculated and overrated the power of her feminine influences over the masculine soul. Not a word more must be said to him about the claim until she could make him " care for her," as she put it. " Generally, people are supposed to go to their own member for such work," continued Bradford. " You must not understand me as recommending Drummond," he prompt- ly added, remembering that that gentleman was suspected of dealing with unjust claims. " Perhaps I may never go about it to any one," said Josie, who was even then looking around the room for Drummond. " It was urged upon me by a good friend of mine ;" and here she referred to that dubious broker and seller of " points," Mr. Fred Curbstone ; " but 1 hate the paltry subject already. Let us talk of something less mercenary." Bradford was full of attentions to her Jienceforward. He felt that he had hardly been kind enough to a woman who had al- ways been kind to him, and sometimes per- ilously overkiud. Besides, she was such a pretty creature ; and he had been half in love with her more than once, and was per- haps falling a little in love with her anew! He pressed her hand favoringly under his arm, and walked on with her superbly through the crowd of promenaders, pointing out notable persons for her inspection. "Do you want any of these great people introduced to you V he inquired. " I know them nearly all." Josie would have liked to get at the gran- dees but for one thing. There was a warmth in Bradford's manner which suggested court- ship, and for that joy she was always capa- ble of giving up all others. " Do I tire you ?" she murmured. "' If not, I will take some other opportunity of seeing the curiosities." " Tire me ! You gratify and flatter me very much. I don't suppose that any mau was ever tired of your company." It was true enough. Even poor Augustus, to whom she had not been a superexcellent wife, was always bewitched with her. " Tell me honestly one thing," she said. " Did you evade coming to me on the cars I I sent Mr. Hollowbread for you." " The old rogue ! He lounged up to me and talked finance, and never mentioned you. That was so like Hollowbread !" " Was it ?" said Josie, without, however, being angry with the old deceiver, whose motive she guessed and aiipreciated. " Was Mr. Drummond there ?" " Yes ; and Beauman. Did you send for all of us ?" he laughed, remembering what a universal coquette she was. " I sent for you. What a shabby thing iu you to say that ! Who is that little black- eved thing, with long black hair down her back ?" " That is Jessie Cohen, the painter. She paints portraits of heroes and sages, and badgers Uncle Sam into buying them. The honored notables themselves don't much care to purchase. !Miss Appropriation Cohen our funny men call her." "And does Uncle Sam buy them?" in- quired Josie, Avondering in her busy head whether she too might not learn to portray the national glories, if the price suited. " He has had to buy some. You will find two or three heroes hung up about the Cap- itol in terrorcm. The art is not high, but the pay is. Two thousaiul dollars make a square yard of daubing sublime." " What do you give so much for, if the work is poor ?" " She smiles and flatters for it. What is an ass of a legislator to do when Titania coaxes his long ears ?" Josephine thought of her claim, and of her own faculty at smiling and cnjoling, and took courage. PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 43 " There is that man - woman again," she continued, indicating tlie virile coHtumo and feminine visage of S(iuire Nancy Ai)i)h\yard. "I hate a man-woman, she is so disappoint- ing! You see a suit of clothes coming to- ward you; and you tliiidc that there is something whicli will like yoTi,and protect yon, or, at least, hurt you ; and then you liud a helpless, useless, harmless man-woman in- side of it. Did you ever see a, face at a window, and think it was a pretty face, and you would like to llirt with it, and then find out that it was a boy's face, instead of a young lady's ? And wasn't it disappointing iiud enraging ? Well, that is about the way a, woman feels toward a Bloomer." " I should think it might bo so," replied Bradford. Meanwhile ho surveyed Squire Nancy with a calm, meditative curiosity, much as if ho were inspecting somo very curious specimen of monkey — some monkey which stood more than usually upright. It was such an arrogant stare, and so obvious- ly though unconsciously contemptuous, that it was a wonder Appleyard (if one may call her so) did not turn crimson with confusion and wrath. But that female attorney liked amazingly to be stared at, and bore the Congressman's scornful examination with a genial smile. "What does she do?" asked Josie. "Is she really a lawyer ?" " A lawyer without clients, or position, or any thing that is legal. She is clamoring to be admitted to the Washington Bar, and begging meanwhile for a clerkship. I have had a chance to refuse to sign her petitions, and, being a fiend in human shape, I im- proved it." " You are very hard upon her," smiled Mrs. Murray, pleased that he should be so. " I don't treat her half so badly as does the member from your district. I may as well tell you the tale ; it is the best-known joke in Washington ; you will bo sure to hear it. Drummond is pretending to court this Appleyard nondescript, and they say the poor Squire really hopes to bring him to an otfer, and is sweetly in love with him. Now, that I call shabby. It would be a good joke if she should sue him for a breach of prom- ise, and get her case. I wish she would, upon my honor." Meantime Squire Appleyard strolled by them, elbowing her way with considerable ujaufulness through the crowd^aud glancing < /impatiently in all directions, probably in ' search of Drummond. She was a tall and vigorous young person, resembling in figure a man much more than most women do, but \ still looking oddly in coat, vest, and panta- loons. It was impossible not to note, with a sort of discontented surprise, the slope of the shoulders, the hollowness of the back, the breadth of the hips, the fullness of the haunches, and the pulpy plumpness of the thighs. To an oyo unaccustomed to plain exhibition of such phenomena the effect was decidedly grotesque, a little indecorous, and, one niight almost say, revolting. It was a coarse and unpleasing removal of the veils and mysteries with which our race has in the main loved to drape the forms of wom- anhood. Ninety-nine persons out of a hun- dred would have surveyed it with the same distaste which appeared in the faces of our two by no means faslidious spectators, Jo- sejihine Murray and Bradford. "There is Drunnnond behind lis, and she is making for him," whispered tlie Congress- man. An idea which was both practical and mis- chievous flashed through Josie's lively brain. She would obtain a business interview with her member, and she would cut out and tor- ment that caricature of her sex. CHAPTER XII. PAYING COURT TO ONE'S MEMBER. " Introduce me to Mr. Drummond," whis- pered Josie to Bradford. " I want to make that creature know that she is a woman." "Twofold cruelty!" smiled the young man. " Both Squire Appleyard and I will be wretched. But woman must have her will." "Only I want you to see me again before I leave," she added, pressing his arm with her gloved hand, as one may surely i)ress the arm of au old friend. " Of course," nodded Bradford ; and, be- fore he knew it, he had returned the press- ure, so quickly could tliis little witch arouse the male instinct of courtship. He looked down into her eyes intently, he was really loath to leave her. Then he turned, signal- ed to Drummond, presented him to Mrs. Mur- ray, said a word or two to start conversa- tion, and departed. Mr. Sykes Drummond was one of those men whom a woman can not regard with indifference, but whom she must either like or dislike fervently, and that almost at once. There was about him exceptional power, which of course the feminine soul admires ; but there was also exceptional roughness, whicli the feminine soul usually hates. Ho was not the iron hand in a velvet glove, but the iron hand without any glove at all. Not only in his physical, but likewise in his intellectual structure he was a notable example of the brutal sort of vigor. His gait or action, whether of body or of mind, was swift, strong, rude, and noisy. There was not a lazy bone in him ; he was as energetic as the very devil; and by this comparison wo mean that there was some- thing disagreeable in his energy ; that there 44 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. Tvas even sometliing -wliich gave you an idea of the malign and diabolical. Very different "was be from Bradford, al- tbongh botb were potent organizations. In Bradford tbere was a poise, a graceful de- liberation of power, as in tbe Discobolus of Praxiteles ; while in Drummond there was a harsh, violent, exaggerated action, like that of the Fightiug Gladiator. He was not as handsome a man in the face as his rival ; he had nothing of the other's engaging med- itativeness and sensibility of expression ; neither were his featux-es as classic in out- line. Nevertheless, his physiognomy was very impressive, and, if you once learned to like it, it fascinated you. It had a sort of heauU dii diahJe ; it was bewitching, because it was so dauntlessly wicked ; besides, it was really a grand aquiline visage. People who admired it thought it all the handsomer because of the massive jaws, the obstinate, strong chin, the dusky glare of the black eyes, and the nucoucealable gleams of passion. Squire Nancy Appleyard, for instance, could not look at it without palpitating from beaver to boots, and considered it the noblest figure-head that she had ever seen on the shoulders of man or woman. Josie Murray was soon in a turmoil about Drummond — in a turmoil, that is, over the question whether she should like him or de- test him. He strode along with her like a tug-boat convoying a skiff, apparently not even thinking whether the pace might be pleasant to her or not, and shouldering aside crowded fellow-men without regard to their glances of indignation. If one of them ut- tered a grumble at being thus hustled, he looked around at him with the stare of a pugilist spoiliug for a fight, while a smile of derision flickered along his flexible mouth. Of all the five thousand souls who cram- med the Treasury, he was seemingly, and very likely was in reality, the most arrogant and pugnacious. "He is no gentleman," said Josie to her- self, a little afraid of him, but also a good deal interested. " But isn't he tremendous!" Her womanly divination was at work upon him, investigating his character and querying how it would serve her. She de- cided that, if he should only come to love her, ho Avould be an incomparable protector, fraying a way for her through the throng of life, and lifting her into luxurious securi- ty, where she could dazzle and rule. If he should come to love her ! But could this bearish egotist ever truly and self-sac- riliciugly love any body? She somewhat doubted it, but she soon wanted to see. Meantime they were talking mere Wash- ington commonplaces. Their conversation was below the level of their possibilities, as well as below the level of their thoughts — at least, Jositi's thoughts. What a bar the de- corum of society is to dramatic action and speech in life ! Two beings who would like at first sight to pummel or to embrace each other are obliged by respect for public ojiin- ion to keep their arms off" each other's shoul- ders. It is only drunkards, professional bullies, and perhaps the noble savage, who establish acquaintance on a sincere basis and come di- rectly to the veracities of hugging and fist- icuffing. But, after a few minutes of aimless babble, Josie felt sufficiently at ease with her rep- resentative to commence on subjects person- al to him. She was habitually bold in this stratagem of talking to men about them- selves, for she had discovered that it ripen- ed intimacies with them rapidly, and, more- over, that it flattered their vanity. " There is a gentleman who seems to be very anxious to speak to you," she said, archly. "What gentleman?" asked Drummond, glaring about him in a way which boded small civility to interlopers. Josephine waved her fan toward the fem- inine figure and manly raiment of Squire Nancy. Drummond stared at Miss Appleyard's pleading face with a quizzical writhing of his lips, slightly nodded his Plutonian shock of long black hair in response to her bow, and theu said to Mrs. Murray : " That gentleman may wait. Haw, haw, haw !" "He doesn't care for her a bit," thought Josie, much pleased. "But I wish he wouldn't laugh so like a hyena. It is enough to make one hate him." She was fairly right there. A Southern Senator, the eccentric Judge Pickens Rig- don, had observed of Drummond : " By Jove, sir! if any man in my district laughed like that, he would get bushwhacked, sir!" Mr. Drummond now turned his broad back full upon Squire Apjileyard, and marched Mrs. Murray toward a distant quarter of the edifice. But hero the lady presently laid eyes on somebody whom she did not care to come to sjieech with. Toiling through the dense crowd, and wearing on their wrinkled white faces an unmistakable expression of lassitude, there appeared the venerable Rec- tor Murray and his still more A'enerablo wife. Josie judged, from their air of weariness, that they were more than ready to go home. Now, she had just begun her evening; she had not yet spoken about the claim to her member ; she meant to be introduced to at least a dozen more legislators ; and conse- quently she was by no means inclined to run a chance of departure. " We will turn into one of these small rooms, if you please," she said, jiromptly fa- cing away from her relatives. " I am tired of this maelstrom of promenading." PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. '• Tho smaller the room tlio better," laugh- ed Druramoiul, loudly. " I sbould like to Ihid ouo Avluch would only hold us two." It was rather audacious, but still it meant a sort of courtship ; and, in Josie's opinion, saucy courtship was better than none. "You needn't look for such a room," slio laughed. " Still, if we could liud a place where I could ask you a serious question or two, I should like it." " Come on, then," said Drnmmoud, his cu- riosity aroused, as she meant it should be. '•But I am dying to know wbat soi't of seri- ous questions you ask. Couldn't you hint at the subject as wo go along ?" " Too many listeners," said Mrs. Murray. "There seems to be a quiet corner over there, to the left. Won't that do f" "No, that won't do," smiled Josie, who was playing her usual trick of prolonging a denouement, and so exciting curiosity as much as might be. " The next room, then. It seems to me a thousand miles off." It was jocose exaggeration, of course; and yet he was really interested. She had al- ready made herself quite bewitching to him by her cleverness, by those side-glances of hers which were so much more sentimental than she knew of, and by certain seemingly accidental totterings against his shoulder. He had said to himself that she was a flirt, and also that she was deucedly well worth flirting with. They toiled on from swarm to swarm; they passed through one poiiulous room, and then another; but Josie could still find no place secluded enough for her catechism. " I really believe, Mrs. IMurray, that you mean to drive me deranged with curiosity," laughed Drummond. "Don't lose your mind," she answered. "'It would bo a calamity to both of us, as well as to the country. Well, at last here is a corner where I can tell you my business. I don't suppose you want to hear it." " I want to hear any thing that you will say, Mrs. Murray." Thereupon, regardless of her pledges of secrecy to Hollowbread and Bradford, Josie proceeded to let out, little by little, after her inciting custom, the story of her claim. It was certainly ridiculous, this enormous de- mand for a ghost of a barn, and she felt it to be so as she made it. But Mr. Drummond, notwithstanding his hyena habit of laugh- ter, and his hard-hearted scorn of most things human, did not listen with derision. He saw, even more plainly than Josie did, that the claim was a sham one. But he also per- ceived (and this made the matter respectable in his practical eyes) that there was a ro- bust chance of getting the money. This lit- tle claimant before him was a woman, aud that was a point in favor of her winning. Moreover, she was a very handsome v\oman, and, in his opinion, singularly fascinating in licr ways, and obviously neither timid nor fastidious in using her fascinations. Final- ly, she was socially a lady, related to a cler- gyman of somo note, and to one of the most honored old oUicers in the army. It seemed to him that, with intelligent engineering, such a claimant as that could easily get a hundred thousand dollars or so. Should he devote a portion of his valuable time and la- bor to the job ? Well, yes ! he promptly rc- .sponded,for he was a quick man at coming to a decision, and so capable of multifarious work that he never feared having too many irons in the fire. " You have some dates and flicts, I sup- pose — some affidavits relating to it — some record or other V he queried. " Oh, I have a lot of papers I" replied Jo- sie, much pleased with his business-like way of going at the matter, and trying to be equally jiractical. " I have a letter from an old gentleman who remembers the bat- tle, and several letters from people whose fathers have told them about it." " I think we shall prove the battle with- out trouble," said Drummond, somewhat tempted to haw-haw. " But how about the burning of the building ?" "This old gentleman, Mr. Jeremiah, or Jedediah Driukwater, remembers that dis- tinctly, he says." "I hoiie and pray that the worthy old hero may not be taken away before we can get at him. Well, now, Mrs. Murray, if I am to advise you, you must do me the favor to show mo these papers." "Oh, you are so good! I am infinitely obliged to you. Could you call on me at my imcle's ?" " I could, if you would let me. I don't think I should find the least difficulty in do- ing it." "To-morrow?" "The best of all days." " Shall it be at one o'clock ?" " At one precisely," smiled Drummond. The claim was a funny one in itself, and still funnier as coming from the house of the Reverend John JIurray, brother of that most honorable old martinet, Colonel Mur- ray. Josie, too, was a little disposed to laugh ; things Avere surely going on famously. She was to see Congressman Hollowbread at twelve. Congressman Drummond at one, and Congressman Bradford at three. "Allow me one word of caution, Mrs. Murray," continued Drummond. " Too many cooks spoil the broth — haw, haw, haw ! It would be well, for the present, at least, to leave this matter entirely with me. That is natural, you know. I am the member — the unworthy member — haw, haw ! — from your district. Of course my guarantee for your claim would seem to be 46 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. better tbau tlie guarantee of any other rep- resentative. Don't you think so ?" "Certainly," nodded Josie. "But yon, too, must be discreet,"' she added, not caring to have him compare notes with Hollow- bread and Bradford. Drummond promised secrecy, and he meant it. His brazen clangorousness and conceit gave him the air of a tattling boast- er ; but he Avas in reality far too able a man to let even his enormous arrogance beguile him into unwise confidences; and in polit- ical intrigues, especially such as concerned money, he could be as close as the cruel grave. Just as this agreement had been reached their colloquy was interrupted. Mrs. War- den and Belle came up, the former on the arm of Mr. T. M. C. A. Smyler, and the lat- ter on the arm of Bradford. Now, Mr. Smy- ler was a most exalted personage, for he held one of the loftiest positions in Con- gress. Consequently, Josie Murray was de- lighted to be introduced to him, and imme- diately began to do her best to enchant him. It was of no use ; the grand dignitary was not to be mesmerized ; his role in life was to mesmerize other people. He bowed and he smiled ever so many times, and he uttered commonplaces in a low, sweet, ingratiating tone, which was all somehow amazingly flattering, at least to ordinary spirits. This was his forte ; this was the chief secret of his success, this gra- ciousuess of manner. True, he was a man of fair ability, capable of hard work and adroit managings, and gifted in stump- speaking ; but, after all, it was the bow, the smiles, the mellifluous voice, and the amica- ble unction of deportment which had main- ly brought him popular favor; he had won position l)y the same gifts which enable a clever salesman to win customers. On the whole, Josie felt that she was rather out- blandislied by Mr. Smyler, and did not quite know what to do with him. Mrs. "Warden, who knew that the man was no gallant, and that tliere was nothing to be got out of him, except through polit- ical or pecuniary pipe-laying, looked on at this conference with sparkling eyes, much amused at her young friend's eagerness and perplexity. " i\Ir8. Murray, excuse me for interrupting you," broke in Belle Warden, at last. " But we met your uncle and aunt, and they are very anxious to find you." Mrs. Warden made a face at her daugh- ter, and then whispered, " What did you tell her for? She doesn't care to know." " But she ought to know," answered Belle, a right-minded young lady, who wanted to sec ])cople do the right thing. " Oh, dear, how shall I over find them in this crowd !" exclaimed Josie, looking about her for assistance, and perhaps hoping for the arm of the great Smyler. " If I lose them, how shall I get home ?" " Why, go with us, of course," said Mrs. Warden, who had the sympathy of a veter- an of fashion for a young lady who wanted to see a party out. "Oh, thank you so much, Mrs. Warden !" cried Josie. " Now, if somebody could look up my friends and tell them not to wait for me! The poor old people must be horribly tired." "Do go, Mr. Bradford," implored Belle, surrendering her young man at once for the sake of Mr. and Mrs. Murray. "I know them by sight," proffered Drum- mond. " Do you skirmish one way, Brad- ford, and I'll skirmish the other. We will make the circuit of the rooms and meet here." CHAPTER XIII. A PACK OF ADMIRERS. "TiiEY will be back soon," said Josie, smiling her thanks to Belle Warden, who could hardly muster grace to smile back again. "Meantime I suppose we must be rooted to this spot. And it is all on my ac- count. I am so sorry !" " I can not believe, Mrs. Murray, that any of the rest of us are sorry," observed Mr. Smyler, with that oily geniality which had made the sovereign people delight to honor him. " I find it very pleasant to be rooted to this spot." " That is the jiroper sort of thing to say," put in Mrs. Warden, anxious to keep a hold on the skirts of the puissant functionaiy's attention. "But I must warn Mrs. Murray not to let herself be carried away. You are good to every body." Again the great, sweet man bowed, and showed his beneficent teeth ; there was evi- dently no limit to him in that direction. "Are you very obliging, sir ?" asked Josie, reverently. " Then I would like to ask you some troublesome questions." Mr. Smyler intimated that she might ask, and he would answer, until they both suc- cumbed with fatigue. " I have been reading Trollope lately," she continued. " Mr. Palliser is so anmsing with his labors as Chancellor of the Exchequer! Now, who is your INIr. Palliser in Congress ?" Her object, it must bo understood, was to learn precisely who had charge of the pub- lic moneys, so that she might go to the proper quarter to obtain payment for her burned barn. Mr. Smyler, T)eing no novel-reader, did not know at all Avho Mr. Palliser was ; but he got at the gist of her meaning tlirough the phrase, " Chancellor of the Exchequer." " Why, the position is somowluit divided with us, Mrs. Murray," he said. " It is shared, PLAYING THE MISCHIEF, 47 I should be iuclincd to say, between three or more persons. The Secretary of the Treas- ury is iiroperly our finance minister; but, then, he has no seat in the legishitivo body, as probably you are aware." " I am so ignorant!" confessed Josie. Mr. Smyler showed his teeth again, as though this were the most delightful in- formation possible, although, in reality, it gave him neither satisfaction nor sorrow. His only reason lor showing his teeth, aside from mere born instinct and life-long habit of grinning, was a desire to win adherents. "Then, in Congress," ho continued, "we have various committees which have to do with fniance, and each of these committees has its chairman." Thereupon ho enumerated several honor- able gentlemen, and among them Josie's friend, Mr. Hollowbread, chief of the Com- mittee on Circulating Medium. "Mr. Hollowbread!" exclaimed our hero- ine, wondering if he were the person who held her money, and regretting that she had maufcuvred herself out of his fiscal company. " Yes, Mr. Hollowbread. You are ac- quainted with him? A very excellent, charming gentleman, and a man of great ability," declared Mr. Smyler, who spoke well of every body, and especially of every body in the political world. " One of our leading men iu linaucial questions and de- bates." " So Mr. Hollowbread is our Mr. Palliser ?" inquired, or, rather, inferred, Josie, hoping that it might be so. "Yes — I dare say — precisely," grinned Mr. Smyler, still unable to attach any pre- cise idea to the word Palliser. Josie's most urgent desire now was to find Mr. Hollowbread, and renew with vigor her hitherto idly treated duty of captivating him. But before she could rediscover him, she had to converse at length Avith several geutlemen ; not a disagreeable task, by-the- way, to a truly womanly woman, and espe- cially uot to our heroine. First appeared Mr. Hamilton Bray, a tre- mendously heavy young swell, with a long, thin, graceful figure, and a girlishly hand- some face. He was surely uot more than twenty -five, and his mustache was but a mere down of chestnut ; but you would have judged from his air of wisdom and weariness that he was the oldest inhabitant of the po- litical world: it seemed nothing less thau a miracle that his brown curls had not turned to silver. He was as bumptious in opiuion as a spoiled child, and his tone of superiority was something either amusing or insufferable. It was a treat to watch him when he was presented to Josie Murray. He bowed with a mien of elegant condescension, and then threw himseK into an attitude which said. Admire me ! Beautiful as she was, he hard- ly looked nt her twice, and seemed to expect that she should look at him. 'J'ho present occupation of this wonderful adolescent was to be the private secretary of that famous political leader. General Bangs. Of Bangs he spoke mucli, indirect- ly representing him as an able, though fre- quently erring, man, whom he (Bray) was engineering tlnougli the political world, and of whom he had hopes. And yet the general was a prodigious creature, too, as compared with all meu less intelligently guided. His fervent nature was constantly revolting against the mean world around him, and striving to evoke a new and hitherto unsuspected order out of chaos. He despised from the bottom of his volcanic soul the point-no-j)oiut i)olicy of the men who now had the ear of the Admin- istration. AVith God's help (and Bray's also, no doubt), he would yet overcome the poiut- no-poiut muddle. In short, this youth talked very vaguely and bombastically and sillily. Such was his conceit, too, that unless Providence should give him some humbling hard knocks, it did not seem likely that he would ever talk much better. His enormous and protuber- ant vanity was exasperating, and did him socially great damage. He so obviously en- joyed hearing himself discourse, that, no matter what he said, no listener could en- joy it. Even Josephine Murray, who could put up with as much from a man as any lady, soon got tired of Mr. Bray. Of course she did not quarrel with him ; she was one of those wise women who never quarrel, ex- cept with an old friend who is unlikelj- to strike back ; moreover, to do her justice, she was one of the most patient, amiable, court- eous creatures that ever wore a bonnet. But she could not stand this "hifalutin" young egotist, and she got quit of him as promptly as might be without incivility. Then came Mr. Calhoun Clavers, a shoot of the old lauded aristocracy of South Car- olina, but now glad to earn a modest salary in the office of Mr. Simeon AUchin, one of the great "Washington bankers and railroad- ers. A tall, slender, dark young man, with a pointed profile, and coarse, black hair, ho was far from handsome. But he was so graceful and self-possessed, so self-respect- ful and yet so sweetly considerate to others, so mature in the proprieties of life and yet so full of generous sentiraeutalism, that he touched Josephine with honest wonder and admiration. Notwithstanding that ho was no older than herself, and quite incapable of bring- ing her either a marriage settlement or Con- gressional appropriation, she talked with him for more than linlf an hour. She quite won the heart of this simple and chivalrous youngster, and from that time forward he 43 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. ■was ready to fight any one ■nho spoke ill of lier. Nest came Clay Beauman, another South- erner from farther "West, whom she had caught a glimpse of two days before in the cars, and. of whom she had tliought that ho was " too handsome for a man." He was an Apollo, with statuesque features, a clear olive complexion, curling masses of hlack hair, a perfect figure, the bearing of a D'Or- say, and the toilet of a Brummel. As Josie stared at him, she said, to her- self, with a smile, "Actually, he is prettier than I am I" Beauman was, of course, well used to fem- iuiue admiration. At that very time there were i;)robably fifty women in Washington who were more or less cracked about him, and who took every decorous chance to let him know it. But, for all that, Josie was able to interest him, and to keep him by her for many minutes. "What with her clever- ness in small talk, and her risky audacity in little airs and signs of iireference, and the half-meant, half-unconscious sentimentality of her sjiarkling eyes, she was dangerously alluring, even to a spoiled favorite. Before Beauman left her, he had got an idea that she was in love with him, and that he was on the verge of falling in love with her. "By Jove! that's an alarming little thing," he took the opportunity to confide to Brad- ford, who had just come up. " She has tal- ent enough to be a second Catherine of Eus- sia." " It isn't exactly a pleasant comparison," was Bradford's answer. "And yet it may be an apt one," said Beau- man, pensively. " By Jove ! there is a great deal in her, whatever it may be." Bradford, it must be understood, had long since delivered Josie's message to her rela- tives. "When he found them, Mrs. Murray was still toiling feebly through the crowd, supported on one side by her weary and tot- tering husband, and on the other by the col- onel. " Yes, yes, we must go, Huldah," insisted the rector, pettishly. " You are tired out, and ought to have gone long since. I am glad my niece has got word to us at last. We are very much obliged to you, Mr. Brad- ford." " I am sorry I could not find you earlier," observed Bradford, charitablj^ willing to give the impression that Josie had seut him to them long since. " Oh, she has done as well as she could," interposed Mrs. Murray, who was a thorough lady at heart. " How could she help getting lost iu this jam ? Mr. Bradford, you are very kind; but couldn't you bring her to us ?" " I might — in time," ho hesitated. Know- ing Josie pretty well, ho judged her capable of evadiug the bringing, aud then these old people would have another season of weary waiting. "No, Huldah!" declared the rector, who was ready to cry as he gazed at the lassi- tude iu his wife's wrinkled face ; " I insist upon your getting home at once. The car- riage can come back for Josephine. Juliau can stay for her. Any body but you." " No need, colonel," said Bradford. " I promise you that I will see your niece home iu Mrs. Warden's carriage." At last he induced them all three to depart, aud made his way back to his own party. At last, too, long after the flight of the Murrays, and quite a while after midnight, the swarms of the reception began to break up, and Mrs. Warden hinted of home. "I am ready," answered Josie, who had recovered the chairman of the Circulating Medium Committee, aud was now leaning on his plump arm. " Mr. Hollowbread saj's that we must go if we don't want to get caught in the crowd and kept here ever so long ; aud you wouldn't like to be kept here with me ever so long, would you, Mr. Hol- lowbread ?" she asked, with a sort of girlish sauciness. The old beau was jaded enough to want to say that he would like to get home as quickly as possible ; but, being habitually gallant, and, moreover, anxious not to be considered elderly, and, furthermore, very much smitten with this lovely widow, he strenuously affirmed that he would rejoice to make a night of it. Meanwhile he kept sliding on toward the point of egress as rap- idly as the eddying crowd would let him. At this moment Calhoun Clavers came up with the information that the press arouud the door was frightful. "It will need a cavalier to every lady," he added, wistfully. " I wish I could bo of service." " You may oblige me with your arm, Mr. Clavers," said cunning Mrs. AVarden, who wanted to leave her daughter as much alone as possible with Bradford. And now came a wrestle which was real- ly tremendous, almost to the endangering of life. The enormous outer hall was jiack- ed with thousands of people, all pushing or pushed iu various directions, some toward the ladies' waiting-room, some toward the masculine ditto, aud some toward the great door. This multitudinous variety of aim led to a vast Tinity of deadlock. It seemed as if the crowd had so tangled itself in knots that it would never get unraveled. There Avas a huge hum of amusement, or alarm, or anger, frequent bursts of hysterical laughter, occa- sional female shrieks, and some manly swear- ing. It cost a struggle of fifteen or twenty min- utes to get the ladiea of our party to the PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 49 room wliicli held their cloukings, and to force them into it. Thou the three uieu slowly fought their way to the male drcss- iug-room, with the hope of obtaiuiug their own outward garniture. They uiiglit as well- have tried to get the moon and the seven stars. There were at least a thousand masculine maniacs there, yelling out numbers, signaling for surtouts and hats, pushing aiul hauling, and actual]y_ climbing on each other's backs. "Wo shall have to give it up," gasped Hollowbread, Avhoso breadth of beam and roundness of model put him at a great dis- advantage. Even the two younger men were soon kneaded and hustled into the same opinion ; and, all three hatless and cloakless, they sculUed their way back to their ladies. It was no easy matter to fmd them, and it was still harder to escort them anywhere. Obviously there was no present I)Ossibility of getting women out of the front door, through that huge drift and pack of desperate men who were making their suf- fering exit. "They are jnmping from the windows," called Josie Murray, all alive with the ex- citement of the occasion, and her young eyes lighted up with a gayety which seemed al- most wicked to elderly and timorous peo- lile. "I am cheering up Mrs. Warden and Belle to jump. Oh, Mr. Hollowbread ! if you will get out and stand under the window, I will jump down to you. It will be such an adventure! Do go!" As a reflective soul might infer, Mr. Hol- lowbread was considerably alarmed by this romantic proposition. Jump out of a win- dow into his arms, and, of course, square upon his broad waistcoat ! She might lame him for life ; she might knock the breath out of eveu his vast body; she might be the death of him. He would have argued against the mad proposition ; he would have been more delighted thau ever before in his life to speak against time; but before he could begin his oration, Josie withdrew from the door-way, and was seen hastening toward the Wardens. " But, Mrs. Murray !'' he shouted in a voice of desperation, which she did not or would not hear. " My God, what a notion ! It's perfect lunacy. I won't go." " Come along," laughed Bradford, towing and tugging him by the arm. " I don't see any other way, unless we wait an hour or two. Let Clavers stay here and watch events inside." " I'll stay inside myself," declared Mr. Hol- lowbread, Avho, it will be remembered, had neither hat nor overcoat. But Bradford was inexorable with the old beau, whose mature gallautrieshe, of course, laughed at in his soul^ as young men always do laugh at the amative pranks of reverend seniors. "I don't see how we can disobey Mrs. Murray," he said. " If you are a man, fol- low me." Very unwillingly the chairman of tlie Cir- culating Medium Committee did follow, plunging into a ])rolonged rough-and-tumble which scarcely left wind enough in him for a hiccough, and emerging from it so heated with exercise that he was almost glad he had no overcoat, although it was a stormy night, and the cutting wind played remorse- lessly with his swallow-tail. The scene out- side was little less bewildering and alarming than the one inside. There was a monstrous crowd; people in hundreds were pouring away; others were vainly trying to force a re-entry into the building; gentlemen were yelling for their coachmen, and coachmen howling for their gentlemen ; it was a tur- moil and an uproar as of a conflagration, or a street revolution. The few policemen present could do nothing to restore order, although they bustled and hustled and bawl- ed manfully. Meantime the wind blew tom- ahawks ; the air was full of small, rustling, keen, needle-like arrows of snow ; it was un- comfortable to stand, and also, as Mr. Hol- lowbread reflected, dangerous. "I shall catch rheumatism, consumption, and — -every thing !" he groaned, as he tried vainly to button his party coat over his white vest. " Come along !" shouted Bradford. " There is Mrs. Murray standing in the window." " Oh, it's all very well to say come along," grunted Mr. Hollowbread, freeing himself with a push from a black boy Avho had just run into his stomach. " But with so many blasted people about—" He was wrathful with the blundering ne- gro, with the light-footed Bradford, with the weather, the hurry, and every thing. But he ran on, nevertheless; slipping wildly in a small drift of the dry, granulated snow; then taking a gallant slide across a brief glade of thin ice ; and at last halting out of breath beneath a window full of crinoline. CHAPTER XIV. THE HEROIC GYMNASTICS OF MR. HOLLOW- BREAD. W^HILE the two Congressmen roughed it outside, the three ladies held an animated and eveu excited discussion within, as to wliether they should jump out or wait a while and walk out. " There arc ladies going out by the door," asserted Belle, a mature creature for nine- teen, and little given to pranks. "I would rather stay here an hour than dance out of a window. It is simply ridiculous!" "But just think of those poor men stand- ing there in the cold !" urged Josie. " I sent 50 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. Mr. Hollowljread out to catch me, antl I re- allj' must keep faith with him." Theu Mrs. Warden, -who was naturally of a harum-scarum disi^ositiou, aud liked still to do a youthful deed now aud theu, inter- fered ou Mrs. Murray's side. "My dear, venerahle daughter, you can try it hy the door with Mr. Clavers," she laughed. "We young people — Josie aud I — will jump. It will he worth telling of some day." " I tcish you wouldn't !" begged Belle, ashamed of her mother's hoidenism, as she frequently was. But her pleadiug weut for uaught, aud at last, iu a downright, prim, respectable pet, she took Clavers's arm and sailed away. Tims, when the two outside adventurers arrived beneath that window-disiilay of mil- linery and haberdashery, they beheld in it the lithe, light iigure and giggling face of Mrs. Murray, and behind it the dark visage, also " laughter-stirred," of Mrs. Warden. "Ah, there you are, Mr. Hollowbread !" screamed Josie. "Are you ready? Can you do it !" She had the skirts of her dress twisted about her dexterously and decorously, yet nevertheless she exposed a line or two of beauty which the old beau had never seen before, and which he could not help judging as very rare in their perfection. Under sucli circumstances, how could a man of artistic nature fail to stretch forth his hands and declare that he could do it? Moreover, the height was no great affair, after all ; it did not appear to him to be more than six feet. So he elbowed his way through a group which stood beneath the window, signed aside a tall policeman who offered to relieve him of his venture, stretched upward his pulpy hands, and called, " Jump !" With a scream which was half laughter and half hysterical fright, Josie leajied out like a little avalanche of draperies, and de- scended, fluttering and spreading, full upon the Congressional bosom. But she was not so light as she looked ; there was a good, plumping nine stone or so of her; aud, let- ting herself drive in that way, she knocked her gallant as flat as a flounder. Of course Mr. Hollowbread, much as he might have desired a collision of this roman- tic sort, suffered a good deal by it. In the hrst iilace, it beat out of him pretty nearly all the breath that had been left in him bj' his previous gymnastics iu the way of wrest- ling and running. In the second place, the snow just al)Out there had been trampled to a damp sludge by many feet, so that, before he could extricate himself from his lovely in- cubus, at least a square cubit of his raiment had been wet through. He felt very much as if a giant had set him down violently in a humid mixture prepared for freezing pur- poses. Nevertheless, he strove to bear himself bravely, and to treat the adventure as a good joke. His first words — a quotation from Daniel Webster's famous Rochester speech — these heroic and would-be jovial first words were: " Two hundred feet direct fall !" Before this noble suflerer could rise, Mrs. Warden had alighted, throwing herself so fairly as to be caught by the athletic Brad- ford without an overthrow, and doing no other damage than to dig her fan smartly into the face of a passing negro. "Hi! yah!" shouted the freedman. "'Pears to me women's flyin' rouu' yere mighty loose." Then, turning to Mr. Hollowbread, he added : " I say, boss, has you got any mo' of 'em to cotch ? If you has, I'll cotch em fur you fur a quartah apiece." " Get out of the way, fellow !" responded our imblic functionary, with pardonable pet- ulance. " Mrs. Murray, I hope you are not hurt ?" "Not a bit," answered Josie, taking his arm. "But oh, how we did come down!" she added, bursting iuto a scream of laugh- ter, pardonable because spasmodic and irre- pressible. Mr. Hollowbread looked at her with a smile which had very little glee iu it, like the puckered grimace which one may observe on the face of a very young baby. Conscious of cold chills running down his back ; aware of a more than soggy spot in his vesture, and saying to himself that he hoped it would not freeze ; possibly also a little shaken aud con- fused by his late thump ; he could not at once be heartily merry. It was not until they had been pushed against each other two or three times by other eager wayfarers that he recovered his spirits. " But oh, it was too bad to knock you down," she added, noting his silence, and fear- ing that he was annoyed. " I was shameful- ly clumsy. I am so sorry !" "' I am not sorry at all," panted Mr. Hol- lowbread, and he energetically meant it, not- withstanding that plaster of dampness. " I should like to be knocked down iu that style every day." " It would be the death of us, Mr. Hollow- bread !" "It would be a delightful death to me, Mrs. Murray !" " It couldn't go ou more than a week without j)roduciug a quarrel, Mr. Hollow- bread." " Never on my part, Mrs. Murray." " Besides, people would talk about it, Mr. Hollowbread." " We must despise a censorious world, Mrs. Murray." " I must refer you to my uncle, Mr. Hol- lowbread." Tlio Congressman burst out laughing, in approval of her promptness aud pertuess. PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 51 Even iu this sort of frcc-aiul-casy badinage ho had to admit that sho was moro than a match for him, notwithstanding his largo ex- pericuco in talk of that sort. Sho was his su- perior in every thing; sho was a woiulerfnl young woman ; sho was dazzling and sho was fascinating. Notwithstanding his laughter, and notwithstanding his unpleasant con- sciousness of that freezing and stiffening poultice which clung to him, ho was in a .seriously tender state of mind with regard to this little lady. Ho was, wo must repeat, an old beau; that is to say, ho had had a great number of flirtations and superficial love scrapes; but it must bo understood to his credit that he had also had one or two heart affairs of an almost tragical earnestness; iu short, ho was ono of those venerable coquettes who can really fall iu love. His passions and affec- tions had been hard used and even shame- fully abused, but it is none the less true that they were honestly puissant. Well, after a long search the Warden vehicle was discovered ; then Bello Warden and Clavers appeared, having forced an exit by way of the door; the ladies were seat- ed and Bradford offered the vacant i)lace to Hollowbread. "No — a thousand thanks — but no such injustice," replied the latter, who would have liked to go with Mrs. Murray, but dared not ride without his overcoat. "The honor is yours by right. Farewell, ladies." Accompanied by Clavers, he now made a desperate assault upon the still swarming portal of tho Treasury, and pushed ou through a seemingly undiminished crowd to the masculine cloak - room. All the way they came upon lamentable cases of desti- tution and sufferiug. Ono gentleman, as respectably bald as the prophet Elijah, had no other covering to his intellectual pate than his wife's mite of a lace handkerchief, which he held ou with one hand while he sustained his better half with the other. ' Senator Pickens Eigdon was swearing his way homeward iu an overcoat so much too small for him that he could only get it over one arm and shoulder. Scarcely any body could find his carriage; hundreds of ladies were footing it through the snow in their slippers ; and only too many of them had lost their furs and pelisses. Honest John Vane, the popular member from Slowburgh, was carrying his hand- some, full-sized wife iu his arms, while his friend and her admirer. Senator Ironman, ran ahead of them bareheaded, bawling vainly for his coachman. It seemed every moment possible to meetiEneas bearing An- chises on his pious back. lusido there were similar cases of serio- comic deprivation and misery. Ladies, worn out with fatigue and afraid to face the win- ter wind uncovered, had thrown themselves on tho uncharitable, bare floors, awaiting a chance to find their wrappings. In the gentlemen's cloak-room there were a fearful jam, turmoil, uproar, and scuilling. At least lifteen hundred male maniacs were engaged in this riot. Every one of them either had no hat and overcoat, or else had somebody else's hat and overcoat, and was raving about it. The checks were lost, the servitors were clean confounded and dement- ed, and the floors were strewed with rejected garments. Not by any dint of shouting, gesturing, and showing his number in all directions, could Mr. Hollowbread obtain his proper caparisons. Seeing Squire Nancy Apple- yard in the main hall, marching off with a beaver sack-coat which looked to him like his own, he rushed out and claimed it iu quite a hot argument. Squire Nancy event- ually "peeled," exhibited her name on the lining of the garment, and strode away in triumph. Then Mr. Hollowbread returned, grum- bling, to tho i)andemonium of confounded wardrobes, and spent half an hour quite uselessly in quarreling over his grievances. Meantime many wiser gentlemen picked up what they could find, and made off with it, leaving a very ];)Oor choice for the fastidious, the conscientious, and the otherwise un- ready. It was fully two o'clock in the morning when our veteran legislator walked home, with his dyed hair blowing in the wind, and with a seedy, old-fashioned, green surtout on, which could not possibly be strained to button in front, while the two buttons be- hind were high up his broad loins, as if they were bent on riding pickapack. Yet his mind ran upon Mrs. Josephine Murray quite as much as upon his own distresses and perils. "That little woman will be the death of me," he said to himself more than once ; and fully as often he added, " But isn't she pro- digiously, amazingly fiiscinating!" He was already pretty thoroughly be- witched with her. Her lively talk, her daz- zling and yet tender eyes, her trim figure and graceful carriage, her adventurous and yet cultivated manner, had all impressed him deeply. Then such a revelation of grace and statuesque beauty as she had been when she stood in the window, with her drapery twisted about her in that auda- cious, Grecian way! But it was chiefly the soft, irresistible thump of that flying col- lision which had done the business for him. How enchanting and intoxicating the recol- lection of it was to tho susceptible old flirt and volafje ! Once he actually halted for half a minute, while the satirical wind jilayed the mis- chief with his law-giving sconce, to think it all over. There he was^ admiring her ; 52 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. there slie was, laugliing, holding out her hauds, aud calliug " Catch me !" then down she came like lightning, a little, solid, love- ly, capsizing blessing! He sighed softly, shivered to the back- bone, cursed the overcoat that would not button, and hastened onward. Meantime Josie Murray, far from think- ing about him, was fast asleep. Reaching home about one, she was let in by a smirk- ing mulatto handmaiden, who had been slumbering for an hour or two on the rug in front of the parlor-grate, and who was fuUy repaid for her slight hardshiiJ by an inspec- tion of the line raiment of the " little lady." "I am afraid I kept my aunt and uncle up too long, Sarah," said Josie, while she shook herself out before a mirror. " Oh, laws ! Miss Murray, they's been abed this three hours," giggled Sarah. " Theij don't set up for nobody nor nothiu'. Ef 'twas gwine ter be the resurrection, they'd go to bed all the same. Ton hain't worrited 'em to speak of. I'll make it all right with the ole folks. I'll tell 'em some thin' or 'nother." "But, Sarah, there was really an awful crowd, and I couldn't get home a minute sooner. You must tell them so." "Of co'se, you couldn't git home no soon- er, an' hadn't oughter. Young folks has to have some fun in life, I reckon. Don't you be a bit skeered 'bout the i)atriarchs. I'll tis 'em." When Josie met her relatives next morn- ing, they were so far from murmuring against her late re-entry, that they congratulated her on getting home at all. " What a time you must have had !" ex- claimed Mrs. Murray. " Sarah says millions of people walked the streets bareheaded till daylight. Of course, when she says mill- ions, she means hundreds. But there must have been a great many shut out." " Such a crowd !" said Josie. " I don't be- lieve, uncle, that there was ever any thing like it, except when the animals went into the ark," she added, knowing that allusions to Scrijiture i^leased her reverend relative, "It gives one a new idea of the tribula- tions oi^ Noah," smiled the rector. " I thought of bulls of Bashan, and beasts at Ephesus, and the rabble of Vanity Fair." " Vanity Fair !" litanied Mrs. Murray. " If we had been animals we should have been better off." "Better off!" emphasized and nodded the old lady. " We, at least, shouldn't have trodden so much on each other's toes." " Trodden on each other's toes," giggled his respondent. " I never before felt a desire for hoofs, not to mention horns." "Not to mention horns," added the wife, with excitement. " There was a man behind me who put me in mind of the beast in Revelation that but- ted four ways, aud knocked down the stars of heaven. It seemed to me we were all do- ing that." " Oh, now, Mr. Murray !" protested the old lady, waking up to his meaning, and jiro- testing against it ; " when you get agoing, j'ou are too severe. Society is society, and of course it has its inconveniences, but we must have it." " So I think, aunt," said Josie. " The stars of heaven are safe, even though we do go to liarties." " But wasn't it wonderful that we should never be able even to set eyes on you after we lost you !" cried the old lady, throwing up her wrinkled hands over the surprising fact. "Wonderful!" innocently assented Josie. " I would have given all my old shoes to find you," she added, without much exaggeration ; for she set small store by old things, and liked new ones vastly better. " Well, what did you see and hear ?" asked Mrs. Murray, greedy for something to keep her mind awake, and to enter in her diary. Thereupon our licroine rehearsed one of her incomparable narratives, sketching with wonderful minuteness and picturesqueness and vivacity the events of the evening, and making herself prodigiously interesting and amusing, although she said nothing of her flirtations. Such a picture did she produce of her jump from the window, and her flooring of that full-bodied Hollowbread, that her aunt near- ly had a fit with laughing. " Mr. Hollowbread !" she presently repeat- ed, easily recalling a name which she had in her diary, " I have heard of Mi\ Hollow- bread somewhere." " It's the same man, aunt, who came with me from the station." " Oh, yes, I recollect," hastily answered Mrs. Murray, eager to hide the vagueness of her memory. " Yes, it was Mr. Hollowbread. But did he speak to you ?" she asked, with goggling eyes. " He is a friend of the Wardens. We walk- ed together for a while." "A — friend — of— the — Wardens," repeat- ed the rector, enunciating very slowly and distinctlj", the better to impress this new fiict on an understanding which was a little hard of hearing. " Oh, yes — a friend of the Wardens," jerk- ed out the old lady, getting the matter in hand. " Well, I dare say he is a verj' re- spectable man." " I ventured to ask him to call, he lias been so polite to me, and suffered so much on my account," laughed Josie. " You asked him to call V I am glad of it," giggled Mrs. Murray. " I should like to look at him." PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 53 "Mr. Bradford is goins to call, too. Mr. Bradford is a distinguished Congressmau, aud a very old fricud of niiue." " Mr. Bradford ! Is lie?" And down went another name and fact on the old lady's memory, to be transferred to her diary. "And Mr. Drummoml will be here to-day. Mr. Drummond is tho member from our dis- trict ; and, of course, I bad to bo polite to liim." " Mr. Drummond ? — the member for your district ? I thought you said Mr. Bradford was — something or other." Tho torrent of facts was flowing quite too rapidly to be contained by tho decaying dikes of this ancient intellect. "' Mr. Bradford is her old friend, but Mr. Drummond is the member for her district," explained the everlastingly ijatieut aud af- fectionate rector. " Oh, I see now !" answered the old lady, who seemed always to comprehend without difficulty what was said to her by her hus- band, so much dill habit and love quicken her spirit. Aud so the morning passed very pleasant- ly in the Murray fjimily, notwithstanding the hardships aud grievances of tho iirevi- ous evening. Ou the whole, considering how many am- atory scalps Josie had taken at the recep- tion, how many Congressmen she had more or less interested in her claim, and what a favorite she had become with her respecta- ble relatives, it must be conceded that her outlook in Washington was a promising oue. CHAPTER XV. f DELUDING AN OLD COXGRESSMAX. JosiE, we remember, was to see Mr. Hol- lowbread at twelve, Mr. Drunnnoud at one, aud Mr. Bradford at three. AVe can judge what an impression she had made upon these three distinguished legis- lators by the extraordinary fact that each one of them kept his appointment, aud was even scrupulously xmuctual as to time. Mr. HoUowbread, for instance, looked anxious- ly at his watch on heaving iu sight of the house, aud then pushed forward at such a killing pace, that when he planted his arc- tic shoes on the Murray door-mat, he was in au awkwardly short-winded, loud-breathing state, and felt obliged to rest a moment be- fore ringing the bell. For this sharp dash he would have been pleased to reward himself instantly with a little courtship ; but Josie wanted to linish with him and get him out of tho house be- fore Mr. Druumioud should come ; so she hastily produced her claim documents, and set him to work on them. Seeing that she "meant business," he mounted his eyeglass- es astride his noble Roman nose, and care- fully read the i>apers througli, really giving his mind to them. It was a good mind yet ; it could, when resolutely spurred, do a great deal of strenuous work ; ami in twenty min- utes he had a suflicient grasp of tiio case t<> pass intelligent judgment upon it. "There is no doubt that you have what claim there is," he said, at last, in a practical, positive, clear-headed way which made him appear (piito solidly respectable. "You are the sole heir of your late husband, Mr. Au- gustus Murray, as appears Ijy his will." Here Josie tliought that she had probably better put her handkerchief to her eyes, but ou an instant's reflection, decided that she might as well omit that gesture, and did omit it. " His father," continued Mr. HoUowbread, " was Henry Murray, the brother of Julian and John Murray, our good friends, the col- onel aud rector. Aud their father was Jarcd jNIurray, who, iu 1810, was tho head of the family, and who then owned a large tract of laud in Benlah County, New York. On and around this tract of laud tho battle of Murray Hill was fought, and during that battle the barn aud so forth were burned, either by our troops or the enemy. But it appears that in December, 1811, this Jared Murray died, leaviug his landed property by will, etc., iu trust, iu four specified lots, one each to his wife aud to his three sons. Aud, furthermore, it appears that the lot ou which stood the aforesaid barn was, by this will, the lu'operty of Henry Murray, the father of Augustus. Consequently, Henry Murray and his heirs and assigns are the sole per- sons who suffered loss by said conflagration, and who can justly claim damages therefor. That seems to be a correct statement of the case. Is it not, Sirs. Murray ?" She looked up iu his face with an infan- tile, pleading smile, the smile of au injured innocent who demands restitution, aud sigh- ed, "Yes." Her child-like hand — she really did not seem to know where it was — had strayed, iu a very touching way, upou his coat-sleeve, and was gently grasping it. Mr. Hollow- bread gazed down upou her with almost as ^ much of astonishment as of admiration and atTection. Ho had never before seen a so ex- orbitant aud seemingly unscrupulous claim- ant who was so young iu years and had the air of being so guileless. The defunct barn had probably not been worth a thousand dollars ; aud here slie wanted twenty thou- sand — forty thousand — eighty thousand, for it ; wanted any sum that one was pleased to mention. It was one of the most audacious projects for swindling Government that had ever been recommended to his attention. Well, perhaps she did not half know what she was about; women are so anuizingly ig- 54 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. uoraut in matters of mauly business! She might think that every body did this sort of thing, and that, consequently, it was quite projier to do it. The Government, he had long since learned, was, in the opinion of many people, a legitimate object of plunder. '' Is there any chance of getting my rights ?" she mustered courage to inquire. IVIi'. HoUowbread saw, with conscientious dismay, that he must take her in earnest ; he also saw that he must decide to favor her monstrous suit, or give up pushing his own. He looked once more into the witchery of her splendid eyes; and they were too much for his really respectable legislative honesty. " Yes, you have a claim," he reiieated, slowly, meantime wishing, from the bottom of his heart, that she had not the ghost of one, or else had a great deal solider one. " Yes, I know I have a claim," she laugh- ed, with a worrying cheerfulness. "But how much will it bring me, and how soon can it be. got, and so on ?" Mr. HoUowbread perceived that she had not the least idea of his troubles of con- science, and feared that she looked upon him as unbusiness-like and dilatory. He wondered again if she were naughtily un- scrujjulous, or iunoceutly ignorant ; and he remembered an old doubt of his as to wheth- er women generally are not less moral, at least in matters of property, than men ; whether, indeed, they might not be funda- mentally incapable of radical, unimposed, self-sustaining honesty. We must pardon this iirofane suspicion in a man who had seen so many intriguing, conscienceless, greedy, pilfering ladies as Mr. HoUowbread, and who had been so frequently obliged to witness or to combat their raids upon the United States Treasury. His eiTor consisted in this, that be forgot, for a moment, the herd of vastly more j)otent and grasping masculine filibus- ters. "How much will it bring?" ho echoed, scarcely concealing his lack of good-will. " Let me see : how much was the barn worth ? That is an essential point ?" "But can't you fix the value of it your- self? Or, can't I? I suppose some barns arc worth as much as ten thousand dollars." "More, Mrs. Murray. But we must know how much this particular barn was worth. We must have soix.e affidavit or other trust- worthy statement as to its value, by some person who has seen the building." "Must we?" asked Josie, her handsome face taking on a shade of gloom, if not of pos- itive annoyance. Then, after a moment of hesitation, she handed to him another doc- Timent, which she had hitherto kept in her pocket. It was an affidavit, signed and sworn to by one Jeremiah Drinkwater, de- claring that he had aided in building said barn, and knew the cost of it, and that said cost amounted to one thousand dollars. " One thousand dollars," repeated Mr. Hol- lowbread, meantime smiling to himself at the thought that this pretty creature had hinted to him to fix the valuation at ten thousand. " Well, this is something solid," he added, cheerfully, glad to find that the claim would not be very outrageous in amoiint. " I should say that that might be put through without a great deal of dititicul- ty." " With the interest, of course, Mr. Hollow- bread ?" "Oh yes! — the interest — yes, of course. Let me see : seven per cent., for sixty years, would be just forty-two hundred dollars; that would make the whole claim fifty-two hundred. Well, I think Uncle Sam ought to foot that, and say nothing about it." " Fifty-two hundi-ed dollars ! Is that all ? Why, Mr. Curbstone made it a great deal more than that. He said there were two kinds of interest, and I ought to have the biggest kind, or it would be a perfect swin- dle." Mr. HoUowbread suspected that it would be a perfect swindle, anyway, especially if Mr. Curbstone's devices and couusek were followed scrupulously. He did not want to demand compound in- terest on such a preposterous claim ; it i^ut him in mind of a lately exploded theory of indirect damages ; it might end in making him ridiculous. " Why, you must know what I mean," add- ed Josie, whose sweet brow was puckered with an attempt at recollection. " What is that ridiculous word ? Do think it u^) for me." " Compound ?" stammered the poor Con- gressman, not daring to counterfeit igno- rance. "Yes — that is it — compound interest," laughed Josie, with angelic delight. " Now, how much would it come to at compound interest ?" " Sixty years — seven per cent, on one thou- sand — say sixty thousand dollars," calcu- J lated the helpless HoUowbread. ^ "Oh, that is quite worth while, you see. That would bo worth taking. Besides, I outjht to have it. It would be a shame and an injustice to keep me out of it. I am so glad to find that you and Mr. Curbstone have figured it up to exactly the same sum. It nmst bo right." Mr. HoUowbread grew uneasy over this frequent mention of Mr. Fred. Curbstone. It might turn out that ho would help this love- ly being to a largo sum of money, at great cost to the public treasury, and to his own tolerably respectable conscience, merely to make her a good matcli for that dandified young "scalawag" of a broker. " I ought, ])erhaps, to warn you, INIrs. Mur- ray, against Mr. Curbstone," he said, turning paternal for the moment. " He is an able PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. busincss-nian and intrignor, but ho has no more consciouco than ii catanionnt." " I daro say he is sly," admitted Josio, ^vitll a good-natured, iudillerent smile. " I sup- pose a man must ho sly to succeed in busi- ness. Bat ho was sxirely a good friend of mine to put mo up to getting my own moTioy when I didn't even suspect that it was dne me. I don't care a single straw about the nuui himself, but I can't helj) feeling obliged for his kindness." Mr. Hollowbread perceived (to use one of those pictures(pic idioms which give so much paiu to critics of a certain bore and penetra- tion) that ho had put his foot iu it.. Ho had given her a chance to insinuate to him that he must be as kind to her in this matter as Fred. Curbstone, or she would owo him no gratitude. So, after having denouuced the broker as a conscienceless intriguer, he found himself driven to back one of his roguish in- ventions. ''Of course — of course," ho grinned, his eyes meantime being very pensive, and not at all like the eyes of a happy man, " Well, I hope to prove to you that I can be a better friend than Mr. Curbstone." " Friend ! Oh, Mr. Hollowbread, don't call him my friend in any serious sense. He is just useful to me, and I must say thanks. That is all. I accept you as a friend. I do, indeed, Mr. Hollowbread. If you succeed in getting my rights for me, or even if you only try without succeeding, I shall owe you a life-long gratitude. I don't know lioiv I can ever pay it," emphasized Josie, looking ten- derly in his face, and leaning slightly toward him. " But I assure you in all sincerity that I shall never, never be insensible to my ob- ligations, and never cease to be your hearty well-wisher." She spoke with an eagerness, with a sort of imaginative sensibilitj-, which had the .semblance of thorough sincerity, if, indeed, it was not temporary sincerity. She kindled with emotion very easily, this dangerous little woman — as easily, we may perhaps say without injustice, as she cooled off. If she had not much heart, she had an intellect which could stir up, bring to the surface and exhibit whatever heart she had, and could thus give hers the appearance of an ardent nature. Her very talk illumined her feelings ; she spoke so liuently and vig- orously that she could impassion herself; only the passion was apt to die to ashes al- most as quick as she stopped chattering. But the result with regard to other people was that she seemed toliko them immensely, and that she frequently inflamed them into a violent liking for her. " Mrs. Murray, I will do all I can to obtain your rights for you," declared Mr. Hollow- bread, throbbing to the core with loving agi- tation, and si;ddenly turning his back upon whatsoever legislative strai"htforwardness had been left him by long grinding in the mill of pontics. "I do earnestly and sol- enndy trust that I shall yet i)rovo myself your best friend." " Oh, I know j'ou will," said Josie, breath- ing a fervent little gasp which sounded to him like a sigh of aliection, and unflinching- ly exchanging with him a squeeze of her hand. It was curious, by-the-way, how little dif- ference this girl made between one man and another, whether young or old, handsome or ugly. She seemed to have none of that in- stinctive aversion which youthful women generally feel toward the near proximity of elderly gentlemen who show a disposition to snuggle. A male creature was to her a male creature, and therein attractive enough, o: at least bearable. An ancient beau, with dyed mustache, gray hairs iu his nostrils, crimson veins in his cheeks, and an ungraceful spread of waist- coat, was not " horrid" to her, even at fond- ling distance ; she could look into his faded eyes as sweetly, and touch his hand as kind- ly, and brush her hair against his shoulder as temptingly, as if he were in the freshest Ijrime of marrying manhood. It was a sin- gular and almost an unpleasing trait in her, it made her seem so stale iu feeling and so meretricious. Mr. Hollowbread had sold himself for a hope, and ho was full of joy in his bargain. He had made this young womau's acquaint- ance to flirt with her, and to carry the flirta- tion as far as he might. Now ho was iu love ; ho already wanted with all his heart to mar- ry her ; and he tremblingly believed that he might win her as his wife. As for her claim, he would push it, of course; in fact, he could not help himself; he ?)n(si push it. After all, why not ? Claims as slight, and almost as absurdly' stricken in years, had been nursed uj) to vast sums and triumphantly borne through Congress. One more would make no great difierenco with the reputation of that noble body, and ought not, therefore, to be an insupportable burden on his own conscience and political reputa- tion. Yes, he would push it, compound in- terest and all, and be hanged to it ! But there was yet another trial awaiting his legislative sensibilities. " Will there be anj" expenses in collecting my money, Mr. Hollowbread ?" asked Josie. "Well, there may be ; wo may have to hire a little help," he confessed, cringing at the thought of employing a lobbyist to bribe carpet-baggers and other purchasable Con- gressmen. " Well, I have thought of a way to cover all the charges," she smiled, quite pleased with her own business cleverness. " You spoke of it yourself during our conversation in the hack. You could bring in a bill for the outbuildings and the horses and cows 36 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. that were burned. That would make a very handsome sum in itself. I should think it would pay all the expenses, and leave some- thing nice for me." For a moment Mr. Hollowbread was con- founded and bothered bj'^ a iiroposition which he knew meant sheer brazen pilfer- ing and perjury. Perhaps he would have had a spasm of firmness, and would have told Josie that her plan was one which no honorable Congressman could even discuss, only that he happened to look down into her bewildering eyes, sparkling with youth and tender with appeal. Then he said to him- ■ self that she was an unconscious swindler, and that her naughtiness Avas nothing less than bewitching, like the innocent roguery of an infant. " I don't know about all that," he replied, with that broken little laugh which signifies embarrassment, and not merriment. " There is no mention in the i>apers of outhouses and cattle. Congress will naturally require us to stand by our record." " But couldn't one stick in something — couldn't you ?" ventured Josie. No ; Mr. Hollowbread thought he could not stick in something : he was not bewitch- ed enough to go as far as that, at least not yet. "Ah, well," sighed our disappointed hero- ine. "Then I must let it go as it is; only it does seem hard that I can't have all my own money." " Yes, it is hard," conceded Hollowbread, ready to laugh outright, but also almost ready to cry, so worrying was this scaly business to him. " But still, sixty thousand dollars is a good deal of money. And I suj)- pose we may possibly get that." And now, as he had taken the claim upon his shoulders, he felt that he had a riglit to some reward in the way of courting the claimant. To this Josie would not proba- bly have objected but for one circumstance ; it was nearly one o'clock, and she wanted to get rid of Hollowbread before Drummond should appear. "Oh! coidd you do me one little favor?" slie siiddeulj' asked. " I have a letter here which ought to go in the two o'clock North- ern mail. I was so occupied with the thought of seeing yon this morning that I forgot to post it. But it is very, very urgent. Could you possibly get it to the office before one ? I would be so immensely obliged to you !" He did not want to go, but how could he liolp it? "Shall I take these documents along?" lie incjuirea, with such graciousness as he could muster, while he gathered up his hat and gloves. "Another time," she said, remembering that Jlr. Drununond would need to see tlieni, and also Mr. Bradford. " I want to read them over once more, and get the case by heart. Perhaps I will bring them to you at the Capitol," she added, with a coaxing smile. So Mr. Hollowbread put what tenderness he could into his parting, and then hurried himself out of breath to post a letter whicli was of no consecpience whatever, and which had indeed been written with the sole pur- I)ose of getting shut of him before one o'clock. CHAPTER XVI. COAXING A YOUNG CONGRESSMA^s" OR TWO. Three minutes after Sir. Hollowbread had left Josephine Murray, Sykes Drum- mond was filling his i^lace as courtier and counselor. She was very glad to see him arrive, and eager that he should be content with hav- ing come ; but, nevertheless, she was more distant with him than she had been with his mature, not to say overripe, predecessor. He was a young man; there could be no pretense that she looked upon him as a fa- ther; nods and becks and wreathed smiles might count for too much when bestowed upon a gentleman of thirty. We must not be understood as intimating that Josie laboriously and gravely thought this out, and, so to speak, studied her piece before reciting ft to Drummond. Notwith- standing that she often did things which were audacious in a lady, she retained still a great deal of her original womauly deli- cacy and sensitiveness of perception, and so was capable of doing the nice thing with the promptness of instinct. Besides, the younger Congressman was a more disquieting person in appearance and deportment than the elder one. His pas- sion-haunted eyes, his trooper-like boldness of expression, his loud and domineering voice, his mien of roughness and hardness, all warned people not to be familiar with him, unless thej' wauted intrusion and con- quest. But Sykes Drummond was not easily kept at long range in conversation. The first thing that he said, after a word or two of salutation, was : " So you have already had the Nestor of the House with you !" "Who?" asked Josie, knowing that he meant Mr. Hollowbread, and ready to burst out laughing at the nickname, but not car- ing to talk about the visit. " Mr. Hollowbread. I didn't know him at first ; he was making so much better time than usual — haw, haw ! I congratulate you on the conquest," ho added, emboldened by the amused twitching of her mouth. "Ho is a capital old fellow in his way. I mean to pronounce a eulogy upon him in Congress at an early day, an«l confer upon him the ti- PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 57 tie of Nestor of the House. I wonder if ho would like it ?" Josie knew that Mr. Ilollowbread would not like it, and she could no longer restrain a cry of laughter. " Do pronounce a eulogy upon him," she said. " But make it a very nice one, to jdease mo. And don't call him the Nestor of the House. It would be just the same as to say that he neglects his dress and doesn't dye his hair carefully." Of course Drummond laughed here, and of course in his usual haw-haw fashion. It was always agreeable to Lim to hear any body else satirized. But we must not relate this interview at length. Necessarily Josie flirted, as we know that she must flirt ; aud necessarily she open- ed that budget of business which we have already inspected. The result of the dialogue was that Sykes Drummoud impudently pronounced the claim a good one, declared his belief that it might be engineered through the House, and ofiered to take charge of it. " Do you want to hand it over to me, Mrs. Murray ?" he asked, looking her firmly in the eyes. "Certainly I do," responded Josie; but she fluttered a little, for she had not yet de- cided who should have it. "What did Nestor think of it The in- quired, with an impudent twinkle iu his dusky black eyes. " Mr. Hollowbread ?" she repeated, flush- ing to her forehead, for Drummond was cer- tainly audacious. It just occurred to her also that she might yet fiud a master iu this daring aud rude mau if she submitted her- self at all to his guidance. " Well, he spoke favorably of it," she stated, judging that evasion was useless, but approving of mis- representation. " Well, aud which of us is it to be V "My own member, of course," she de- clared, blushing again under his keen, reso- lute gaze. " When you are so kind as to of- fer, surely I can not hesitate." "Then I had better take these papers along." I "Oh, not to-day !" begged Josie, almost' fearful that he would carrj' them oft' in spite of her. She did not seem to herself to be her own mistress, with this Sykes Drummond staring into her eyes. "I want to show them to one old friend, and ask his ad- vice." " Bradford, I suppose." " I sha'n't tell j-ou, sir," declared Josie, laughing, but uneasy. " I mean to have at least one secret from you. Suppose, after all, it was my uncle, Colonel Murray ?" " Then he hasn't seen it," inferred Drum- moud. " He had better not. The old gen- tleman won't like the case." " Why not ?" she asked, though she had already guessed as much, and indued been told as much. "1 have been in the army, Mns. Murray; I served all through the war, and met (piite a number of regular ofKicers, and got at their ways of thinking. They are a curious peo- ple, very difterent from the sort of men prev- alent in these latter days, especially in this great model republic of Vanity Fair — haw, haw, haw ! I haven't much conlldence in the judgment of Brother Christian and Brother Faithful of the regular army. They couldn't be brought to admire this sort of claim against the Government." " I sujipose they have their own stiff no- tions." " Yes, they have stiff notions. But you were thinking of Mr. Bradford. He wouldn't like the case either." " Why not ?" again demanded Josie, rath- er sharply for her. " He is an old aud good friend of mine." " Bradford took to the regulars — wanted to be a regular. Ho would pay you the money himself rather than collect it out of the Treasury." For a moment Josie enthusiastically wor- shiped Bradford, because of this imputed no- bleness. She woudered whether she could not bring him to an ofter of marriage, and then win his life-long admiration by giving up her claim." " He is a bit of a Don Quixote," continued Drummond. " He has impractical ideas — for a man in politics." "I never thought him A-ery fostidious," incautiously remarked Josie, who had be- come aware of some dubious traits iu her "good friend." " Perhaps not," smiled Drummond, with impudent knowingness. " But you haven't studiedhimin moueymatters andin politics." "It doesn't matter about him at all," she said, annoyed by Drumraond's smile, aud skipping away from the subject. " But still I want to look over the papers, and get them by heart, before I hand them to you." "Aud you don't care to show them to that good friend, and get his advice f " You are so bold, sir, that you make me bold. I have the greatest mind to call you impudent," retorted Josie, with a flurried laugh. "I wouldn't mind it a bit. But really, Mrs. Murray, my impudence is all for your good. You had positively better not con- sult Bradford, nor trust Hollowbread. The first won't do any thing, aud the second can't do any thing." "A chairman of a committee cau't do any thing!" " He is an old figure-head. He hasn't a stroke of good, earnest, telling work in him. You might as well expect an answer to prayer from a fetich as go for help to such a chair- mau." 53 PLAYING THE mSCHIEF. "But it is tbe Circulating Medium Com- mittee! Aud that is just what I -waut — circulatiug medium." Drummond laughed outrageously; tlieu be begged pardon ironically. "The Circulating Medium Committee bas uotbing in the world to do with your busi- ness," be explained. " It is the Chairman of the Committee on Spoliations that you want to get at." "Oh!" exclaimed Josie, roundly astonish- ed and even a little humiliated, for she bad begun to piqne herself on her knowledge of Congressional matters. " Well, Mr. Drum- mond, you shall have the papers to-morrow. If you will give me your address, I will send them." "Many thanks," he said, handing her his card. " I will try to be worthy of my mis- sion. And now I must go." " So soon ?" stared aud almost pleaded Jo- sie, who bad meant to captivate him more or less before he departed. " Sorry," he said ; " but the business of the country— haw, haw! Good-morning, Mrs. Murray." "When this interview was over, Josie found herself very tired. She bad done a hard day's work in the way of seeking to under- stand aud to master business, and another hard day's work in striving to coax or dom- inate two men of unusual dignity and au- Ubority. At least it was all hard work for that-fragile and sensitive child of lazy lux- ury, the fine lady of this century. Slie drop- ped wearily into an easy-chair, and said to herself that she wanted a good fiiend — some- body who would take care of her, and pet her, and love her — yes, perhaps a husband. When Bradford arrived, she was almost ready to fall at his feet and let him guide her in all things as he wished, providing he would think for her and be kind to her, though but a little. She was in that hum- ble, tender state of mind in which a woman is ai^t to accept the first offer that comes, and in which she is very likely to win of- fers. Bradford was surprised and instantaneous- ly touched by her air of languor, humility, and sweetness. " The fatigue of last evening was too much for you," he said, symxiathetically, as he sat down by her side. " Yes, it was bard work — very hard work," she murmured. There was something like a sob in bor voice, she felt herself to be so alone in the world, and longed so to be pitied aud xietted. Much doubting that he was doing a Avise thing, be ventured to take her hand in bis, as be well remembered to have done in oth- er days, when, indeed, be bad even less right to take it. She quivered slightly, but she did not withdraw her fingers, and there was no displeasure in her manner. For a few seconds they sat thus in silence ; she with her chin resting on her free hand, her long eyelashes drooped, and her eyes bent absently on the floor ; he with bis gaze fixed upon her unusually pathetic face, all the more attractive for its ])allor aud lassi- tude. He said to himself that she was ex- quisitely beautiful; and be was that kind of artistic man (a common kind enough)^ who can not see beauty without longing to possess it ; and, furthermore, there was the tempting reminiscence of a make-believe possession in former days. But this silence was getting to be entan- gling, dangerous, terrible. If it should last a minute, it would become a sort of person- age in the drama, speaking with something like the voice of a protecting father or brother, and demanding a declaration of in- tentions. All this Bradford felt ; aud, being not yet ready to propose marriage, ho made an ef- fort to break the spell. Still he could only speak words of kindness, verging closely on affection. " I fear that you are unhappy, as well as fatigued," be said. "I am very, very sorrj' for the troubles that have come uj)0u you iu these latter years." We all find it touching to be compassion- ated when we long for comi>assiou. Josie's fine eyes filled with tears as she thought how she had lost a husbaud who was at least fond of her, however much he might bo a fool iu other respects, and who had put on flatter- ing airs of protecting her, although be knew not in the least bow to save her from the greatest j^erils of woman's life. Her voice actually shook as she answered: "You are very good to remember to give me your sympathy." He was quite astonished, as well as moved, by this display of emotion. He said to him- self that she had more heart than be had supposed, and that with a worthy husband she might make an admirable wife. "Good! I am simply grateful for old kindness to myself," he said. "I should be a poor creature if I lacked grace euough to be as good as that." " We were friends years ago — I hope ear- nest friends. It would be a pity if wo could not keep up our friendship." "It wiU be kept up, at least on my part." "And on mine," whispered Josopbine. She felt this declaration so deeply, that she was tempted to lay her bead on his shoulders, where she had laid it at least once iu by -gone days. Had be made the slightest movement toward her, she would have risked this decisive audacity. Her cheeks, by -the- Avay, were no longer pale; there was a small fervid flush iu the centre of each one of them ; and this tale-telling spot was rapidly deepening iu color and ex- tending, lie noted that glow of something PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 59 warmer tlian friendsliip, and it served liim as a warniiij^-bcacon. Ho said to himself that he must hjok into the gulf of conse- quences before ho leaped; and so, •while still holding her hand, and finding much pleasure therein, he remained immovable. At last Josio decided that ho was getting more than ho gave, and guessed that ho was presuming on by-gone favors, which likewise liad never been rightly paid for. She did not show displeasure, for she was not vexed with hiui, and desired not to aimoy him, but she gently strove to withdraw her fingers. He let them go, yet not till ho had raised them impulsively to his lips, iinding it no great lift to overcome her resistance. "Ah! Edgar! you mustn't," she murmur- ed, glaucing at him wistfully, to see how much he meant, and trembling with agita- tion and pleasure. " Eemember that things are changed with me," she added, more lirm- ly, fearing lest he had ouly meant to treat himself to a cheap luxury. " I have no long- er a protector. I must bo my own duenna, and forbid you to kiss my hand." " I beg pardon," he replied. " But it was a great temptation. I may say that I couldn't help it." "But you ought to help it. You must know that I don't want to risk vexing and losing the only old friend I have here by checking and scolding him. It is not fair of you to lay the whole burden of resisting your temptations upon me." She was certainly a remarkable young womau ; at least so Mr. Bradford said to himself. A moment ago ho had supposed that he could bo entirely at ease with her ; and yet now she was forcing him to resjiect her, and that without angering him. " You are right, Josie," he said. " I may use the old name, mayn't I ?" ho added, re- membering that she had called him Edgar. " I shall be flattered and gratified if I may claim so much." " You mustn't call me Josie in public." "In that case you mustn't call me Edgar in public." "I don't want to call you Edgar any- where." They both laughed ; and henceforth there was a sort of understanding between them ; they were on terms which might be at one moment friendship ; at another, courtship in the second degree. "But I must not forget your business," Bradford went on. " You wanted to see me about a claim." Thereupon Josie, for the third time that ads, straps, and springs ; and I will not undertake to say that there might ndt have been a few cog-wheels and pulleys. It is confounding to think what might have happened had this marvelous raiment been buttoned together and dropped on the floor. It might have buzzed and scrabbled away, of its own motion and internal force, like a clock- work locomotive. It might have lounged into a chair, and sat down on the small of its hollow back, and put its empty legs on the mantel-piece. It might have jumped out of the window, and set ladies a-scream- ing, and dogs a -barking. It might have taken a car to the Capitol, and claimed its accustomed oaken chair in the Hall of Rep- resentatives, there to play the part of a dig- nified and hannless political figure-head. One is lost in conjecture as to what human beings would do in any of these cases. W^ould a i)oliceman arrest it as a vagrant without visible means of existence ? Wonkl a sergeant-at-arms admit it to the floor of the House, or cash a check for it ? Expe- rience and reason are dumb here, and even the imagination stammers. All this mechanical apparatus was neces- sary to give shapeliness to the great man's figure, and render it a pleasing object for the contemplation of the feminine eye. It did, indeed, accomplish a vast deal for him in the way of modeling. When he first appeared to himself in the morning, he was nearly as dumpy and formless as the sculptor's lump of clay before work has commenced upon it. But by the time his drapery was all \n\t on and screwed up he was a i)retty fail-, though V fat, old image. One objection to the result was that the broad spaces of cloth which he presented looked alarmingly smooth and tight. It seemed horribly possible that, if he should cough or sneeze violently, or swell his molecules l)y going too near a hot fire, he might suddenly s]>lit open and quadruple in size, like a popped grain of Indian corn. -< C3 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. But all tliese things cease to be ludicrous when we cousider Mr. HoUowbread as a po- tential statesman, seraphically in love, and satauically tempted. It is quite tragical for tax-iiayers to think that the hocus-pocus call- ed "special legislation," enables such a leg- islator to juggle the dollars out of their pock- ets iuto the greedy i^orte-monnaie of such a useless ornament to society as Josie Murray. That is the dirty trick that he was about to set his hand to, just as surely as he took his seat on that conjuring sofa. "I have looked iuto my claim myself, and I know a great deal more about it than when we tallied it over last," declared Josie, proudly. "More evidence?" iuquii'ed Mr. Hollow- bread, cheerfully, for he did want the job to be nice. "Oh no! No more evidence. There's enough, isn't there ?" "Too much," thought the Congressman, who had already discovered that the claim had been iiaid once ; but he only bowed and smiled. " I mean that I have been learning how to get things through Congress," pursued Josie, with the diverting simplicity of a greenhorn undertaking to teach poker to the captain of a Mississippi steam-boat. "I want you to put my appropriation iuto the Omnibus Bill." " You understand it all, I see," Mr. Hollow- bread grinned. " If ever we let you ladies vote, you will easily get control of the inside of politics, and put us on the outside." "Ah, now you are laughing at me. Of course I am aware that there are mysteries in statesmanship which I never could master." " I am not so sure of that," said Hollow- bread, and quite honestly. He knew that she was dangerously clever in some things, and he did not know exactly where her -^cleverness terminated, and in his love for her he overestimated her ca^iacity of ex- panding. Necessarily she was green in pub- lic affairs, and that discovery of the Omnibus Bill stratagem was amusingly stale, but there was uo telling what she might not learn if she had a chance. " We are not so monstrously wise at the Capitol," he continued. " There was a fa- mous Swedish minister who sent his son abroad on diplomatic busiuess, with these words : ' Go, my son, and see with how little wisdom the world is governed.' Now, a cit- izen of this model republic need not travel for that purpose ; ho can see it by stajing at home, and perhaps see it best so." " Don't spoil my delightful illusions," said Josie. "I prefer to have faith in your su- perhumau wisdom. Don't you prefer that I should ?" At the same time she made believe wor- ship him with her elo(pient eyes, and laid two trustful £ngers on his iirotecting and beneficent coat-sleeve. It is a solemn fact, incredible as it may seem to youthful read- ers of our history, that this veteran lawgiver and Lothario trembled in every vein under the almost imperceptible touch. No one who has not carefully studied such a phenome- non can believe how desperately the old can sometimes fall iu love with the new. "My wisdom shall do its best for you," he murmured, iu such a husky, choked voice, that she looked uj) at him in sui'prise. Ac- customed as she was to wield an enchanter's wand over men, and to see them quiver and cbange color and become stifled uuder its power, she could not realize that she had completely bewitched this sexagenarian. "There is one unlucky circumstance," he pursued, clearing his throat with a hoarse ahem. "I am very, very sorry to fiud that this claim has been paid once." "Oh dear!" exclaimed Josie, opening her eyes as if she had never heard of it before. "But it was a very small payment — ri- diculously small, of course— only two thou- sand dollars, interest included." " Say it was not enough, Mr. HoUowbread. Of course it was not enough." "But it won't do merely to say that. Somebody must swear to it." " Couldn't you swear to it ?" she asked, with sublime faith iu the powers and privi- leges of a Congressman. Then, seeing that he appeared to be stumbled \)j the proposi- tion, she added, heroically, " / will !" " But you arc not a witness," he suggested, with a patient smile, the long-suffering smile of affection. " This barn was burned forty years before you ever saw a barn." Josie laughed merrily. She took the thing so lightly. He was almost fretted to see how gaylj' she bore it, when to him it was such a heavy burden, and might be a dam- aging one. But with those lustrous eyes looking into his and cajoling his love-lorn senses, he could not show annoyance at her ignorant, child- like, yet charming, levity. " We must do something else," he said, meditating with all his might. " Perhaps the claim was paid iu paper dollars, not worth so much as silver dollars, don't you know?" " That is exceedingly clover, Mrs. Murray. But, unluckily, it fails iu various ways to touch our case. The claim was paid in coin undoubtedly. We shall have to assert an under-valuatiou; I see nothing else. But the trouble will bo to prove it." " Yes, and the payment was for the barn alone; and there were the outbuildings and the catth^, and so on ; they never have been paid for." "All that would help," assented Mr. IIol- lowbread, with a sigh, for he was mortally ashamed of himself. This cooking-up of sham bills against the Government was uu- PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. C9 familiar business to bini ; and lie had even prided liimsell' ou liaviufiC evaded it. "I must try to get bold of your Jeremiah Drinkwater, and see if bo remembers any cattle, outhouses, and that sort of thing." " Why, be is au old man !" exclaimed Josie, forgetting that her counselor was far from young. "Ho must be iu his second child- hood. If I had him here, I could make him remember any thing, and swear to any thing." This unscrupiilous frankness was all the more dreadful to Mr. Hollowbread because the devil had already suggested the same thought to him, and he knew that it was a very wicked one. He looked at her with an amazed glance and a perplexed smile, and theu replied, with cautious vagueness : " I trust that Mr. Drinkwater will some- Jiow be made useful to us. But it really does seem necessary to get at him before he loses too much of bis memory — before he forgets how to breathe and speak, for in- stance. How can we reach him ?" " He lives at ilurray Hill, Beulah County, just where the battle was fought. Hasn't Congress a right to send for persons and papers?" added Josie, making exhibition of a term which she bad caught from Sykes Druuuuoud. " Congress doesn't do it very often in the case of private claims," answered Mr. Hol- lowbread, smiling over this adorable igno- rance. " We shall probably have to make a pilgrimage to the venerable Drinkwater shrine, or ^lay for getting him here." Josie became pensive. She had a woman's natural chariness about her own money ; and then her income was such a wretchedly small one — not enough to dress her properly! Her admirer noted her trouble, divined the cause of it, and made bold to ofier her his purse. It would be the first step, be sagely and hoi>efully thought, toward offer- ing his hand and heart. "Mrs. Murray, pardon me one audacity,'' he said. " Until your claim is established, permit me to be your banker. It is a very small thing to do; it is constantly done in such cases. In fact, there are persons who make it a business to advance money on claims, taking a share of the proceeds iu repayment, and a scandalously large share, too, I can assure you. I don't want you to f;ill into the hands of those disreputable harpies. Do, I beg of you, let mo be a con- venience to you in this matter — a mere con- venience. I understand perfectly that you have a handsome fortune of your own, and don't in the least need what one would call a loan," he politely added, although he bad understood to the contrary, having cate- chised Mrs. "Warden concerning Josie's es- tate, and got a very low estimate of it. " But this is a mere question of convenience. I push the affair; I make what payments ! are needed, keeping an account of them ; 1 then, when tlio claim is adjusted, yon, at your entire leisure, repay me. What objoc- I tion can you possibly have ?" "Oil, Mr. Ilollowbread, you arc so kind!" exclaimed Josie, blushing a little, partly Avith satisfaction and gratitude, and partly I because she divined a coming demand for something more than a moneyed settlement. "But you must charge interest, Mr. Hollow- bread." i "Oh, Mrs. Murray, interest from yon!" And the noble old legislator and gallant looked the image of tender maguauimiry. "/ charge interest !" he continued, laughing the idea to scorn. " Do consider that I ought not to do it. I should make myself thereby a pecuniary sharer in the trans- action, which would be a sort of official mis- demeanor." " Oh !" giggled Josie. "' How very funny ! Well, we can arrange it some way. I must work you several hundred pairs of slippers." " It would be a misspent life for you," bowed Hollowbread. " I should be over- paid with one slipjier. And I should prefer it to be one of your own," he declared, glan- cing at a visible toe of one of her little pru- nellas. "You shall have one," she giggled again, nestling a little closer to him, and then rus- tling a little away. " Do you really want one ?" she asked, stooping and removing a gossamer diaitssitre with a black rosette in it. "Really? really? Theu you shall have that." Mr. Hollowbread, blushing like a bottle of Port-wine iu the sun, raised the fragilie gift to his lips in silent adoration, and then deposited it in the breast-pocket nearest his heart, at the risk of bursting off a button. " Oh, Mr. Hollowbread !" the young siren pretended to gasp, at the same time going through a form of shrinking coyly away from him. It was a girlish fashion of flirta- tion, such as belles of sixteen are apt to practice upon beaus of eighteen ; and she could hardly keep from laughing as she drew its frail shaft to the head against this adorer of sixty. But there was no need of fear as to the effect of the little trick, and there had been no need even of using it. The great political financier and eloquent extempora- neous speaker was already moved to that extent that he could not speak for some sec- onds. The feeling of that warm slipper in his bosom so throttled him that he looked as if his neck-tie ought to be loosened. He called to mind also how he had once had the whole body of that loveliness in his arms, and be came very near thanking Heaven aloud for the cx(xuisite pleasure and honor of having been knocked flat by her. Meantime Josie had no emotions at all, and did not even consider herself under any great obligation to him, although she re- 70 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. membered, aud remembered too "witli keen satisfaction, that be was to x^ay out bis mou- ey in ber cause. Had sbe uot offered bim interest, and bad sbe not given bim ber slii)- per ? Moreover, it is so easy to believe tbat others are rejoiced to serve ns, aud are fully repaid, for their sacrifices by tbat joy, and by the coutemplation of our merits. "But we must get at Mr. Drinkwater," sbe said presently", reverting to business with a facility which pained bim. "He is such an old man that perhaps he won't want to come on here. Ought I to go and see him f ' "But you will want a lawyer," cunningly observed Hollowbread, who Avas a lawj-er himself. " I might find a chance for the trij) during the Christmas recess. Would it be possible for us to meet there ?" " We could meet there if we went in the same train," laughed the audacious Josie, saying to herself that he was surely a suf- ficiently old gentleman to travel with jirop- erly, and that she could bind bim to si- lence concerning the journey. Besides, it was clearly necessary that this Drinkwater business should be attended to, and tbat liromptly. " It will be the best way, and I shall be infinitely obliged to you, Mrs. Murray," de- clared Mr. Hollowbread, in a state of ecstasy, aud floating somewhere between heaven and earth. It actually seemed to him that Jo- sie Murray, in making that projposition, bad encouraged bim to offer himself as ber com- panion in life's pilgrimage. How wonder- ful tbat an old Lothario, who had passed a great iiart of bis life in trifling with women, should be so easily deluded by one! But, Lotharios or not, delicate-minded gentlemen or not, we can all be led blindfold if once we fall heartily in love. Thus bappeued it tbat, Avhile Josie long- ed to place ber suit in the bands of Edgar Bradford, and while sbe had positively promised it to Sykes Drummoud, sbe event- ually confided it to Mr. Hollowbread. CHAPTER XX. MR. DRUMMOXD'S views. But Christmas was only coming as yet, and so there was time to be killed before Josie could take ber adventurous journey with Mr. Hollowbread, if indeed, she ever should take it. Meanwhile, as she was going constantly to parties and receptions, she could not well avoid meeting the deceived Sykes Drum- mond. alc. Sbe wont to her table-drawer, produced various substances which bad the look of drugs, com- pounded, with some difliculty,two large pills, put them in a box, aud the box in her vest- pocket. It must be stated here that, before entering the law, she had made some brief studies in medicine, and had learned how to give a very bad taste to pellets of fresh bread. Being at last harnessed and provisioned for her cami)aign, sho tremulously took tho war- path by way of the avenue cars, reached the Reverend Murray's residence, aud rang the bell. ''I have an engagement to meet young Mrs. Murray," she said, to Mulatto Sarah, who opened the clerical door. "Tell her that the gentleman she expected has called." Sarah, having never before beheld Squire Nancy, mistook her for a very youthful gen- tleman, one of "Miss Josie's"many strauge beans, and delivered the message without hesitation. Josie herself being at all times in expectation of some man or other, and thinking that this was Bradford, or Hollow- bread, or Drummoud, came directly down to the parlor. One may imagine her complete bewilderment and considerable dismay when sho confronted the plaited integuments and ■well-remembered face of Lawyer Appleyard. But she was not altogether confounded, for sbe had been called to account before by jealous women, and sbe guessed at once the motive of this extraordinary visit. "Good- morning, sir," she said, mechan- ically, and yet with a certain sense (at least, as she remembered tho matter afterward) that she was uttering something scornful and cutting. Almost in the same second, though not by any means in the same breath, sho added what was half a sugges- tion aud half a hope, " Some mistake, I sup- pose." They were both standing, both panting quite noticeably, and both staring. Josie neither thought of sitting down nor of ask- ing her visitor to sit, a circumstance which she spoke of boastfully in her subsequent re- hearsals of the scene, representing it as will- ful and proper arrogance toward a vulgar and silly intruder. The solemn truth is, that the woman in silk and tho woman in broadcloth were about equally confused and scared. Miss Nancy, for instance, would have been glad to make a crushing answer, but merely suc- ceeded in quavering forth, "No mistake at all, Mrs. Murray." "Ah! — indeed I" was Mrs. Murray's not very remarkable retort, the same being fol- lowed up by an awkward silence. But, as we who know Josie may imagine, it did uot take her long to regain self-posses- sion, or, at least, to put ou a show of it. PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. At first she Lad been as raiicli alarmed by Squire Appleyard as if the latter were a real man; she had been daunted by the frock- coat, the j»autaloons, and the boots ; by the mere skiu that usually distiuguishes our lion -like sex. Bat the tremulous lips, the contralto voice, aud the hysterical stammer of emotion, these womanish circumstances tended to re-assure her, and she began to re- cover her courage and cleverness. "I have not the honor of an acquaintance with you, madam," she said, coldly, quite aware that both the tone and the statement expressed a claim of superiority. "I don't want any acquaintance," replied Miss Appleyard, tartly, for she felt the sting. "I have no intention, Mrs. Murray, of re- questiug your acquaintance, or acceptiug it. I came here solely on business." "1 think you had better transact your business through my uncle, the Rev. Mr. Murray," said Josie, though with no inten- tion of sending for that prudish protector. " I won't see him," declared Nancy. " We are women together, Mrs. Murray. If you have in you auy of the spirit and self-re- spect of a true woman — if yon have done nothing that a true woman would not be ashamed of — you will talk with me." Josie hesitated. By this time her heart had stopped thumping, and her curiosity was excited. The scene was an uncom- monly odd one certainly, and would proba- bly be very amusing to relate. The attrac- tion of something whimsical, something ex- travagantly new and entertaining, was a gi'eat temptation to this adventui-ous young lady. " Do me the favor to take a chair," she said, at the same time sinking with con- scious grace upon a sofa, and rather osten- tatiously arranging her rustling draperies, so much more expensive than trowsers. Squire Ai)pleyard was only too glad to accept the invitation, for her plaited panta- loons were trembling under her, aud she al- most needed her hartshorn bottle. But she was determined — blindly, dizzily, yet des- perately, determined — to say her say, and to say it vigorously. " I came about — IMr. Drnminond," she went on, huskily. " I want you to know — I want you to fully understand — that he is engaged to mc." She did not fully understand it so herself; but if what she asserted was not exactly the case, it ought to be the case ; and then, in her present state of turbulent feeling, some- thing strong must be uttered. "Mr. Drummond!" repeated Josie, some- what confounded, now that the assault was actually opened. " Yea, ma'am," insisted Miss Appleyard, tremulously, but also pugnaciously. " I don't care if he is," said Josie, more and more bothered, so angi-ily did this odd vis- itor stare at her. "You had better go and talk to Mr. Drummond about it." "I have talked to him about it," declared Nancy, rising and pacing the room in a fash- ion which was almost terrifying, so manly was it. "And you, Mrs. Murray — yon — are standing between him and his plighted word." " I don't know what you mean. It's all nonsense — and impertinent. I wish you would go away." "Yes — go away!" echoed Squire Apple- yard, by this time hysterically excited. " You expect him, I suppose. I am in the way, I suppose — ha, ha !" " I don't expect him at all," affirmed Josie, which was not exactly true. " I tell you this is all very absurd, aud I have nothing to do with your affairs." " But you have with Ms affairs. Yes, I know very well that you have — I know it only too well." " He isn't engaged to 7ne, if that is what you think !" " No ; but he is about you. You are keep- ing company with him. You are doing your best to enthrall and enchant him. Will you dare tell mo that you are not trying to hold him in your train ? Will you dare tell me that you care nothing — nothing at all — for him V Now Josie dared to tell almost any fib, so far as the mere fibbing was concerned ; but this statement, whether it were true or false, she did not like to make, for the reason that the jealous Bloomer would undoubtedly re- peat it to the Congressman ; and then he might refuse to assist in pushing the Murray claim. So, while she really had no liking for Mr. Drummond, she hesitated about sayiug so. " I thought as much," hissed Squire Nancy, almost losing what little reason Heaven had fitted her out with. " It lies betwixt us two, then," she continued, at the same time producing that mysterious pill-box which has been mentioned. " Mrs. Murray, I am a druggist as well as lawyer," and by this time her voice was so hoarse aud sepulchral as to be really terrible, at least, to Josie. "I am a druggist. I have here two pills made by myself. One of them is bread, and the oth- er is arsenic. They shall decide between us. Take your choice, and I will take tlic other. The survivor shall have Sykes Drunnnoud. The other," and hero her utterance fell to a hoarse murmur which was all but unearthly, and would have been fatal to a sensitive list- ener — " the other — osures and Congressional investigations. Well, I have ventured to think that sixty thousand dol- lars might do ; and that sum could easily be ligured up by means of iuterests and proper conjectures of values; that is, if we ignore the first payment as insnflieient and not worth cousideriug. What I want and need is, to get word from Mr. Drink water as to whether he remembers any other burned property besides the mere barn. If he does, and will make affidavit to that effect, wo are strong. Wo might demand sixtj'' thou- sand, or thereabouts, imperatively ; might perhaps go up to a hundred thousand, with good hopes of success." " Oh dear !" sighed Josie. She had heard all this, or pretty much the same sort of thing, over and over. It seem- ed as if Mr. Hollowbread and other high and mighty people could talk everlastingly about her business, and never bring it a bit the nearer to a satisfiictory termination. Sometimes the subject, with its apparently immovable iuertia, weighed oppressively on her young spirits. " To-morrow Is the last day before re- cess," she added, in a tone of discourage- ment. "And nothing could have been done," de- clared Mr. Hollowbread, jierceiving that he was blamed, and wincing under it. "Dur- ing recess," ho continued, " and properly during the latter part of it, so as to get Drinkwater here by the opening of the next sitting, somebody will have to look up the old gentleman. I have written to him in vain. I think I shall go on to see him per- sonally." " And I — shall I go too ?" asked Josie. She had once promised to take the trip, but that Apiileyard fracas had shaken her adventurous soul a trille, and made her somewhat afraid of exposing herself to pub- lic tattle. " It would help me very much," affirmed the lover, hoping, of course, that it would help him to her hand, in which, case he wanted nothing further of fortune. " I will go," she said, with a gay little air of defiance. " It can be managed somehow without people knowing. I should enjoy the fun of arguing and coaxing evidence out of old iSIr. Drinkwater." It was all characteristic of her, the audac- ity of the promise, and the levity with which it was given. Josie's behavior was so habit- ually risky, that many light-hearted persons were always hoping she would commit some dreadful impropriety, and thus furnish them -with a relishing cud of scandal. Possiblj'' a iew of my readers are in ihis frame of expectation concerning the little witch. If so, I can hardly Avonder, or blame them as uncharitable. " 15ut there is something else to be done," she wont on. "There is the Connnittee of Spoliations to make sure of, and you never have let me come near it. Tell me, now, do you think that is quite judicious? I only know what peoi)lo say. They say that in these afl'airs evidence is not the only thing necessary; they say that favor is the great point. If you want your bill, the honorable gentlemen of the connnittee must bo mado favorable. Other ladies attend to this; they see the honorable gentlemen, they interview them ; and then somehow the honorable gen- tlemen become favorable. It does seem to mo that I could interview them as effectu- ally as any body. Of course, if they are fa- vorable we can go higher in our damages, and not run any risk in doing so. Don't you think I had better see the honorable gentlemen ?" "I supposed that you might find it nu- pleasaut to discuss your affairs with these people," mumbled Mr. Hollowbread, pro- nouncing the word " people " as if he would have preferred to say "fellows," or even " blackguards," and showing clearly in his manner that he did not fancy the proposed interviewing. " It might, I must concede, be well that yon should do it," ho admitted, not daring to tell his beloved a flat lie, and ashamed to expose his jealousy. "And yet I should be very sorry." Sorry, indeed ! He was honest there, hon- est and earnest. So " tender and true " was the love of this old beau for this young co- quette that he held her in solenni reverence. She was the light of the world to him ; ho wanted to approach her with obeisances and genuflections ; he could have burned caudles before her and waved incense. To such a devotee, such a ritualist iii2}ossc, it was dreadful to think of exposing his idol to men who would admire her without wor- v shipiug her, and who would probably pay her an audacious courtesy which to him must seem mere profanation. The act, moreover, would be an admission of his own insufficiency as an advocate, and might bo understood as conceding his own inferiority in influence compared with those fellows of the Spoliation Committee. As ho thought of carrying the queen of his heart before the potent and domineering General Bangs, he angrily compared himself to the menial and humble Nubian in G(5rome's picture, who sets down Cleopatra, nude, in the presence of Cajsar. It was partlybeeause he liad foaredlest this degradation might come, and had looked for- ward to it with disgust, that he had plunged that morning into his proposal of marriage. He had said to himself that if she would ac- 102 ^LAYING THE MISCHIEF. ce]jt his liand and his considerable fortune, then he couhl induce her to drop her wretch- ed claim and all its attendant defilements. Possessed as he "was by these feelings, we may conceive that ho should be sorrowful and annoyed when Josie jumped gayly at the notion of interviewing the Spoliations Committee. " Of course I had better see them/' she per- sisted. " If they were ladies you could do best with them, but as they are gentlemen I shall do best." " I am not so sure that they are gentle- men," Mr. HoUowbread could not help an- swering. Not wishing to appear uuamiable or otherwise disagreeable to her, he said it with a smile ; but that smile was much like the grin of a dog who sees another dog about to smell of his bone. It was really exasperating just then to re- member the last dialogue which he had heard in the committee-room about Mrs. Murray's affairs. " HoUowbread," General Bangs had barj'- toned at him, "you had better bring on your little lady ; we want to ask her a few ques- tions, and see whether she is worth encour- aging at this expense." Then General Hornblower had winked of- fensively, not to say disgustingly, at Bangs, and remarked, in his suave bass, " Certain- ly, general. Our friend keeps his interest- ing client too much to himself. We are not yet absolutely certain that there is a Mi's. Murray." "Ah, that is important," was Bangs's rep- artee. " AVe must make sure that there is a claimant, and that the claimant is of the sex alleged." To which Mr. HoUowbread had merely ven- tured to reply, trembling the while through all his pads and springs and compressers, " Gentlemen, you will find that the claim- ant is a lady in every sense of the word." "Are they so disagreeable?" asked Josie, in response to his sneer at these wretches. " I think I shall know how to manage them. Don't you think I will ? Besides, I want to do something for myself. It is jiroper that I should, and it is artistic. I am the Hamlet of the play, and it won't do to leave Hamlet out of 'Hamlet.'" "It may be best that you sliould talk with them," sighed Mr. HoUowbread, with the cahnness of well-bred woe. "Can't you bring them hero?" she in- quired. "That would help keep them on their behavior. I could see them in the en- try, and have spittoons brought for them." Ho was delighted, as she had intended that ho should be, with this rough satire on his fellow-lawgivers. " It would be well enough for them," he laughed. " But, unfortunately, custom com- pels them to transact their business at the Capitol. Wo shall have to bow to the prej- udices of a stupid but stubborn world. When women come to vote, things will be better managed, and nicer." " They will be nicer for the ruling dowa- gers and frights, perhaps ; but for the pretty ones, they won't be as nice as they are now. The beauties will lose all their intluence and empire. The probability is that they will be banished or beheaded, together with the young men who like them." " I believe you are right," said Mr. Hollow- bread, staring at her with an air of surprise and admiration, like one who gets new light on a dark subject. "The strong-minded movement is really a rebellion of the ugly against the rule of the beautiful. May that evil day when belles are to be extirpated not come in my time !" " It would kill you," laughed Josie, return- ing his gaze with a glance of satirical ap- probation. "You would wither and die if you could not see pretty women about you." " I should not have the patience to with- er," affirmed the jiortly old beau. " I should commit the happy dispatch." Josie laughed again, and right heartily. It was unspeakably comical to think of Mr. HoUowbread laboriously cutting through all that more or less visible padding and bandaging. One might easily imagine him as getting tired and sitting down to rest long before he reached his epidermis. " When shall we go to see the animals?" she asked, presently, referring to the honor- able committee-men. " Well, I scarcely know," hesitated Mr. HoUowbread, very unwilling to show his menagerie. "Now is as good a time as another," de- cided this persistent puss. " Let us go at CHAPTEE XXX. IXTEEVIEWIXG THE COMMITTEE ON SPOLIA- TIONS. As Josie and her Congressman entered the I'otunda of the Capitol, they beheld the great Bangs standing (alas! not yet in memorial marble) near the centre of the floor, and hold- ing converse with that artistic mendicant, Jessie Cohen. " There ho is," said HoUowbread. "And there she is," ho added, with even plainer dis- gust. "The indefatigable little beggar! If sho painted only half as ably as she pass- es around the hat, she would make a great name for herself." " People must do what they can," respond- ed our good-natured heroine, remembering that sho also was a persistent beggar, but showing no anger. " I suppose sho was cre- ated to pass around the hat, and not to paint." " Yes, and of course she wants a living," PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. lor, coiiceilocl ITollowbread. " It is a sail fact, \ and especially burdensome to Congressmen, that every body does. Perhaps -vve had bet- ter wait here, and speak to Bangs as soon as she gets through •with him, if she ever does get through." "It is a poor place for her suit," thought Josie, glancing around upon the horrible ■wastes of "Plymouth Kocks" and " De So- tos." " How can any body look at these things and then vote money for paintings ?" "There, he has slipped away!" exulted Ilollowbread. " No, she has got him again. ■\Ve shall have to possess our souls in i^a- tience." So they quietly "watched the siege which Avas progressing, and, iu spite of the distance, overheard somewhat of its clamor. Miss Cohen, to be sure, was plaintively low iu speech, and, as they thought, tearful iu coun- tenance. But the general was as brassily sonorous as if he were on a platform, sound- ing forth his own praises or reviling a po- litical opponent. They could catch a faw of his noble phrases: " Sacred trusts, Miss Co- hen" — "money wrung from the people" — "patriotism before art" — "use before beau- ty." Obviously he was giving the suppli- cant uo holies that she would obtain her tive- thousand-dollar job through his resonant mediation. Obviously, too, he wanted to be heard by the sight -seers around; wanted them to know that he was blufting the ex- orbitant Miss Cohen ; wanted them to hear him bow-wow at the gate of the Treasury. Presently the little artist lost heart, put her handkerchief to her eyes, and fell away from him. As she passed our waiting couple they could see that her Oriental countenance was really stained with tears. " Poor little Jewess," said Josie, with con- temptuous pity. " They ought to give her something. Can she paint at all ?" " She has had something," sniffed Hollow- bread. "And she can't paint. She couldn't make a recognizable portrait of one of Ja- cob's ring-streaked rams. Shall we go on ?" "Had we better? It seems to be a bad day for claimants. I don't want to bo re- buffed and sent off crying." "You will not be," smiled Hollowbrcad. " Bangs has merely been making a show of cheap virtue. He has nothing to do, by rights, with people who want appropriations. I don't see why the paiutress should go to him ; she ought to have known the roiies better." Meantime he had signaled to Bangs, and that survivor of many a campaign on paper was approaching them, bowing aud smiling with a graciousness which made one wonder how he could have been so hard to ^liss Co- hen. But the general knew whom to kick and when to kick them. There was at tliat time a reaction in the country against Jes- sie, the editors having attacked her as a humbug in art and a brazen beggar, and Congress having bowed to the levin of the l)ress. Meantime Josie Murray was a lady by blood, an acknowledged belle in lino so- ciety, and po.ssessed of potent i)olitical ad- herents. So the knowing Bangs was ready to despise the one and equally ready to cleave unto the other. "When the introduction took place, ourlier- oine had the wisdom to look her meekest and to make her most humble obeisance. She had divined, the singularly precocious young woman, tliatthis exceptional man did not want to be Hirted with, but only to be bowed down to. "I am delighted to meet you, madam," said the general, in his penetrating, snare- drum voice. " I have seen you— and much ofteuer heard of you — leading our Washiug- ton society." " I wish the spectacle were worthier, sir," answered Josie, really blushing a little, so agitated was she — about her claim. "I should like to do something worthy of your notice." And so she went on ; she did her cunning- est. The war was the main subject of her remarks ; she had watched his deeds of der- ring-do with breathless interest; she had been, oh! enthusiastically appreciative of his matchless services. The general was even more gratified than .she had hoped that he would be. His martial career was exactly the point in his history ou which he most needed eiilogy. Many persons had criticised a leadership which consisted in staying be- hind, aud a skill which showed itself in keep- ing behind the range of musketry. He beamed aud strutted ; one might say that his face was ou the top of his head ; he seem- ed to be looking for his i)laco among the geniuses of the frescoed cupola. " You bring back old times to me, Mrs. Murray," he declared. " Great times they were, too, though terrible ones. I often feel that, if it were not for the wounds and the carnage and the misery, I should like to put on the armor again. But war, although mag- nificent^ is shocking. I say, with our glori- ous chief magistrate, and doubtless with all who took a personal part iu the struggle, let us have peace." " Yes, let us have peace, and let us devot* ourselves to healing the wounds of the war," said Hollowbrcad. " Certainly," replied Bangs, comprehend- ing perfectly that he was being led up to the claim, and simply anxious to facilitate the operation. He was so ready-witted iu catching the suggestion, and so prompt in assuming a business air, that it seemed as if his late ex- pression of gratitied vanity must have been mere cajolery. It may, iiuleed, have been so, for the man was not easily fathomed, aud not easily deceived. 104 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. "Mrs. MuiTay is oue of tbe sufferers, I be- lieve," he bowed, helping ou his brother Cou- gressmaii, ^Yho, as "we are aware, was rather slow. "And she has begged me," continued Hol- lowbread, " to present her to you as the per- son who, of all others, is the most likely and the most able to see that she receives justice." Josie Avas a good, deal dismayed, but her fright did not prevent her from doing what was wise. She made a good little girl's bow, and uplifted a glance which acknowledged. Bangs as an arbiter of her fate. " I remember your claim perfectly," bowed the hero. He sxioko with his finest gracious- ness, and very gracious indeed he knew how to be, though fonder of being insolent. " We have your claim under consideration, and think well of it. I have no doubt that it ■will get into a bill in course of time." "Thank you, general," said Josie, ever so meekly and gratefully. " Would you like to hear Mrs. Murray state the case ?" asked Hollowbread. " Or do yoii require her iiresence before the committee ?" "Not in the least," trumpeted Bangs. " We have the papers. Mrs. Murray need give herself no trouble. I say that the claim is a good one, and a just one, and a holy one, and must be xi-iid. I have uo doubt that Horublower and the others will take my •word that it is all right." He was perfectly satisfied. Due acknowl- edgment of his greatness and authority had been made, and the ostentatious tyrant want- ed nothing more, not even a flirtation. Be- sides, he was a terribly busy creature, entan- gled in a hundred intrigues and plots, giving uo little time also to real public measures, ever on the watch to hurt an enemy or even a uou-adherent, bent furiously upon making himself a leader among men, and so having no leisure to toy with women. "General, you are very good!" exclaimed Josie, quite overjoyed. "Do, I beg of you, remember me, and bear in mind that my fam- ily property was really, really destroyed, burned iu actual battle with the enemy." " Battle !" returned Bangs, with a start — "in battle! I really had not noticed that. Why, Hollowbread, you know, I suppose, that the Government is not responsible for prop- erty destroyed iu actual conflict." " Good heavens !" gasped Jlr. Hollowbread, his jaw dropping, as if it would fiill off. " Is that so ! I suppose I knew it, but I had for- gotten it." " But that makes no difference, and it can't be so," put iu Josie, trembling from head to foot. " Why, it has been paid for once, only nothing like enough." "It was a blunder," said Bangs. "How- ever — " "Docs Congress make blunders ?" inter- rupted Josie, with excitement, or, one might say, with anger. General Bangs burst out laughing, and even the anxious Hollowbread smiled. "Every body, and every combination of bodies, makes blunders," sighed the latter. " The Creator makes them," added the general. " But Congress had no right to or- der that claim paid. However — " "Exactly," said Hollowbread, eagerly. "What were you going to say?" grinned Bangs. " I may as well say it. If the actual con- flict status did not impede payment in 1820, why should it now ?" " Precisely so. Why should it? Of course it shouldn't. The first payment legalized the second. Or possibly the property was destroyed after the battle. It can be made all right, Hollowbread." " Oh — can it ?" faltered Josie, ready to go ou her knees to him. " I should be so grate- ful !^oh, so grateful !" " Certainh-, Mrs. Murray. Leave it all to me. If any help is needed, I will let our friend here know." Theu there was a short silence, during which Bangs looked in twenty directions, as if he wanted to go twenty ways at once. "We will not detain you, general," said Hollowbread. " I know, and Mrs. JIurray also knows, that your time is precious. A thousand thanks for this interview." " Good-day, good-day !" rattled the great partisan, and was off with the speed of a traveler who sees his train starting, waving a hand vehemently to some oue ou the other side of the rotunda. " I don't like him at all," said Josie, who never fully liked such men as Avere not wom- en's men. "He thiuks of nothing but him- self, and does every thing for the sake of himself." " That is why he is one of the leaders of the House, uo doubt. No pleasure and no emotion ever takes him off his work. And he works — amazingly! Such energy and such toughness ! — such adroitness and such impudence, too ! One of the meanest of men, and one of the greatest of deuuigogues. But I must beg of you not to rei)eat what I think of him, nor what you think of him. He is quite capable of taking vengeance for a word, and his good-will is essential to us." " Then we needn't go before the commit- tee at all ?" said Josie, disposed to fret over that disappointment. " Not for the present. Bangs is nearly su- preme there. 15y-and-by, iu case some col- league should rebel iu favor of his own pet measures, ho may want to use your powers of persuasion, and thou ho will scud for you. I sincerely hope that there will bo no occa- sion." " So it goes. I am continually told that something is to be done, and then nothing is done." Mr. Hollowbread might have retorted that PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 105 it "^as not lio avIio Lad proposed a visit to the Spoliations Committee. But of course ho was in no mood to increase her obvious an- noyance, and he preferred to introduce some placatinerverse inferior. " Oh yes — one of j'our apologues, I suppose — one of your i)arables," sniffed the colonel. " There was once a good missionary," pur- sued the rector. "He lived in the dark, foolish old times when men knew A-ery lit- tle, and merely had faith — an humble faith. He went out from his homo to correct a heathen people, a sea-fiiring and piratical people, perhaps the Northmen. Well, these heathen pirates took him in their ships all round the Avorld, and showed him how nmch bigger it was than he had supposed. Tlien they called upon him to adore the attraction of gravitation and abjure his blessed Saviour. It is my belief that tlic silly good man re- fused to gratify them." "Oh, pshaw!" answered the colonel, in- dignantly. " There you go again with your asstnnptions that scientists look up to na- ture, and not to nature's God." " And so they do," asseverated the clergy- man, his blood boiling higher and higher all tho Avhilo. " You do yourself, Julian, as I fear. I am really afraid you do. I believe you do." " Don't, Mr. ^lurray!" put in tho Avife, noting these repetitions, the heightened col- or, and other signs of agitation. "Yon will certainly send tho blood to your head. Now, do vot get so excited !" " Well, well, then I must quit the subject," stammered the rector. " I can not talk about it patiently — I can not." " Let us droi) it, then," said the colonel, with a sigh. He really cared about the matter. In his old ago he had come to be aware of science, and to make a pet of it ; and he had some- thing like a iiious desire to reconcile all men to its teachings. " By-the-way, I came around to speak of something else," he added. " It is an aft'air Avhich requires your instant attention, if you are not too tired." Both the rector and Mrs. Murray pricked up their gossii^ -loving ears and asked, ea- gerly, " What is it ? What is it ?" "The old story of the claim again. You remember, a Congressman spoke to me about it — a claim for a burned barn." " Yes — yes — exactly. What is it ?" in- quired the old lady, all eyes excei)t what was ears. The colonel went on to explain that Gen- eral Bangs had been at him that morning about this baru-burning business. " Howling and bawling in my ear," the old soldier put it, indignantly, " and making a disagreeable coyote of himself." In short. Bangs had informed him that Mrs. Murray, Junior, had a claim before tho Spoliation Committee to tho amount of a hundred thousand dollars, moro or less. " Horrible !" exclaimed tho ReA^erend John Murray, his pure and sensitive sonl sending tremors of indignation through his weak, bloated physical part. " Horrible !" echoed Mrs. Murray, begin- ning to xmderstand that here was something to be wretched about, instead of merely a lively item for her diary. "It is a shameful intrigue," pursued the colonel. " If it is carried througii, it Avill be a disgrace to tho family, a disgrace to each one of us. I can not stand it. I can not stand being blackened by other people, after the Avhite man's life that I have led. I have always respected Government money. I have held it as a sacred trust. At least a million of it has passed through my hands first and last, and I have never stolen a dol- lar of it, never misappropriated a dollar, as I hope and believe. If CA-er a shilling has 103 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. been lacking in my accounts, I have always taken that shilling out of my own pocket and put it iuto the public chest. I tell you, John, that I would as soon have turned my back on the battle-tield as have wronged the United States out of one penny. It is part of a soldier's religion, this feeling is. It is our eleventh commandment. And here I have got to bear more or less of the stigma of this swindle." The old officer spoke with an emotion which in one of his habitual dignity and calmness was pathetic. In response, the rec- tor nodded solemnly. Official integrity was not in his view as necessary to salvation as doctrinal correctness; but though it was hardly godliuess, and certainly not ortho- doxy, he held it in high respect. " It is awful, Julian," he murmured. " It is hard upon you, and it is hard upon all of us." "A swindling claim — by a Murray !" cried the colonel, his usually pallid old face (once very blonde) crimsoning with shame and ■wrath. "A hundred thousand dollars of Government money for a worthless old barn which had been paid for once! It is per- fectly tremendous. I was absolutely stupe- fied. As soon as I could collect myself, I told Bangs that I disapproved of it with all my soul, and should oppose it by every means in my power. You may imagine the amazement of the low, humbugging black- leg. 'Why,' said he, 'it will be a fortune thrown into your family; it will take this expensive little lady ofl" your hands.' And he is a legislator of the United States ! has charge of money wrung from the American people ! has taken an oath to do honestly and legally and purely. He ought to be in a common jail for conspiracy and perjury. I had the greatest mind to slap his impu- dent, leering face. I tell you, John, that the duel went out too soon. We need it in these very days to purify our political life. Honest men ought to have a chance to shoot the scoundrels who rob and disgrace them." " Thank God, there is a hell !" murmured the rector. " ' Vengeance is mine ; I will repay, saith the Lord.' " "i will repay," echoed Mrs. Murray, say- ing litany rather inappropriately. The truth is, that she was confounded, not merely by the tale of this wretched in- trigue, but also by the fear of losing a high- ly valued plaything. Notwithstanding that josio was out too much, and showed too great a fondness for the society of uncerti- fied gentlemen, the old lady set great store by her, and might even be said to love her. " Thank God, she is not a Murray !" pur- sued the colonel. "There is no Murray blood in her veins." " Perhaps she is not altogether in fault," answered the clergyman. He had caught a troubled glance from his wife, and had sud- denly remembered how useful Josie was in amusing her, and, so to speak, in cheering her venerable soul to remain in its body. " There may be some one else at the bottom of this," he added, hoping that it might be so. " Mrs. Warden," suggested Mrs. Murray, eagerly. " She is a claim-hunter. I wish Josie wasn't so intimate with her. But you permit it, Mr. Murray, and you are friend- ly to Mrs. Warden yourself; you know you are !" " She is a member of my church," pleaded Mr. Murray. " I can not cast her off, unless she falls into danmable sin and heresy. Be- sides, she is a silly, flighty, feather-headed creature, an object of pity. And there is her daughter, a worthy and lovely young wom- an, what I call a pious soul by birthright. She bears her mother on her back. For the sake of the iEneas, I can't shut my door on the Anchises." " Yes, Belle is a noble girl," said the col- onel. " She is fit to belong to the regular army. She is an officer and a gentleman. Moreover, as for Mrs. Warden herself, I ques- tion whether she would care to stir up and push on rival claims. There are other peo- ple who do that; there are peoiile whose profession it is; there are people who live by the dirty trade. Probably there are a hundred men iu and about Congress who thi-ivo by inventing claims, engineering them, and sharing the loot. Some of these fellows may be responsible for our little lady's naughtiness. But all the same wo must stop it." " Of course we must," coincided the rec- tor ; and even Mrs. Murray echoed, " Of course we must." " We have had godly ancestors and a de- cent race thus f;\r," pursued tiie clergyman. "The only blot on our history, which I know of, is that first claim for this accursed barn ; and that, so far as I can learn, was made by a trustee, and not by a Murray. I insist that the honor of our family never had a stain upon it. And I will have no stain now. We must induce Josephine to forego this business. I would rather give her fifty thousand dollars out of my own pocket than have her jn-oceed with it." Then ho remembered that the great mass of his wealth lay iu that undivided estate which had been the support and the pride of the Murray race, and which had, no doubt, done much toward preserving it from all taint of low greed or of dishonesty. Such moderate capital as he possessed outside of this charmed treasure was all willed to his wife; and nothing on earth, in his opinion, could justify him in altcriijg one word of that sacred testamont. " No, I can not do that," ho said. " But, if Iluldah is willing, we can give something. We might, perhaps, spare ten thousand dol- lars." PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 109 Mrs. MuiTfiy nodded. It was not a cheer- ful assent, for she valued money highly, as do most old and feeble people. Neverthe- less, she did assent. "I will double the sum," offered the col- onel. " Hut first vco ought to talk to her," sug- gested the lady, possibly hoping that the money might bo saved. " Somebodj- ought to tell her how wc feel about this thing. I am sure she ^YOuld be reasonable if she only knew how" wo feel. She is so pleasant ! so amiable and cheerful — and amusing!" con- cluded Mrs. ^Mnrray, yearning over her fa- vorite and her funds together. " Certainly she will be reasonable," de- clared tlie rector, touched to the marrow by a pathetic tremor in his wife's ntterance, and eager as always to spare her the small- est worry. "I will speak to her myself," added this chicken-hearted hero, wondering the while whether he wonld get the best of the interview or the second best. "Don't be in the least troubled, Huldah. I shall bo hrm with her, but I shall bo mild. She 7nust be spoken to. We can't have this kind of thing going on. It disgraces our family, and it disturbs ijou. I must and will stop it. But I will be gentle with her." " You are so harsh, Mr. Murray," replied the old ladj-, who believed in his timorous threats, as a right-minded goose believes in the hissing and flapping of her gander. *'I am afraid, John, that you will find it a hard job to bell the cat," suggested Col- onel Murray, well aware of his brother's non- combativeness. " I know that she is a sly little pu.ss, and I su.spect that she has claws, notwithstanding her nice purring. Had not I better be your aid-de-camp, and deliver your message ?" But this proposition frightened Jlrs. Mur- ray, who knew that the old soldier always did his duty like one under oath, and who even stood herself in some awe of him. She turned to her husband with a nervous jerk and a glance of alarm, which caused him to object at once. '• Leave it to me, Julian," he said, lifting himself slowly out of his arm-chair, and bal- ancing his portly form on his tender feet, as formidable as a milled heu. " I am able for her, God willing." " I do think Mr. Murray had better attend to it," urged Mrs. Murray, turning her eyes imploringly upon the colonel. " Very well, Huldah," nodded tlie latter, always considerate to the old lady, as he pri- vately called her. And, with this understanding, that Eector Murray should head oii' our sly and perse- vering little claimant, the interview came to an end. Leaving thehouse. Colonel Murray chanced upon Bradford in the street, aud held with him a dialogue worth noticing. " Have you known any thing, major," ho inquired, "of a claim which my niece by marriage, Mrs. Augustus Murray, is trying to pnsli tlnough Congress?" " I have known of it," confessed tlie young man, beginning to coh)r. " I have not aided it, but I was aware of it." "Then I nnist say, major, that you have not done a frieiully thing in failing to reveal it to me," declared the old officer and gentle- man, in grave di.spleasure. " I admit it, colonel," bowed Bradford, once, bo it remembered, a staff- officer of Murray's. "I see it distinctly, now that you speak of it. I sincerely beg your i)ardon." The colonel bowed, lifted his hat with sol- emn courtesy, hesitated a moment, and theu said, gently, " We all make our mistakes." However, he could talk no more about it ; ho added a dry "Good-evening," aud walk- ed away. Bradford went to his rooms in low spii-its, and never rested until he had written his former chief a letter of apology, with such explanations as he could add without at- tacking his former sweetheart. It was ono of the best signs in this problematical char- acter that he should set so much store by the good -will aud good opinion of such a spotless gentleman as Colonel Murray. CILIPTER XXXIL REPROOF OX REPROOF. Supported by his wife, or, rather, encum- bered and trammeled by that venerable dar- ling, the Reverend Jobn Murray actually brought Josio to book about her claim, and, as he subsequently misrepresented the mat- ter to the colonel, gave her a severe lecture. " We can not stand it, indeed we can not," ho said, trembling a little the while, partly through fear of a retort, partly through fcar of scaring Huldah, and partly through fear of sending the blood to his own head. "A hundred thousand dollars for an old bam!" " For an old barn !" repeated Mrs. Murray. "There never was such a barn on this continent or in this universe. The claim is monstrous." "Oh, that is a mere form, uncle," urged Josie, eager to make things pleasant, and not caring how she did it. "That is the way these suits are always managed. You ask a hundred thousand dollars, aud you get two thousand." " I know — I know," stumbled on the rec- tor, also anxious to avoid a contest, but trusting that he might have his will with- out one. " You do as other people do — some other i)eople. Of course you will hardly get any thing ; you probably won't get even two thousand dollars ; uo, you won't get a cent — not a cent." 110 PLlYING THE MISCHIEF. " Not a cent !" — from Mrs. Murray. " Why, the old ranisbackle affair was burn- ed sixty years ago !" " Sixty years ago!" litanied Mrs. Murray. "I don't suppose it was really worth a thousand, to begin with, and it has been paid for once by the Government." "By the Government," responded Mrs. Murray, keeping up with him. " Yes, paid for twice over. The Govern- ment paid, you know, two thousand dollars." " Thousand dollars," mumbled Mrs. Mur- ray, showing signs of fatigue. "And that, too, included interest and every thing." "And every thing," added Mrs. Murray, by this time nearly out of breath, both in mind and body. "And that ends the whole business." "Business!" gasped Mrs. Murray, begin- ning to drop behind hopelessly. "At least, so any honest man would say," the rector ventured to conclude, with a se- verity which astonished himself. They had anticipated that Josie would get angry under rejiroof ; that, if .she did not scold back in some dreadful fashion, she would at least sulk ; that in one way or an- other she would make the interview an un- pleasant one. But she received her punishment with such graciousness that they were instantly 'not far from ready to praise her for having deserved it. It will be remembered that she was strangely sweet-tempered, more so thau most good people. Perhaps it was because she had no fixed principles, and very few strong likings ordislikings, so that contradiction neither roused her conscience nor galled her emotions. Perhaps it was because she had practical sagacity enough to be contented with working to have her ■way, without uttering that unwise note of warning, that declaration of war, " I will." " I dare say I have been silly or wrong," she said. "I can't find out what is right and what is wrong. One great statesman tells me one thing, and another great states- man tells me another. How can you blame a woman for not knowing what to do, and for, perhaps, doing the wrong thing?" It must not be supposed that she was thinking calmly and talking at her ease. She had been startled; she was afraid that her claim might even yet be wrested out of her hands ; and consequently she spoke in real confusion of mind, and with a stammer- ing tongue. If she liad shown ability thus far, it was by sheer dint of hasty instinct. " Of course — of course," answered the rector, smiling and rubbing his swollen hands amicably. "There are all sorts of confused and confounding voices in this Sodom." " This Sodom !" emphasized Mrs. Murray, who had had time to catch up. " They remind one of the uncertain and blasphemous whispers that Christian heard rising from the mouth of the pit." " From the mouth of the pit," giggled Mrs. Murray, pleased with what seemed to her her own satire. " In such a trouble you should look around you for Greatheart. I am not much of a Greatheart," he confessed, with a modest laugh; "but I could have told you not to go into this kind of adventure. I am coun- selor enough for that." " Yes, Mr. Murray is counselor enough for that," confirmed Aunt Huldah, compressing her wrinkled lips with an air of great streu- uousness. " But why shouldn't I go into it. Uncle John ?" asked Josie, in a tone of child-like and confiding simplicity. " If this claim is a just one, then the Government really owes me the money, and ought in honor to pay it, and I am right in demanding it." The rector stared ; he had not fully con- vinced her, then ; he must recommence his argument. "i/"," he said — "if is a great word! If there were no hell, sinners would have no occasion to tremble." " No occasion to tremble," reverberated Mrs. Murray. " If your claim was just, it would be right to push it, though not magnanimous," con- tinued the clergj^man, much supported by these responses. "But is it just ? I would not trust my own judgment in the matter," he declared, although he certainly would have trusted it. " But Brother Julian has looked into this wretched business, and his opinion can be depended upon. He says the barn never was worth any thing, to be- gin with." The rector, be it recollected, was a little given to exaggeration, sometimes ■ humorous, and sometimes not. " He says it i was paid for once at ten times its value, or, at least, twice its value." "Twice its value," added Mrs. Murray, with a corrective intonation. " So, as to asking payment for it again, and asking a hundred thousand dollars at that, he says it would be — of course you don't mean it — but it w^ould be — scandal- ous !" " Scandalous," repeated Mrs. Murray, in a mild murmur, as if the epithet Avero too severe, and she were disposed to except to it. " Of course it would be scandalous, if that were the whole case," conceded Josie, a lit- tle cast down by this appeal to the author- ity of Colonel Murray. "But there were a great nuxny more things burned tlian the barn, and they never were brought into the first account against tlio Government, and so never were paid for." " How do you know that ?" stared the rec- tor. "Oh, there is proof of it," affirmed Josie, who as yet had not a bit of testimony iu PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. Ill support of licr statomcnt, ami only hoped to got some out of old Drinkwatcr. " I never heard of it — I can't believe it," insisted tho clcr;j;yman. " Besides, I don't caro if there is," ho added, rather unreason- ably, though quite naturally. He hated the mere name and fame of having a claimant in his family, and, moreover, this discussion was worrying him, and tho blood was mount- ing to his head. " If there were oceans of proof, I would not take tho money," ho went ou, excitedlJ^ "I abhor such means of gain- ing lucre. I want to teach you to abhor them. There are so many evil and low persons who are engaged in this sort of business ! They have defiled it, and cast shame upon it, and made a defiling pitch of it." "Defiling pitch!" litanied Mrs. Murray, though in a very small voice, for she noted her husband's rising agitation, and it fright- ened her. " Their company iu labor, whether one knows them or not, is degradation. I can not bear that any one of "my household, any one of my name, should countenance their work, and share iu a prosperity that re- sembles theirs. I would rather go to my grave iu poverty, rather be buried from the alms-house, than ask one penny from the Government on a claim. It is a sin against honesty, against free institutions, against the best Government on earth." He was exaggerating tremendously, as a child might perceive. Moreover, he was a little out of breath, so that it would have been a fine opportunity for Mrs. Murray to put in one of her responses, only that she noted his excitement and was afraid of in- creasing it. " You must bear with me," he went on ; "you must let me treat you as a child of mine. You carry my name into the world, and you are the wife of my nephew, the daughter-in-law of my brother." Here his voice of a sudden faltered, and became gentler, like the step of one who dis- covers that he is treading on a grave. Stirred by his emotion, Josio put her hand- kerchief to her eyes, and " poor Augustus " -had the meed of an honest tear. Aunt Huldah also remembered the bereave- ment, and her tremulous eyelids winked and became reddened. " I am sorry for your troubles, my dear," tho rector continued, more softly. "I like yon, and wish you all manner of prosperity ; but in this one thing I must urge you to defer to my judgment," he insisted, forget- ting that he had lately disclaimed all abili- ty for judging, so inconsequent is humanity la a state of suft'usion of tho tiice. " I must require — I must beg leave to positively re- quire — that this claim bo dropped." "And how am I to live?" whimpered Jo- sie, though whether really iu a tearful con- dition, or only pretending to bo so,' finite man knows not. " Oil, there will bo some other way !" sug- gested Mrs. Murray, vaguely, though with generous intentions. " You are our relative, and j'ou shall not want," declared the rector, who was embold- ened by his wife's hint to utter more thau he would have dared without it. "Oh, thaidi you!" gushed Josie, sweetly, and wondered how much they meant. She was not their blood relative, and she knew that her husband had not been a fa- vorite of theirs, and she had inferred that they would probably leave her little or noth- ing. Indeed, she had been positively told by Mrs. Warden that tho Murray money would all go to the Murrays as long as they lasted, and then to churches, charities, and missionaries. Now for the tirst time they talked of supporting her, and perhaps of be- queathing her something. Would it be a great deal, or only a little ? Would it be more than she could fairly hope to get from tho claim ? Iu any case it was obviously wise not to oitend them by mere speeches: and tho moment it seemed wise it seemed right, beautifully and alluringly right. Such is the gooduess we inherit from Father Adam's undivided estate of original sin. We are able, after some experience and re- flection, to love the virtue which pays. "I know that you mean to be kind," she continued. " You have been already very, very kind to me. I know, too, Uncle John, that in this matter you mean for the best by me. Well, I must trust to your judgment ; I must give tho whole thing up." " Oh, do .'" giggled Mrs. Murray, almost hys- terically delighted. " I am so glad ! So glad you will give it up ! I knew you would when yon knew how we felt. It will be so much better. So much better iu the end. I am so glad !" Thereux)on Josie, making a great effort to do what was judicious and disagreeable, re- warded the old lady with something very like a Judas kiss, and the rector with an- other, which she would have liked to change into a bite. The fight was over or seemed to bo over. Mr. Murray, looking upon himself as a vic- tor, and a just one, was immeasurably con- tent. By dint of getting into a fume and nearly having a fit, he had found courage to speak his mind boldly, and even to erupt some of his lava and scoria of hyperbole. By dint of this valetudinarian desperation he had succeeded, as ho supposed, in belling his pussy-cat. With a full heart he thank- ed his Maker and praised himself As for Mrs. Murray, knowing how women love to be recompensed for virtue, she promptly sent a servant down to Pennsylvania Avenue, or- dered np a lot of shawls, and gave Josio her pick, at an expense of two hundred dollars. iia PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. To show liow this generosity touched our heroiuo, and what a reformatiou it wrought iu her character aud purposes, let us rehate a scene which tooli place the very next day between her aud Bradford. He had hardly been with her fiv*e minutes when he remark- ed, out of a heart still sore from Colonel Murray's reproof : "I called partly to say something un- pleasant." " Don't do it," begged Josie, archly. She had had a womanly presentiment of his ob- ject in coming, aud she was fully prepared in spirit to fence with him and evade hiui. "Never do any thing that you meant to," she continued, gayly. " First intentions are always silly. Try a sober second thought." But Bradford, being a handsome and suc- cessful young man, was more inclined to rule women than to be subject unto them. Be- sides, he was pushed forward by his official conscience aud by his regard for his old chief. "Colonel Murray is indignant about your claim," he persisted. "He has given me a lecture for hiding it from him, as I promised you that I would do, weak creature that I was !" " You weak !" sighed Josie, plunging her splendid eyes to the very bottom of his, and putting on an air of studying him hopeless- ly for a frail spot. "' I wish you were. But you are very strong ; altogether too strong to be lovely ; you would be lovelier and stronger, too, if you were a little weaker. So the colonel has lectured you? Well, Uncle John and Aunt Huldah have lectured me." "' Have they ? Sly dear child, I am very glad of it." " Naughty, hard-hearted mau !" said Josie, smiling and ha^ipy at being called a dear child. " I broke down under my lecture," he add- ed. "I went on my guilty knees at once. How did you bear yours ?" "I went on my knees, too." She did not look a bit penitent nor other- wise in earnest ; and he did not know wheth- er she meant to give up her claim or not. But he had to admit, as ho gazed down upon her delicate features and sparkling eyes, that she was iirodigiously fascinating. There was a roguish, child-like smile on her lips ; there was in her face a i;iun-like expression of be- ing naughty, or at least mischievous, with- out knowing it ; there was throughout her whole being a glow, a glamour, a perfume, an intoxicating force, an enchantment ; there were all the power and witchery of uncon- trolled, wantoning womanhood. A voice seemed to come from her like the call of a dancing Baccliante, crowned with dishevel- ed hair and vine-leaves, and waving a flagon of wine. Yet ho had just como from worshiiiing at the shrine of that calm and pure Diana, Belle Warden. Alas ! in this matter of deal- ing with women, Bradford was not a solid- j ly, securely upright man, but swayed and j changed with the company he was in. In I regard to money and politics aud other mere-/ ly masculiue matters, he was fastidiously honorable ; but outside of that public high- way of life his feet were apt to follow the lead and beckoning of temptation. Mean- while he iu general held firmly that such a woman as Belle Warden was worth many such as Josie Murray. " You ought to admire me for my obedi- ence," continued the little witcb, gratified and emboldened by his steady gaze. " I do," he declared, with the warmth of a man who finds admiration a luxury. "Aunt Huldah gave me a shawl for it. You mustn't give me any thing for it." He so entirely forgot Belle Warden, that he wanted to say, "I will give you a heart." " Your admiration is sufficient," smiled Jo- sie. " I sometimes think that I have lost all the good-will of my old friend. But you make me hope it isn't so, and that is enough." " It is very little. I should like to do more." Then he checked himself, remem- bering that all this was perilous, and add- ed, " So you have dropped the claim. I am very glad." "I shall do nothing more about it," she murmured, by no means pleased with this change iu the conversation. "But you will withdraw it, of course? Otherwise it might go through by mere mo- mentum, so to speak. You will have to with- draw the papers from the committee." " Oh dear !" groaned Josie, half angry with him, and meanwhile, be it remembered, a good deal iu love with him. " Will noth- ing content you short of making me cut my own throat?" she added, drawing a little hand athwart that prettily rounded object. " See here, Edgar Bradford, isn't mine a hard case ? I was brought up on plenty of mon- ey, and now I am a poor relation. Do yoii tiiink I like it? Do you think I like to have an empty purse — to look forward to a life of dependence— to exjicct to bo a pen- niless old woman ? Why can't 1 let myself have a chance, if the world wants to give it to me ? Wliy must you urge me to take the bread out of my own mouth? It is very, very hard of you." Ho was in a difficult situation. How could he push her to abdicate this possibility of a fortune without oflering her his own estate and hand ? How could a man who had more than once kissed that lovely face insist upon consigning it to the rusty bonnets of indi- gence ? " Oh, my poor — dear — child !" ho faltered, really pitying her, longing to do much for her, and yet not daring to trust her with his hapi)iucss, uor willing to sacrifice to her PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 113 his honor. " I wich I knew what to say to you." They -were standing face to fixce, hardly a foot apart. His handsome hazel eyes, usual- ly interesting by their pensivencss, and jnst now pathetic with compassion, were gazing steadily into hers. Either they drew her to hope, or they compelled her to longing. Of a sudden she raised her arms, slid them gently, tenderly around his neck, and held him fast. There was no resisting the warm touch of the little siren ; ho placed a hand on each of her temples, and eagerly kissed her forehead. But that was all ; there ho had strength to stop. It was a cruel trial to a woman who had ventured so much, and who longed to win so much. Her head hent, her face a ilame of startled blood, her eyes drooping in tender expectation, she waited a moment for him, while he neither stirred nor spoke. For a moment Bradford staggered and nearly fell from such wisdom as ho had. Then he remembered that if he joined his life in any serious manner with this woman, he could hardly avoid doing her work, and so ceasing to he an honest legislator. " There !" he exclaimed, suddenly loosen- ing her hold on him and walking about the room : " I can do nothing with you. You must have your own way, for all me. I must tell Colonel Murray that you are too much for me, that he can't depend on my fidelity to him." '■ But you won't tell him any more V whimpered Josie, humiliated by the failure of her appeal to Bradford's emotional nature, and at the same time alarmed for her claim. "You won't tell him that I may jierhaps let it go on ? You don't know that I will. You have no right to tell him so." " Oh Lord ! I shall have to bo a rogue," groaned Bradford. '• Oh do — for my sake," hegged Josie, startled by a spasm of hysteric humor, and smiling through her tears. It was an unlucky speech for her ; it end- ed the breaking of her charm. Bradford laughed aloud at her drollery, but in so doing he recovered his composure, and the danger of his hecoming a very great rogue was for the present over. '• I shall have to he false to my old chief," he promised ; and there all talk of a serious nature between them came to a close ; the rest of the interview passed in banalities. CHAPTER XX:5;iII. nOI.DIXG ON TO MR. IIOLLOWBREAD. Temptress to evil as Josie was, it is diffi- cult not to pity her, unless one is without a heart, or at least without an imagination. The man whom she best liked would not 8 propose marriage, would not do any thing energetic or definite in the way of love-mak- ing, and would not even show as much friend- liness and serviceableness as various less fa- vored cavaliers. All this troubled her much more than could easily have been guessed, cither by those who merely saw her butterllying about society, or by those who knew her intimate- ly- Many times the thought of it brought tears into those ej'cs which any one would have judged beauteous enough never to plead or grieve in vain. There were daj's when she was by no means certain that she should not fall sick, and perhaps die of a disappoint- ment in love. But, thanks he to that Power which has made women stronger than they seem to he, her three or four fits of crying did not kill her ; and when it became obvious that Brad- ford would not immediately take her to his arms and mould her destiny, she went on moulding it for herself. To be sure, she came to no distinct decis- ion, and lived, so to speak, from hand to mouth ; but in spite of vacillations, and through mere drifting, she tended mainly in one direction : she held on to her claim, and held on to Mr. Hollowbread. We ought to state, out of mere simple jus- tice to her, that her prevalent iiurpose with regard to this enamored statesman was to use him to get " her money," and then to throw him away. In order, however, to have many strings to her bow, and so "make sicker" of hitting some game or other, she kept all her men about her. The Byronic and bumptious Bray was encouraged to call often, to talk much confiding fustian about General Bangs's lofty soul and his own lofty soul, and to strut away in a peacocky state of satisfaction, un- der the impression that he was a favorite. The Apollonian Beauman, who wanted to he Minister to Portugal, and had no manner of claim to the position except that four hun- dred women in Washington thought him "perfectly beautiful," also dropped in fre- quently to try his magnetism upon the fair- est lady of them all, and, mayhap, to receive a shock or two himself. Young Calhoun Clavers, too, was a con- stant visitor. It was at this period that he laid his twenty years, his cotton-planting de- scent, his Southern simplicity, enthusiasm, and truth, his fervent, boyish love, and his slender prospects in life, at the feet of a guile- less widow two years his senior. From a sentimental point of view the sacrifice was a rich one, but it was of very little conse- quence to Josie, and she kindly declined it. The soft-hearted and not yet very hard-head- ed youth did not know what a favor had been done him, and retired from the inter- view exceediuglv sorrowful. 114 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. "I met a corpse cTcsceudiug your steps, Mrs. Murray," said Beaiimau, who entered a moment later ; " and I recognized the deadly gashes of your dagger." " You recognized nothing of tlie sort," re- plied Josie, with that light-hearted laugh of hers which was so deceiving, because it seemed so utterly iincouscious of grave emo- tions. " You met Mr. Clavers with one of his malarious headaches. Ho is subject to them." It must be understood that she quite liked Clavers; that she fully jierceived what a fund of faithful love there was iu him ; and that, while perforce rejecting his impecuni- ous ofier, she felt grateful for it. Moreover, there was iu her somewhat of that womauly honor, or wisdom, which will not reveal one man's heart-humiliation to another. "And he was taken with his fit here?" continued Beaumau. "So many men are! I think it would be imxirudeut for me to stay." "As if I were a fever-and-ague district, Mr. Beaumau ! I don't think auy thing would give you a headache, except failing to go to Portugal." " Couldn't you lend me forty or fifty Con- gressmen to save me from that calamity ? You could spare them ?" She laughed again, not a bit vexed with his fling at her multitudinous flirting, and satisfied at having drawn him otf from the subject of Clavers. " It would be wisdom iu us to combine our forces," she added. " Suppose you lend me your forty or fifty Congresswomen." "Useless. No woman will work for an- other," retorted Beaumau, who felt himself to be the equal of any lady, and did not take feminine chaffing meekly. Then Sykes Drummoud dropped in, for he also had been lured again to the Murray shrine, notwithstanding his fretfulness over the loss of the Murray claim, and over the Appleyard rencontre. "What, Beaumau! not sailed yet?" he haw-hawed in his irritating fashion. " Well, I suppose it is only a question of time." Beaumau, who was accustomed to domi- nate Congressmen by dint of godlike beau- ty and lordly deportnu'ut, made no reply further than to gaze at Drummoud with an impassive countenance, much as a Horse Guards swell might gaze at a forward grocer. " Of course it is only a question of time," interposed Josie, always eager to keep her men on terms with each other. "Do you suppose, Mr. Drununond, that you are the only spoiled child of fortune? You might as well say at once that you wish him a pleas- ant voyage." " I wish him a thousand," declared Drum- moud, exceedingly wroth at Beauman's stare. " But I fc'ar it is of no use. You see, Bean- man, you haven't graduated ; you haven't been through the regular mill ; that is your weak point. Nobody gets a fancy office ex- cept broken- do wu Congressmen and secre- taries." " I believe the Executive and the Senate decide these questions," said the would-be diplomat, calmly looking down upon the rep- resentative of the Lower House. " I have always understood so," answered Drummoud, with a retaliative haw, haw! Of course this sort of thing was too pleas- ant to last, and Mr. Beauman presentli"^ de- parted, with crushing dignity. "What is the use of telling people the truth?" demanded Josie of her remaining admirer. "You only make enemies." " I can escape this one by going to Portu- gal," laughed Drummoud. "He will never be miuister there, or anywhere else. Bar- ring some first-class selections, which must be made in order to get our real work abroad done, missions are for the General Hornblow- ers and the honest John Vanes, when they can't get elected any longer. Beauman is simply a genteel fellow of good parts and superior personal attractions. He never has held an office nor done partisan pulling and hauling. Any old political hack can beat him out of sight ou this track. Why shouldn't I tell him so ? It is a service to him ami a pleasure to me — haw, haw !" "Ah, Mr. Drummoud! you are very hard," commented Josie, studying him with an eye which did not indicate unmixed commenda- tion. Yes, he was hard, he was boorish, he was domineering, he was thoroughly selfish. There was not, so far as she could judge, a tender or a sympathetic or truly courteous spot iu his whole nature. She could not want him as an advocate, much less as a lover, and by no means as a husband. Nor could she want the dilettante, delicate-handed Beaumau, nor, should she want him, could she probably get him. Clavers, too, so willing to give his all, but whose all amounted to mere heart-beats, was not a mau to whom she could bind her des- tinies. Against many others, whom she had thought of as her possible Greathearts, there were likewise objections, either as to devo- tion, or desirableness, or ability. The world was something like an army, very imposing and magnificent when surveyed in mass, but composed individually of commonplace, un- attractive hirelings. In short, until Edgar Bradford could some- how be secured, it seemed necessary to stick to the faithful and useful Hollowbread. It was the more necessary because there was that additional evidence to be obtained iu support of the claim, and she knew of no one else who would be likely to do it so well and with so slight a prospect of reward. So she clung to her eldost-boru admirer, PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 115 aud eventually went \\itli him to Beulali County, aud did a very strange thing there. We must do her the justice to repeat em- phatically that she -was extrenielj' averse to this audacious i)ilgriniage iu search of old Driukwatcr. She did not want to raid about the world in the solo company of Jlr. Hollowbread, jiartly lest Dave Shorthand should show her uj) again in the Xcivumon- ger, hut mainly lest Edgar Bradford should hear of it, and never call on her more. She tried to coax her venerable advocate to set off alone ; but here she came in con- flict with his really puissant vis inertia. He could not possibly bo put in motion. At last, h.'iviug obtained a private inter- view with General Bangs, and learned from him that additioual testimony must posi- tively' be had to make her business hopeful, she decided to risk the adventure. Although the holidays were over and the session had re-opened, Mr. Ilollowbread was only too glad to accompany her. He drop- ped his inflation bill as if it were the most mischievous of measures, which indeed it was ; he turned his back on the prayers of ofhce- seeking constituents, on the public woe and weal, and on his own glory. "With Mrs. ilurray's arm in his, he would have quitted Paradise aud eloped to the infernal regions. Josie meanwhile iuformed her relatives that she was called to Xew York by a mat- ter of investment, explaining to her con- science that New York meant New York State, and that the investment was her claim. "When the colonel proposed to ac- company her, she would not hear to it, al- leging that it was midwinter, and her dear uncle would surely catch cold. As a security against tattle she left ^Yash- ington alone, and HoUowbread joined her at the Baltimore station. Thenceforward they made the trip iu companj-, though with due regard to speed aud propriety, traveling by sleepiug-car, and meeting only iu public. It seemed to our love-lorn Congressman that the lady to whom he had proposed marriage, and whose decision he was even then humbly awaiting, treated him with cruel strictness. Josie herself felt incliued to relax her mo- nastic severity wheu she reached the small, bleak, snow-bound village of Murray Hill. In the tirst place, the hotel was a doleful little tavern, cold, windy, comfortless, un- kempt, dirty, musty, and dispiriting, a lair calculated to cow any woman with a sense of isolation aud helplessness, and to make lier espouse the first man who would offer to carry her away. Iu the second place, old Driukwater, bearing with him all her hopes of fortune, had departed into the unknown. " Gone I" Josie gasped at the landlord, a large, flabby, shabbily-dressed man, richly scented with whisky and tobacco. " Goue where ? Not dead, I hope ?" ""\Yell, no," mine host opined, apparently surprised at the suggestion, aud even con- sidering it irrational, not to say iiijurioufj. He didn't think old Driukwater would do any thing so hasty. He had lived to uiue- ty-three, and got through the worst of it. "What was the use of going back on himself aud dying now ? Any body who knew him would allow that ho had prejudices against dying. Aud he was a mighty obstinate man — couldn't be shoved around by any body. But he certainly wasn't in the vil- lage. He had (piit about a Aveek before, and never told where he was driving to. Likely enough he was visiting some old cro- ny somewhere or other. He was a lone- some sort of codger, of course, and knew ten times as many people in the grave-yard as out of it. Sometimes he would put off to see some deaf and blind old chap that he had been thick with seventy or eighty years ago. Last spring he had dropped iu on old Squire Bunker, of Lockport, and challenged him to run a race round the block. " "Why," says the squire, "I couldn't walk it!" If they wanted to find the old fellow, they had better hunt up the greatest patriarch they knew, somebody two or three hundred years old, aud ask for Driukwater. But, if they would stop long enough at Murray Hill, they would be sure to see him. He had been coming back to Murray Hill for the last century, and wasn't going to forget his way all of a sudden. All this the landlord stated iu the tone of a humorist who keenly relishes his subject and his own treatment of it. In narrating the Lockport incident, he imitated with startling energy both the steutoriau bass of Driukwater and the piping utterance of the decayed Bunker. Moreover, he went on to chuckle at considerable length over the fine preservation of the village Methuselah, the vigor of his lungs, eyes, ears, and members, and the unimpaired soundue.ss of his noddle. But he could not give so much as a guess as to where he might be ; nor would he, when pressed, affirm positively that he was still iu the land of the living. " Of course the old man might kick the bucket," he admitted, with rational candor. " He an't much in the habit of it, and no- body ever seen him do it once; but still he might, on great provocation." From a great-grandson of Drinkwater's, a young farmer of about twenty-five, they learned nothing more positive. "Great-grandfather had been talkiu'abont Lockport," he suggested. " But there's no tellin' where he'll fetch up, nor when he'll fetch round. "\Yhen he's once out, he keeps agoing till he's tired on't. Ho an't offeu gone 's long 's this, though. Dead f No, guess not ;" and he stared at the singular surmise. " Some folks thiuk he's out on the Lakes. He folic red the sea wheu he waa a 116 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. boy — follered it for forty year or so — and lie's liad a bankeriu' lately to git aboard sbip once more. But I kinder reckon lie "svouldu't voyage in tbe wiuter-time. Don't think he's dead. And yit be might be." Then came news, brought by a horse-deal- er just returned from Bulialo, that old Jere- miah Drinkwater had really taken a trip in a lake schooner, and that there were fears lest he had suifered shipwreck. The report was a terrible shock to Josie ; her galleon of hopes bad gone down in deep waters. She pushed aside her cup of milk- and - water tea, rose from the narrow, un- steady, barren table of tbe hostelry, and went to mope in tbe small, frowzy, scantily -fur- nished parlor, half lighted by a single kero- sene-lamp, and half warmed by a swart, close- cylinder stove. A doleful arena it was in which to com- bat the tigers of dullness, loneliness, and dis- appointment. It seemed to her that if there had been a bright wood - fire in the room she could have borue her sorrows with some fortitude, whereas that sombre iron demon, without a ray of cheering illumination, and giving forth its chary heat with a morose gloominess, only added blackness to her darkness. To what or to whom could she turn for sympathy and comforting but to Mr. Hollowbread. " Don't you wish to smoke ?" she had considerately asked, when they cjuitted that frigid Sahara, tbe tea-table. Now, but for her he would have fled to the bar-room and consumed whisky-pnuches and cigars until bed-time, though in the main lit- tle given to such pastime. But tbe beloved of his heart he must not and did not desire to leave solitary, unless she plainly request- ed it. "If you have no objection, I would prefer to remain with you, Mrs. Murray," he said, with that deference which he now alwaj-s accorded to her, the truly enamored old Lo- thario. " Thank you. Do stay !" responded Josie, gi'atefuUy, so low bad she been brought by discomfort and worry. Then there was a long discussion over tbe chances of tbe claim, the advocate distinctly concediug that they were somewhat dubious, and the claimant positively trembling under the thought that they might be. so. At last Josie dropped into silence, brood- iug over her suddenly darkened future, and querying what she could do to brighten it. It seemed to her, as it has probably seemed at times to every fortuneless woman, that fate drove her upon seeking a husband. Well, here was one to her hand, re- spectable in character, eminent in position, wealthy, devoted, and only objectionable by reason of being forty years her senior. She glanced at him sidelong ; the dim light of the kerosene-lamp favored him ; it did not appear to her that he looked insupportable. Portly he certainly was, and his visage had a rather too sumptuous rubicund glorj' ; but sartorial cunning had done its best by his figure, and his massive Koman features were still comely. As for his age — well, there was a dim, funereal encouragement in that, too, inasmuch as whatever woman he mar- ried might shortly be a widow, and would, of course, have financial consolations. It was an ngly train of thought for a young lady to indulge in, and we will hope that she did not dwell upon it long or quite con- sciously. But the result of it was, that she found his size and his years somewhat the less distasteful. Meanwhile, had she no recollection of Ed- gar Bradford ? Yes, certainly yes ; but she shut her eyes and bit her lips when his im- age arose before her ; she strove with petu- lant energy to forget him. He had been un- loving and ungrateful and unkind ; he had not cherished her, nor even beljied her, as he ought to have done ; he had actually re- sponded to her embrace by kissing her cold- ly, and laying her aside promptly. It was his fault that she was here alone with this old man ; and as she thought of it she once more shut her lustrous eyes and bit her rosy lips. We are not sure, indeed, that there was not a dimness of tears in the one, and a faint .stain of blood on the other. All this time she was sitting in front of the grim stove, trying in vain to warm her tired feet at it, her white skirt showing across her delicate instep, her small bauds clasped plaintively over her knees, and her Grecian head bent in sad meditation. She , was a lovely, a very lovely, object to look I upon, attractive enough to draw a long gaze I from any one, even from a perfect stranger. Mr. Hollowbread glanced at her stealthily from moment to moment, and thought that he had never before seen her so beautiful, so fascinating. He painted her profile on his j very heart ; he so fixed it there that he nev- er afterward forgot its smallest line ; never forgot how she looked in that very moment. It must be understood, also, that, excusing his boldness by the chill of the room, he had I ventured to draw his chair up to the stove, so that they sat very close together. " Have we exhausted every subject ?" she at last said, turning a dejected smile upon him. " There is one subject of which I have promised not to speak," ventured Mr. Hol- lowbread, fearing the while lest she should request him to leave her merely for alluding to it. The poor,* tired, lonely, desperate little beauty gave him a quick glance, which was not a glance of displeasure. "May I speak of it, Mrs. Murray ?" burst forth tbe love-lorn, half-crazed man, his voice, his veins, his limbs full of trembling, and his PLAYING THE mSCIIIEF. 117 inoiitb twitching witli emotion. " Jlay I say to you that I have not changed — that I still await your answer — tliat I live for you ?" It seemed to Josio that some irresistible impulse seized her, cansing her to do a thing iVom which she had hitherto revolted, and of which she was sure to repent the next instant. Without answering by word, she pushed her chair violently toward Mr. IIol- lowbread, laid one young hand ou his old shoulder, and then laid her young head be- side it, softly crying. " Is it possible f he gasped, almost out of his senses with joy. " Mrs. Murray— Josie Murray — my dear one! Is it possible that you accept mo ?" "Yes," whispered Josie. "Oh dear, I don't know ! Will you promise not to tell till my claim is sure ? Yes, I do accept you." Grief, loneliness, longing for sympathy, fear of consequences, egotism, revolt, and still acquiescence all were mingled togeth- er, and all were uttered. But Hollowbread was conscious of but one thing — the unex- pected, the huugered-for, the priceless boon of acceptance. Then his mahogany face bowed over her Grecian head, and his dyed mustache de- scended upon her girlish cheek. CHAPTER XXXIV. MR. drixkwatek's testimoxy. Close upon the betrothal followed a blessing : that is to say, a lucky circum- stance which had nothing to do with it in the way of cause and effect ; and which therefore a certain class of reasoners would inevitably set down as providential. Ou the very subsequent morning the miss- ing Drinkwater turned up, just as dry as if he had never been reported drowned, and just as lively as if his works had been con- structed to run two centuries. Having learned from his great-grandson that some- body at the hotel wanted to see him, this survivor of at least two thousand millions of human beings put ou his box-coat without assistance, and stumped half a mile through the snow to find out what was stirring. When Josie and her affianced entered the parlor after breakfast, thej^ beheld a rough- ly-clad, heavily-limbed, hnge-chested, harsh- featured, Roman - nosed man, who did not look to be above seventy-five, but who really was near twenty years older. His long and still fairly abundant tousled hair was hard- ly lighter than iron-gray, and his grim vis- age, although deeply wrinkled, had an air of permanent solidity as if it were carved in oak. Instead of sitting to rest, as most men of his age would have done, ho was tramp- ing up and down flic rooin with strong, noisy steps, meanwhile swinging a hickory cauo thicker than a policeman's bludgeon. Having already inquired the names of his visitors, and had them pointed out to hira through a crack of the dining-room door, ho recognized them at once on their appear- ance. "Sarvent, sir!" he shouted at Mr. Hollow- bread in a voice loud enough to be heard at tho top of tho chinmey. " I am Jeremiah Drinkwater. I heerd you wanted to seo me." " Oh !" exclaimed the delighted Josie, dash- ing forward and grasping ono of the old fellow's enormous horny hands. "Oh, Mr. Drinkwater, I am so perfectly overjoyed to meet you ! You don't know me, of course. I am Mrs. Augustus Murray — one of the Mnr- rays that used to live here — one of the Mur- ray Hill Murrays. Of course you remember them." "I remember 'em!" roared Mr. Drinkwa- ter, as if ho meant that the deaf and dead should hear him. What a voice the man must have had even in his mewling inftmcy ! Forty years of sea - going, of howling commands and re- sponses amidst the turmoil of tempests, had only inci'easedhis pneumonic bore and sono- rousness. Thirty subsequent years of ag- ricultural swearing at horses and oxen had but kept him in first-rato trumpeting con- dition. " Sit down, my dear sir," begged Mr. Hol- lowbread, after he had taken his turn at the nearly centenarian fist. " You must be still suliering somewhat from your late exposure. We heard that you were shipwrecked. How did you escape ?" " I didn't go to sea !" bawled and " holler- ed" Mr. Drinkwater, without seeming to know that he was uttering a joke, and one as old as himself at that. Josie giggled in her gayest and most mu- sical fashion. The hale ancient diverted her, and she liked him immensely. He was so rough and tough, so burly and blustering, such a trulj' masculine old male, that all the womanishness in her went out toward him, and-, to use her own tongue, she thought him "splendid." Indeed, he was little less than sublime. He reminded her of a he-lion, or a buffalo bull, or a mad elephant, and when he roared she felt as if she were in a storm at sea, with breakers all around her. " My uncles remember you perfectly," she prattled on, stating what might be, rather than what sho knew. " Yatriot and x^irate acceding to as many items as he judged credible, and the Con- gressman herding the whole multitude on foolscap. Nest the two men went to the office of a notary -public, and there Mr. Driukwater s'helped him God in due form, subsequent- ly receiving a roll of bills from Mr. Hollow- bread, and tramping homeward well content. Our Congressional lover now returned to his affianced with a guilt on his conscience proportioned to the joy iu his heart ; but whatever may have been his qualms, they were dissipated by the reception which she gave him as he panted into the tavern-par- lor, holding out the affidavit. Withalittle scream of gladness, she bound- ed into his arms, kissed his crimson and pur- ple-veined cheek, and dropped her head on his shoulder. Never, perhaps, was a sinful and remorse- ful legislator happier than Hollowbread was iu that palpitating moment. Not for thirty years had ho put so much heart into a kiss as went into the one which he laid on those rosy young lips. The' embrace, though fervent, was brief, for Josie soon had enough of it. She drew herself away from his protuberant advances with the somewhat frigid words, applicable, not to the hugging, but to the aifidavit : " Oh, what a piece of luck !" "To tliiuk that this good fortune should follow inuuediately upon our engagement I" said Hollowbread, whom love and happiness had made temporarily religious, or, rather, superstitious. It did not occur to him to suspect that, had the good fortune come first, Providence might have used it to pre- vent the engagement. " How quick he was to agree to the riglit thing!" answered Josie, who could hardly have been iu a pious frame. " It was I who brought him to it," she crowed, gleefully. ignoring her advocate's part in the transac- tion. " It takes a woman to manage a man, even when he is as old as Methuselah." " Yes, it was you Avho brought him to it," conceded Hollowbread, quite willing that she should have the whole of that woeful honor, but at the same time cai'essiug her glossy locks with an approving and iiettiug hand. " There !" said Josie, drawing still farther away. "I mustn't let you muss my hair; somebody might come iu. Now do sit down and cipher up what it will come to." Somewhat hurt by this mercenarj' haste and coldness, Mr. Hollowbread took out a gold pencil, which had come to him from the cornucopia of Congressional stationery — a pencil which had often served him to scribble projects of laws and of amendments to our venerated Constitution — and proceed- ed to figure up the i)robable jirofits of Mr. Drinkwater's false swearing. CHAPTER XXXV. THE TROUBLES OF AN ENGAGED MAN. Our Congressman was not quite as hap- py during his return journey to Washington as an accepted lover has a j)resumed right to be. They were always iu crowded convey- ances, where betrothal bussings were out of the question, and squeezings of the hand scarcely more practicable ; and, moreover, Mr. Hollowbread found — whatever other and younger gentlemen may have found be- fore him — that Josie did not seem to be one of the snuggling sort. She sat a little apart from liiiu, with a wide crack of daylight always between them, keeping her fingers carefully gloved and be- yond the reach of his pnljiy grasp, and, iu sliort, enforcing a disagreeably high-toned decorum. Her talk, too, was of the same unaffianced character, consisting largely of remarks upon interesting objects by the wayside, and nev- er intentionally approaching any topic more emotional than " her money." If ho spoke of his love, she answered him with merely a steady, studious gaze, and .a smile which would have appeared to any one else either roguish or downright quiz- zical. If he pressed her to name the mar- riage-day, she laughed gayly and responded evasively ; or she seized the opportunity to impress upon him once more a duty which he already held in abomination — the duty of keeping the eugagemeut a secret until her claim should bo secured. " Pour oicoiiraf/cr Ics aiifrcs," she explained, with a nuM'riment that seemed to liim al- most heartless. " If i^eople should find out PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 121 that I am proinisecl to yoii,tlicj" might euro just enoiigli about it to vote against me." Necessaiily, even an old lover could not be charmetl with these proprieties and jjre- cautions. To bo sure, ho thought her beau- tiful in all that she did, and fascinatingly clover in all that she said ; but, ucvcrthe- less, ho Avas not ({uito as happy during every minute of his betrothal as he had supposed that he should be. Then came a railroad accident. Two hundred passengers were tiunbled off the track in a bunch, witliout damage, indeed, to life or limb, but with the loss of a counectiou. Mr. HoUowbread and Josio had to take up for the night with such quarters as they could iind in the Fenu House, in the little town of Keystone. Ho would have liked this detention im- meusely, only that his carcass had beeu bruised and his nerves badly shaken by the upset, so that he felt like anointing himself and going to bed, rather than sitting up to make love in a populous parlor. Josie, also, was so far tired that she went to her hen-coop of a room early, forgetting, or deliberately neglecting, to press her lover's baud at parting. So Mr. HoUowbread limped up to his own hen-coop, and made his somewhat elaborate preparations for rest. Among his necessa- ries was a vessel of the kind known to Con- gressmen as a quart bottle. He surely need- ed something strong, if ever a man did ; and he always carried his own strength, to be sure of a good article. This bottle he took from his carpet-bag, with sincere thankful- ness that it had not been broken, and placed it on his almost imperceptible night-table, a diminutive skeleton with rattling lower limbs. Tlien he perceived that he had no ice-water, and rang his bell some minutes for a servant who did not come. At last, finding it chilly standing there without a dressing- gown, he gave the bell-cord a superhuman jerk, and got into bed. Shortly afterward heavy steps ascended the neighboring stair- way, marched with provoking deliberation down the hall, and in due course of time marched by his room. ♦' I say ! " called Mr. HoUowbread, out of patience and indignant. " I say !'' The steps halted, and then tramped loud- ly back ; the door was flung open violently, as if by the lurch of some heavy body ; and Mr. HoUowbread beheld before him an in- toxicated gentleman of flashy costume, her- culean proportions, and ferocious counte- nance. "You say! What do you say?'' roared this alarming visitor, advancing toward the sheeted and blanketed and counterpaued lawgiver, and shaking a huge bediamonded fist at his horror-stricken visage. "What do you mean, sir, by calling to a gentleman in that style ? You say, do you ? So do I wy, sir. I say you arc an impudent ass, sir. What do you mean by lying there in bed, and hollering I say at a gentleman who in going by 1 Can't a man pass your door in a quiet, inoflensive manner, witliout your sass- ing him ? what do you mean by it, sir ? Do you want to pick a light with me? Get up and go at it, then." But as Mr. HoUowbread did not want to pick a tight, aiul was in no proper condition to get up to go at it, he declined the chival- rous invitation. "I did not speak to you at all, sir," he said, with some appearance of spirit, though really he was a good deal scared. " I took you for a waiter." "Took me for a waiter! Took me for a nigger!" exclaimed the stranger, Avith an emphasis on the word "nigger," which at once suggested a Southern lineage. " Took me for a nigger, hey ! I've the greatest mind in the world to shoot you," he added, pulling out a revolver and aiming at our worthy member. " I could shoot you, sir. I could shoot you on the spot, sir. It's bard work not to shoot you, sir. By the Lord, sir, I don't know why I shouldn't shoot you." " Good heavens ! don't blow my brains out in bed!" stuttered HoUowbread, very eager, of course, to get a hearing. " I won't blow your brains out in bed." magnanimously declared the flashy gentle- man. " I'll blow your brains out of bed. What a mark your great red face is ! I can hardly help firing at it." The besieged legislator had an impulse to pull his face under the bedclothes, com- bined with a spasmodic desire to jump up and run out of the room. But, of course, the most natural thing for a dignified gentle- man in a recumbent position to do was to essay further expostulation. "I assure you that I was not speaking to yon at all," he urged. " I rang for some ice- water, and when I heard you passing, I thought it might be coming. I am not the kind of person to go abo'ut insulting people and picking chances to fight. I am a mem- ber of Congress." "A member of Congress!" grunted the visitant. "That's nothing. I am a mem- ber of Congress myself. That's nothing. But you are a member of Congress, are you ? Who the deuce are you, then? Wliy, good Lord, I believe it's HoUowbread I I'm glad to see you, HoUowbread. How the deuce should I recognize yon in bed?" " Is it— is it — Senator Rigdou ?" asked Mr. HoUowbread, who knew that member of the upper house not at all, and had only taken nt)te of his person cursorily. " To be sure it is," answered the Southern- er, beaming with joy. " Pickens Eigdon, at your service. Delighted— overjoyed to see you, my honorable cotifrere. Shake hands." So they exchanged that sign of good-fel- l->2 PLAYIXG THE MISCHIEF. lowsliip, Mr. Hollowbread lying on bis back, and looking up witb some visible disgust at his new acquaintance, while the latter, re- volver tucked under his arm, "weeved" dan- gerously over him, his inflamed foce full of geniality. •'Are you drunk, too, Hollowbread f ' went on the senator. "By-the-way, so am I. I came here druuk. I floated here on a pile of whislcy. I meant to stop at Washing- ton. But I missed it. Couldn't find Wash- ington along the whole route. Washington is busted up and blown away. I'm sorry I left it. In fact, I don't know why I ilid leave it. Anyhow, I can't get back to it. Washington has skedaddled and vamosed off the face of the earth. Nevermind. The republic is saved. Wherever I go I find this great republic, overflowing with milk and honey, or, in other words, whisky. So, not being able to discover Washington, I came on here. Glad to find you. Hollow- bread — I'll be drawn and quartered if I an't glad to find you." It will be observed that Mr. Eigdon was more than half-seas over; was drunker by several seas, or one might say several oceans, than when we last listened to him ; and, though still capable of conscious humor, was far beyond the line of sentimental speech and poetical quotation. "I am sure I am pleased to make your acquaintance," murmured Mr. Hollowbread, meekly and falsely. "Are you!"' exclaimed the senator, joy- fully, giving our friend's hand a fearful squeeze. " I'm glad of it — glad to hear you say so. I'll sleep with you, Hollowbread. By George, I will — if I can get my toggery off — and I will if I can't. You don't mind boots in bed, do yon, old fellow ? No spurs on. No; you sha'n't be kicked in your in- nocent slumbers; a member of Congress sha'n't run such a dishonoring risk. I'll ring for a waiter to undress me. I'll tell him I'm a fool and don't know how to take my tog- gery oft^ Lord! how the nigger will stare !" lie chuckled. " Whereabouts do you con- ceal your blasted bell-rope, Hollowbread ?" '' It is of no possible use ringing, senator," urged our friend, nearly as anxious to get rid of his caller as when the latter was threatening to shoot him. What if the man should actually go to bed with him, and then pick another quarrel, or perhaps fire ofl' a few barrels by accident? "I told you," he added, " that I had been ringing half an hour for ice- water, without getting it." " Can't get any ice-water, Hollowbread !"' exclaimed Mr. Eigdon, with indignant sym- pathy. "My friend and brother legislator can't get any ice-water! By George, I'll see to that. I'll see that these lazy scoundrels bring you ice -water. I'll get you a hogs- head of ice-water." He wheeled around, knocked down a chair which upheld Mr. Hollowbread's raiment, and fell prostrate over that wondrous mass of broadcloth and sartorial machinery. Then he arose slowly and spent half a minute in trying to kick the ruin out of his way, while the owner thereof looked on in silence, trem- bling for his pads and s^irings and pulleys. At last the senator got into the hall, leaned in a most startling fashion over the stair- way-railing, and commenced shouting to the regions below. " Hi ! Hullo down there !" he bawled. " Hurry up, you yardful of niggers ! Here's a gentleman — here's my friend, the Honor- able Mr. Hollowbread, choking to death for some ice-water !" " Good gracious ! will she hear the brute ?" thought our affianced lover, referring to Jo- sie. " I say, where is that yardful of niggers ? Hurry up with that ice-water! Hurry up, or I'll fire !" No answer being audible (they were in the fifth story), he turned to his brother Con- gressman, waving his revolver in a manner which might have dismayed the bravest be- holder, and said : "Don't be anxious, Hollowbread. Yon shall have your ice - water. I'll go down there and get after those niggers. Be easy, Hollowbread ; rely upon Eigdon. I'll have your ice -water up hei'e if I shoot every scoundrel in the hotel, from the gentleman- ly proprietor to the bootblack. No man shall suffer for ice-water while I can help it. You shall get your pitcher slojiping full, if they have to freeze the ice for it. Don't be afraid, Hollowbread; I'll be back in a min- ute." Then lie was heard descending the stairs, threatening and swearing all down the four flights. The moment he was out of hear- ing, Hollowbread got up with an alacrity unusual in him, hurried to the door, shut it softly, and locked it. Senator Eigdon made a tremendous row at the office, threatening to break the skull of every colored person whom he set eyes on, and was not pacified until the grinning clerk promised that every guest in the house should at once have a pitcher of ice-water, by way (the senator said) of acknowledg- ment and indirect damages. This business transacted, he fell into an amicable conversation with the bar-keeper, forgot his imrpose of sleeping with our hero, Hollowbread, and Avas eventually borne to repose in his own compartment of the attic. Will it be believed that Josie Murray was an auditor of this drama ; that during near- ly the whole of it she stood holding her door ajar, listening and giggling ; and that, far from abhorring the inebriated Eigdon, she perverse]}^ longed to make his acquaintance ? She was all eyes and ears next morning when he stalked into the breakfast-room and took PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 123 1)18 seat noar tlicm at tablo. Surely lie would do or say something amusing, something to gratify her keen sense of the humorous and •her taste for moral oddit ies. lie disajjpoint- ed her, ho astonished her, and yet he pleased her. Wo have seen this speeimcn of the ruder Southern gentry "disguised;" wo have seen him about as drunk as he could stag- ger ; now we are to see him sober. He recognized Hollowbread and Mrs. Mur- ray at once, and, having some dim, awkward recollection of the scene of the night before, he would have been pleased to avoid them ; but they were all three late together, and he was obliged to place himself near them at the laggards' table. Josie, who easily divined his embarrass- ment, absolutely admired the manner in which he bore it. He did not speak ; ho did far bettor. He made a bow which was not a claim of acquaintance, but an apology for intrusion and for all possible offense, past or present. Then he sat him down unconfused, decorous, solemn, huge, and magnificent. A rude mountaineer hy birth, he had neverthe- less saught somewhat of the grace of the old- time Southern gentleman, that sedate, ur- bane, and chivalrous image which he had reverenced during all his youth, and which he still considered the noblest specimen of humanity conceivable. Nor was there a break in his lion-like dig- nity while he remained at table. There was no noisiness and no fidgeting ; he was as proper as a soldier on dress-parade ; he was as calm as Buddha. His orders to the wait- er were given in a mellow bass murmur, and with an almost elaborate civility of diction. He called the gray-headed fellow " boy," and yet he won his eager good -will at once. Doubtless this "boy" had been a slave; he had been ruled, bought and sold, perhaps whipped, by the sort of man before him ; yet he recognized the old master-type with in- stant respect, obsequiousness, and fiiendli- ness ; he needed but a word of kindness from it, and he was its bondsman once more. Josie noted this circumstance promptly, and was much impressed by it. There is perhaps no surer passport to a woman's con- sideration than showing that you can easily win the respect of men. In our country one of the severest tests of this faculty is the se- curing of civil attention from the so-called lower classes. How they do love to take down the pride of gentlemen and the A'anity of ladies ! This same "boy" had been negligent to- ward Mr. Hollowbread, and sulky with oth- er guests ; yet when the Southerner gently beckoned to him, he seemed ready to crouch and wriggle like a spaniel. Mrs. Murray could not help granting her esteem and ad- miration to this gentleman, who had been so ridiculously drunk the evening previous. Even Mr. Hollowbread was impressed, part- ly with the same feeling of respect and part- ly with satisfaction. Ho looked upon Kig- don's air of restraint and decorum as a sort of apology to himself for the spree in his bed- room. Moreover, the fellow was at any rate a senator, and it was well to have fritmds in the other House. So he at last decided to smile, and say : "I believe, Senator Rigdon,that wo liavo met before. Allow mo to recall myself to you as Mr. Hollowbread." " I am charmed to continue the acquaint- ance, Mr. Hollowbread," bowed Eigdon, with- out making any allusion to the previous meeting, concerning which he in fact re- membered very little. " I have long wished to know you more intimately." Next, obedient to a glance from Josie, Hol- lowbread added : " Mr. Eigdon, Mrs. Murray — a niece of Col- onel Julian Murray," he explained, with a little excusable pomposity over the respect- able relationship. "Mrs. Murray had the good fortune to escape from the same rail- road accident which detained me here. We shall go on to Washington together, I sup- pose." " It will give me great pleasure to be al- lowed to join you," said the senator, bowing to Josie so gracefully and deferentially that she wanted to flirt with him at once. "I have often observed Mrs. Murray in Wash- ington society. I hope she will pardon me if I confess that I have drunk to her in the words of rinckney's fiimous toast. You re- member how it runs, Mrs. Murray : 'A wom- an, of her gentle sex the seeming paragon.' I drank it at a distance and in silence. There is an air of exaggeration about it, you think ? Well, I am a Southerner, and say Avhat I feel. You must pardon me." " I pardon," laughed Josie, meanwhile sus- pecting that he had taken a cocktail, though he had not. Perhaps the residuary fumes of last evening's whiskies had made him some- what more audacious and fervent in speech than he would have been naturally. Per- haps the hyperbolical compliment was only an outbreak of that " hifalutiu " which be- longs to a certain uncultivated type of the eloquent Southerner. It is, however, the honest truth that Eigdon had really drunk the toast in question (and copiouslj^, too), and that he fervently admired at least the outer womanhood of Mrs. Murray. Well, the breakfast passed very pleasant- ly, and it was decided that they should voy- age in company. Of course this was not what Hollowbread wanted, and he sought, in a timorous way, to evade it ; but it hap- pened all the same. Josie, the adroit little flirt, managed it easily. "Oh, you brazen thing!" she said to her lover, when they were left alone at table. " You had a dreadful spree with that man last night, and here you meet as if you had 124 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. never seen eacTi other before, and put on such a delndiug air of innocence! All! you are all alike, you men. There is no getting to the bottom of you. Below each deep a deep- er still." In vain did Hollowbread j)rotest his in- nocence of spreeing, and tell the true story of his ludicrous bedroom adventure. She pretended for a time not to believe him, then she put on a pitiful air of trying to believe him, but in vain ; and, dear me, such a touch- ing look of anxious doubt as there was in her eyes ! It seemed to Hollowbread that she was on the point of bursting into tears with aftectiouate terror lest he were deceiv- ing her, and should prove to be a man of debauched habits. He was sincerely dis- tressed by her sham suspicions, and ready to do any thing to soothe and please her. " I am sorry I introduced the beast to you," he said, humbly. " The comradeship which Congressmen feel bound to concede to each other is my only excuse for it. We must try to drop him — give him the cold shoulder — get shut of him !" "Oh, we can't do that!" cried Josie, with ah alarmed dilation of her eyes. " We can't cut a senator, and my claim coming on !" " But after his outrageous behavior last night, in the hearing of scores of people ?" argued Hollowbread. " That is the very reason," insisted Josie. "He would understand our cutting him all the easier. We must not have the least air of avoiding him. I think, in fact, that we ought to urge him to sit with us, and treat him in every way as civilly as possible." So Senator Rigdon traveled with them all the way to Washington, sitting on the same seat with Mrs. Murray, and holding long coquettish dialogues with her, while j)Oor Hollowbread putfed to and fro on her er- rands. Actually our love-lorn legislator reached home without getting a kiss from hia be- trothed since that happy moment when he lianded her Jeremiah Drinkwater's affidavit. Nevertheless, ho was her dmc damnee ; ho continued to work at her scandalous busi- ness with tlie devotion which love inspires; he went before the Spoliations Committee with a demand for something like one hun- dred thousand dollars. CHAPTER XXXVI. JOSIE SPEAKS OUT. Weeks passed, and Josie still held on to Mr. Hollowbread, though in a sort of aruis- lengtli fashion, much as one might hold on to a soiled but necessary walking-stick. What did she Avant of himf Well, her desires might be described as " human wa- rious," or perhaps we ought to say, feminine warious. When she was in low spirits about her claim, she feebly wanted to espouse him, to spend his income briskly, and to inherit his capital promptly. What else can a young lassie want of an auld man who insists upon being a lover ? In general, however, she merely wished him to secure her money for her, and then to take his dyed hair and corseted carcass out of her sight forever. There were mo- ments when she looked forward to the pos- sibility of giving herself up to him with a natural, plaintive, almost convulsive loath- ing, which calls for one's instinctive if not reasonable sympathy. Meantime, she yearned after somebody else with a constancy and a fervor which were in themselves beautiful enough. When- ever she let Hollowbread kiss her (which blessing came his way not ofteuer than once a week), she had an abstracted, tender, dreamy look ; she was thinking of Bradford. Through many a nightly hour, also, after her betrothed had taken his arctic shoes cau- tiously down the ice of the Murray steps, she lay awake to whisper the name of the man whom she loved, and to indulge in rev- cries about him which, could they have been known to the man who loved her, would have filled him with amazement and an- guish. Of course, Bradford seemed all the more desirable to this born coquette because she could not get him. What she was mainly in love with was the actual business of making love; and the more difficult any special flirtation appeared, the more it fas- cinated her. Had her longed-for Edgar gone on his knees to her in the humble and faithful style of that idolatrous old Hollow- bread, it is likely that her eyes would soon have been wandering after other men, and that her little bigamist of a heart would have followed her glance. But Bradford, though he sometimes came to see her, did not do much in the Avay of courtship. He was afraid of her ; ho dread- ed lest, if ho fell in love with her, she should^ make a lobbying member of him ; and weJ remember that ho wanted, above all things^ to be an honorable man among men. Is it not, by-the-way, very singular that he should have feared her power, when he was so well acquainted with her faults t| He had watched her w.ays so long, and studied her character so carefully, that he knew her| perfectly, in theory. He knew what a bort and practiced llirt she was; ho knew thatl she was pushing her claim in spite of hcr| promises; ho know that she was ungrateful to the Murrays; ho knew that she told fibs;" he knew worse. And yet she was so pretty, graceful, sweet-mannered, sweet-tempered, alluring, PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 123 inflammatory, that ho could not dislike her, nor scarcely keep from loving her. It seem- ed to him at times that the most deliglitful thing in the ^-orld to do -vvonld Lo to shut his eyes to her defects and to let her deceive him into the belief that she was good, as she had deceived her husband. Now and then, also, there came up the old llatteriug delu- sion that for his sake she might become trustworthy and worshipful. Probably the only thing which kept him at a safe distance from her, spiritually, was her claim. It is true that meanwhile he visited, ad- mired, and in a manner worsliiped that np- right and candid soul which had its abode in the handsome figure of Belle "Warden. But there also was a claim. Poor Mrs. Warden was intriguing with committees as scandalously as Mrs. Murray; and, more- over, she was such a grinning, frisking, flirting, worrying creature ; such an un- suitable mother-in-law for a fiistidious man and honorable legislator! In short, there were so great objections to both Belle and Josie, that Bradford could not for the pres- ent make up his scruimlous mind to want either of them. The lovely Murray snS'ered from this state of things, but she had too much vitality to let it paralyze her. As Bradford did not do any courtship which could inspire a com- fortable hope, she looked out a little, or, rather, a good deal, for other admirers. She made poor Hollowbread very jealous by the way in which she flirted with Messrs. Drummoud, Beauman, Bray, Clavers, even with the married Rigdon, and even with Mrs. John Vane's senator, Ironman. The audacity of her coquetries, indeed, was suf- ficient to fill with affliction not only souls whicli loved her, but also souls whicli mere- ly love wisdom in woman. With the Apollonian Beauman, for in- stance, she had an adventure in the cupola of the Capitol, which a certain tattling jan- itor narrated to Squire Nancy Appleyard, and which that imbittered Bloomer report- ed about Washington with outrageous ex- aggerations, believing'the while all her in- ventions because they seemed to her proba- ble. What the janitor actually saw was a masculine arm around a feminine waist ; and, of course, it might have been there for the mere purposes of support and protec- tion ; so many people are dizzy in the gal- lery of the cupola ! But Josie, lady-like as she was in some matters, had a certain deserved fame for reckless sparkings, so that Miss Nancy's suspicions were partly justifiable. There is an excuse for these coquetries of Josie's, quite aside from the fact that they were born in her and must make issue under temptation, like chickens pecking out of a sTiell at the sunnnons of heat. Her engage- ment ofttimes weighed upon her like a witch incubus, sucking the blood of gladness and hope out of all her life, and causing it to seem a flaccid failure. The past, with its flighty, imprudent, and unlucky "poor Au- gustus," with its short, foolish dream of splendor, and its awakening of impoverish- ed widowhood, had not surely been enough of a success to suffice a handsome and clever woman. And how could the future look jocund, or satisfactory, or even tolerable to her, when it advanced upon her in the pon- derous guise of Mr. Hollowbread? Remember how the young, especially such as have no urgent and continuous work to do, are haunted by this consciousness or suspicion of failure ! They had expected — these new-born and insatiable souls — that Time would bring every hour a fresh joy, and behold, he is often but a burden and a bore ! It seems to them as if life were like one of those mocking goblets in which you can see the wine, but can not taste it. Thus did Josie often feel, even when she forgot her sexagenarian betrothed ; and when she remembered him, her dejection only changed in becoming a foreboding. At times she rose, or appeared to herself to rise, to the altitude of desiieration. Were there no "snips and snails, and puppy-dogs' tails" of happiness to be picked up some- how I If it was not to be had in solid, in- exhaustible veins, could she not snatch and steal a little hero and there ? Any thing to break the doleful spell of evasion and de- feat. Occasionally it seemed as if the scan- dal of eloping with another woman's hus- band would be a relief; and more than once she caught herself wishing that some strong, willful, passionate man would irresistibly run away with her. Such was her state of mind — a state which we can all of us imagine — a state tkrough which some of us have passed, with or without shipwreck. The usual remedies for it in women are children and housekeep- ing ; the usual remedj- for it in man is steady, hard work to support the same. But Josie Murray had no weapons where- by to tight this nightmare, except society and flirting. Hence the furore with which she gave herself to coquetry when she found herself alone with any one of the worldly gentlemen Avho delighted in her company. Of course a pure soul marvels that the thought of the one mau whom she loved, or whom she believed that she loved, should not restrain her. Well, sometimes she said to herself, " It is all his fault," and therefore fell to trifling with a sort of vindictiveness. At other times the remembrance of him did act as a hold-back ; then she had a quiet, pensive, ennobled demeanor, which seemed to put an iron grate between her and Messrs. Drum- moud, Bray, and Beauman ; and then those ] gentlemen hud a turn of depression, and UG PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. wanted — so strange is tlie human heart — wanted to marry her ! At last, feeling as she did about Bradford, the time came when she let him know her feelings. They were alone together, like Fraucesca da Kimiui and Paolo, and they were reading one book, the book of human nature. Edgar's manner of reading was to sit close by Josie, fix his meditative hazel eyes on her handsome face, and gently hold one of her hands in his, meanwhile talking Platonic friendship and giving advice. Her method was to return his gaze of benefaction with glances of gratitude, and to be in every other way as tenderly grateful as he was tenderly magnanimous. We must hasten to say, however, that they did not look " spoony," nor dribble senti- mentalities. They were both too worldly, and they had too much cleverness and sense of humor, to let themselves drift into the ridiculous. Much of their dialogue was as sensible as one is apt to hear in fashionable society, even between jieople whose object it is to make each other's time pass pleasantly. " I hear that you have been driving out with Ironman," was one of Bradford's more serious observations, uttered with the view of introducing a lecture. " You have smashed Mrs. John Yane in society, and now you are attacking her stronghold. I suppose you mean to make a full end of her." " Mrs. John Yane maj' be trusted to make a full end of herself," returned Josie, amica- bly, though she disliked to be coupled with that semi-vulgar lady, even as a victorious rival. "I don't see how Washington can put up with her long." " Then why not let her fiill the length of her own rope ? Why trouble yourself to as- sist in the hanging ?" " Because, if I don't, she may last my time, and that would be just as bad for me as if she held on like Methuselah. Do you let General Bangs alone ? You attack him at least once a week. Well, Mrs. J. Y. is my General Bangs. She is a coarse corruption- ist, aud I mean to expel her from mj* Con- gress." "I never believed in fighting fire with fire." "I don't flirt witli Mr. Ironman ; I only entertain him." " But people who entertain the senator get a name for being too amusing." "You speak i>lainly enough. Well, I won't drive with him again, if you don't wish it." By way of reward for this promise he pressed her hand slightly. He was always trying to reform her risky ways, partly be- cause they had an unreasonable power for making him je.alons, aud partly because he really wanted to fit her for his right honor- able aflectiou. Yes, he was tenderly anx- ious (at times) to get her good, and much pleased when he seemed to make any head- way in his mission. "Is the sermon over?" asked Josie. " You might give out a hymn and pronounce the benediction." "You must remember that I am six or eight years older than you are. Age is a natural priesthood. The first priest was the senior member of the first family." " What an awful senior member you would make ! What an awful husband I You would be a despot always on his throne." " I shall have to stop doing you good if you poke fun at me." "I am not poking fun at you ; I am real- ly in fear of you. It makes me tremble in every limb to think what a husband you have the making of. How you could repri- mand a wife !" She smiled, but the smilo was very submis- sive and tender, suggesting that she would bow humbly to his reproving, and would love him for it. The word icifc, too, utter- ed in that shy, reverent murmur with which she spoke it, was an exceedingly alluring, though also a warning, monosyllable. He looked at her yearningly, thinking what a perfect wife she would be if she were only as good as she was pretty, and longing to try the adventurous experiment of proving how far perfect she could be. Under his significant glance Josie blushed, an unusual circum- stance with her, for her skin was dark and her soul experienced. He ought to have seen, and indeed he did know perfectly, that he had too mighty an influence over her to use it lightly, without subjecting himself to the charge of egotism aud cruelty. But he remembered her sins against other men, and accorded her no more mercy than coquettes give. It must be remembered that weeks before this she had forbidden him to kiss her, and it must be understood that up to this time he had respected the injunction. Now, however, tempted by that splendid color in her face and by her air of inability to resist him, he seized on the forbidden fruit. He ■ drew the hand which he held ; he drew her I irresistibly agaiust his shoulder; he kissed i every rose-leaf of the blush, aud her very lips. Josie, throbbing and trembling from head to foot, was in a tumult of happiness. She scarcely struggled to get away from him ; there was too much expectation and hope in her for movement; she waited for him to speak. " I am obliged to you, my dear friend,"' was Bradford's disappointing and most ungrate- ful utterance. " We are on the good, sweet old terms once more." With a violent start Josie broke away from him, flung herself upon .an isolated chair, covered her face, and sobbed. Her PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 127 shame aud distress ennobled her, and for the moment she had the beantiful dignity of great grief, the beauty which belongs to a Niobe. " I liave offended yon, Josie," he said, not a little impressed. " I beg your pardon." She dropped her hands, stared at him with indignant, sparkling, wet eyes; aud broke out on him — as he deserved. "You have degraded me!" she exclaimed. "Why do you kiss mo when you mean noth- ing? Don't you know that a woman who lets a man do that, lets him do it because she — likes him ? — because she hopes he will not stop with a kiss ? Is it generous of you to take advantage of such feelings, such hopes ? Listen to me !" she commanded, im- periously, while a tear of humiliation roll- ed down her cheek. " I have something to tell you. I am ashamed to say it. But it is your fault. You drive me to it by your treatment of me. Besides, we are old friends, as you say ; we can talk as men and women can not generally talk to each other ; wo act and hold hands and kiss like old friends, don't we ? Why not say what we think, then? J think— I think— " And here she faltered, her mouth twitching pitiably, and her eyes avoiding him for an instant. " I think that you treat me very badly," she re- sumed, with an effort which turned her pale. " You treat me badly in kissing me when you mean nothing by it. I let you do it, to bo sure. But why ? It is because I hope that each kiss will be followed by a word ; be- cause I hope you are going to tell me that you love me, and want me — want me to be your wife. If I had thought you never meant to tell me that, I never would have let you touch your lips to me — never — nev- er !" She clean broke down here, and fell into a A'iolent burst of weeping, clenching her hands over her face, and sobbing and shaking con- vulsively, like any honest, little wretched school-girl. She was full of shame, grief, an- ger, love, too, agitations of all sorts, a tumult of emotions. There was no sham about it; she was not playing a part at all ; that we must understand distinctly. Indeed, her power of flirtation arose largely from the fact that she really had the susceptibilities which some flirts only counterfeit, and that these susceptibilities were easily moved. True, they were transitory, if we do not misjudge her ; she was one of the shallow skillets which quickly boil over aud quickly cool ; but, all the same, she could keep herself and her intimates in hot water. AH the same, too, she was very scalding and thawing when she did undertake to gush over a man in good earnest. Meanwhile, what were Bradford's feelings aud opinions ? Well, without trying to ex- cuse him in the least, aud judging indeed that he ought to have taken this victim of his kissings, we must aridly state that he was not moved so to do. He seemed to himself to find out all at once that ho did not love her one bit ; and ho could not feel a desire, nor even a willingness, to uplift her to his heart, and ask her to be his wife. At the same time he was painfully confounded .and humiliated; he would have been glad to break through the floor aud fall into the cellar. So he did nothing but stare at her bowilderedly, and mutter some inaudible, unlinished excuses. " There ! you can make me crj' like a baby," resumed Josio, brushing away the tears with au angry dash of the luvnd. "Arc you contented"? Have you degraded me enough ?" " 1 have degraded myself enough," answer- ed Bradford. " Aud you have pointed it out to mo plainly enough. You might have spared mo this. The better way would have been to send me off long ago." " The better way !" she burst out. " Oh, you mean man ! You have the face to re- proach me )ww .'" " I do not," he interrupted her. " I have no right to reproach you. I reiiroach my- self only." Josio began to hope again; She waited eagerly for his next word. She still kept her hands pressed against her quivering face, but they were all ready to dart out and cling around him. "' It is your claim," he said, at last. " You promised to give that up, aud you have not." "I have given it up," she declared, in her desperation, making an effort to meet his gazo boldly, and failing. " I tell you I liave." " You have not," asserted Bradford, loud and stern, because he was indignant at such brazen falsifying. "If they are prosecuting it, I did not know" it," she whimpered. "General Ilornblower told mo this morn- ing that you called on him about it yester- day," was the overwhelming answer. She looked so crushed — so mean, as he harshly put it to himself — that now he could quit her. Ho picked np his hat, muttered a " good-morning," to which she did not re- spond, aud went oft' to call on Belle Warden. CHAPTER XXXVII. A FAMILY QUARREL. TiiK Murrays, as well as Bradford, discov- ered about these times that Josie was still pursuing her barn intrigue, and, like him, they manifested what she considered an nureasonablo and disagreeable excitement about it. It was not the young Congressman who had exposed her to them. His singular con- science often urged him so to do. but on the 128 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. whole lie considered himself bound not to meddle. The iuformer was that strong- miuded snflerer, who madly loved Sykes Drummond, aud who hated our heroine as her successful rival. Miss Aiipleyard sent the Eevereud Murray a long anonymous let- ter, revealing not only the persistent prose- cution of the claim, but also some of Josie's audacities in the way of flirtation, as, for in- stance, her journey in the sole company of Mr. Hollowbread, her lonely drive with that rakish Senator Irouman, aud her cnpola ad- venture with the beauteous Beauman. If the rector had been alone, and if he had been in the full vigor of his native sense and gentility, he would probably have stopped reading this document as soon as he discov- ered its nature, aud either handed it to Jo- sie or burned it. But he was almost never alone ; and, moreover, he was in the habit of reading every speck and scrap of his cor- respondence to Mrs. Murray ; aud finally, by dint of long continuance in providing gossip for that lady, he had himself become a raven- ous gossip-monger. The two venerable, excellent people had a horrid, entertaining, wretched, savory hour over the vile manuscript. The rector mum- bled a passage aloud ; then he laid the let- ter down in indignation, saying that that was enough ; furthermore, he denounced the writer as a low, mean, mischievous, lying creature. Mrs. Murray repeated his words after him fervently, but could not help looking un- satisfied. Next followed a discussion as to whether anonymous missives ought to be burned, or whether they ought to be pe- rused with unbelief, detestation, and scorn. Obvioush", if the fii'st method of treatment had the precedence, the second could not be tried at all. It seemed well to make proof of both, aud see which worked the most satisfactorily. So they read another page ; paused anew forcommination service, with responses; had a fresh discussion concerning proprieties and probabilities; went back for further light to the manuscript ; finally finished it. " I don't believe a word of it," said Mrs. Murray, with both her hands up. "Do you, Mr. Murray?" " From Og, king of Bashan, and frorft* Si- hon, king of the Amorites, good Lord deliver us!" groaned the rector. " But you don't believe it is true, Mr. Mur- ray ?" •'Oh dear! This is a wicked world. I am afraid some of it is true." " Oh, Mr. Murray !" gasped the old lady. " So am I," she added, with a curious incon- sequence. " I am afraid some of it is true. She is so higlity-tighty !" " I shall inquire into it," burst out the rec- tor. "And if she is guilty of this, or the least tittle of it, I will turn her out of the house, bag and baggage," he threatened, in his hyperbolical fashion. " I will not have you troubled and worried thus," he per- sisted, when his wife essayed some remon- strance against extreme measures. " I tell you, Huldah, that I must not have it." And inquire he did, aud learned only too much. At his request the colonel took up the train of the claim, aud discovered that it was still being pushed with energy ; while at the same time two conscientious old la- dies of the parish brought in, of their own accord, a tale about Josie's flirtations. The joint result of these communications disa- greeably justified nearly all the statements of the anonymous letter. Even Mrs. Murray, despite her strong liking for her clever and diverting young relative, was horrified and indignant. She fretted ; she moaned that the familj^ was being disgraced ; she actual- ly sobbed and shed tears. Her distress filled the rector with rage and nerved him to her- oism ; and he made such an onset upon the guilty Josie as to positively scare her. " I insist upon your stopping that claim- business forever," he said, in a choking, stammering voice. "I insist upon a solemn promise from you that you will stop it. I insist upon your oath," he continued, push- ing a Bible toward her. " I want your oath — your oath !" It was too much, this tone of domination and of contemptuous reproach, even for Jo- sie's cool temper and good-nature. With a smart little poke, something like the quick spat of a kitten, she thrust the heavy vol- ume from her, tumbling it upou the floor. The spunky gesture and the loud slam tliorouglily startled old Mrs. Murray, who had prepared herself for the interview bj- two days' nervous anticipation of it, and was rather less fitted for it than was Bob Acres for his duel. She jumped in her chair as if she had been shot, threw up her hands in a hysterical "way, and uttered a cry. " Tliere !" exclaimed the rector, as if all the mischief in the world had been done at once. "Huldah! Huldah!" he went on, getting over to his wife's side as quickly as he could. " My dear, be calm. No harm shall hapxien to you." "You frightened her yourself," asserted Josie, too much stirred up to be wise. " If you would only keep your own calmness, it would be better for her." But it was Josie who had alarmed the old lady, aud the latter showed it in her counte- nance. She had the sensitiveness of inva- lids and other weak ci'catures, that timorous sensitiveness which, when it is hurt, becomes aversion. She gazed at the young woman, so lately her divertissement aud pet, with eyes which expressed not merely fear, but also dislike. "It is you," cried the rector, infuriated by Josie'a charge that it was he who had trou- PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 129 bled bis Iliildab. " It is you wbo torment ber -nith your managements and yonr vio- lences. Hnldab, be calm. Do bo calm." r>ut to be calm was more tbau Hnldab could now do. Sbo was too old and too fee- ble to control berself ; sbo began to cry, and was soon sobbing spasmodically. '• Run and get tbe ammonia, quick !" cried tlio rector, calling on Josic witbout besita- tion in tins dire extremity. "Sbo is going to foint. Ob, Hnldab! liuldab!"' be wbim- pered — j'cs, actually wbimpered — bis voice breaking like tbat of a weeping cbild. " Get tbe ammonia ! King for Sarab ! Scud for a doctor!" Josie ran : sbo did not forgot tbat sbe bad been scolded, and tbat sbo meant to leave tbe bouse ; but still, in ber good-nature, sbe ran eagerly to scarcli for restoratives. Sbe found Sarab, and sent ber to tbe sitting-room, but not a drop of annnonia could be discov- ered bigb or low, and sbe returned to report tlio fearful deficit just as ber aunt swooned away completely. " No anmiouia !" exclaimed tbe rector, witb a glare of reproacli. " Never let yourself bo in tbe bouse a day witb Mrs. Murray witb- out ammonia!" Josie often laugbed afterward over tbis 61'eecb, but at tbe time sbe made no response, eitber in mirtb or anger, and simply fell to work batbing tbe wliite face of tbe old lady. Meantime tbe mulatto girl bad gone after a neigbboring pbysician, witb instructions to bring bini at once, dead or alive. Ho ar- rived presently, took tbe mite of an invalid in bis arms, carried ber to ber bedroom, and after long labor brongbt ber to ber senses. During tbis interval ber busband stood over ber, a picture of aflfectionato grief and fiigbt, wringing bis bands, and groaning, " Huldab ! Hulilab !" At last, wben bis dar- ling was to some extent restored, be came ti'cmbling out of ber room and sougbt Josie in tbe parlor. " Sbo is better !" were bis first words, ut- tered as if tbere were uo otber object of pity in tbe world, and no otber topic of interest. " Tbe Lord belp ber tbrougb witb it ! But we must — " "We must part," Josie interrnpted bira, deciding, in tbe pbrase of Balzac, " to go no- bly down tbe stairs ratber tban wait to be tbrown out of tlio window." "After wbat has occurred, I can not stay bere." " Yes, we must part — we must part," stam- mered tbe rector, confused and yet relieved. " I say it not in anger. I make no reproacb- es, and want no explanations. We simjtly can not bear it. We are too old and feeble, botb of us. Tbis is not tbe way, I know, to part from connections. But we can not belp it. Go in peace. Tbe Lord be good to you ! Go wben you can find it convenient. I can say no more. Good-bye." Hastily turning bis back to avoid further 9 speech, bo tottered feebly out of tho room and went to sit by bis wife's bedside. Josie remained alone. It seemcMl to ber for a while tbat sbe was alone in the world. Within a few days sbo bad lost the man whom sbo had best loved and tlie friends who bad given her a homo and a position in Washington society. Lobbying and universal coquetting hav- ing brongbt such trouble upon her, it seem- ed all of a sudden as if they nnist bo very wicked, and sbo bad a pang of i-cmorse. But it was too late now to tliink of changing her course, for her connections had cast her off in the most jiositivo and irreversible manner; and lobbying aiul flirting were henceforward her only possil)lo paths to prosperity, and iierhaps her only means of existence. Moreover, in her momentary abasement Josie doubted her power of reforming. She remembered bow often she bad resolved to j be good, without the least permanent I'esult ; / and in her desjiair sbe sobbed to herself: " I can't, and I know I can't ; and I won't try." Her next thought was that she would marry Mr. Hollowbread, and then behave like the very witch, and servo him right. Of course she was in a pet ; even a wom- an can not very well bo hurt, humiliated, and scared without fuming about it ; even Josie's wonderful good temper could not sail smoothly over ber present sea of troubles. But, meanwhile, action was necessary; she must find a comfortable and genteel home at once. Wbile she packed her trunk (putting away a few tears along with her dresses) she pondered as to whither she should betake berself. After meditating upon hotels and rejecting them as expensive, after taking into consid- eration boarding-houses and revolting from them as low, she concluded to knock for ad- mission at tho door of her sister-claimant, Mrs. AVarden. " Going to leave the Murrays !'' stared that lady, when Josie called upon her with her proposition. " I had an idea that you were settled there for life." "Mj' dear, it was only a visit," answered our heroine, who bad decided to say nothing al)ont the quarrel, at least for the present. " I was invited for a month, and I have al- ready staid two. One must not ride hospi- tality to death. If they want me back, they can apply for me." "They will apply for you fast enough. I don't see how the old lady can spare you a day. She has often told mo what an amusement you are to her ; how you bring ber every thing tbat is stirring in society, all tho pottage of gossip tbat she loves." '•Yes, that is it. They use me — just a little too much, don't you know ? I should like a resting spell; I should like a vaca- 130 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. tion. Tbey Lave been very good to me." (She said this with a swelling of anger and grief in her pretty fibbing throat, for, in reality, she felt just then that they had been outrageously hard with, her.) "But they have also been exacting. You can't imagine what a despotism that household lives un- der in the way of cosseting and diverting that old lady. Not that she herself seems to demand it so very much. But her lius- band, the dear old rector, is perfectly cracked about her. He serves her himself constant- ly, and wants every body else in the same harness. I must tell Mrs. Murray every thing that I see, bear, say, do, think, or dream. I must be always on hand for her sick turns, no matter when she chooses to have them. I must walk tiptoe in the hall, and laugh in a whisper in the i^arlor. If my dress rustles as I go down stairs, Uncle John opens his door and glares out awfully to see who is making that deafening n]iroar. If visitors stay after ten o'clock, be behaves as if they were Indians come to scalp him. Sometimes be gets into the study slyly, and glowers through the hall at lis without speaking, and then goes back to talk to Mrs. Murray about it. If he kept a guu, I should think he was going to fire at lis, or at least to bang it out of the window, like old Mr. Bronte. I am perfectly certain that they have the longest and solemnest conversa- tions with each other about my worldliness and levity and hoideuism and boisterous- uess. And then when I go to them I must tell it all, and they seem to like it. But the very next gentleman that calls puts Uncle John in a state again. Positively I some- times think he is crazy. He thinks of noth- ing but his old wife ; he wants to hush the whole world for her sake. He would like to make the omnibus pass his door at a walk. He goes to his front door and orders away niggers who are guffawing on the sidewalk. Once, when an expressman dropped a heavy package in the hall, he looked at the man as though he had dro^iped it on Mrs. Murray's head, and said out loud, 'There is a hell!' I have heard him talk for twenty minutes about some old granny who, ten years ago, or forty years ago, perhaps, bathed his wife's feet nicely in hot water and mustard ; and he always declares, when he tells the story, that she will go to Paradise for it." "Oh, but these are his jokes," laughed Mrs. Warden, who was quite fond of the old gentleman in her flighty way, and who, moreover, knew that he was an intelligent talker and humorous. " Yes, they are jokes, but jokes right out of the heart. He is pretty serious in them, with all his apologetical smiling. He part- ly knows, I think, that he is irrational, and tries to cover it up and excuse it by joking. But he is clean addled, all the same." " It is hard for a woman to make mouths at a man fur being overfoud of his wife," opined Mrs. "Warden, who had long since de- cided that it was a misfortune to lose a lov- ing husband, and that she should like to get another. '• I don't know about that," doubted Josie. "I don't want such a husband as my un- cle is. I should fly at him. I icould breathe without him. I would not let him breathe for me. It is a husband's business to sup- port his wife, and protect her, and give her a position, but not to hold her in his lap for- ever, and make her sit there. Who wants to be kept in an egg-shell always ? A wom- an needs to get hatched some time or other, and scratch and peck about a little by her- self. That is what I mean to do." " I rather think you will do it," smiled the elder lady. '• I rather think you won't attack me for it." "Xo," admitted Mrs. Warden, who had herself pecked about quite independently, even during the lifetime of the patient man for whom she mourned. " Besides, a woman who is worth sixpence wants her husband to be a great man," con- tinued Josie. "She wants a chance to be proud of him. She wants to see him make other men bow down to him and to her. But how can he briug that about when he is always holding her in lap ? Just look at my nncle's way of life, and what has come of it. He is a clever man ; lie has a big knowledge-box, and plenty of brains in it; when he isn't in a twitter about his wife, he can talk as wisely and wittily as any body in Washington. Then look at his other ad- vantages — family, education, money, leisure — every thing that a man needs to work with. Well, what has he done '? He has not even got to be a Doctor of Divinity. I don't believe he ever wrote a great sermon, nor so much as a hundred middling ones, such as he does write. He talks about exe- gesis, but I don't think he ever did any of it, whatever it may be. Nobody ever call- ed him a scholar, not even for fun. He has just simply taken good care of one woman. He has spent years in traveling with her, when he should have been earning a bishop- ric. He has settled down to a church mere- ly because she couldn't travel any longer; and now, when he, perha])S, wants to work, he can't. He has passed so much time in amusing and trying to keep alive one aging mind, that he has become a confirmed gossip- monger. He reads tlie newspapers; he be- gins where we do, with the deaths and mar- riages ; then he reads all the city items, the fashions, the very advertisements — he reads the whole daily tweedledum and tweedledeo aloud ; he has done it for forty years, and ho can't stop. What will be leave behind him to keep his name in remembrance? Noth- ing but his tombstouc--an epitaph written PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 131 hy a liar, ami chiseled liy a dunce ! Isn't it a shauio to liavo a head as big as a denii- jolin, and not let posterity know that you iiad a head at all? Do you call that doing your duty by yourself, and by your kind, and by your Maker? Wiien the Lord calls him to an account, pretty nmeli all ho will bo able to say will be, * I have taken caro of Huldah.' Now, of course, it is right and lovely to take caro of Huldah ; but is that all that a man of wealth and talents ought to do ? Oh, there is a lot of humbug among us women about good, attentive husbands! Some of tho husl)ands best worth quarrel- ing for arc husbands who are not a bit at- tentive." " Every thing may be abused, even affec- tion," observed Mrs. Warden, warmed up to a little more than her usual power of reflec- tion by tho friction of Josie's superior in- telligence. " Women don't think so, but it is true." " Still, I like the rector. I like him for his very weakness about his wife. I laugh at him for it, and I like him for it." " When you see close at hand how it works, you don't like him so well for it," aflirmed Josie, who was naturally bitter against her uncle, and disposed to disparage him. "It almost makes him stupid. He is really a witty man, and yet for her sake he is not witty. His talk and his thoughts are constantly broken up bj- his explanations to her, and by her questions and responses. I really think he is often afraid to say the best thing he can, for fear she won't understand it. She isn't a fool ; she does catch at a joke right smartly ; but then he is so afraid she won't! And if she shouldn't, somebody might think she was broken, and that would kill him. The gracious deliver me from such a husband! When I lose ray wits, I want my iirotector and blessing to tell me of it." "I see that you have suffered," laughed Mrs. Warden. " The old people must have been very hard on you." "Yes, I have suftered," emphasized Josie, whose heart was swollen all the while with indignation, although her speech was guard- ed and sensible. " A man has a right to sac- ritice himself to his wife, I suppose; but I deny that he has a right to sacriiice other people to her. I know that he shall not sac- riiice me. Well, I nuist stop scolding. You will think I have a bad temper, and I have not. Did you ever see me cross before?" "Never," said Mrs, Warden, quite truth- fully. "And the sum of it is (I beg you never to mention it to the old people), the sum of it is, that I want to close my visit ; but I don't want to leave Washington, and I don't want to go to a boarding-house, and I mustn't go to a hotel. Will you let me keep house with you, and bear my share of the expenses?" Mrs. Warden did not like the idea, and yet she could not say no to it. On the ono hanrovoking, took long walks with Edgar Bradford. Belle, also, as Josio asserted, had a temper; and doubtless there was some lamentable fraction of truth in the allega- tion : so many women h.avc one, or, what is worse, half a dozen a day! Josie, by-thc- way, herself gifted with a singularly even disposition, is responsible for the above re- mark concerning her gentle sex. "I hate women," she often said. "They are as fretful as tired children. It is partly becaviso they are feeble, and partly because they are fools. The only friend you can get on with smoothly is a man past thirty, and all the better if he is some other woman's husband. He has found out that his wife is a failure, and so ho doesn't expect too much of us." Well, she was reflecting gloomily on her situation, and perhaps shedding a precious tear or two over its asperities, when her be- trothed arrived to tell her how Colonel Mur- ray and Bradford had been assailing her barn. Josio stared with horror. Her uncle had indeed taken a terrible revenge. He might succeed in beating her out of her claim ; he might drive her to a step which she still re- coiled from. Her gaze of dismay was not fixed upon vacuity, but upon the gross form and inflamed face of her aCBauced. " It is an ugly business," groaned Hollow- bread, breathing noisily, somewhat like a pumped-out horse, as he always did wheu worried. " I really begiu to fear that I may not be able to carry the bill through for you." He actually seemed to be disgusted witli the enterprise, and to be minded to wash his hands of it. Josie's heart almost stopped beating as she thought, What if he too should desert me ? And then, immediately on this consciousness of his importance, there came a sentiment of gratitude and of favor. He had surely worked bravely for her, and it did seem that he ought to have some re- ward, or at least some cheering hope of one. Besides, would it not be well to make quite sure of this man aiul his money, in view of fche chance that her bill might fail? An J)pen betrothal Avould nail him, while it "^would not positively nail her. If woman /has no political rights, she has cu revanche C^ many social and sentimental ones, including the right of breaking au engagement. " Bnt I shall always keep you as a friend ?" she asked, with an imploring, piteous smile. "Myrelatives have turned against me. Shall you?" "Mrs. Murray — never!" exclaimed this venerable Antony, stretching out his hand toward the hand of his Cleopatra. She returned his grasp, and gave him a look — such a look! — one of those indescrib- able ones — a look worthy tlie heroine of a melodrama. It was a prodigious feat of humbugging, and she knew it to be so wliilc slie performed it. But it was just as elfcct- ive as if it had come straight from the heart ; indeed, it struck fairer than similar glances of hers which had really come from the heart: I mean the glances which had fallen harndess from the armor of Bradford. "I am 1)<)nnd to you for life, .Josie!" con- tinued IloUowbread, lifting her hand to his lips. " I wish to Heaven that all men knew of it!" Is it possible that a man of sixty could talk in this style, or, talking thus, could mean it? We must allow that it would be impossible with many, but this particular sexagenarian was an exceptional one, and almost a prodigy. From the grayish mat- ter of his brain to the dye of his carefully curled hair, and from the luiLsings of his battered bnt fervent heart to the polish of his boots, ho was fearfully and wonderfully made. He was an amazing complication of shams and sincerities. His costume, as we already know, w\as an unwrinkled deception, meant not so much to clothe his figure as to disguise it. His coat was worthy of exhibi- tion in a sartorial museum ; it ought to have been hung up in the Patent Office by the side of the finest models of machinery ; and had it been made the subject of a report in quarto, that volume alone would have justi- fied the franking privilege. In politics, also, he was at least as much of an unveracity as in the matter of ward- robe. He stood ready at all times to pro- pose any measure which he thought the public desired. He was capable of arguing for contraction on Monday and for inflation on Tuesday. He was one of those fierce pro- tectionists, who are liable to turn free-traders at a week's notice. But inside of all this variability and du- plicity there was one flaming centre of con- stancy. In the business of getting bewitch- ed about a woman, he might almost be said to lead his generation. Amativeness had long been his ruling i^assion, and now, if no longer a passion, it Avas a monomania. Like .all other monomaniacs, his possession was both comic and pathetic. From the ridicu- lous to the sublime, there was but a single step in the love-making of the Honorable G. W. HoUowbread. " Yes, I wish that the whole world knew of my afl'ection for you," repeated this made- up old dandy, this weather-cock politician, this infatuated lover. "It is my greatest honor. I feel that there is nothing else in my life which so ennobles me. If I never gain another distinction, I ought with this one to be content." " Do you 7nean it ? Do you mean all of 148 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. it?" wliispered Josie, touched by tliis hu- mility of whole-souled adoration. " Would you really like people to kuow that you are so silly as to care for nie like that ?" " Mrs. Murray ! my dear, dear Josie !" burst out HolloNvbread. " If you wish to do me cue immeuse favor — if you wish to make mo your grateful slave for life — accept me at once openly. I should go out of this house little less than mad with pride and hapi)i- uess." "Ah, George! you are irresistible," sighed Josie, dropping her shapely head on his wheezing breast. "You may say that we are engaged. I will say so myself." CHAPTEE XLIII. SYMPATHY, COURTSHIP, AND COUNSEL. The announcement of Josie's engagement made a stir in Washington society, and there Avere plenty of comments upon it, and some very curious ones. Chivalrous young Clavers turned ashier than the Spanish moss of his native lowlands Avheu he heard the tale, and subsequently declared to a bosom-friend that never since the hoary ages began their sorrowful course down the fading track of time — never had there been such another sacrifice of a beau- teous, noble woman to an unholy, selfish, shameless dotard. The grand, gloomy, and peculiar Bray walked thrice around the room in which he received the stunning information, halted suddenly, rolled his eyes at the ceiling, and exclaimed: "Infatuation! 'Whom the gods mean to destroy, they first make mad.' As for Mm, I shall belong to that House some diiy, and I solemnly swear that I will vote against every measure he proposes." The Apollonian Beauman saluted the news of the betrothal with a bland drawl of " Oh — ah — indeed !" but nevertheless felt a uet- tlesome little pang at his heart the while — such a pang as is apt to sting a woman-kill- er on such occasions, and make him conscious of his own vanity. "Well, I must bear it the best I may," he added, with a smile. " I will not try to hide the fact that I shall lay awake over it for five minutes to-night. But poor old Hollowbread ! how will he bear it ?" Probably the person most tenderly and gratefully moved by the tidings Avas Squire Nancy Appleyard. She made no public re- mark upon it, but she turned such a lovely rose -color as lawyers seldom exhibit, and straightAvay sought the rarely disturbed se- clusion of her office, there to have " a good cry" of joy, and to hope for the return of her beloved Drummoud, alas! evermore a volcifje. " Hollowbread going to marry the pretty widow !" griimed Gencr.al Bang.s. " By Jove ! Avhat Avill he do about the claim now ? By Jove ! what a fool he was to let out his en- gagement before he got that job through Congress ! I'll be hanged if I would trust such a dunderhead as that to manage a ward caucus. Either he is inlaying a deeper game than I can understand, or he is the biggest ass that ever blundered inside politics." " Hollowbread now has an opportunity to do a very taking thing," was the opinion which rolled from the mellifluous tube of Horublower. " He is opulent enough to say, I accept the woman, and I resign the claim. If he should cover that money back into the Treasury, it would send him to the Senate. I doubt Avhether Hollowbread has the orig- inality to hit upon that course of action, or the force of character to carry it out. But that is precisely and emxihatically what I should do." Mrs. John Vane, when the engagement was told her by Senator Ironman, leaped from her sofa in rowdy delight, took a polka up and down the room, slapped her informant smartly on the shoulder, and laughed out, " Oh, that old man ! Good enough for her ! I am so glad !" " Yes ; but, by Jove ! he an't so A'ery old," answered the senator, repressing a spasmodic impulse to coA^er with his hand the bald spot of his own cranium. "And he's pooty rich, too, Hollowbread is, and he'll spend his mon- ey for her like blazes." "But he won't spend it for her here," hoped Mrs. Vane, spitefully. " That claim of hers will sink him like a millstone, and he won't be re-elected. Oh, she is done for iu Washington." Well, our friend Hollowbread was hefting this millstone, and wondering how he should get his political neck free of it. He had not thought of its density and thickness Avhen Josie gaA'C her consent to a public engage- ment. He had thought of it iireviouslj', and failed to see a hole through it, and jiut aside the troublesome meditation, as Avas his indo- lent, procrastinating manner. But in that blessed moment of full and OA'ert acceptance he could not, of course, re- member any thing besides his goddess, and the cornucopia of happiness Avhich she was showering upon his dizzy head. Ere long, howcA'er, the claim arose before him again, reminding him that he would soon be called upon to espouse it at the altar, and asking him if he would dare thus to acknowledge it. He decided that he dared not ; that it would probably drive him from political life ; that it Avould certainly dishonor him in his own estimation ; and that he could not make such sacrifices for it. Let mo repeat emphatically that he did not consider himself a dishonest man, but rather an eminent instance of unselfish- ness and scrupulousness, for a Congressman. There were members, and personages of great l^opular uote, too, Avho bragged much of be- PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 149 i'jg tlic champions of tlic sons of toil, who in- trotluceil eight-hoiir hxws and all that sort of Luuconibe, but who yet burdonecl tho Treasury and increased the taxes of the poor by their lobbyings and stealings. One such brawler, as he knew, had taken twenty thou- sand dollars in bribes before the holidays, and would bag at least a hundred thousand by tho end of the session. As for himself, tho only stain upon him, at least during his last two terms, was the sunit of this Murray barn. That had vexed and shamed him considerably, even while he boro it for love alone. But now it would be im- puted unto him that ho had pushed the nasty claim with tho intent of marrying it. He thoiight that he could not stand such an ac- cusation, and he mustered up courage to hiut as much to his darling Josie. "■\Ve ought to have kept the engagement a secret," was her stunning answer. " I told you so all along," she added, with a look of reproach. " But you would have your way." Mr. Hollowbread had the air of a dog whose master stands over him with au up- lifted cowhide. "Why didn't yon think of this before?" she continued. " How did / know ? How could / know all about Congressional rules, and decorums, and prunes and prisms ? It would bo very hard in you to make me suffer for your mistakes." "I would cheerfully settle a similar amount upon you," said Mr. Hollowbread, implor- '■' But it would still be only two hundred thousand between us," she sighed, partly touched by his self-abnegation and generos- ity, and partly vexed by what she considered his lack of foresight. " I must say, my dear good man, that I prefer three hundred thou- sand. Besides, I don't want to plunder you. I prefer my own money." Her own money ! "What a phrase to apply to the proceeds of a theft ! But even if Hol- lowbread could have brought himself to de- spise her for any cause whatever, he had to recollect that there were plenty of claimants far more greedj' and dishonest than she was, and that the more they asked, the more ci- vility they got from Congressmen. " Could I not persuade you somehow to give this up, my dear child?" he begged, meanwhile trying gently to take her hand. " When you urge mo to give it up, you urge me to give you up," returned Josie, with a spasmodic setting of her lips. "That would kill me," he said. "Well, since your heart is set upon it, you must have it — and you shall !" " Ob, George ! I knew I could trust you," murmured Josie, laying her hand gently on his shoulder and filling him with comfort. But she did not trust him, at least not en- tirely. From this day she began to see more than ever of Sykes Drummond, and to talk to him confidentiall3- about her claim. Drum- mond had, of course, his motives for calling punctually in answer to her little notes, and for at least pretending to give her his best advice. He wanted to mak(! trouble for the man who had cut him out of his fat job, and had also ciirried off the belle ; and very like- ly he was at times disposed to do an ill turn by Josie in order to punish her for neglect- ing her own member. But his actual busi- ness intent was to get the claim out of Hol- lowbread's hands, put it under the caro of his own special lobbyist, Mr. Jacob Pike, and so win for himself a portion of v.iiat money and honor there were in it. Afterward, if fortune continued to bless, he might espouse the wealthy j'oung widow, who would doubt- less prefer him to a dyed and 8trapi)ed sex- agenarian. It had scarcely occurred to tho insolent creature that, if Mrs. Murray should get her hundred thousand dollars, she might pay him with a mitten. The visits from Drummond soon became so frequent, and so very confidential, that Mrs. Warden took note of them. " Mr. Hollowbread is exceedingly good- natured," she roguishly remarked one day to the betrothed. " It is his greatest charm," replied Josie, perhaps making a cut at Mrs. Warden's un- certain temper. " I perfectly adore good- natured i>eople." " Of course you do. We all do when we don't laugh at them." " I won't have you laughing at ray dear man. It is the one thing that would kill him — to be laughed at." "We shall have to kill him, then." "The idea of taking a man's life because he is good-natured !" said Josie, who guessed what Mrs. Warden was driving at, and pre- ferred to evade the topic. "It will be all Mr. Drummond's fault," continued that clever lady — very clever, though wanting in good sense. " Do you think I see too much of Mr. Drummond ?" asked Josie, giving up a xise- Icss tactic of dodging, and assuming the rule of an ill (](')! lie. "Well, no — not that precisely," answered Mrs. Warden, shruggiug her shoulders, a fre- quent gesture with this nervous creature. " You don't see a bit too much of him, if that were all. But there is the betrothed. And there is Mrs. Grundy." Mrs. Warden was sweet and low, like the wind of the western sea. Her contralto voice, which could on occasion blow like a, storm, was attuned to tho mellowest reedy breathing of a clarionet. But she was at heart very much in earnest. She was, one might almost say, disgusted with her lodger. She had hoped that, now Josie had got a man all to herself, she would stop flirting, and give other young women a chance. True, Edgar Bradford was, of late, quite at- 150 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. tentive to Belle ; aud if he could be brought to x)ropose, no one else was wanted. But that result was not yet certain, and meantime it might be ^Yell to keep Drummoud on hand, in the way of a sober second choice. It was disagreeable, therefore, to have Josie coquet- ting with Sykes in this absorbing fashion. "I just allude to it out of friendship, and out of regard to your peculiar xiositiou," con- tinued Mrs. Warden. " You know, of course, that I am not so absurd as to object to sweet- hearting in itself." "And of course I am obliged to you," an- swered Josie, not wishing to quarrel with her hostess, and be driven to a boarding- house. " But the positive, solemn truth is that I am not sweethearting one bit with Mr. Drummoud. He comes to see me en- tirely on business." " I thought Mr. Hollowbread was attend- ing to that." " One can't have too many helpers. You know it as well as I do, Mrs. Warden." " Oh, certainly," assented the elder lady, conscious that her own sociable manners and customs were alluded to, and deciding that she must for the jiresent suspend her mo- nitions. ****** Let US now see what sort of business calls Sykes Drummoud made upon Josie Murray. To save time, we will commence our report at the moment when the gentleman rises to take his long-deferred departure. " I believe an Italian lady allows a visitor to kiss her hand at parting," he remarked, after having essayed that form of salute and failed to accomplish it. " I never heard any thing to the contrary," said Josie. "It is an interesting piece of infor- mation. I believe a Chinese gentleman wears his hair down his back in a long cue." "But that doesn't help my case at all," answered Drummoud, trying to hide his disappoiutment and discomjiosure under a horse-laugh. "And neither does the other story, for I am not an Italian lady." Now it must not be supposed that Josie had not allowed Drummond to kiss her hand since the engagement. She had accorded him that favor once ; but the rough creature bad haw -hawed triumphantly over it, and blurted out something about " what would the old man say ?" and, in short, he had dis- gusted her by his noisy, unmannerly, con- ceited gratulation. So, on the present oc- casion, he got no fingers to mumble at. "I wish you were an Italian lady!" plead- ed Drummond. "Perhaps I will make believe that I am one, some day. Only you must help more and demand less." " I demand very little compared with our friend Hollowbread, who is the gi'eatest ex- tortioner upon earth, in my opinion." " But Mr. Hollowbread gives all that he has. He is a model of devotion. He is the one briglit spot of unselfish loyalty in the whole world." " Only grant me a chance, and I will out- shine him. But, really, as to this matter of the claim, I can do nothing unless I have the whole business in my hands, and am allowed to manage it in my way — the only eflective way." " People do talk so about those lobbyists! Mr. Pullwool, and Mr. Jack Hunt, and your friend, Mr. Pike, have the most dreadful reputations that I know of!" " Professionals always have their own code of honor, and that code is rarely ad- mired by other people. But you can not do any thing in any line of action without pro- fessionals. You have to put up with their fashions of work, if you want their results. The world talks against the lobbyists, does it ? Why, Mrs. Murray, I tell you, for the hundredth time, that Congress itself is a nest of lobbyists," declared Drummond, ex- aggerating the facts of wickedness, as wick- ed men are wont to do. " I tell you that the position of senator is well known to be worth one hundred thousand dollars a j ear. I tell you that there are leading members of the House, heads of important committees, who make quite as much. Half our real work is special legislation, or, in other words, private thieving. You think, perhaps, that because these men gather in such harvests, they ought to let j'ou glean Avillingly. But great part of their income, their stealings, their plunder, comes from dividing with claimants. It is a game of tickle me and I'll tickle you. You can not get your claim through without feeing somebody. If Mr. Hollowbread thinks he can do it, he is sim- ply a dunce. You had better droj) him, be- fore he brings your bill to a vote and gets it defeated. Put it into Pike's hands, and pay him his percentage. It will cost you less in the end. He must charge you some- thing, of course ; but, for my sake, he won't charge yoTi much." "How much?" " I think I can get him to do it for twenty thousand dollars." "Twentv thousand dollars! — all to him- self!" " No," laughed Drummond ; " the greatest part to others— to the trusted and chosen ones of the people — to the men whom Co- lumbia delighteth to honor." " But that will leave me only eighty thou- sand — only fifty-six hundred a year." "I Avill drop in at the Lobbitt House as I go along, and see if ho will undertake it for less. I will insist upon ten thousand." " Do," begged Josie. Then, after a mo- ment of pondering, she added, " But Mr. Hol- lowbread must iu)t know." " The idea of telling him — haw, haw ! Do PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 151 you tbiuk I am his intimate? Not under existing circunistauces — haw, haw !" " But don't go to Mr. Pike to-day," urged Josic, still meditating. " It is too sudden. Come and see mo to-morrow about it, and I ■will decide." ''Very well," assented Drummond, smiling with manly superiority ovur this womanly vacillation. *'Aud now ?" he asked, taking her hand again, and slowly bcudiug his head over it. She surveyed him thoughtfully Avhilc he pressed his lips to her fingers, and then said, with a smile : "Are the Italians as long about it as that ? There, that is enough ; the rest some other time; good-bye." CHAPTER XLIV. A CONGRESSIOXAI, AGENT. Josie's perfidies and duijlicities are so numerous that one begins to wonder wheth- er she could help them ; a medical observer might easily conclude that they were con- nected with her circulation, or in some other ■way idiosyncratic and symptomatic ; ■while to the ordinary spectator they gradually be- come characteristic, humorous, and almost comic. Scarcely had Drummond departed from her, with the understanding that ho was to make terms for her with Mr. Pike, ere she dispatched a messenger to the Lobbitt House with a note for that eminent medium of pri- vate legislation, requestiug him to call upon her at once "on strictly couiidential busi- ness." Mr. Pike received the note as he was taking his soup, and in ten minutes more he was on his way to Mrs. Wai'deu's house, hav- ing, nevertheless, done full justice to what he called his " feed." This fact gives one an idea of the rapid deglutition and other business-like faculties of the man. It also shows that he recog- nized at once the name of Josephine Mur- ray, and held it in no small respect, accord- ing to his method of respecting. For it must be understood that, far from being an unem- ployed soul sadly iu need of a job, he was a hardly worked, and indeed overworked one, who had a great many irons iu the fire, and whose time was worth money. True, he nev- er seemed to do any thing but saunter about the streets and into bar-rooms and through the Capitol. But ever and anon, amidst this apparent loafing, you might see that he had some politician by the buttou-hole, and might guess, if you were wise, that he was laying pipe, or rolling logs, or pulling wires. What must have been Josie's repute in the lobby, when at her very first beck this gormandizer of financial garbage flew to her as eagerly as ever a turkey-buzzard flapped toward a carcass ! She was indeed well known in the so-called Third House. Often and ofti;n had Jacob Pike talked over her case with Jack Hunt, and Ananias Pullwool, and Darius Doi'man, and other equally abominable ang(ds of this nether region. They all thought her claim a pretty one, and a dead sure thing to win (" Considcrin' the gal's good looks, you un- derstand ?" emphasized Jack Hunt), if she would only employ an agent, and the right sort of an agent. Equally positive were they that it Avould be beaten, and resolved also to stir up an oi>position ■which would beat it, if she trusted for success to Con- gressmen alone. If George W. IloUowbread, or any other member, could put through a job all by himself, what was to become of " gentlemen brokers ?" " It ■would be a bad precedent," asserted Pike. " It would be next door to unconstitution- al," grinned Dorman. " It would be the sort of thing for a Pres- ident to veto," chuckled Jack Hunt. " It would be a case for the Supreme Court," greasily smiled Ananias Pullwool. But with the right man to care for it, they admitted, the claim was a blazing good claim, and might safely be backed to win, and ought to win. Concerning the lovely claimant her- self, her supposed nature and imputed doings — these brazen scoundrels discoursed with a freedom which would have been distressing even to so independent and audacious a flirt as Josie. But just here their sabbatical con- versation becomes unendurable, and we must not venture to report its graceless innuendoes and assertions. Our heroine had been curious to look upon Mr. Pike, and disposed to receive him with some reverence and even fear. ^Yhen he api)eared before her, stitfly and awkwardly bowing his way athwart the little Warden parlor, she stared at him with surprise and disappointment. It did not seem possible to her that a crea- ture of such commonplace appearance and expression could influence dignitaries, and carry or defeat enactments. She forgot for the moment what ordinary persons many of our Congressmen are, and how eager they are to be moved iu the direction of money- making; she forgot that she herself, a lady, and well-educated and very clever, was put- ting herself into the liands of this same un- j)olished intriguer for the sake of pelf. Mr. Jacob Pike — or Jake Pike, as most people called him — was a slender, bony man of forty-five, with deep, furtive gray eyes, a small, beetling forehead, a shortish nose, a wide, straight mouth, a square chin, broad cheek-bones, a dusky, mottled complexion, and stiif black hair, thickly strewed with gray. He was not coarsely vulgar in figure, costume, or bearing, but he was universally plebeian, commonplace, " ornary." Iu his 15-2 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. expression there was some slyness, but also much nervous energy. It showed no sense of guilt or shame. Probably he did not look upon himself as a scoundrel. What uu- threatened criminal ever does ? " Is this Mr. Pike ?" asked Josie, not quite certain that the right man had come, and naturally anxious not to talk to the wrong man. " Yes, ma'am," he said, stiffly and shyly, for he was somewhat afraid of ladies, or, rather, afraid of exhibiting his own lack of familiarity with the delicacies of etiquette. " I got a letter from you." "Ah, yes !" she smiled. " Have the kind- ness to sit down, Mr. Pike. I believe I men- tioned that it was on private business." " Strictly private, ma'am," answered the lobbyist, with an air of taking an oath. His voice was unemotional, monotoned, wooden ; a perfectly suitaljle voice to his wooden face and demeanor. His pronun- ciation Was uncultivated, bat not strictly boorish ; it seemed rather to be marked by some broad provincialism as vague as the illimitable West; and, like every other of his characteristics, it was thoroughly com- monplace and uninteresting. Josie's fear of him was already gone; she had taken thus promptly his limited measure of intellectual force, and she believed that she could twist him around her fingers. "You are a — Congressional agent, I un- derstand," she continued. " I wanted to see you concerning a claim which I have before Congress. Do you know any thing about it?" "Well, I have took a cussory view of it," re- plied Mr. Pike, whose grammar, though gen- erally human, sometimes dared a flight as wild and free as that of the American eagle. "Will you please to tell me what it amounts to ?" asked Josie. "Well, barn and horse," he replied, not understanding her query, and thinking that his knowledge of the matter was doubted. " Paid once, in 1820, two thousand dollars. New account presented on account of insuf- ficient payment, for a hundred thousand." "I mean, what do you think of the chances?" interrupted Josie, not quite pleased at hearing her imx>udeuce put so frankly. "Well, it's a good, merchantable claim," admitted Mr. Pike. " But what its chances are depends on who runs it." " Well, I have sent for you to sec if you can run it." " Well, I think I can." Josie noticed this repetition of the word " well," and said to herself that she would never open another sentence with it, so as not to bo like Mr. Pike. " I wish it to be understood distinctly that the fact of an arrangement between us is to bo kept secret," she added, fearing the wrath of Drummond and possibly the jealousy of Hollowbread. " Egsackly," he promised, with remark- able emphasis, as if he mispronounced the word on purpose, by way of greater solem- nity. It is an odd fact, by-the-way, that Josie believed him, although she constantly broke her own pledges and promises. "I think I may want you to help me," she said. " That is, if we can agree upon terms." " Well, I thought you would come to me sooner or later," smiled Mr. Pike, supposing that she had found success with her present backers impossible, and that he was sure of the job. "In the end, people always learn that the regolar way is the easiest aud cer- tainest way." " But what are your terms?" "Well, in such a case as this — a good, merchantable case — fifty per cent." " That is very little," stared Josie, wonder- ing if he really meant fifty cents, or what small sum he did mean. Although by this time respectably, or, rathei', disreputably, familiar with the trick- eries of the claim industry, she still retain- ed much lady-like ignorance concerning the mysteries and phrases of ordinary business. "Well, most people consider half about right," smirked Mr. Pike, not quite at his ease just then, as thinking her ironical. " Half !" exclaimed Josie, horrified aud alarmed. " Oh, not half!" she demurred, timidly ; then more boldly, "I couldn't think of giving you half." " That is the regolation figger, Mrs. Mur- ray. Every body in my line does business on those terms." " I needn't paj' it, I know. I have pow- erful friends, who tell me that my claim is sure, and that I really don't need any fur- ther assistance." " Congressmen, I suppose," said IMr. Pike, with a slight sneer. " Fellows that are pecking round after something besides their salary. What we call roosters." " Yes, Congressmen," declared Josie, lofti- ly, somewhat hufled by this belittling of her retainers. " Well, you'd better not believe 'em," con- tinued Mr. Pike, with excitement, like a man in authority who hears of insubordination among his subjects. "The smartest thing you can do, Mrs. Murray, is not to believe 'em. If I was your oldest friend, if I was your own brother, I'd give you that same advice, nothing more and nothing less." " I don't know why they should deceive me, or how they could deceive themselves," returned Josie, almost indignantly. It did not please her at all tlnvt Mr. Jake Pike should speak of her, even in the way of supposition, as his sister. That specimen of nature's gentlenuin meanwhile was not in the least suspicious that he had given any cause of offense. PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 153 " Well, tliey do deceive yon," insisted the lobbyist, as fervent as any man conld be in the cause of truth and in the duty of warn- iu<;f innocence. " They know better than to talk such nonsense. One Congressman, or six Congressmen, or twenty Congressmen, is nothing against us Congressional brokers. You can put your twenty men, say, to jinll- iug for your bill. Very good. It looks, on a cussory view, like a chance. But then -wo can put our fifty men, say, or our hundred men, say, to pulling against it. "Well, where's your chance now ?" "Do yon mean to say that you will op- pose me if I don't emploj* you V " Got to." " I think that is sheer plunder, Mr. Pike," declared Josie, -with what she felt to be vir- tuojis indignation. " It's all plunder, ma'am. But there an't plunder enough for every body. If we let other people plunder without our help, and, so to speak, independently and irregularly, perhaps there's nothing left for us and onr prodigies (proteges?). You see, that would ruin business. A man might as well cut his throat. But how much did you think of al- lowing, Mrs. Murray ?" '•'Why, I thought of proposing — "hesitated Josie. "Xo, I don't want to propose any thing," she added, afraid of mentioning any sum, lest he should agree to it, and it should afterward prove too liberal. " You must tell me what your very lowest terms are." " I'd like to hear a proposition from your side — just to get at your notion — ^just to find a basis." '•■ I would rather not furnish a basis, Mr. Pike. You know all about this business. You must speak first." "I don't know, but I might squeeze along for thirty-three per cent. ; that is, you un- derstand, one-third." '•' Oh ! but even that is too much. Just consider ; it is my own claim. It is not your money ; it is mine." "It won't be yours if you don't get it." " And it won't any of it be yours if I em- jjloy somebody else." Mr. Pike flinched in his secret heart, but ho kept up a bold countenance. "Expenses are awful — scandalous," he said. " Let me tell you something about it, Mrs. Murray. Only, remember that this is confidential. I wouldn't say what I'm go- ing to say, if we wa'u't in the same boat. I shall have to pay a lot full of members, and they are extortionate as the — the dickens. They ask higher and higher every year. It costs tremendous to harness in enough of 'em to pull through a bill of this size, or any respectable bill. Why, our great national highway had to spend half a million before it got a charter ; and what it paid out before it was built there's no figuring nor calcula- tion. Members knew there was money in it, and they would have it. I tell yon, Mr8. Murray, they are a crowd of extortioners," perorated Mr. Pike, with the sub-excitement of an honest man who suffers by evil-doing, but sees no refuge from it except in patience. "But you must take less than one-third," pleaded Jusie, indifferent to these moans of virtuous anguish. " My time and my knowledge of the biz are worth that," insisted the broker. " Be- sides, it an't an easy case — a horse and a barn. There's no end to the horses in Con- gress — Floridy horses and Kansas horses (freedom-shrieking horses, I call them), and Oregon horses and Southern horses — road- sters and trotters and plowing creeturs and thorough-breds — all sorts anddenoniinationa of horses. All ages, too — some last war, and some last but one, and some war before that — and yours is one of the oldest. Well, I wish it was any thing but a horse and a barn. Couldn't you make it a yoke of oxen, now, or a drove of sheep !" inquired Mr. Pike, very gravely and seriously, although his sugges- tion sounded to the inexperienced ear like sarcasm. "It is not a horse and a bam!" snapped Josie, vexed at hearing her claim thus cheap- ened. " There are ever so many horses in it. You said a while ago that it was a very good case ; and it is a much better case than you know of. A number of horses and an incom- plete payment on the barn, and a family-car- riage, and some cows, and lots of other things!" '■' Oh ! — that so ?" asked Mr. Pike, surprised and struck with sudden respect, though he conld scarcely believe her. If she stated facts, then the claim had been furbished up wonderfully since he last looked into it, and was in much better hands tiian he had sup- posed. " Fresh evidence !" he immediately added, with an air of knowiuguess which would have been wicked if it had not been so w ooden and commonplace. " Well, I was talking of the old case — the one that waa settled. If you've got np any thing fresh, it might work easier." "Of course it will work. Several Con- gressmen tell me so." " I dare say," nodded Mr. Pike, obviously not much impressed. "Of course they are tollable judges of a claim. I was a Congress- man myself once ; that's the way I started in this line. But I wasn't so good a judge of a claim then as I am now." " You a Congressman ?" stared Josie, as- tonished out of her civilitv. "From the Soutli ?" " No ; not a carpet-bagger," smiled Pike, a little embarrassed by the depreciating query, but not seriously annoyed. " From Kansas. Yes, I've served my term, as the State-iirison birds say. They threw me ofi' the track ou my second trip," he added, his countenance darkening suddenly as he remembered his 154 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. wrongs. " Then I was backed for a foreign ministry, but somebody got me ruled out. Ob, I have had my ups and downs, Mrs. Mur- ray, and my enemies. A man can't climb the ladder, to any great altitude, without exciting envy. Yes, I've had my enemies. Well, I've mounted some of 'em, and I'll mount more." Josie surveyed him with contemptuous curiosity and wonder. There, in this lowly lobbyist, was tbe wreck of a ^iromising dem- agogue, a man of blighted hopes and disap- pointed ambition, a man who had had a rise, a grandeur, and a decadence ! And he com- plained of fiite ; he thought himself the vic- tim of injustice ; he grieved over the fact of unappreciated merit ; he feelingly bemoaned his lost authority and dignity ! Even to our sadly wise heroine, who knew so much of the corruiition and degradation of Congress, it seemed amazing that such a thoroughly narrow-minded, plebeian, and scampish in- triguer could consider himself fit to repre- sent the American people, or any inconsider- able outlying portion of it. But she bestowed no serious thought upon this phenomenon, so worthj' of our weighti- est and sorrowfullest reflections. She did not stoj) to say, " This is the fruit that uni- versal suffrage bears when the industrious and virtuous cease to care for politics." She hardly considered the public career of Mr. Pike for an instant, or by more than a sin- gle careless glance of her quick intellect — a glance of amazement and of disdain. She was young, a thoroughly womanish woman, and had an axe to grind. This last circumstance led her to utter a few words of sympathy, very vague and by no means heartfelt, but sufficient to touch the heart of our fallen functionary and draw out his confidence. " Yes, it is hard, Mrs.'Murray," he replied. " It comes pretty rough on a man who has worked his way up from the bottom, this be- ing hauled down by the heels does. I am a self-made man. I began life as a teamster. Many's the horse I've rubbed down and tack- led up. I rose by my own exertions, without so much as the start of a common-school ed- dication, to be a member of Congress. I think I ought to have been left there and kept there, if only to encourage self-made men. And to be histed after all! It riles me to think of it. It's enough to rile any body to think of it." Josie made believe that she was moved, but of course she could not care one straw for Jake Pike, a man obviously unfit for love-making. In reality, her sole reflection was that, siuce ho had been " histed " once, he must bo a iH'etty light weight, and might be "histed" again, if she should give her mind to it. " If I were you, I should never forget nor forgive," she said, with a most pitying face, and a heart as hard as a pebble. " But, to return to our business : I will give you one- tenth." It was now the lobbyist's turn to stare with surprise and dismay. " One-tenth !" he exclaimed. " It couldn't be done, ma'am, for twice that. Just think of the outlays. Why, besides members, there's other brokers that I shall have to quiet off with something, and the newspa- per chaps, and more outsiders than I can tell of. I'll be — bothered if I don't believe the Congressional chaplain will come in for his share some of these days, or threaten to pray a fellow's claims out of winder. Oh yes, members, newspaper-men, moneyed men, no end of men ! Dave Shorthand will want his fee, and old Allchin, the House banker, will want his, and so on." "Mr. Shorthand can have five dollars," said Josie, well remembering that historian of the Appleyard fight, and how easily he had been silenced. "As for Mr. Allchin, you may tell him from mo that I will invest through his bank." " You know all these fellows," smiled Pike, lifting his heavy and meaningless eyebrows. " You know the ropes." " I do," said Josie, meaning to impress him and daunt him. " I know all about si^ecial legislation." Mr. Pike smUed again. The subject was an- agreeable one to this ignorant, small-headed, conscienceless, scheming creature. It was his specialty, and it had become his hobby, and ho liked to talk about it. Although he called lobbying j)lunder, and looked upon those features of it which diminished his profits as extortion, still ho held it in re- spect and almost in veneration. From his point of view, it was a kind of public life ; it was more completely " inside politics" than even electioneering or legisla- tion ; it was, as he believed, the very germ and main-spring of statesmanship. A lead- ing lobbyist knew exactly how the world is governed, and for what purx^oso it is gov- erned. We have now laid our disrespectful, but surely not sacrilegious, hands upon the key of ]\Ii'. Pike's contemptible character. Ho was a born intriguer, a man who instinctive- ly loved devious and plotting ways, a man given to trickery, and worshipful of it. This is why he had originally crawled and wrig- gled into politics; this is why, when laid on the i)olitical shelf, he had dropped into lob- bying. Although many people supposed that his ruling passion was covetousness, the belief was an error. He seemed slaveringly greedy for money ; but that was because it helped to success in chicanery, and was the signa- ture and crown of success ; because, when he had picked a fellow -creature's pockets, ho could triumph over him, and could hire hiiu to i)ick other pockets. His real, or at PLAYING THE mSCHIEF. 155 least Lis main, purpose in life was to outgen- eral people, to get the better of them, to "eu- chre " tlicni. It might bo supposed that it ^\as avarice ■which had brought him so hurriedly to Jo- sie at her iirst signal. But, while a desire for pelf had influenced him somewhat, his chief motives had been an honest love of jobbery and a noble desire to be the " boss" of the lobby. Ho wanted to keep this fa- mous claimant from falling into the hands of Pulhvool, Dorman, and Jack Hunt, and to " ruu " her himself. He would be a greater mau in their estimation and in his own if he could obtain the gnardianshii) of the Murray case. Ho was willing to do the job cheap, willing to sacrifice something on it, if he might therebj' secure it. He had already figured his profits down to the lowest percentage which he thought bo could accept without injuring his repu- tation and diminishing his self-respect. He had decided, in fact, to accept Josie's ofter, humiliating as it was to a mau of his jiosi- tiou and aspirations. Meanwhile, feeling resignedly sure of the case at such a moderate figure, he found it pleasant to dally a moment over the charms of his specialty, and to express his crude, diill ideas concerning its marvels aud mysteries. " It's a curious business, this special legis- lation, isn't it ?" he remarked, meditatively. '• It's as full of holes, aud under-ground pas- sages, aud places to catch your feet in, as a jiararie-dog village. I've seen more than one old political wheel-horse go all a-wal- low into it, and never come out again on the right side of an election. On a cusso- ry view, and without considering the cam- paigning expenses of a public man, one can't help wondering how members dare travel such a road. Some of them do trj^ to ride clear of it for a while. And some bolt right there, the first smell they get of it. It's really curious." "As long as they can do it. they can be made to do it," said Josie, who had thor- oughly studied the question of temptation. '•'That's so," nodded Mr. Pike, with great emphasis and approval, evidently much struck with her intelligence and her knowl- edge of his low world. " That's the whole secret. You never can stop jobbery in our Congress until you stop special legislation altogether. Well, Mrs. Murray, I have such a respect for you that I will do for you what I wouldn't do for any other person I know of. I'll take your oifer — ten thousand dollars." Josie immediately repented of having promised so much, and said to herself that he was undoubtedly cheating her, and that perhaps she would not pay him at all in the end. " But no advances, Mr. Pike," she replied. " You must take your own risk — though, by- the-way, there isn't any risk." "All right, ma'am. No vote, no pay. I waut nothing more than a written agree- ment and something in the way of long pa- per." " No ! You must trust to my honor." " But the check will be deposited, you un- derstand, with some imjiartial third party. I am only to have it when the bill is passed." "You must trust to my honor," insisted Josie. " I trust to yours." "Then I bolt," said Pike, rising, with a look of anger, for ho had an unhappy tem- jier, a sad drawback often to his success in fraudfulness. " And if I do bolt, I shall work against you." " If you do, I will work against ijou" de- clared Josie, with a sublime inspiration of impudence. " I will fight every bill of yours that I can hear of" The lobbyist grinned, but it was with a l^erplexed air. He knew what handsome y and clever women could do in Washington ; • and this one was very beautiful, and, as he judged, uncommonly intelligent. He fear- ed that she might indeed be a formidable foe; aud it was not his interest to raise up any enemy unnecessarily. " Well, if you have conscientious scruples against signing long paper, I give in," he smiled, covering his retreat with a heavy joke. "I s'pose I must take your word for the payment." " Certainly you must. The idea of treat- ing a lady otherwise !" returned Josie, pur- suing him closely, and making mince-meat of him. "And now I will tell you how I waut you to manage this business." Mr. Pike inclined himself to listen in re- spectful silence. This pretty aud adroit young woman had, after a sharp struggle, got the upper hand of him, or, as he after- ward expressed it, had got him in harness. The truth is that, outside of the trick of making gross oilers of money to needy or greedy souls of a coarse texture, he was a man of exceedingly limited intellectual re- sources, as well as an uneducated boor. "I want you to be very, very discreet," she continued. " Don't tell Mr. Hollow- bread, nor Mr. Drummond, nor any body, that I have engaged you. Don't go to the committees, not even to ask which one has got my papers. When you want to know where they are, I will inform you. They are now in the Spoliations ; bat they may go to the War or the Judiciary. When they do change, I will let you know. My Con- gressmen will push the bill through the committees, and make all the speeches nec- essarj'. What I want of you is to get up the votes." " Egsackly, ma'am," bowed Mr. Pike, com- pletely subdued, and auxions to make this great woman his friend. "Just my idea. You shall have the votes, Mrs. Murray." From pure instinct, or by mere inveterate 156 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. habit of flirtation, she shed one of her finest smiles over this vulgar miuiou. But he had uo notion of coquetry, and he merely re- sponded by a -wink, tlieieupon taking his departure. " Hech !" exclaimed Josie, with a little splutter of disgust. " I think even Mr. Drummond might have picked out some- body not quite so low. However, perhaps the lower the better, considering the people to be dealt with." CHAPTER XLV. TRAINING AN ADMIRER. / Mr. Pike soon informed Drummond of his interview with Mrs. Murray, and of the con- vention which he had entered into with her. "She wanted it kept shady," he added, " and I, of course, told her she might rely on me. You have to be roundabout with women to get along with 'em and manage 'em," he explained, putting on an air of hav- ing beeu too much for his fair client, though jiainfully conscious that she had driven a very hard bargain with him. " But you and I, Sykes, have wagoned it too much to- gether for me to do any thing underhanded by you. When a man is a man's partner, he ought to lead so as to let his partner know what he's got in his hand." " Yes, there is such a thing as honor," guffawed Drummond, brutally relishing his own irony, and even gazing at Mr. Pike with undisguised contempt. " And, besides, it pays in the long run to play fair with Con- gressmen, doesn't it ? And, besides, you will want my help in this chore." " Undoubtedly," admitted Pike, with a cer- emonious pronuuciation and a glum counte- nance, showing that he was not pleased with this satire. " You seem to be rather irasci- ble about something to-day. I should like to know if I haven't done the right and cor- rect and honest thing ?" " Confound that little shuffler !" broke out Drunnnond, thus revealing the real cause of his ill-humor. " So she wanted to count me out? By George! I never saw the beat of her for trickery. She is prodigious. I nev- er saw her equal." " Well, nor I neither," agreed Jake Pike, not without admiration for the trickster, so fair-minded was he. " I call myself a mid- dling c.ipable business man. You know, Sykes, tliere an't more than a thousand or two of my friends can euchre me in a bar- gain. But she run me down from fifty per cent, to ten per cent, before I knew where I was sliding to." It was a painful, degrading confession, and he had hated to come to it. It seemed to him tliat ho had shown small dickering ability, and had beeu cheated in a manner which made liira ridiculous. Had a man thus sheared the golden fleece of his profits it would have annoj-ed him, but that a wom- an should do it gave his vanity a verj'^ tooth- ache of humiliation. Now, however, that Drummond acknowledged Mrs. Murray to be prodigious and hard to beat, he could find courage to confess how she had docked his commissions. " Ten per cent. !" laughed Sykes, uproari- ously. " Well, you were lucky in getting that," he added, promptly, not wishing the matter otherwise. " How did she manage to shave yon, old man ? Make eyes at you ?" " Eyes ! She made mouths at me, rather than eyes. Argued me all about the room. Threatened to work against me." Drummond burst into another roar of laughter ; it always pleased him to see any one else beaten. " We shall have to knock under," he said. "We shall have to give her her own way." "Well, yes. We shall have to let her deal," conceded Pike. " If I was never eu- chred before, I am now. But where are these papers ?" he asked, not quite trusting to Josie's statement concerning them. "In the SjwJiations. Under the wing of the greatest of jobbers." " Oh, Mm .'" said Pike, with a look of alarm. " Why, he'll want twenty per cent, himself." "At the last minute it will be popped into some other committee. I will tell you which and when." "All right, Sj'kes," yawned Mr. Pike, gap- ing and stretching at his ease, as if all this were the simplest and safest business possi- ble. " Covering up tracks. Bully for you ! Wake me early! But I thoiTght old Hol- lowbread held the cards V " He thinks he does, and I do. There, that's enough. I have something else to attend to. Go a:;d train your watch-dogs of the Treasury — haw, haw !" Tlie next day Drummond was to call on Josie, and he did not fail to keep his ap- pointment. He walked rapidly, as deter- mined people are apt to do when angry, and ho fully intended to rush in upon the i)er- fidious one boldly, and to reprove her open- ly. But when she met him witl^ono of her sweetest faces, rustling and swaying dainti- ly in one of her most becoming dresses, ho gave her a glance of admiration, and was as civil as he could be. " I am so glad you came !" she observed. "You need not speak to that Mr. Pike about mj'^ claim. I would rather you shouldn't." "What a pity! He would have been so xiseful to yon !" answered Drummond, unable to help grinning as he said it. Josie guessed at once that ho had heard of Pike's visit, and she changed her tactics with bewildering rapidity. " Because I have spoken to him myself," she added, laughing and making mock PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 157 courtesies. " Oh, Mr. Dnimmond ! oh, my poor member! If you want any bargaining done, do let mo manage it for you. You thought Mr. Pike -would want twenty thou- sand dollars, and he has agreed to take ten thousand !" "No !"' exclaimed Sykes, in feigned aston- ishment. " It is the cheapest thing of the kind I ever heard of." '• I thought I would try what I could do witli him. You see, I have been frank with yon." "Perfectly. I take it as a compliment. Well, I am glad you have made such a bar- gain." " Don't say ircU. Mr. Jake Pike says ivcll, or, rather, wal. I suppose ho thinks that all's wal that ends wal. He repeats and drawls the word abominably. It is enough to break a nation of the habit. Ho is a commonplace, plebeian creature, and he is very ignorant and very stupid. I don't see how you camo to clioose such an agent. I don't see how ho can accomplish any thing." "Work does it ; pulling does it; impu- dence does it. This man works and pulls all day, and his impudence would armor a ship of war. He believes every body on earth can be bought, and consequently he buys a great many. He is one of the most successful members of the nether house." " It speaks poorly for the taste of the up- per houses." "I don't know that any body ever claim- ed any taste for them. However, putting all this trilling aside, yon have done a clev- er thing. Jake and I will draw famously together in your harness." " He shall hire the votes, and you shall make the oration, and Mr. Hollowbread shall pull the committees." "An excellent plan, leaving Hollowbread out — haw, haw! But I suppose a lady must let her betrothed help her, or make believe help her." "Oh, I will tell him what committees to pull, and you shall tell me. All the wires shall be secretly in your hands. Won't that satisfy you? It must." " I will be satisfied with any thing that you decide upon, barring your marriage with Mr. Hollowbread." "And why not with that?" asked Josie, roguishly, after a brief hesitation, which did her conscience some little credit. Then there was a scene of cooing and woo- ing, which Drummond carried as far as she would permit, and farther than Mr. Hollow- bread would have permitted. The young Congressman had fully deter- mined to win her for a wife, if ho could do it. The claim, being at last in skillful hands, seemed to him secure ; and what with her beauty, social position, and cleverness, she was indeed a prize. So he courted her in cold blood — no, not precisely thus, for the current in his veins was of an ardent nature ; but, at all events, he courted her intelligent- ly and with a set purpose. Now, Josie was one of those, we will sup- pose, rare women who would rather be court- ed by any sort of man than bj' no man. Bradford had deserted her, most of her oth- er beaus had cooled since the promulgation of her engagement, and thus the constant Drummond had enhanced iu value through lack of competition. Once, as we know, she liad disliked him, and even now she did not fancy him over- much. But ho would do iu a pinch; and, moreover, his thirty years were more en- ticing than Mr. HoUowbread's sixty; and finally, she needed his Congressional — alas! for the degraded word! — yes, his Congres- sional services. So she endured soft speech- es from this surely unlovely rough, and even allowed him to kiss her patrician, her be- trothed hand. He would have got on better with her could she have trusted his discretion. But his emotional fibre was so coarse, and so lit- tle susceptible of sympathetic bruises, that he often made dreadful blunders among the delicacies of intimacy, just as a buU inevi- tably commits damaging mistakes iu a china- shop. We have already related how he offended her by his bovine ejaculation, "What would the old man say ?" And she did not feel at all sure that he would not some daj' utter a bellow in Mr. HoUowbread's ear about the cordiality with which he was favored by Mr. HoUowbread's betrothed. Then there would be a quarrel among her legislators, and her claim on her couutrj-'s strong-box might suffer thereby. Moreover, what if Bradford should hear of these fond- lings, and should utterly despise her ! There was a thought which made her cringe with honest pain, so nearly could she come to lov- ing purely and truly. "All this is as a friend," she said, to the finger -kissing Drummond once — at least once. " But other peoi)le might misunder- stand it. It is all strictly confidential, as the phrase is. You must be very discreet, sir!" " You must take me to be no gentleman," he answered, with his characteristic self-as- sertion and want of tact. " Your faults run that way, Jlr. Drum- mond," she retaliated, speaking very calmly, however, and looking him softly in the eyes. It was a terrible rebuke, and yet it sound- ed like the pleading of an admirer who wish- es to amend in order to admire more entire- ly. For a moment the bull in a china-shop had a feeling as if an axe had been driven in between his horns. " Is it possible I'' he murmured, for it seems that he had been very ignorant of himself, as probably each one of us is. " Perhaps I 158 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. am a little rough. I beg your pardon, Mrs. Murray, for all my doings and sayiugs in the way of being obnoxious. I will try to mend my manners." - They are yonr greatest defect," she vrcnt on, surveying him ^Yith unflinching good- nature, like a patient surgeon watching an unwilling patient. " You put down people, and then you exult over them. It makes them want to tight you, or to get away from you. If you would only be as gentle as you are strong, if you would only say soft things to people instead of hard ones, you would double your power of iufluenciug women- yes, and men, too. And when you win a fa- vor, you should not blow a trumpet over it as if it were a triumph. Now, I tell you all this iu kindness. I like you well enough to want you to succeed. I want you to be a pojiular man and a great one." "Thanks!" bowed Drummond, for once in his life agreeably humble. " I assure you that I am sincerely obliged to you, both for the whipping and the motive. And now I should like to state something which may explain and excuse, or at least palliate, this antagonistic tone which you find in me. Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time a soft-hearted old gentleman found a little boy crying on a door-step. 'Youngster,' said this old gentleman, 'what is the matter?' ' Oh!' blubbered this little boy, 'my mammy died, an' my papa married agin ; an' then my papa died, an' my mammy married agin ; an' now 'pears as though I wasn't any body's son.' Well, that bereaved urchin, that prov- erb of misfortune, was myself. I have had a combative life. It was a series of buflfet- ings at the start, and it has been a struggle ever since. What I have bad I have fought for. You can understand, perhaps, how I grew up somewhat pugnacious, and also somewhat disposed to celebrate my victo- ries." "I don't blame you," said Josie. "But you are victorious now, and you must be magnanimous. It will be the wisest way." Thenceforward they got on better together. By an immense effort of intelligence, thor- oughly appreciable only to those who have sought earnestly to discover and amend their faults of demeanor, Drummond divined that his triumphing laugh was offensive to hu- man ears, and labored diligently to break himself of it, as well as of other forms of self- assertion. Josie, on her part, saw that she had influenced him, and liked him because of it. Besides, now that he said few disa- greeable things and uttered an occasional compliment, he was at times positively at- tractive. She, of course, did not know, she was too young yet to have learned how dif- ficult, how almost impossible, it is to change character. We arc the sons of our ancestors ; we are our ancestors over again. One may say that there is never a new, .a perfectly individual temperament born upon earth. Circum- stances and education vary the transmitted type more or less in exteriors, but not at all in its inner nature. Leave the plant to it- self, and it reverts to its ]irimal character, producing the hereditary fruit of its kind. This Sykes Drummond, for instance, no mat- ter how he might strive to polish his man- ners, would always be, in emergencies, and iu forgetful moments, coarse, insolent, and masterful. He came of a breed remarkable for its energy, arrogance, and combativeness. However, these two now got on nicely to- gether, much to the grief of poor Mr. HoUow- bread. He did not receive any revelations from Sykes, not even in the way of snorts of triumphant laughter; and much less did he glean any disturbing hints from the conver- sation of our clever and considerate heroine. But he saw things which worried him; he found an envelope addressed to Drummond iu his betrothed's adored handwriting ; he encountered that gentleman several times in the Warden parlor ; he beheld him from a distance entering the house; he caught him leaving it. Old men engaged to young lassies are al- ways jealous, and perhaps justly so. Mr. Hollowbread was so troubled in this way that he could not get his due and essential allowance of sleep. He rose from wakeful j)illows with aching bones, a dizzy head, and watery eyes, absolutely unable to see what his breakfast was without glasses, and not much better able to taste it. He would have remonstrated witb Josie as to Drummond's visits, only that he loved his little jilt dearly, and was therefore afraid of her. Occasionally, indeed, he dared to hint his dissatisfaction by talking little, looking " grumpy," and sighing. But it amounted to just nothing at all. The man kept coming, and she kept receiving him, and, in short, it was dreadful. At last — oh dear! that a conscientious narrator should have to tell such things! — at last our poor Hollowbread beheld Drum- mond kissing Josie's hand. Did he speak ? No, he choked ; he came as near as possible to having a fit on the spot ; and, mixed with his griefs, ho felt a sudden terror lest he should die ; yes, die and lose his Josie. An afflicted person in such a state of health could do no better than to close the door softly and go straight home. That night ho had to be sat up with, his feet in a tub of hot water and nuistard, and a bandage soaked in chloroform around his capacious noddle. His servitor iu this ex- tremity subseciuently reported that "Mars Hollowbread had a most awful ncwraligy, an' cried like a baby." It was in the bosom, however, that our frieud suffered mainly. Was his adored one PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 159 false to liiin, or Tvas that kiss a mere Drnm- montlisli impertiueucc ? Keasou as be iniglit iu fivvor of tlio latter suppositiou, he could uot help fearing that his Josio was an incur- able coquette, and that, even after their mar- riage, she AYOuld continue to flirt. Should he sunnnou up all his self-respect and forti- tude, and tell her that he freed her from her engagement ? " No, no ; I could not do it !" groaned and •whimpered this pathetically earnest and humble lover. " I am happier with her playing the deuce with me than I would be without her." AVcll, he did not die; nor did ho quarrel with his affianced because of the kiss; nor did he ever say a word to her about it. As nothing of the kind ever blasted his sight again, ho soon learned to hope that Drum- nioud had relinquished those obnoxious os- culatory habits, and at last half persuaded himself that he had never seen what he did see. Meantime he kept on working faithfully for Josie's claim, hoping therebj' to win her gratitude, and so keep her heart. Not a thought now of statesman-like honor ; not a compunction as to robbing the treasury of his country ; not a throb of regret as to in- creasing the burdens of a tax-hampered peo- ple. He was a degraded marauder of poli- tics, fighting from the ambushes of special legislation : a bewitched old Lothario, sacri- ficing others and himself for a passion. CHAPTEK XLVL EDGAR BRADFORD'S COXFIDEXCES. It will be remembered that Colonel Mur- ray was obliged to take his widowed, sor- rowing, half-crazed, and failing brother on a journey. The poor rector traveled far — farther than the colonel eould accompany him — farther than any man has yet voyaged and returned. A week after his body had been laid in the family vault under an old gray church of ante-Revolutionary date, the surviving Mur- ray of that generation re-appeared in Wash- ington with a weed around his tall white hat, and a new furrow or two athwart his long white face. Bradford met him on the broatl sidewalk in front of the War Department, and spoke to him twice ere he could call him out of a reverie. " My dear colonel, I am glad to see you," he said, joyfully. Then, noticing the sad- dened countenance and the mourning, he added, " I hope that all is well." "All is well that survives," replied the old gentleman, struggling to control a spasm which twitched his thin lips. " What !" exclaimed Bradford. "Yes — my brother failed under it," con- tinued the colonel, his gray eyes fixed on va- cancy with a strangely mournful stonincss, reminding one of sepulclir.al granite. "He was bound up in his wife. Well, let us hope that they arc together again." •' It is very sad — and surprising," sighed Bradford. "Many people hoped and be- lieved that the result would be different." This was true enough. Many of the rec- tor's acquaintances had predicted tliat, onco he was fairly rid of his sickly burden of a wife, he would proceed to " have a good time." Mrs. Warden, for instance, had in- sisted that ho would marry again, and had perhaps contemplated the possibility of an ofler coming her way. "He was too heavenly-hearted to live af- ter he had ceased loving," said the colonel, clearing his throat. " It seemed to him that his work in life, his responsibilities and uses, were gone. Probably it was a mercy to him that his physical nature was so weak." " People will blame Mrs. Augustus Mur- ray for this result." "They will be but partly just," replied the rational old soldier. " She hurt him ; hurt them both. But I don't know that I can condemn her for this ending. Life is a battle. You get your ball, and it does for you. But the man who fired it did uot aim at you ; was acting blindly and to save him- self ; he bore no malice. Josie's faults are selfishness, dishonesty, and lying. She is not malignant. But let this pass," he add- ed, shaking himself, or, perhaps, shivering. " What is the news with you, Bradford ?" Then there ensued some talk concerning Congressional schemes, hopes, and labors. "Have you any further report concerning that barn-burning swindle?" the colonel eventually asked. "Bangs assures me that the bill has been thrown out by his committee. I don't feel obliged to believe any statement of his, but I think it likely that the thing should be so. It was an audacious job. Mrs. Murray is still staying with the Wardens, but I never see her." " You haven't felt obliged to cut Belle, I hope ?" " No," said the young man, coloring in a becoming manner, and looking very hand- some, and very good, too. Then, after a moment of hesitation, ho continued, " Col- onel, I should like to make a confidence to you. I think I can give you a pleasure. If iliss Warden will accept me, I shall marry her." For the first time in a month an honest, hearty smile broke out on the old man's face. With an almost iiarcntal air of petting and blessing, he placed one of his gaunt, wasted hands on Bradford's shoulder, and said, "I am glad to hear this. You are two young people whom I like and respect. I 160 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. think it would be the best thing either of you could do to fall into the great column which is charging on the unknown along- side of each other." ! " She is my superior," declared Bradford, who was in a tender and worshiping temper. " She is fit to be my officer. She will up- hold me. This is a place of horrible tempta- tions, colonel. She will be just such a wife as a Congressman needs. She will not let me do an unworthy action. I may not love her as much as she deserves — it is not easy to be noble enough to do that ; but I know that I shall reverence her." " I know that you will," replied the col- onel, wonderfully touched for au old soldier and an old bachelor. " I feel assured, Brad- ford, that there is good enough in you for that." " I thank you, colonel : you give me great j)leasure,-' declared our new lover, all alight and aflame with fine emotions. " Well, good-bye." "Good-bye, and success to you!" called the old man, divining why the young one strode away so rapidly. In the heat aroused by this confession, and by the satisfaction with which the col- onel had received it, Bradford went straight in search of Belle to tell her his love. He was iu that agreeable state of excitement which often follows upon a fine decision, and accompanies the first eager steps of re- sultant action. There was a delicious warmth in him, like the warmth of summer mornings, full of balminess and of warblings. His emo- tions, his intellectual forces, and the very currents in his veins, down to the tiniest throbbing rivulet, were all tropical. It seemed to him, and it undoubtedly was, the happiest and most splendid moment of his life. Never before had he laid down ev- ery ounce of nature's egotism, and complete- ly preferred another being to himself. Thus lightened of all selfishness, he rose somewhat above the normal level of human- ity, attaining to the altitude of spirits capa- ble of sacrifice, and coming within vision of , angels. At first thought it seems a grand pity that this lofty self-forgetfulness of the lover can not last throughout his existence, and can not become a universal characteristic of our race. But there is sad chance that so heavenly a state of mind would be ill- suited in the long run to a brood which must struggle with the physical difficulties of this planet. In some such a state poor old Rector Murray had lived, Avith the re- sult that he did no worthy work beyond comforting one woman. If we were all divested of self-preserving egotism, and robed for life in the innocent swaddlings of unmixed love, we should prob- ably lose our civilization, dress in fig-leaves. and become extinct. We should meet the fate of that famous tribe of monkeys who sat in each other's laps until they all starved to death. Bradford was soon at the Warden house, and alone with Mrs. Warden. He had no fear of being discouraged by her, and not much fear of being rejected by her daugh- ter. On the contrary, he felt able to make self- respectful terms with the elder lady, and to ofi'er himself to the younger with al- most as much confidence as willingness. " Mrs. Warden, I wish to speak to you of Belle," he began. "And if what I am about to say is agreeable to you, I shall then wish to sjieak to her." The lady's large, dusky, and, one might almost say, smoky-black eyes sparkled and danced with intense satisfaction. " I don't think, Mr. Bradford," she replied, " that you could say any thing of Belle, or to Belle, which would not give me pleasure." It was nttered with an impulsive prompt- ness which revealed vividly her liking for him and her adoration of her child. The answer and the manner nearly be- wildered him ; nearly made him forget the terms which he meant to impose. But they were tremendously important ; they were essential, as he thought, to his honor as a bridegroom and a statesman ; and, after wa- vering for a moment, he swung back to them with a firm grip. " I think Belle is worthy, and much bet- ter than worthy, of being my wife," he con- tinued. "I desire, above all things in the world, to win her for a wife." In her joy Mrs. Warden smiled, bowed, fairly leaned toward him, and colored deep- ly. There could be no doubt that she thought him the finest of young men; and once more he nearly flinched from his task of imposing conditions upon such a wel- come. "But I must ask two favors before I ask this greatest of all favors," he managed to proceed. " I must beg of j-ou to let Mrs. Murray look for another home." "It would be quite proper," murmured Mrs. Warden. Of course ; it was her business as a moth- er to rid Belle of a companion who might prove a dangerous rival; and, furthermore, it was natural that a freshly engaged man should hate to meet daily an old flame with whom he had perhaps been very, very iuti- mate. It was characteristic of the lady, by-the- way, and shows how deeply her moral sense had been seared by worldliness, that she should make this last reflection with the ut- most composure of mind, and without pass- ing severe sentence upon either Bradford or Josie. She did not sit in judgment on them; she did not find them either guilty or not guilty of improper demeanor; she did not PLAYING TILE MISCHIEF. 161 care one straw whether they had been gnilty or not. In all such matters she was as in- different as Gallio, and as immorally un- prejudiced as Machiavclli. It seems impossible at first glance that such a woman could liavc a dauglitcr like Belle, whoso chief spiritual trait was stren- uous and almost uucharitablo uprightness. But here we come again to the miracle, or, rather, to the law, of hereditary character. James C'hanning Warden had been a man of fastidious trutlifulness and purity. " I thank you for your very great kind- ness, Mrs. Warden," pursued Bradford. " But I feel bound to ask one thing more, and, I suppose, a much harder thing." He hesitated, and she trembled. Could it be that ho would wish her to give up her claim ? An old gambler, who is urged by puissant circumstances to forswear gaming, can imagine her emotions. Her voice was Aveak, and her swarthy cheek faded, as she asked,"Whatisit?"' "It is this, that you will withdraw your claim from before Congress, with the under- standing that it is never to be renewed." Mrs. Warden had to summon all her forti- tude to suppress a groan, and to keep herself from turning faint. But, infatuated as she was with claim-hunting, she still had a few scattered atoms of connnon sense left, and she knew that it would be madness to re- ject this demand. Her small fortune was nearly gone ; her longed-for apx:)ropriation seemed as far beyond her grasp as ever ; and Lei'e,if she would resign that shadow, was a brilliant and wealthy son-in-law. '• I viill withdraw it, Mr. Bradford," she whispered, with a sensation of having been bled deeply, and lying helpless in the sur- geon's hands. " It has worn my life out," she added, venting her petulance on the un- grateful delusion which was now escaping her. " I shall be glad — glad to stop it," she gasped on, almost weeping. " Of course, I pledge myself not to renew it — oh, willing- ly! willingly!" " This gives you pain," he said, walking up to her, and taking both her hands. " I will see that you never regret it." She jumped to her feet, drew him close to her with characteristic animation, and kissed his forehead fervently, almost passionately. "You are the noblest young man in the world I" she exclaimed. " I shall be un- speakably proud of you. There ! Now I will send Belle to you." Euuning hastily up stairs with the glee of a child who has lost one plaything and found another, she dashed into her daugh- ter's room, contem]ilated the girl with spar- kling eyes and a triumphant smile, and at last burst out laughing, being a trille hyster- ical with conflicting emotions. "What has happened, mamma?" asked our Juno, not even raising her head from her 11 work, and only lifting her long lashes from her calm, lucid blue eyes. " Belle, go down stairs and entertain Mr. Ih-adford," was the reply, uttered in Die most nonchalant contralto tone possible, for Mrs. Warden had suddenly conceived the delight- ful idea of giving lier daughter a surprise. " He has come to make a call." " I don't see tlie j(jko of it, mamma," said Belle, rising at once, with a heightened color in her blonde cheeks. "Ho wants you to go on a picnic with him — to the IIai)pj' Isles, or somewhere. Ho will tell you all about it. I don't object, if you don't." " A picnic at this season !" marveled Belle, and rustled innocently down to meet her fate, though prepared in heart to bow to itj yes, and to do it reverence. When she entered the parlor, she saw Bradford coming slowly to receive her, with a peculiarly grave, tender expression in his meditative hazel eyes, and with both hands cordially extended. " What does this mean? A picnic ?" she smiled, Avhile suffering her fingers to become entangled with his. "Your mother told you that ?" he replied, with a low laugh, a laugh which struck her as deliciously Huisical. " She wanted me to sur- prise you," and for a moment he adored Mrs. Warden. " I hope, my dear beautiful girl, that it will be a pleasant surprise." " Oh ! what do you mean, Mr. Bradford '?" gasped Belle, her heart suddenly beginning such a thumping that she could scarcely breathe. " My dear, it means — " And here he lifted her hands to his li^is. " My very dear one, it means — " And then ho told her the old, beautiful story, the fairy tale which has given a thou- sand-fold more delight than all others, the tale of worshiping and loving which ends with asking in marriage. " Yes," was Belle's answer, not spoken so much as whispered, or, rather, breathed. "Could you have feared that I would say any thing else ?" "Yes. I could." " You need not have feared : not for months back. You are good and honorable. I love you for it." "Not very good. But I will be better; for your sake." " I am satisfied with j"ou. Perfectly." "No. I will better — gentler, and purer. Heaven help me !" " You frighten me. I shall never be wor- thy of you." " Oh, my noble one ! How sweet of you to say so !" They misjudged and exaggerated each other, no doubt ; but they were the holier in feeling and jiurpose because of this hyper- bole of appreciation ; they were iu that pes- 162 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. session of entlinsiasm, faitli, hope, and es- X>€ctation Avliich inspires so many great and beautiful deeds : that superhuman extrava- gance of the heart which always deludes, but which always uplifts. CHAPTEK XLVII. JOSIE'S FRESn TKOUBLES AXD COMPLICA- TIOXS. While the two lovers mingled their hearts in the parlor, Mrs. Warden hearkened from the top of the stairs in a couiiict of emotions. "K she refuses him, I do believe I shall pound her !" she muttered, shaking her fist in the air, while she leaned over the banisters and strove to catch some sound which should reveal how the wooing was speeding. "I wish I had told her to mind what she was about, and not make a fool of herself." It is a fact — a very odd one, surely, and yet, proljably, a very natural one — that this eccentric woman looked upon her upright and straightforward daughter as extremely queer. Belle was not like other girls, she insisted ; there never was any telling what she would think or what she would do ; nev- er yet had she held her mother's opinions or wanted to do her mother's bidding. She had seemed to like Bradford very much, and still, at the last minute, she might not take him. Nor, while saying all these things to her- self, could Mrs. Warden forget her now out- cast claim, or quite fail to grumble at the young Congressman for condemning it. But to a woman, and especially to an interested mother, a betrothal is always an occupying and august subject, capable of administering vast consolation. When our anxious mam- ma overheard how nicely matters were go- ing below stairs, she forgot that Belle was singular and irrational, forgot that her ap- propriation must miscarry, and was one of the happiest of mortals. She joined the two loving ones as soon as her sense of the proprieties of the case would admit, and kissed them and blessed them with the sensibility of a heart which was as fervid as it was wayward. After Bradford had departed, and after she had talked over the rose-colored future with her daughter, she set herself to the task of cutting loose from her lodger, Josie had just returned from an absence of some hours, and had been heard to go di- rectly to her room. Mrs. Warden dropped in upon her with a smile, and caught her wiping away a tear. " My dear, yon are looking very tired," she said. " I am afraid you overdo yourself with these long walks." " I am awfully tired," responded poor Jo- sie, who had como near to meeting Bradford in the street, and had seen him evade her. " It isn't the walking, though — that rests me ; it is listening to those long-winded creatures at the Capitol," she rattled on, trying to con- ceal her agitation. "I couldn't help think- ing how much more interesting they would be if they were deaf and dumb, and only made signs. And, oh ! the manners ! Gen- eral Bangs sat on the small of his back, with one leg over his desk. Honest John Vane combed his hair with a iiocket-comb which must have cost twenty -five cents. Mr. Sharp cleaned his long, yeUow teeth with his handkerchief. It is worse than the Jap- anese ambassadors playing with their toes." "What is u]3 to-day ? Who spoke ?" said Mrs. Warden, who, as we remember, was clean cracked about Congress. " Mr. Sharp, Honest John Vane, Mr. Hol- lowbread, and I don't know who else." " Mr. Hollowbread ! You ought to have been interested." Josie made a face. Mrs. Warden burst out laughing. It was perfectly understood between them that Mr. Hollowbread was something of a bore, even to his betrothed. " Oh, he does very well, you know," added Josie. " It was all rounded and finished, and polished and balanced and Blaired. It was as genteel as the gait of a gentleman of the old school. He spoke better than any body else, and he was apx>lauded, too ; but it was about contracting and inllating the currency ; and who cares about contraction and inflation ? I saw Mrs. John Vane there, waving her handkerchief at her husband — to show that it was all lace, I suppose. She ought to have gone to the other wing and waved it at Senator Irouman, who probably gave it to her. They did almost nothing. They passed one appropriation bill, but noth- ing for us. Twenty -five millions to the navy! Dear me, what a lot of monej' there is wasted ! Three hundred millions a year, and nothing for yon or me ! I wanted to get uj) and say that it was wicked, and that things would go diiferently when women voted, and all that sort of nonsense ; but I saw that l)oor, demented Nancy Appleyard blooineriz- ing opposite me, and staring at Mr. Druni- mond, and I gave up the idea of making a speech for fear it should please her." "And were there no private bills?" ask- ed Mrs. Warden, with a faint hope that her appropriation had jiassed somehow — passed by accident, by miracle. "Are you perfectly sure ?" "Not one: not so much as the vurth of Mr. Stiggins's umbrella; nothing for Em- manuel," replied Josie. Tlie descendant of Connnodoro What's- his-name sighed ; then she turned to the bus- iness of evicting her tenant. " I am so sorry to tell you that we have got to part," she said; and really she was a little sorry, as well as not a little glad. PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. IGC " Part ! What is tbo matter now !" de- manded our heroine. Sbo spoke -^ith an unnsnal tartness, for not only Avas the suggestion vexatious, but that dodging of Bradford had been irrita- ting, and her heart was still sore from it. "My dear, I am so sorry," palavered Jlrs. ^Yarden. *' I hate above all things to lose you. I5ut circumstances have occurred which render it absolutely necessary that I should have the whole of my house." '• I thought wo were to live together and work together?" muttered Josie, almost at the point of whimpering, for sho did not know whereto go. Mrs. "Wardeu liesitated and pondered. She had not by any means lost all hope with re- gard to her appropriation, and this reference to it made her long to keep friendship with her tenant, that able and indefatigable wire- puller. Still, one thing was certain : it was absolutely necessary to get Bradford's old flame out of the house ; and so she presently added, not without a sigh, '• I have dropped my claim." Our heroine looked up sharply ; she knew that somethiugveryextraordiuarymust have happened to account for such a decision, and she began to divine what it was, and to tremble. " The truth is, that Belle is engaged to Edgar Bradford," burst forth the proud moth- er, unable longer to hold iu the splendid rev- elation. Perhaps it was the most crushing and tor- turing piece of news that had ever fallen Tipon Josie's heart. She had partially ex- pected it, aud yet it came to her, as death or any other giant calamity always comes, with stunning aud inclement suddenness. Her face turned marble-white, and for a moment she could not reply, not even in a whisper. '•'And so you see, my dear, it will be real- ly necessary that we should soon have the whole of oxir house," continued Mrs. "Warden, meanwhile surveying her victim steadily, not with any purpose of inflicting pain, but with the unmeant cruelty of curiosity. " Certainly," murnuired Josie, speaking, as it seemed to her, out of a dream, or rather a nightmare. Then she made an immense effort, and added, " I congratufate Belle." " When shoukl you fixncy going ?" asked Mrs. Warden, somewhat anxiously. With this pretty woman iu love with Bradford, and ready, doubtless, to fling her- self at his head on the first opportunity, it would bo well to get quit of her as soon as possible, and jierhaps well to quarrel with her. "I will go as soon as I can," quavered Josie, rising in anger. '• I will see about a lodging-place at once." Mrs. Warden murmured that she was '' so sorry,'' rustled hastily out of the room, look- ed up her daughter, and whispered, " I have told her every thing. She is dead in lovo with him." " Mamma ! Stop !" hissed Belle, unable to bear that any other woman should dare to love the sacred man of her heart. "I will not hear a word about that!" "Never mind. Sho is going to-day. The sooner the better." There was a sudden revulsion of feeling in Belle, an outburst of pit j' for her unhappy rival. In that joyous day, and for many joy- ous daj's to come, it must seem to her that a disappointment in love would bo the fearful- est of calamities, worthy of the profouudest compassion. "Poor Josie !" she said, pressing her hands to her eyes and wiping away tears of sym- j)athy. " Nonsense !" laughed the mother. " She can stand it — with all her men to help her." Meantime, Josie had left the house with the noiselessness of a hall-thief, anxious to evade every eye. After an hour she return- ed, almost as pale as when the engagement was revealed to her, and obviously in a state of exhaustion. Immediately Mrs. Warden hastened to her room to conclude a matter of business — the price of board. "I have found a place," said Josie, who was packing her trunk, and who continued to pack without looking up. " I hate board- ing-houses, but I must try one for the jires- eut. I shall go to-night." "And as to our — our common exxienses?" suggested Mrs. Warden, who had no confi- dence in debtors, especially female ones. " I thought, my dear, that perhaps we had bet- ter settle that matter while it is convenient." " We never fixed upon any terms," mum- bled Josie, whose porte-monnaie was nearly emjity, and no dividends due for some time. "Ah! yes — don't you remember? You were to pay one-third, my dear. Now our expenses are about four thousand a year, and for one month that would be three hundred and thirty-three dollars." "Four thousand dollars! Goodness gra- cious, Mrs. Wardeu ! But that must include your private expenses. You surely don't mean to make me pay for your dresses aud jewelry?" " Oh, exactly !" stared the lady of the house, honestly confounded. Sho had gono through the whole of this wonderful cal- culation without once suspecting the error which vitiated it. " Why, certainly ! How could I forget that ? Isn't it funny ? Well, as to my mere housekeeping expenses, I don'c know iu the least what they are. It would take me forever to find out. Perhaps Belle would know something. She pavs all the bills." She flew down stairs and consulted her daughter. " I certainly think," she said, " that sho ought to pay forty dollars a week." 164 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. " Ola ! mamma ! And you say slie really loved bim !" returned Belle, who had come to regard that fact ■with solemn sympathy and tenderness. " How can you chaffer with her ? Take any thing — take nothing. We will pawn our furniture to get along." "And how will I ever buy you an oufit ?" groaned the impoverished descendant of Commodore Hooker. "What! are we so poor as that? Well, I will be married without an outtit. I wiU ask my husband for dresses to begin my married life," declared the heroic Belle, shedding a few of those tears wjiich gener- ally accompany feminine heroism. " But one poor woman must not rob another. It is worse, almost, than robbing the Treasury. Mamma, don't you ask her more than ten dollars a week. That will more than cover the cost of her food. I suppose she would rather pay it than be under an obligation." Mrs. Warden hurried back to her lodger, closed the door behind her carefully, and smiled ever so sweetly. "I think forty dollars a week would bo right, my dear," she said. "That would bo one hundred and seventy for the month, which is only half of the three hundred and thirty-three we spoko of. We are perfectly willing to take off half." "Mrs. Warden, that three hundred and thirty-three ought to have been divided by thi'ee," suggested Josie, who had been cii^her- ing in her head. "Oh, that is nonsense!" broke out Mrs. Warden, confounded again, but none the less irritated. " It is not nonsense. There are three of us, are there not ? And I nuist say that it is very strange of you to try to saddle the whole expense of the family upon me." Mrs. Warden was tempted to tell Josie at once that she was a bad woman, and that she had killed her aunt and uncle, and that every body said so. Her next impvilse was to fly down stairs and refer this knotty problem to Belle, who, as our readers have doubtless perceived, was her real head-piece and counselor in times of jierplexity. But, remembering that that young lady's decis- ion had already been given against her, she stood irresolute, and only snapped her black eyes at Josie. "I think it is just a piece of extortion," muttered the latter, jiacking away with hys- terical vehemence. " It is no extortion," retaliated Mrs. War- den, her contralto voice bursting forth in its deepest notes of indignation. "It is just simple fairness and honesty. And I think, Mrs. Murray, tliat you are not the person to j udge and condemn other people. You make trouble wherever you go. You worried your l>oor old aunt and uncle into the grave, and now you come here to worry me into mine." "What ridiculous nonsense!" exclaimed Josie, very much refreshed and supported by what seemed to her the absurd injustice of this accusation. "My aunt and uncle died because they were superannuated and feeble. And as for you, you look more like- ly to murder somebody else than to be killed yourself." " That will do, Mrs. Murray," gasped Mrs. Warden, sitting suddenly down and pressing her hand to her heart, as though some great physical pain had smitten her. "I have nothing more to say to you." " I shall be very happy to hear any thing rational from you," declared Josie, with the cheerfulness of conscious victory. After a number of labored breaths, Mrs. Warden murmured something about teu dol- lars a week. Josie i)roduced her porte-mon- naie, counted out liugeriugly forty-three dol- lai"s, and laid them on a chair in silence. ]\Irs. Warden returned no change ; she did not know, indeed, that any was due ; sho merely took the money and sailed out of the room. Once down stairs, she threw the bills into her daughter's lap, and sobbed out, " Oh, that woman ! She has insulted mo abominably. Belle, if you go near her she will kill you." Not in the least believing this tremendous statement, but startled by a fear (an old fear) concerning her mother's health, the girl sprung up, passed her arm around the crj"- ing woman, led her to her bedroom, and made her lie down. Half an hour later, when a hack came for the departing lodger, Mrs. Warden jumped off the bed, rustled enthusiastically into the hall, threw her arms around Josie, and kissed her violently. "I am so sorry to have yon go!" she ex- claimed, exactly as if there had been no quarrel. " I shall miss you dreadfully." " We shall meet now and then, I suppose," returned Josie, who had a sharjier grief to struggle with than Mrs. Warden, and could not feel the parting very keenly. " Good- bye, Belle," she added, merely shaking hands, for it was beyond her strength to embrace her victorious rival. Then she left the house with tears in her eyes, tears of sorrow and also tears of rage. Not to mention her love-trial, this was the second homo which she had been driven from within a few weeks, and she felt that she had a right to be angry with somebody. That evening, however, Sylccs Drummond came to see her, and alleviated the louesome- ness of her new residence. Slie was quite plaintive with him at lirst, and yet humor- ous and shrewd withal. " I am doomed to wander," was one of her observations. "I shall never live long enough in one jilace to take root there, or to collect two trunkfuls of baggage. It is dreadful to move ; at least, it is dreadful to a woman ; it is so stripping and so vulgariz- PLAYING TIIE MISCHIEF, 165 ing. It knocks off all the knickknacks and decorations of life ; and -what is life -vvitUont decorations, to a lady ? I bad just bcf,nin to deposit my sediment, and licro I am all riled again. Just sco what a cluttered, ramjia- geous, disgusting state this room is in! I didn't mean that you should sco it until I had got it into shape. Yon had no business to rush up hero as you did. What if every gentleman should follow his card on the full run in that stylo ?" " I will be house-maid, or lady's-maid, and put yon to rights," ho offered, quite i)leased with the chance. " You mustn't shut the door," slio ordered, after ho had closed and latched it. " What would people say f " "How can I move things about, then? Let it stay shut. Don't you mean to receive calls in your room ? It is common enough in Washington." "If you stay, yon must work. Help me get up my lace curtains. I must ti'y to hide these dowdy, dusty, mnsty draperies. Put a stool in that chair, and climb up on it, and break your neck for my sake." " I would rather break Mr. Hollowbread's neck for my sake and yours. As for mount- ing that cricket, I shall drive it through the chair." " Then help me up. I can hammer, and yon can steady me." He helped her up, and he steadied her. It was evidently very agitating and un- steadyiug business for both of them. Drum- moud's muscular hands trembled, and Josie's lovely face was soon deeply flushed. The work went on in silence, or with only a few hastily breathed words, the si- lence and the speech alike significaut of emotion. Of a sudden Josie slipped, uttered a little cry, dropped her hands on the young man's shoulders, and fell with her full weight into his arms. Enormously strong, and no doubt prepared for some such collision, he received it with- out staggering, caught her firmly, let her slowly to the floor, and still held her. "Mr. Drummond!" she gasped, thorough- ly frightened and paralyzed, looking up be- wildered into his fierce black eyes, and feel- ing iucaiiablo of resistance, no matter what he did. " You are mine," he answered, in a choked, hoarse, scaring voice. " You must be my wife." And then he began to kiss her neck as if he would devour it, or at least bite into it. " Mr. Drummond — stop !" she begged, for she could not command. " Oh, do." And then she lost her breath, and could not even beg. " AVill you promise to bo my wife ?" he presently asked, bending her head back over his arm, and looking down into her hot face with savage longing and domination. "I am going to be your husband." "Oh, Sykes! — I don't think I can — I sup- pose I must — yes," was the wonderful an- swer. And so it was done ; she was engaged to two men at once ; something uncommon even with Josie Murray. A minute later, after she had got looso from hinx and recomjiosed her trimmings and furbelows, she suddenly burst out laugh- ing. "Hero I am in a prctt}' fix!" she said. "What am I to do with Mr. Hollowbread ?"' " Why, throw him over,'" answered Drum- mond, somewhat astonished. "Give bim his passports." " ^ly dear friend ! I dare not. On your account I dare not. What will become of my bill? He gives respectability to it. Just now I dare not lose him." There was a long argument, but it ended in her having her wickedly sly way ; and the fact shows not oulj^ her powers of coax- ing and persuasion, but also Drummond'3 coarseness of feeling. " Very well," he said, at last, indulging for the first time this evening in his charac- teristic " haw, haw !" " I don't mind your putting a joke on him. W^e will keep him in play until you have got your money." CHAPTER XL VIII. THE EXACT WOKTII OF THE BARX. Engaged as she was, and engaged to two men at that, Josie went to sleep crying about a third man, and ready to kiss the darkness whenever she thought of his name. To lose that dearest one finally and utter- ly, and to know that he had given to anoth- er that heart which she had begged for in vain, made up a trial which was both rack and pillory, both anguish and shame, even to this seasoned coquette. It gave her more suffering than she could bear without win- cing out of her usual character, and shying into strange behavior. W^hen she awoke in the morning from a. sleep of turmoils, her head aching, and her nerves crawling, and her face so pallid that she hated to look at it, she was not an even- tempered, genial Josie, and for once she wanted to wreak a vengeance. Her feeling was that somebody was always abusing her ; that she was constantly being glowered at, or flown at, or turned oft", or circumvented ; that she had borne her fellow-creatures' evil usage too long with patience; that sweet- ness did no good, and that sho must fight. Yes, she would set to work to hurt somebody, and in particular sho would do a damage to the Wardens. They had cut her out and tlriven her forth ; they had been insolent and 1G6 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. bad tried to be extortionate ; tbey deserved a bard settiug-dowu, if ever auy body did. Wben sbe next saw Drnmmoud, sbe asked bim Tvbere was Mrs. AVardcu's claim, aud wbat were its cbances. " Tbe old girl bas been making great bead- •way witb it since ber daugbter got engaged," be replied. "By George! I begin to tbink tbat Bradford must be working for ber," be added, witbout noticing bow Josie's lip quiv- ered. " Tbere's no telling. He mfl^/ be belp- iug ber. Tbe stillest cats lap tbe most cream. Or else sbe is using bis cbaracter unbeknownst to bim. Anybow, sbe bas got ber swindle before my bonorable colleagues of tbe Blood aud Tliunder Committee. I sbouldn't wonder if it went tbrougb on a gun-carriage." " In tbe army bill !" exclaimed Josie. "Tbat silly, impudent claim in tbe army bill ! Wby, tbere isn't tbe smallest cbance of its passing, and it may call attention to mine. Ob, Sykes, I do wisb it could be got out. It may ruin me. Don't you tbink you can get it out ?" "I believe you are rigbt," judged Drum- mond. "Yes, it migbt burt you. A stolen borse will carry one rider easier tban two. Well, I will do my best to assassinate your friend." " Wbat an ugly way of putting it !" laugb- ed Josie. "I wonder you didn't baw baw over it. But you bave given up tbat Me- pbistopbelian babit, and you are very serv- iceable and sweet, and bere is a kiss for you, on tbe tip of tbat finger. Only you ougbt to come and see me oftcner. Tbe idea of winning a lady's band, and tben not calling on ber for two days !" " If you knew bow driven I am !" be said, Tvbile be kissed ber. " I am at full speed, body and mind, from morn till dewy eve ; yes, and into tbe small bours." "And bow you bear it!" exclaimed Josie, gazing witb admiration at bis stalwart frame and trooper-like visage. " You could wear out a dozen ordinary men, and tbe same number of extraordinary women. Tbere, go and work like a tiger. I am proud of you." Off be strode in furious baste, for bo was in reality terribly busy. Tbe end of tbe session was approacbing, and be bad a score of rascally peas under tbimbles, and scores of fellow-jugglers to guard against. So oc- cupied was be witb bis special legislations tbat for tbe next tbree days be bad no leisure to call upon Josie ; and it bad been agreed between tbem tbat be sbould not speak to ber at the Capitol, for fear of rousing Hol- lowbread's suspicions. Meantime, tbat de- luded old gentleman visited bis betrothed regularly, and was received witb a cordiality beyond all praise, and got bis stated allow- ance of frugal caresses. At last tbe postman brought Josie an en- velope, addressed in Drummond's handwrit- ing. It contained only bis card, but on it was scrawled this cheering sentence : " The other jockey bas lost bis seat." "Mrs. Warden's rider has bad a fall," sbe laughed, as she tore tbe bit of pasteboard to liieces. She was heartily glad of it, noi merely because it seemed to burt ber lucky rival, Belle, but mainly because it helped herself. As a rejected one, it was still possible for ber to bo malignant, but it was far easier for ber to be simply selfish. A day or two later, on the awful closing day of the session, sbe repaired to tbe gal- lery of the House, there to await ber sen- tence. Tbe Apollonian Beauman, not hav- ing yet seen his way clear to Portugal, amused himself by acting as her escort. In the balls she met tbe banking and rail- roading AUchin, who bowed over ber like a man-mountain, grinned at her as if sbe were a bag of specie, and hoarsely murmured a prophecy of success. " If you will only invest outside of poli- tics, Mrs. Murray, as wisely as you bave in- vested inside of it, you will be a millionaire," be smirked. " I shall look to you for lessons in finance." "If ever I get any thing we will take care of it together," smiled Josie, as sbe rustled away from bim. "He would soon relieve you of all busi- ness cares," whisperedBeauman, who, though not a suitor, wished ber well. " Ho would place your money where you would never spend it." Then tbat sham Aristides, Honest John Vane, encountered tbem, and made one of tbe happy speeches for which be was fa- mous. An adi'oit man inside iiolitics, aud a superficially courteous one in society, bo frequently said things which showed bow vulgar bad been bis starting-point in life, and bow much more fat than brain there was in bis huge cranium. "I shall have to pitch into you to-day, Sirs. Murray," be bowed, with a buttery smile, as if be were saying something agreea- ble. " I hope sincerely that you won't take it as an expression of personal hostility. I only object to your claim for public reasons." Ho must bave supposed, judging from tbe genial, confiding way in which be beamed upon her, tbat bo could attack a woman's swindle and still bo on good terms with ber. " I court investigation, Mr. Vane," replied Josie, with praiseworthy self-counnand and good -humor. "You Avill find my affair in the Judiciary." "Oh, in the Jiuliciary!" returned Honest John, marveling at lier simplicity, and at- tributing it to feminine ignorance of politics. "I understood that it bad got into tbe Gen- eral Appropriations. Tben it comes on this morning." PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 1G7 "What a goose!" innttercd Josio, as slio hurried along. " That big head of his rc- miuds me of those hirge safes Avhicli one sees exposed for sale, and which never have any monej- in them. I suppose his -wife has or- dered him to attack my hill, and then he comes palavering and smiling at me, because lie doesn't -want to make enemies." " Honest John asiiires to l)e called a Tvatcli- dog of the Treasury," was IJeaumau's expla- nation. *'IIc stays in the fold and devours a sheep every uight, and thcu bow-wows at whoever carries off a bone." '•'I wonder where ho has put his own jobs," said Josie. "I wish I could smash every one of them." "And keep Mrs. Vaue from giving parties — oh, no!" laughed Beaumau. "What would the wives of some Congressracu do if the goldeu stream of special legislation should run dry ? How economical and dull Washiugtou society would be !" Preseutly they were iu the scats whicli ^Ir. Hollowbread had managed to reserve for them. There Josie remained for four mortal hours without being conscious of fa- tigue. She attracted much attention, and received plenty of visitors. But they were men only : among all the people who were with her that day, there was not one lady ; she had not, just uow, a single female iutimate. Beauman, handsome enough to defy pub- lic opinion, staid by her throughout. The Carolinian Clavers, still holding her the no- blest of her sex, drojiped in to i)ay his boy- ish, chivalrous, imre-hearted homage, and to receive a smile of intelligent, appreciative, honest gratitude for it. The grand, gloomy, and peculiar Bray kept at good glaring distance, being that sort of man who gets a delicious cup of wrath out of rejected love. Various others, whom this story has not had occasion to nieutiou, happened along from time to time with words of civility or gallantry. Not a quarter of an hour passed without bringing its two or three or more of bowing, smirking, cajoling gentlemen. Pickens Rig- don came to support her with the stimulus of his high-flavored breath, and to inform her, incidentally, that Stubb's old white- wheat whisky was the best brand in the market. Senator Ironman, who had likewise daw- dled into the House and caught sight of her from the floor, sent up a page with a flatter- ing message and a bouquet. This coming and going of callers excited much staring, notwithstanding the noisy turmoil of law-making below. People from the country imagined that our heroine must be an ambassador's wife, or a duchess, or an actress. She was the envy of scores of ladies who did not know her, and, what la more pity, of scores who did. Mrs. John Vane, sitting almost unattend- ed near-by, glared and sneered and i)outed and tossed, and at last sailed angrily out of the gallery. Had she known that Ironman had sent Josie that bouquet, and that her husband had essayed his dull best to be civ- il to her, she would have given those gen- tlemen a piece of her mind, meauiug not her intellect, but her temper. Her vacant seat was greedily seized by an odd-looking man, whom the strangers jires- ent stared at in unspeakable bewilderment, but who was known to all Washingtonians as Squire Kaucy Appleyard. Squire Nancy glowered at Josio with hate, and then gazed down into the cocki)it below with love. Drummond was there, fighting gallantly on his dunghill of Special Legislation, and sending forth his brazen cock-a-doodle-doo defiantly. She was ready to wave applause at him if he chanced to turn her way, and then ready to hiss him if he turned in the direction of Josie Murray. She hoped every moment that he would look up at her, and the stony monster never looked up at her once. Behind Sfpiire Appleyard, wedged into, aud almost hidden by, the listening crowd, sat a lady so thickly A'eiled that it was im- l)Ossible to see her face. This domino in tis- sue was the prospective mother-in-law of the Honorable Edgar Bradford. Yc-s, there was Mrs. Warden, still hoping that her claim would survive, and lirooding over it as the mother of Moses watched the ark of bulrushes. The promise to Bradford counted for naught with a woman whom nature had fitted for a claim-hunter by an abundant dose of extravagance, and whom four years of lobbying had ripened into a monomaniac. So completely was she dis- guised that Josie only recoguized her by a ftimiliar gesture or movement of fatigue aud impatience. It was an unpleasant recogni- tion ; it put our heroine in mind of her one sharp disappointment in love ; and diu'ing one moment she gasped for breath, and want- ed to get out of the gallery. No doubt, also, Mrs. Warden saw her, and gnawed her bitter nail at that surrounding of admirers, and tried to console herself by remembering Belle's engagement. With what emotions must these two wom- en haA'O listened to Bradford when ho ob- tained the floor for ten minutes, and made a violent onslaught upon the whole system of special legislation ! The immediate cause of his philippic was a "rider" which had been tacked to the Judiciary bill, awarding a million or so of damages to a speculator who had forfeited a mail contract. He de- nounced not only this particular roguery, but all other similar abuses of the enacting power. " The treasury is plundered and the gener- al body of tax-jiayers is defrauded every ses- 163 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. Biou for the benefit of private schemers and of business corporations," he declared. " The sums squandered in this manner every year range from ten millions \i]} to fifty millions. A single railroad has taken forty millions at one swoop, and another is laying its plans for securing as much more. There are scores, if one may not say hundreds, of men in Wash- ington who live by devising and pushing bills of which the end is theft and the means bribery. There are members of Congress whose chief and almost sole labor it is to earn these bribes and abet these thefts. There are members whose dishonorable per- quisites amount yearly to fifty thousand and a hundred thousand dollars each. Congres- sional legislation will soon be a synonym for corruption, not only throughout this coun- try, but throughout the world. If we do not wish to see rexiublican institutions discred- ited ; if we do not wish to see their spread arrested, and perhaps turned to collapse ; if we do not wish to see the industrial prosper- ity of our native land impeded and stum- bled, we must proceed at once to combat this extravagant, unjust, and dishonest wasteful- ness; we must check it, we must extirpate it, we must render it impossible. " Legislation for the benefit of individuals or corporations ought to be done away with and put beyond the power of Congress. A Court of Claims should adjudicate upon'all claims of damage, all demands for relief be- cause of losses incurred in the iinblic serv- ice, all financial questions between the citizen and the Government. The President should have the right of veto over every separate section of each bill, while approving of the remaining sections. There is no possibility of reform and honesty short of these radical and sweeping precautions. As long as men have the power to rob the public treasury, they can be coaxed or bribed to rob it. I give gentlemen notice that I do not mean to cease urging this matter. I have introduced a bill to put an end to special legislation, and it has been consigned to the limbo of waste paper, but not to forgetfulness. So long as I remain a member of this House, it will continue to re-appear from its tomb and to demand attention."' Amidst a hum of voices — the mere disorder- ly hum of miscellaneous conversation — he resumed his seat. There had been the same hum all over the House during his whole speech, and it had decidedly increased in loudness from the moment that his object became manifest. " They don't seem to have heard him at all," murmured the palpitating Josie, turning to Beauman. "Many of them would rather not hear him," was the answer. "He hit too many birds with his stone." " Do you think he spoke well ? I didn't like him as much a.s I expected to." "After that, how can I praise him ? Per- haps he was a little too lofty and solemn. But I suppose he feels his subject, and then he had to say much in little. I must insist, moreover, that he told some abominable truths." Josie struggled to suppress a sigh of discouragement. Every body whose good opinion she cared for seemed to be against her at heart. Every body who was morally any body looked askance upon claim-hunt- ing. "He has beaten this job," resumed Beau- man. " His motion has been seconded and carried. The mail contractors swindle is dead." "That is rough on Honest John Yane," laughed Senator Pickens Rigdon, who was breathing his old white-wheat whisky over Mrs. Murray's shoulder. " It was John's richest lode for this session." " Oh, I am so glad !" exclaimed Josie, re- ally quite jolly over Vane's defeat, though frightened all the more for herself. " There goes Vane on his legs," added Beauman. " Can it be that he has cheek enough to demand a reconsideration ?" " No," said Eigdon. " The Judiciary Bill is up now. There, do you hear him? There is brass! 'Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea.' He is supporting Brad- ford ; denouncing special legislation, like Sa- tan rebuking sin ; going for somebody else's job. By George, Mrs. Murray, he is pitching into you !" "He said he should," gasped Josie, ti'em- bling all over, and forgetting in her terror that her claim was not in the Judiciary. Honest John showed as bold and smiling a front as if he had not just been beaten out of a villainous swindle ; and in his common- place, ungrammatieal, slangy way he made a really fair speech, or, as he would have call- ed it, an eftbrt. He was bombastically se- vere on" under-ground legislation," and dully facetious on " one - horse bills," alluding to Josie's roasted chargers. When he had finished, General Bangs made a retort in kind, which brought down the House. He vindicated the right of the poor and lowly citizen — the sutierer who had not the means to sue an unjust govern- ment in court — to appear by his repi-esent- ative before the bar of his country, and de- mand, without expense, his lost property. As for the bill in question, he declared that it was " a two-horse bill, with a big dog un- der the wagon," a stroke of humor which set two hundred Congressmen iu a roar. Finally he stated that this claim was not in the Judiciary appropriation, and closed with repeating the ancient history of the potash- kettle which was paid for, Avhich was re- turned, and which was never borrowed. There was renewed legislative liilarity, and honest John Vane looked up wrathfully PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 169 at Mrs. Murray, Tvondering whether she had phiycd a trick ou him, or had simply bhin- dt'red. But ho was completely s'luelchcd for the time, and had uo more to say cou- cerning her affairs. Thus law-making went on for hours amidst a monstrous and confounding hubbub, mem- bers shouting aiul almost lighting for the iloor, the majority engaged in nearly contiu- Tious conversation, and the Speaker's ham- mer whacking through all. Meantime Mr. Jake Pike was dodging about tlio legislative machine, and pulling his rascally wires. When the Army Hill camo up, an unex- pected helper made his task the easier. Mrs. Warden, supposing her appropriation to bo therein, and fearing the opposition of her future son-in-law, devised a plan for carry- ing him off the scene. She struggled out of the gallery, crammed her veils into her pockets, ran down to the door of the hall, disiiatehcd a page for Brad- ford, dragged him aside to talk of feigned business, and kept him as long as babble could do it. Just then, too, Mr. Jake Pike so managed matters as to bring John Vane into the lob- by and involve him in a long discussion with his disappointed mail contractor. During this interval the Army Bill was gabbled over in the House. There was a great confusion, or rather it seemed to bo a great confusion to Josie, who was in some- thing like a nightmare. At last Bcaumau turned to her with a smile, shook her by the hand, and said, " Kemembcr mo in your will!" CHAPTER XLIX. jnSERERE. Great had been the amazement and con- sternation of Mr. Hollowbread when he found that Josie's swindle was not among the appropriations for carrying ou the jus- tice of his couutrj-. He hastened over to Bangs as soon as ho thought he could do so without attracting notice, and asked in an excited whisper and with an unaccustomed oath where his sec- tion had gone to. "Ah, precisely," answered the general, when ho could be brought to pretend to remember what his friend was talking of. " Mrs. Murray's little joker ? Well, Jake Pike is taking care of it. You had better stand by the armj'." Excessively angry and humiliated ; angry at Bangs and at Jake Pike, and at whomso- ever had inspired them to this impertinence ; humiliated by the fact that the claim should be taken out of his hands without even con- sulting him or warning him; in such a tur- moil of emotion that his very springs and surcingles throbbed with it, Mr. Hollow- bread returned to his seat and stood by the army. Meanwhile he dared not call on his client and explain nuvttcrs to her, or, rather, be- seech an explanation. Ho simply sat con- founded, heard tho Murray appropriatiou enumerated among tho defenses of tho re- public, and speechlessly voted for it. Not until tho business was settled and tho liouse had taken up its next bill did ho dare to steal into tho gallery and congratu- late Josic. He had supposed that she would not be grateful to him, and had feared that she might be fault-liuding and scornful. Ou tho contrary, she was all sunshine, smiles, thanks, compliments, content, and joy. She had never looked prettier *)r more loving than when she leaned forward with flushed fiico and sparkling eyes, pressed his hand, and whispered, " Isn't it nice f ' He decided that he would ask no ques- tions then, and he went back a relieved, happy man to his arm-chair, hoping to vote honestly for the rest of tho session. In the halls ho passed Mrs. Warden, rus- tling hastily to and fro, flurried and eager. Was her appropriation in the Army Bill ? she bluntly and excitedly asked him. When he replied courteotisly that he regretted not to have noticed it there, she turned away from him abruptly and ran after some other legislator. AVe can imagine the poor woman pursuing her inquiries, tremulously fearing lest all had gone wrong, yet wildly hoping that all had gone right. One godsend had befallen during tho day, which at any other time would have made her happy. She liad re- ceived a check for one thousand dollars from Colonel Murray, with a note begging her to use tho money for Belle's wedding outfit. Tho check she had deposited as she camo to tho House, and there it was in bank to her credit, disiielling many anxieties. But what was a check for a thousand, if the Army Bill did not contain her section, and she had lost — yes, lost — a fortune 1 Her calamity was too monstrous to be believed, although many people assured her of it. She would hope on until morning, and then read her opulence in the printed record. Tho night passed over her, but not on wings of balm. With that uneasy heart of hers beating so strangely, and that flighty head fluttering through so many reveries, id was not easy to sleep. For hours no rest, but only a perpetual tossing, feverish and full of pain. Hour after hour sho counted the strokes of tho church clocks, first one and then another — counted them fretfully, forebodingly, and gloomily, as if they were tolliugs for the dead. She would have soughs unconsciousness in chloroform or in opiates, but she had a sombre reason for dreading 170 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. them — a reason of wLicli she never spoke. That ngly heart-beat, "which more than any- thing else kept her awake, was the well- known symptom of an old disease. At last a sweet, warm delusion, a waking agitation which was like a delightful dream, stole to her pityingly and soothed her. It was a feverish delirium, hut it was as cheer- ing as wine. She had a feeling of success and triumph, like one intoxicated with Champagne. She had won ; she was rich, very rich ; she was happy, perfectly happy. Trusting that so it would be in the morning, she slipped with many starts into slumber. On waking she found herself unusually jaded and pallid, Avhile her mind was so confused and numbed that she could hardly apply it to the most common purj)oses, such as the task of dressing. The events of the previous day came back to her with such difficulty, and so dimly, that it seemed as if they had not happened. Once it struck her that she was like a dead person, trying almost in vain to re- member the by-gone life. She half trusted that there had been no day before ; that she had only dreamed its futile hopes and dis- appointments ; that her final struggle for wealth was yet to come. She recollected the cheerfulness with which she had fallen asleep ; but it had vanished now, and could not be made to return. Languid, aching from head to foot, unable to think consecu- tively, unable even to handle things aright, and utterljr depressed in spirit, she slowly finished her attiring. Then she sat down to rest, breathing rap- idly and laboriously, like one who has been pursued. After a time she took a check from her table, and filled it out for the one thousand dollars in bank, making it payable to her daughter. Three checks were used before this could be done ; she spoiled the first two by errors in writing or signing. Then, picking up the paper with a trembling hand, she carried it down stairs and gave it to Belle. "What is this for, mamma ?" asked the girl, with disquietude. " I don't like to take it. I want you to spend the money for me. Of course the colonel expected that. Mam- ma, I will not take it." "Don't be so silly!" said Mrs. Warden, pettishly. " I would rather have the money lie in your name. I insist upon it." " Mamma — are you unwell ?" "Do stop, Belle! I hate such foolish questions," responded the ailing woman, with downright asperity. "I never can do any tiling my own way but you go to supposing that I am sick." To quiet her, the daughter gave way, and silently put the check in her i)ockct. "Has the Kewsmongcr come?" demanded Mrs. Warden. " No. Somebody must have stolen it. But do sit down and take some breakfast." "Jane!" called Mrs. Warden, in loud irri- tation. "Where is that lazy blackamoor? Jane, what did you let the Keivsmoiiger get stolen for? Why don't you get up earlier? There, take that money and run out and buy one." She was sipping her coffee in silence, and had not yet tasted a mouthful of food, when the servant returned with her favorite jour- nal. " Mamma, let me read it to you," implored Belle. " I want you to eat." " Oh, Belle, you worry my life out of me !" said Mrs. Warden, snatching eagerly at the Kewsmonger. " K there is any good news, I want to find it myself." " Good news ! W^hat good news ?" asked the daughter, suspecting at once that the claim was meant, and flushing deeply. Mrs. Warden replied not, but read on greedily, her face likewise deeply flushed, and her eyes angry. Of a sudden she found what she sought ; there was a look of ago- nizing anxiety and longing ; then she turn- ed as pale as a corpse, and dropjied the pa- per. She hud read her sentence of disa^i- pointmeut — her sentence of death! "Mamma ! mamma !" shrieked Belle, spring- ing np and running to her; but before she could reach the stricken woman the tragedy was over. Mrs. Warden had clutched her hands to her heart, and rolled out of her chair upon the floor, perfectly dead ! We will x^ass over the remainder of this scene ; the nature of it is only too easily imagined. Some hours later Bradford found in the Kewsmonger the following passage, deeply marked by finger-nails, as if in auger or in agony: "Among the notorious jobs which re- ceived their quietus during the closing bom- bardment of the session was the so-called Commodore John Saul Hooker claim, a ven- erable seventy-four, rated at eighty thousand dollars, and not carrying a cent. Report says that it was warped into the Army Bill, a week since, by the personal exertions of the proprietor, and sent adrift again, only two days later, to make room for a newer' and prettier rover of the seas of legislation. What is certain is that it failed to put in an appearance, and so has once more gone to the bow-wows, let us hope, forever." " Thatreads like Shorthand's work," judged Bradford. "And yet it probably tells the truth. How could she break ihat promise? — poor woman !" He could hardly regret her, and but for Belle ho would not have ])itied her, so severo is a soul of a single virtue. It was snbstan- ^ tially this young man's moral code, that peo- ple who tell lies, and people who try to getJ' PLAYING THE mSCHIEF. 171 money dislionestly, arc the great sinners, and almost the only sinners, of earth. But ho was building just now better tlian lie know. He was gathering some fresh Bweetness and nobleness into his heart by dint of using it; he was filling much empty comb of liis nature with the honey of sym- l^athy. It astonished him, certainly, to find that Belle grieved passionately over the loss of ber false and frivolous mother; to find that a, girl who Avas npright and truthful and wise could love a woman who was a sharp- er, a fibber, and practically a fool ; to find that a noble nature could, like a kittenish cue, respond with, affection to the affection of the unworthy. But he adored Belle all the more for her sorrow, and did his love-lorn best to comfort her, and so enlarged his limited moral boun- daries and sweetened his spirit. There was possibility of a far better and more beautiful life in liim than he had lived yet. There was a chance of his existing for others, in heart as well as in mind, for their sake as well as for his own. We can grant but a brief and desultory hearing to the conversations of Belle and Bradford. Every one can imagine how con- solation is given by a man full of affection to a woman who craves that affection and returns it. A head laid on a shoulder, a kiss falling upon a forehead, a tear wiped gently away, murmurs of pity and constancy, answering murmurs of gratitude, all these things are easily imagined. In such interviews broken sentences and detached words suffice. The heart fills up the intervals, and says more than lips could utter, and hears tendernesses unspoken. " I must beg your forgiveness for my poor mother," said Belle, in one of her calmer mo- ments. " She broke her promise to you. But the claim was a monomania with her; she was almost irresponsible on the subject. You must pardon her memory." " I do. For your sake, and for hers also. It was for you, much more than for herself, that she was fighting. So I believe now, although there was a time when I did not think of that, and judged her hardly." " She thought it all so necessary ! From lior point of view it was the case of a mother seizing a loaf for her starving child." " One is tempted to bo angry at those Avho stand in the way of such a loving theft." " I suppose some ono stood in the way of this," murmured Belle. She suspected her betrothed of being that one, for the scoffing passage in the Kensmonricr, with its hint at Josie Murray, had been kept from her. " I do not condemn him, whoever he was," she added. " Xo doubt I ought to praise him." " It was a woman — at least report says BO," answered Bradford, who did not care to shield Josio from blame, and who, indeed, liad come to abhor her. " It is supposed to have been your late lodger." "Josio Murray! You astonish me. I would not liavo thouglither to be malicious. I did consider her — ought I to say it? — un- principled. But this looks lilce revenge, and I never judged lier Ijad-temperod. You must know that there had been causes of (juarrel. She and mamma had some words, and I think she was vexed at going away, and, in short, it was an uiiiileasiuit i)arting. But even yet — well, it is hard to talk about it — I don't know what to say." Belle was stammering by this time. A recollection and a sudilen suspicion made the subject a delicate and daunting one to her. She remembered tliat Josic had been in love with her love, and she guessed, from a change in his face, that he, too, might know of it. Of course he did call the now displeasing fact to mind ; and, as he wanted to hide his consciousness, he turned cool and analytic. " I doubt her malignity," he said. " I don't believe her capable of any deep or long-winded passion. A monkey who sees another monkey about to seize a cocoa-nut might push him off the branch and break his neck, all without the least hard feeling as well as without compunction, aud think- ing of nothing but the cocoa-nut. That, I take it, is just Josie Murray. Well, she has got her cocoa-nut," he added, willing to change the topic. " She is worth one hun- dred thousand dollars, deducting her com- missions to the lobby." " I don't envy her," answered Belle, for whom this subject of her rival — the woman who might have stood in her place — had a fascination. "I don't know but that I pity her. Yes, I do pity her, and sincerely. With all her beauty and cleverness, it seems to me that nobody really loves her — at least, not long. She throws away her chances — as fine chances as a woman could easily have — and all for the sake of novelties. It is the bird in the bush that ruins her." " She is frivolous and selfish," pronounced Bradford. " She has a great power, and sho abuses it. She is an egotistic tyrant, and gets a tyrant's measure of loyalty. If sho should win a man," he added, thinking of his own escape, " and if she should even lovo him, sho would soon tire of him. I take it that a beautiful woman's greatest tempta- tion is inconstancy. Josie Murray does not even try to resist it." " She is engaged to Mr. Hollowbread, and ho is infatuated with her." "Well, sho will break his heart, if he has one that is breakable." "Oh, my dear, what a wicked world it is!" sighed Belle, to whom the breaking of loving hearts seemed the greatest of crimes. "And how much too good you are for it!''. 172 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. he replied, doiug ber reverence Tvitli all his soul. "You must not think me so good. You ■will be disappointed. You frighten me." "You know wbat I mean. I worship you !" CHAPTER L. MR. HOLLOWBREAD IN THE BOSPHORI'S. On the closing night of the session, on that carnival night of confused, headlong, blinded, bedlamite legislation, •which costs the tax-payer so dear, Mr. HoUowbread went to bed from his protracted vigils and labors with aching loins and a dizzy sconce. Next morning he was absolutely driven to get himself together with a cocktail before he could rouse appetite enough to so much as nibble at a belated breakfast. But love is the greatest of stimulants ; it beats hate, it beats avarice, it beats whisky ; it can make the sexagenarian arise and walk. Long before noon, our mature and indeed overripe Congressman was tripping into the apartments of his betrothed. We say apart- ments, and we mean the plural word in all its sumptuousuess. Josie had lost no time in forestalling her money, and had enlarged her boundaries that very morning. It was into a handsome private parlor that Mr. HoUowbread was ushered. He came in all the splendor which modern fashion concedes to a gentleman — even to a youthful one. The modeling of sartorial art and the coloring of tousorial art had done their daintiest by him. Positively he did not appear to be corpulent, although he was normally five feet around his equator. Josie, after an approving glance at his mustache and hair, was upon the point of saying, " How young you look !" but it oc- curred to her that when a man dyed as nice- ly as that, it was ungracious to call atten- tion to it ; and so what compliments she tendered him were wrapped ui> in a smile, like honhons in silver tissue. There was a kiss, too ; but it was not of her devising or doing, nor did it fall on the spot which he had picked out for it. Ho aimed it at her precious, precious lips, and she caught it on her noble, noble forehead. Mr. HoUowbread did not find that forepicce hard, nor did he think in a ghastly way of the skull within, as a less love-lorn man might have done. But it did seem to him tliat when he returned from political wars a victor, after long and laljorious, not to say dirty, campaigning on her account, he ought to have had a tenderer salute. It was no comfort to say, the nearer the bono the sweet- er the meat ; and indeed he did not so much as think of the vulgar, carnal phrase. He had been received coolly, and he knew it, and was alarmed. " You are satisfied and happy, I hope V he said, with an humble smile, which in a man of his age was painfully pathetic. "I am in the seventh heaven. I can scarce- ly believe it. I am trying to realize it. I am trying to keep my senses," she rattled on, with an exhilaration natural enough in a gay and extravagant young woman sudden- ly made rich. " You must dance with me," she added, seizing him by the arms, whirl- ing him around the room as fast as one could whirl a man of his tonnage, and humming a waltz over his shoulder. " There, sit down and catch your breath," she laughed, plump- ing him upon a sofa and slipping away from his claspings. "You want to kiss, kiss, kiss, all the while. You mustn't do it, with a stitch in your side. Do you think that I have gone wild ? You never tried getting rich in a single night. My hundred thou- sand dollars have flown to my head. I am effervescing with plans. I can understand the Bacchantes. I should like to swing a bunch of grapes, and caper with the Dan- cing Faun. What do you think of this for a Grande Duchesse f " Here she threw herself into one of the wildest attitudes of Tost^e, looking for a moment superlatively wicked, as well as be- witching. " Superb !" gasped Mr. HoUowbread from his sofa, though he was not less frightened than breathless. He seemed to himself to see her dancing away from him, never more to return. " Who wouldn't frolic in my place ?" she babbled on. " Oh, the x)leasure of being rid of all anxieties! Oh, the pleasure of jump- ing out of dependence J If I want any thing," throwing out her arms superbly, " I can buy it. If I want services and rever- ences and obediences, I can hire them. A woman who has all the money she needs is somebody, and, more than that, she is some- thing. It is all very well to be handsome and clever; but if you are rich in addition, ah ! the rest doubles. I can imagine people looking at me from a more respectful dis- tance tlian fcn-merly ; standing aside to let mo pass, as if I were a duchess insteatl of only a pretty woman ; pointing me out from a distance, as if I were a procession or a cer- emony. If you are rich, you are more than a single individual. You stand for all the peojilo that you can hire. You represent a multitude. It is like being President. You can comprehend that, can't you ? Oh, it is such a A'ictory and such an inauguration to bo rich !" " Yes," Mr. HoUowbread absolutely sigh- ed, for he did not like this complete content, this bound-breaking excitement. "But the feeling will soon pass away. Then you will want some deeper and more lasting senti- PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 173 racnt to make lifo continnonsly happy. I have held wealth loii^ enough to know that wealth aloiio is emptiness. Moreover, dol- lars have wings, especially when they are in the form of irredeemahlo paper," added this public advocate of "more greenbacks," and private believer in minted bullion. "By- the-waj', wo must sco to it that your fortune is invested safely." "Mr. Allchin has spoken to mo a dozen times about that," replied Josie, dropping back to earth from her mad paradise. " Mr. Allchin ? I'll poison him !" broke out Ilollowbread. " Don't have any thing to do with that — that footpad. He is a risky, dangerous speculator ; or, rather, ho is a sly, conscienceless scoundrel. Ho respects nobody, not even his personal friends — not even his patrons. He Avould put off his rot- ten stocks upon his own sister, or upon the President. Ho would cheat a country cler- gyman or a wooden-legged xiensioncr. Let me tell you a story about Allchin. Our friend Drummond, who is a practical joker of a painfully practical sort," he parenthe- sized disparagingly — "was served in some matter by a good Quaker, who afterward asked him for employment. Drummond, in mere jest, recommended the man to Allchin, who replied, ' Certainly ; send him along — give him an agency.' But when the appli- cant put in an appearance, and Allchin saw that he was an honest Quaker, he nearly laughed in his face. 'Ah! we are full now,' he smiled, in his greasy way. ' We really couldn't employ a person of your — your cal- ibre.' Of course, he could not. No use for Quakers or scrupulous men in general. How could such fellows hawk his rotten eggs about ? If the apostles had applied to him for work, ho wouldn't have accepted them, unless it might be Judas. No, no, my dear child ; for pity's sake, don't ti-ust Allchin !" "He promises twenty jier cent.," rejdied Josie, meditatively. " That means that he will take eighty and leave you twenty. There is no safety outside of legal interest, and not much inside of it, in these days of watered currency and wa- tered every thing." " But I want twenty thousand a year." " My dear, between us both you will have more than that !" Josie looked at him sidelong out of a cor- ner of her dark, lustrous eye ; and a very beautiful glance it was, though just a little snaky and minatory. " I am under obligations to various people for pushing my claim, and I have got to pay them," she said. " What docs it mean ?" exclaimed Hollow- bread. "What did it mean? The thing was taken out of my hands at the last min- ute, and without my knowledge. It was not necessary ; I had every thing safe. I could have pushed the bill through without the cost of a dollar — to you," ho added, rc- mombcring that it had cost liim something. "There was, I assure you, no need of going to others for help. Don't understand mo as complaining of it, my dear child. I have no fault to lind if you wislieromise. My dear child, may I ask you one question ? Who did this ?" "Mr. Jacob Pike," replied Josie. "I thought it best to go to him. Every body goes to those people." " Ah ! — well !" sighed Ilollowbread, some- what relieved, for ho had suspected the in- terference of Drummond. "At least, it has turned out luckily," ho added, luguljriously. "And no one could be better content than I. I trust that you are at least satisHed with my efforts, my desires, to be of serv- ice." A long pause followed — a pause bodeful of tragedies. Josie had not been in the least moved by these eager pleadings, and this piteous humility of a faii'ly able and widely respected old gentleman. It seemed to her that the proper time had come to put him in a sack and drop him into her Bosphorus. " I am iiartly satisfied," she said, stammer- ing just a little — "I am satisfied with the past, but not with the future." There was another long silence, which told of a soul in terror, too smothered to speak. It was such a stillness as befalls in the chamber of torture when the inquisitor lays his instrument on a tooth, and says, " That must come out." For a moment our heroine trembled. It was her womanish way when undertaking a cruel deed to falter at tho threshold ; but, after tho first step, and especially if there were no resistance, she always gathered boldness, ruthlessness, and, perhaps one may say, ferocity. "I think we have made one great mis- take," she pursued, with her eyes on tho car- pet, for she could not yet face her victim. Mr. Ilollowbread, fearing lest sho meant the engagement, and vainly striving to hope that sho did not moan it, was in too deeji waters for instant utterance. " Wo ought to have remained friends," continued Josie. " Simply and honestly friends," sho pieced on, after another pause. " We should never have gone further." Mr. Hollowbread saw his fate arise before 174 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. him, and struggled -vritli the feeble strength of nightmare to escape it. " I can not think it, Mrs. Murray," he an- 6"n'ered, in a feeble, gasping voice, such a voice as the Arabian fisherman must have had when he sought to persuade the Afrit not to eat him up. "No, no — so help me Heaven! — I never can think that." " But I must think it, Mr. Hollowbread. Oh yes ! indeed, I must, and do ! We made a great, a fatal mistake in becoming engaged. I must beg your pardon for having led you on to such an error." He made a feeble gesture of dissent, a ges- ture "which was pitifully deprecatiug, but which did not touch her. " We resiiected and admired and liked each other, and so far all was well," persist- ed Josic. " But when we went further — when wo ventured a betrothal — the cord snapped. Wo thought there was love be- tween us, and now I hud that there was only friendship." " Not with me," protested Mr. HoUowbread, beginning to recover the use of his organs. " It was more than friendship with me — in- comparably more— infinitely more. It is so still. I love yon with all my heart and soul and miud and strength. I shall love you all my life." " It is a great compliment," returned Jo- sie, who by this time had stilled her heart- beating and got her intellect under com- mand. " I shall never cease to thank you for it. But if you really love me, you will wish me to be happy ; you will be willing to sacrifice yourself just a little for me ; you win not force upon me a discontent which might — I can not say how, but surely some- how — might drive me desperate — might drive me to ruin." " Oh, Mrs. Murray ! Are you not overstat- ing this matter ? How can it ruin you to be the wife of a man who adores you, who will never trammel your liberty, who only asks to be endured, who will live altogether for you ?" Even Josio was a little shaken by this plea, and remained silent for a few seconds. " I shall not live long," added Mr. Hollow- bread, Avith entire seriousness, and with a truly touching pathos. " Perhaps I shall not, either," was the only answer she could devise at the moment. "But j'ou promised," urged the trembling old man, for he was really old just then, though only sixty. " You pledged yourself, Mrs. Murraj'." Josie was meditating, but solely as to how she could shake him off, and at the same time not anger him. She wanted to get rid of him as a husband, and yet keep him as a friend and ally. Not merely her good-nature, but also her ambition and selfishness, in- clined her toward this purpose. She had great schemes in her excited imasinatiou : vague plans for bringing forward her claim once more and demanding a thoroughly sat- isfactory settlement : wild hopes of drawing vast sums, possibly millions, from the public treasury. With these ideas in her head she once more faced her captive Tartar, and tried to coax him to let her go. "But, oh dear! Mr. HoUowbread, you surely can't want a silly young wife, so completely unworthy of you," she pleaded. " How can you care for me ? I don't want to get rid of you altogether. I want to keep you — as a dear friend — my dearest friend. It is only the thought of marriage that I fear. It is only that which can separate us in heart. Now, do be nice," she begged, put- ting both her hands on his shoulder. " Do relievo me from an unwise promise ! Take a kiss — a dozen, fifty kisses — and let us be friends hereafter, but only friends. Now, my good, kind darliug, don't be hard with me." " I can not — I can not let it go so," he sob- bed, kissing her hand over and over. " No, my dear child, I could not say it." "But do listen to reason, Mr. HoUow- bread," she insisted, losing her patience a little. "Do consider just this one thing. I am not the same woman with the woman who accepted you. That poor little woman had no money and needed a support," she explained, with a bright, placatiug smile, which seemed to take all the wickedness out of this frank confession of egotism. "Now I am rich. Now I can take care of myself. Don't yon see that it makes a diftereuce ? I have now the one necessary of life which be- fore I had not, and which I was obliged to look to you for." " I was only too glad to offer it," sighed Mr. HoUowbread. "And I am sincerely obliged to you," an- swered Josie, perfectly unembarrassed. " It was very kind and good of you, and shows how noble your heart is. But now, when I no longer require your fortune, are you not ask- ing too much to insist upon marriage ? You are demanding every thing, and offering me what I don't need. Do reflect, Mr. HoUow- bread, and see whether you think it is fair." " It is not," he groaned. " But I .ask truth and honor. It is life and death with me. I must ask them !" "Mis-ter — Hoi -low -bread — I — ca-n't," slowly responded Josie, her very hesitation and her very drawl adding strength to her words, and giving her decision an air of irrev- ocable finality. That dragging utterance, the grave consideration which it revealed, the audible desire to please, ending iu recoil, it was an unalterable sentence. "Oh, my God! — my God! My heart is broken!" exclaimed the poor man, stagger- ing to his feet. "Mrs. Murray, you have ended one old man's life in sorrow. Yes, I am an old man," he whimpered, his voice breaking: art last. " I admit it." PLAYING THE MISCniEF. 175 "Mr. Hollowbreatl, I am sorry," said Josie, cringing at tbo sight of this great distress. "I hope you arc not angry -with me." "Angry -with you!" ho .sobbed, turning upon her two dim and bloodshot eyes, blind- ed with tears. " I — dou't — know. I don't know what I am," ho repeated, wiping his wet face with his glove. " I dou't kuow uuich about it. I am stunned." " I hojio you are not very angry," slio per- sisted, following him to the door. "I have done what I am sure is for the best. If you will only think of it calmly, I am sure you Avill agree with me. I don't want you angry with me. I want to keep you as a friend." "I must go," muttered Mr. Hollowbread. lie seemed to bo tottering in mind as well as iu body. Tlien, as if recollecting where ho was and what was becoming, he halted, turned, took her hand, and said, " God bless you ! Good-bye !"' She gazed after him with a variety of thoughts as he passed ont of the door. She "was really sorrj' for him iu that moment, and wished that ho were twenty years younger. She wondered if he would look back at her, and hoped that ho would not, being desirous not to see those woeful eyes again. The door closed softly, and she was alone. "Ah !" said Josie to herself, drawing a long breath. " "What a pull it was ! Well, that thing is off my mind." The trial over, for she regarded it mainly as a trial to herself, she dropped upou a sofa to rest. She was just thinking that she would soon have finer sofas thau that hid- eous old speckled damask, when the door suddenly re-opeued, and her rejected lover re-entered. " Have you forgotten any thing, Mr. Hol- lowbread ?" she inquired, with jterfect good- nature and friendliness, jumping up to meet him, and glancing to see if he had left his hat. "Walking straight up to her, with an air of excitement which alarmed her, he said : "Mrs. Murray, I ask you once more, sol- emnly and finally, to be my wife." " Mr. Hollowbread, that is all nonsense," answered Josie, perhaps rather more petu- lantly than became a lady, even a pestered one. " Do stop talking about it. It is set- tled." "I have a claim on your gratitude,"he per- sisted, finite loudly. " I have served you — served you hard and faithfully — given you my services." His face was excessively flushed, and ho stammered strangely in his speech, as if threatened with paralysis. But Josie mere- ly thought that he was threatening her, and merely desired to get rid of him. " I kuow it," she said. " But others have served me, too, and I have got to pay them for it." " You will pay them." he replied, confus- edly. "You have paid vie. You paid Mrs. Warden." " I have nothing to do with Mrs. Warden," asserted our hex'oine, becoming angry at last. " She died because she had a heart-disease. I wish you wonld go away and let mo alone." Without another word ho went out, and then she hastilj^ locked the door. Hardly, however, had she taken a seat and caught lior breath afresh ere she heard somo one fumbling at the knob. "There ho is again, I guess," she said to herself, quite composedly. " I wonder if ho has come back after his seven wits." After trying iu vaiu to see through the key-hole, she called : " Who is it ? Is it you, Mr. Hollowbread?" "Madam, I must speak to you," respond- ed the dolorous voice of that surely enchant- ed and bedeviled gentleman. " Go away !" screamed Josie, in high ex- citement. " I won't let you in. I tell you, go away !" And this time the poor, rejected, bewitch- ed sexagenarian did take his love -cracked noddlo and tottering person oft' the premises. A minute later, Josie smiled, and murmur- ed to herself: "I do wonder what he want- ed to tell me. I wish I made him say it through the key-hole. It would have been so funny !" She was, in the main, uncommonly clever, and still she had the thoughtless whims of a child. CHAPTEE LI. JOSIE SETTLES WITH 3IU. JAKE PIKE. It was battle season with Josie ; the great struggle with Hollowbread was followed by I other tremendous combats ; it seemed as if the winning of her claim were only the be- ginning of wars and tumults. Her next fight, after dislodging and driv- ing out ijoor Hollowbread, was with Mr. Ja- cob Pike. Josie did not at all want to have a disagreement with him, and she contrived to evade him for a while by messages that she was not at home, that she Avas out of town, and so on. But at last, by dint of bribing a servant- maid, he obtained unheralded admission to our heroine's private parlor. It was curious, by-the-way, to note wliat a change appeared in his expression when he came face to fiico with her. Bclievin<; that she had been trying to dodge him, and fearing lest she did not mean to pay him, he had ascended the stairs on menacing tijitoes and with a very glum countenance. Yet the moment ho laid eyes ou her, aiul heard her gracious salutation, ho was re-assured and mollified. Josie, though both surprised and displeased by his advent, rallied her self-pos- session iu an instant, and received him with 17G PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. a show of cordiality wbicli amountetl to re- joicing. Mr. Pike, ou Lis part, was honestly glad ; he was even much more glad than she could look. He marched into the x')arlor with the cheerful smile of a good man who has done a worthy action, and of course expects friend- ly greetings and a fitting reward. " Well, Mr. Pike, what is the news ?" ask- ed Josie, glancing with some secret timidity at his pugnaciously broad cheek-hones and solid jaws, and pondering the while how she could induce him to leave with the under- standing of calling again. " \Yell, ma'am, the news is, ninety thou- sand dollars to you and ten thousand to me," responded Mr. Pike, with genial humor. " Of course you know it, and I don't want to waste your valuable time in bragging of it. I will simply say, shortly and sweetly, tliat I've called to tuttle." "I don't quite comprehend you, Mr. Pike. "What do you mean ?" "Why, ma'am, it's an old story. Some- thing about a lii-m named Call & Tuttle. Fellow steps in and says, ' I've called to tut- tle.' What I mean is, that I've called to set- tle." " But, Mr. Pike, I don't want to tuttle," ob- served Josie, with a little laugh, partly of embarrassment and ^lartly meant to gain time. Mr. Pike laughed, too ; it was very amus- ing, of course ; wasn't she jolly ! He began to think that he should learn to like her him- self, and feel willing to do jobs for her at half- in-ice, as he had done this one without feeling willing. '• Certainly," he guffawed. " There's noth- ing meaner than tuttling. But such is busi- ness. We order, and then we iiay, and some- body else pays us, and so it goes. You've fomid it a pretty good working rule so far, Mrs. Murray." Xow, if Josie had but got one hundred and ten thousand dollars, she would probably hare allowed him the odd ten thousand without much delay, though not without re- gret. But to dig into her round hundred thou- sand, to make it uncomely and incomplete and ragged, to haggle a corner oiit of it, was really dreadful. Since the passing of her claim she had set her mind on investing a solid hundred thousand, and drawing the full, undiminished, respectable, regal rev- enue of it. "I don't think I can pay you at iiresent," she ventured to remark. " Hey ?" inquired the Congressional agent, beginning to be anxious again. " In fact, I don't think I can pay you at all," added Josie. "Why, you've got the money, haven't you ?" he asked, sharply. " You've got it, sure V "I mean that I don't owe you any thing, Mr. Pike," stammered our heroine, still a good deal frightened at her own courage, if one may so express it. " Don't owe me any thing !" exclaimed the horrified and disgusted Pike. " Why, I car- ried your bill for you, didn't I ?" " Mr. Hollo wbread worked for me," said Josie, not in the least ashamed of using that abused man's name. " And so did Mr. Drum- mond, and General Bangs, and Mr. Smyler, and ever so many more. And they voted for me, too. You have no vote, you know." "Mrs. Murray, this is the Jirst time that ever I heard any thing like this," remonstra- ted the ex-Congressman, with more regard for effect than for truth ; seeing that many a time before had a wicked world sought to swindle him. " I've been in the job line now for four years, and I never was bilked yet, nor nobody ever tried to bilk me." " I don't know what you mean by bilk. If it means taking advantage of iieople, I should like to know what you are doing. Five thousand dollars is a great deal to ask for a few minutes of walking about and whispering." " Five thousand !" stared Mr. Pike. " It was ten thousand." " I beg your pardon, Mr. Pike ; it was five," asserted Josie, just as readily and positively as if she were telling the truth. " No, ma^am ! Ten — I said ten .'" " Yes, I know you said ten thousand at first ; but afterward you said five thousand. Oh, you said all sorts of things. You want- ed half, and then you wanted a third, and then you wanted something else, and finally you came down to five thousand. I don't wonder that you don't remember exactly what you did agree to. As for me, I couldn't have forgotten, because this was my only af- fair of the sort. It doesn't stand to reason, Mr. Pike, that you should recollect one out of your twenty or forty bargains better than I can recollect my only one." "Gracious Jehu!" gnashed the lobbyist, in despair over such an argumeut, which ho knew to be as utterly unfounded as it was plausible. " Well, you did agree to five thou- sand, then ?" ho added, adroitly. " I said that you agreed to five thousand," our admirable lieroiue promptly returned. Mr. Pike stared at her for several seconds, with an expression curiously compounded of auger, perplexity, greed, and desperation. Then he re-opened his case, and pleaded it over from the beginning, step by step, and trick by trick, and roguery by roguery. Ho told how he had implored one member ; how he had argued till he was hoarse with an- other; how much per head he had promised three or four leading " war - horses ;" how much ho had advanced out of his own pock- et to certain " dead-beats." He recited the sums which were due to newspaper -men. PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 177 ■nbo, but for llio same, woulil have "slansb- tered tbo section," and to various brotbcr lobbyists wboni bo liad been obliged to di- vide ^vitb under fear of incurring tbeir op- position. Tbis statement was so detailed and com- plete tbat it undeniably sounded like an ac- curate one, if wo may not use tbo cpitbet honest. In fine, lio ligured down bis own residuum of tbo comniissiou to soractbiug less tbaii#a poor couple of tbousands. "And I'll leave it to any bonorable man if tbat au't little enougb for tbe job, and five times too little;" be concluded, Avitb tbe en- ergy of conscious integrity. " I'll leave it to any wbite man, any square-minded man, tbat you know. Tbcro an't any otber agent in "Wasbingtou, nor nowbero else in all C'brist's kingdom, could bavo got it tbrougb for twice tbe ligger. You pay nic ten tbousaud, and tben credit yourself witb ten tliousaud saved, and you'll just bit it, Mrs. Murray." '•' It does seem so bigb," answered tbe un- convinced Josie. " Ten tbousand dollars is a great deal of money, Mr. Pike." 'On a cussory view, yes. But wben you come to look at it doggedly and seriatim, it isn't so mucb. Tbis is in greenbacks, you know, and jirices bave risen since gold times, and Congressmen bavo gone np worse tban any tbing." "But what was tbe use of spending and Xiromising so recklessly ?" recommenced our indefatigable beroine, a perfect master of tbe argument called repetition. " I was sure to get my appropriation. Wbat was I asking for ? Notbing but my own money. It was a perfect! V just case, and every body knew it." "Tlicre wasn't any justice about it!" burst out Jake Pike, losing bis temper again. "Tbere wasn't a two-spot of justice in my band !" Tbat was tbo weakness of tbis otberwise estimable lobbyist ; be lost bis temper as often as ever an old lady lost ber spectacles. "And bow do I know tbat all tbis money will go as yon say ?" continued Airs. Murray, improving ber advantage. " I am not ac- quainted witb you as a business man. Be- fore bringing in sucb a bill, j^ou ougbt to sbow me tbo vouchers." " Vouchers !" be laughed or gasped, for the idea excited him to both contempt and im- patience. " Do you suppose members will sign tbeir names to papers owning tbat they bave took bribes ? Come, now, that's pret- ty hard on Congressmen, that is! That's the same as saying you think they are born fools ! Of course they Avon't sign no such papers. I'll tell you what I'll do," he add- ed, thinking to frighten ber ; " I'll fetch the gentlemen themselves !" " I won't see them," declared Josie, snap- pishly. " I guess I'd better fetch them," contin- ued Pike, believing tbat be had " got her," as ho would have expressed it. "If you do, I'll leave Washington; I'll complain to the police. I am not obliged to see all tbe low i)eoplo whom you choose to bring here, nor to see you either." Tiiero was no use in this threat, clearly ; and bo turned oiico more to persuasion. "You ougbt not to damage ?Hf, Mrs. Mur- ray. After all tbe good work I've done for you, you ougbt not to give uie a gird. And you are damaging me bad. You are mak- ing mo forfeit my word and lose my charac- ter. If these promises are dishonored, it will cut into my business. How can you cxpecu members to stand by agents if they don't feel certain agents will stand by them ? There an't a claimant in Washington, or out of it, but what'll suffer more or less if tbis job of yours an't settled for. You'll do a mischief that'll last for years and years. I tell you, Mrs. Murray, that I know all tbis, and I feel it. If you don't pay these little bills, I shall have to pay 'em myself." " I don't care whether you do or not," re- sponded the pitiless Josie. " Yon bave made enougb in otber things to aflbrd it. And as for these Congressmen of yours, they arc low, mean, shabby creatures, and I don't care if they never get a cent. It Avas mere jus- tice," she insisted, once more. " I don't want to pay for justice. Justice ought to be free." " But bow about injustice ?'' demanded Mr. Pike, thinking for tbe tenth time tbat be had got her. " There hasn't been any," responded Josie, with admirable readiness, directness, and simplicity. Ho could make no progress; tbe discussion kei)t swinging back to where it started ; tbe claim was just, and tbe money was hers. " Look here, Mrs. Murray !"be began again. Supposing I was a lawyer, and bad w"on a great case for you — " . " But you are not a lawyer," she interrupt- ed, with the readiness of a good logician. "And tbat makes a great ditierence. If yours was a regular xn'ofession and an hon- orable one, I would consider your extraordi- nary charges more patiently. But it is no sucb tbing ; it is an underhanded, shameful business ; and I mean to give one lobbyist a lesson." " By George, if you don't beat the deuce !" returned Mr. Pike, glaring in utter amaze- ment at this impudence. " Look here, ma'am, I tell you what!'' bo broke out, giving way to bis unhappy temper anew. " If you don't pay tbat ten tbousand right straight down, every cent of it, I'll tell on you. I don't caro wbat becomes of tbe business, I'll tell on you. I'll expose tbe whole history, tbe whole illegality and perjury of your job, I will, by thunder!" "I don't caro what you tell,'' snapped Jo- sie, rather enlivened than daunted by these 178 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. threats. "You are a — nobody, and people won't believe a word you say. Every body knows what you are." "And every body knows what you are!" retorted the es-Congressmau, meaning more /nd worse than he could have proved. "I am a lady," said Josie, bridling and nushing, though she did not comprehend the broad bearing of his scoif. " I have simply got my own money, and I don't mean to be robbed of it. You have no right to say any thing against me because of that. And I don't believe you have a right to come here at all and demand things of me in this vio- lent way. If I owe you any thing, you should send your bill in writing, civiUy, and not plunge into my rooms in this fashion andin^^ suit inc." " Send a bill !" exclaimed poor Pike, who was led on from surprise to surprise, and whose reason began to reel under such a suc- cession of whimsies. " Nonsense and gam- mon ! Peox)le don't send bills for this sort of service — not yit. I never heard of such a thing. It's just perfect, unmitigated non- sense and gammon." " It seems to me tliat you might be more gracious in your language when I suggest an idea to help you along," replied Josie, with distracting composure and urbanity. Mr. Pike had read of people tearing their hair, and had looked upon the alleged per- formance as a sheer, silly invention, only to be met with in illustrated weeklies. But he felt now that it would be a great relief to shove his hard hands into his brashy scalp and tweak the very seams oiien. He sat si- lent for a moment, staring at Josie in stolid despair, and trying in vain to see through his millstone in i^etticoats. She was the most contrary creature, the most indefatiga- bly and unseizably contrary creature, that he had ever met with. She would not do, and could not bo trapped into doing, any thing that suited his purposes. When he tried to argue, she snapped at him ; and when he bristled up for a tight, she was good-na- tured. He was like a bandaged lubber in blind-man's-butf, who bangs himself against the furniture at every step, and never catches any body. And she was like the greased pig whom no grip can hold to, or like the famous spry little ]}\g who could not be counted.' He had run himself mentally out of breath after her, and she was still as fresh and as ftir beyond his reach as ever. "If you came hero simply to insult mo," added Josie, by way of finishing her stunned assailant, " I should say that you had accom- plished your object, and might feel free to go." "Oh, come now, Mrs. M., don't let's quarrel about this!" urged Pilce, placatingly, for ho hated to leave without his pay. " If I've said any thing hasty, I apologize. Perhaps we could come to a little bit of a compromise somehow. You asked me to put your claim through, and I done it. Now, what would you like to allow me for it ? Just say your say, and then I'll say my say." " I don't know but I would pay what you say you have paid out for me," returned Jo- sie, after some jionderiug. "That is four hundred dollars, according to your account. Then, I will give you one hundred dollars for your trouble." If Jacob Pike's face had been n slice of bacon toasting on a hot gridiron, it could not have writhed and shriveled more than it did under this offer. " Why not put it the other way !" he smirked, or tried to smirk. " I'd rather set- tle honestly with my members than with myself. Throw out the five hundred ; I'll get nothing and lose something; then you pay the rest. Come now, Mrs. Murray, I'll compromise on ninety -five hundred, and that's cheap enough." " You might as well say ten thousand at once," was the intelligent response. "I won't do it," she added, with the noble tone of one who resists an imposition. Then Mr. Pike arose in his wrath and his dignity, or, as he would have called it, his " dig." He had been an auctioneer not many years x)revious, and he lifted up his right arm as if it still wielded the fateful hammer. "All or none !" he said, in an awful voice. " I ask you once more, ma'am, will you pay me that ten thousand ? I ask you three times. Will you do it ? Once — twice — thrice ?" Josie was a little startled by this cere- mony, but she bravely said "No " each time. " Then I am done with you !" fairly shout- ed Jacob, not knowing what to do but shout^ unless he should dash his brains out against the wall. " I am very glad to hear it," said Josie, with commendable spunk. But although Mr. Pike stalked to the door and opened it, he did not leave. He medi- tated a moment, came back a step or two, and stared at her perplexedly. " I thought you were going, sir," observed Josie, rising to her feet, with a vague hope that she could rustle and "slm" him out, as if he were a hen. "I want that check," he sulked, quite hoarse and pale. "I — want — that — check!". "Will you leave the room, sir?" she de- manded, a good deal scared meanwhile, for his expression was menacing. " Not till I have that check first." "Then you may stay here," replied Josie, skipping deftly by him and out of the door. " I will see the landlady, and tell her to charge you the rent," she added from the hall. "And if there is any thing missing from my projicrty, I shall hold you responsi- ble to the police." " Bully for you !" Jacob furiously bawled PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 170 after ber ; hut slie had already vanished into some room whither ho did not feci iVco to follow her : she had probably not even heard his farewell explosion of rage. Thus left to himself, he looked furiously about him, clapped his hat upon his woodeu head, expectorated on the hired carpet, and, in short, insulted the little apartment. I5ut presently ho recoUeetcd how useless all this Avas, and, witli a rather sneaking demeanor, quietly took his leave. Meantime Josie, safely ensconced in the landlady's private parlor, and prattling eas- ily of connuoni)lace matters, waited to see him depart. So intent was sho upon this event, that for some little time sho did not notice a gentleman on the other side of the 8treet,who had halted, and sccracdtobo wist- fully surveying her through the half-opened Aviudow. Ho was a portly and rather elder- ly person, slovenly in dress, ghastly in coun- tenance, and woe-bcgouo in exxiression. " I wonder who that gentleman is f ' que- ried the spectacled hostess. "Ho is there every day — two or three times a day — walk- ing up and down, and staring at the house." The moment our heroine raised her eyes toward the stranger he took off his hat with an air of reverential respect, though also of profound melancholy. Josie nodded, smiled cordially, and called, in a sweet soprano : "Howdedo-o ?" Then she shut the window, and her re- jected adorer passed sorrowfully onward, tottering a little in his gait, as failing eld- erly gentlemen are wont to do. It was Mr. Hollowbread. CILVPTER LII. MK. DRUMMOXD SUCCEEDS MR. HOLLOW- BREAD. Mr. Jake Pike hastened in hot -footed wrath to expose to Sj'kes Drummond how ho had been gouged and chiseled, as ho po- etically expressed it, by Josie Murray. The tale was in itself so entertaining, and some of the narrator's resentful commenta- ries upon it were so whimsical, that the Con- gressman could not help laughing from time to time, in that rasping, snorting, startling haw, haw ! of his, the counterpart of two hoots fi'om a locomotive. " Mr. Drummond, how much your laugh is like the cawing of a crow !" said Jake, get- ting irritated at this misplaced hilarity. " I never noticed it before ; but really it is A-ery like it. Haw, haw! Caw, caw ! Exactly like it." Rendered pensive by this comparison, which seemed to him inappropriate, disagree- able and ungentlemanly, Sykes suspended his merriment for a Avhile, to the satisfaction and triumjih of Pike. " I rather look to you to make this account square," continued tho lobl)yist, speaking somewhat out of his frctfulness, but also be- lieving that Avhat ho suggested Avas only justice. Unattainable justice, ])robably; but none the less a beautiful and alluring ideal ; nono tho less Avortli asking for. " Then you will look a great Avhile," said Drunnnond. " I should bo sorry to keep a man of your tender sonsilnlities in suspense. You made your own bargain, and you took your own risk. Besides, if you are out, so am I. Have I asked j'ou to i)ay mcf" " No, but you'll boiTow it of me some day, and that'll be tho last of tho business as far as my pocket is concerned. Besides, that an't a complete and exhaustive view of this Avhole question. "What I contend for, and haA'o contended for for j'oars, is that there ought to be responsibility somewhere, and that it should rest upon Congress. ^Yhat I contend for is, that when a member recom- mends one of his constituents to his agent, he ought to be bound to see tho agent out of the woods ; and that, if tho constituent fails to pony up honorably, then the member should make it good, or at least go his share on the losses." " Yes, and have the jobs allotted by the President, so many dollars' worth to each district," grinned Sykes. "Double allow- ance to Senators, I suppose ? That would be carrying the Congressional system a deuce of a ways. I don't ol)ject to your plan, Jake, if it can be made general. But there's no such understanding afoot yet, and you may bet all your x^rofits for this session that I sha'n't initiate it." " I didn't exj)ect you to, on general prin- ciples. It's a plan that will require com- bination and discussion before it can be rightly inceived, or, in other words, brought to a judicious iuceiition. But, speaking of this particular case now, they say you are agoing to marry the lady. If so, what she saves, you save. It might look to some folks as though her chiseling mo was a put-up job betwixt you two." " Come, come, old man!" Drummond re- monstrated. But he broke out laughing again, so callous Avas he to insinuations of dishonor, either against himself or against tlie woman to Avhom he was betrothed. " You are getting beyond the facts there, and CA'en beyond your rights in stating fic- tions. However, just to soassed a thicket of ever- I greens, he ran against some comparatively slight figure and knocked it aside. By the dim twilight he recognized the rounded out- lines and wiUowy movement of Sipiire Xaucy j Appleyard. " Mr. Drummoud !'' exclaimed the Bloomer, ! in a gasp which confessed palpitating emo- tion, as well as the shock of the cidlision. '• Well, what do you waut now ?"' demand- ed Sykes, harshly, for he was iu one of Lis most unlovely tempers, and this woman Lad bothered him much. '• I want to know whether you ever think of your promise to marry me," was the an- swer — precisely the answer he had expected. " I was just thinking of it," he said. "And what — " she began imthetically, fooled by her hopes. '• I was just thinking I wouldn't do it," he concluded, with a sardonic grin. "Mr. Drummoud!" shrieked the squire, putting her hand behind her, as if to draw either a weapon or a handkerchief. "Look here !"' ho snarled. "If you pull any more popguns on me. I'll break theui across your empty head. Now, mind !" She made no reply, but she Avas evidently dismayed by his threat, and, after a short struggle to govern herself, burst out sobbing. Not in the least pitying her, but rather 184 PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. pleased to see ■what power lie liail over her weak uerves, be gave her auother ■warning glare, and marched on. Scarcely had he gone ten stejis, however, ere he heard the re- port of a pistol behind him. He wheeled, ran back to Sqnire Appleyard, caught her by the arm, shook her soundly, and set her down hard on a bench. '•' I told you not to lire at me, you idiot !"' he said. " Where is the pistol?" "It went off in my pocket," returned Miss Nancy, beginning to cry. "And I don't know but I'm shot." " Get it out for me," he ordered. "I don't want to bother with the mysteries of that coat — or whatever you call it." It was really di'eadful. Here was a man who would not permit himself to be shot ei- ther by night or by day. There was no prec- edent in the history of American heroines for the treatment of such a willful, irration- al, and brutal wretch. The Jael of Califor- nia herself, that spotless and {earless protegee of the eloquent strong-minded, would have been jierplexed to deal with a wretch who thus abused his superior strength. After some tremulous fumbling, fearful lest there should be another awful bang, and sobbing the while as if her heart would burst with a report. Squire Ajipleyard produced the pistol. Drummond took it, put it in his pocket, wheeled around in silence, and coolly tramp- ed onward, with the air of one who had turn- ed his back on something for life. A minute later, however, as this rough and tough creature passed the " palatial resi- dence " of that eminent banker, Allchin, he beheld a spectacle which made him start and i)alpitate. A carriage drove up, and from it descend- ed Josie Murray, magnificently arrayed, a vis- ion of beauty to dazzle one. In the portico she turned, seemed to recognize him as he passed, shook her large fan at him amicably, and then disappeared within. "A dinner-party, I sui^pose," muttered Drummond. " The old hyena will pick her to the bones. I wish him a good ax^petite — haw, haw !" Let us follow Josie into the Belshazzar scene of revelry (we cpiote from a city item of the Xewsmo))ger) which the great finan- ycier had evoked from the magic realms of his y purse. The dinner was given in her honor as a queen of fashion, as a power in politics, as a successful claimant, as a goose v.orth picking. Allchin hoped to furnish forth many en- tertainments out of the deposits which ho expected to coax from his honored guest. He could do it without scruple, for it was his practice to look upon a deposit in his bank as so much clear iucomc, and to use it accordingly. This man was one of the wonders and signs of our financial age. He was the in- carnation of semi-genteel impudence, and of half- conscious, reputable dishonesty. The brass with which he could recommend a fraudulent stock to a widow, or a retired clergyman, or an old friend, might not be surpassed in lustre by any other banker of our times. Language fails us in attempting to do justice to this instinctive, remorseless, and indiscriminate plunderer. He would cheat any body, old or young, gentle or simple, man or woman, saint or sinner, with the same bland greediness and impenitence. He had no more resiiect for age or sex or character, in his freebootings, than a pirate. He would have fleeced Ruth ; he would have swindled Florence Nightingale ; he would have been very glad to spoil Miss Burdett-Coutts. Had he been one of the apostles, he would have jilayed the part of Judas, and got a much better bargain, and never have hanged him- self. Had he been one of the converts of the day of Pentecost, he would have gone " ca- hoots " with Ananias and Sapphira. lu short, he was one of our greatest financial managers and railroaders. "And this is the heroine of the session!" said Mr. Allchin, bowing his huge body over Josie, and speaking iu a deep, mellow rum- ble, like a volcano about to lay waste some flourishing region. " This is the magician who turns Congressmen into apes and lap- dogs," he added, with sincere admiration of the immoral witchcraft. "I did use them, didn't If smiled Josie, unable to repress a little burst of vainglory, and amusement as well. "Yes ; and abuse them !" grinned Allchin, wagging his enormous head facetiously. " I must beware. I may get enchanted myself. I may become one of the — the victims," he concluded, after trying iu vain to remember some poetical simile. Then he iiresented his other guests to her. Some of them she already knew x)ersoually, and all of them by reputation. There were three financiers and railroad- ers, sly, purring old cats of the business hay- mow, with very soft fur and very long claws, who were commonly supposed to mouse in- deiiendently of Allchin, and even to be his rivals, but who were really engaged iu a vast secret system of co-operation with him, each helping the other to prey, and all gobbling it together. There was a Now York broker, a dark, loan, trim, hard, alert gentleman, reminding one of a black-and-tan terrier, who had the fame of being as destructive in a "corner"' as the other beast in a rat-bin, and who was the Wall Street agent of his entertainer. There was a lawyer of great notoriety and really eminent ability, whose solo abomina- ble business it was to engiucer private bills through Congress, and who had 'earned fees PLAYING THE MISCHIEF. 185 from all tbo otlicr prcdatorj' advcntiirers there present. There were the tvIvcs of these genteel " sports," some clever and gracious, some stupid and vulgar, but all magniliceutly ar- rayed iu the spoils of linanciering, and, on the whole, line enough to add lustre to their hushaiuVs varnish of respectability. Finally, there was a superb woman of thirty-live, who was no other than Mr. All- chin's own claimant ; the claimant whom ho swore by, and vonchcd for, and recom- mended to his Avcalthy friends, and backed, as ho asserted, with his owu money ; the greatest claimant that had ever been known iu Washington, or in all our favored coun- try ; a claiuuint who had no less than nine- teeu millions iu gold duo her. Yes, the whole of it was due her; she had never col- lected a cent of it. Of course a lady who had such a fortune coming in some day would feel free to bor- row all she needed, and could aftbrd to be liberal iu the matter of usury. A hundred per cent, was what she allowed, interest be- ing payable when the note should fall due, and the note falling due on the collection of the iirst million. The loans which she had gathered iu and divided with the noble banker who guaranteed her respectability were already beyond computation. In short, it was a gang of affiliated black- legs, who had met to divide the winnings of the late session, and who were willing, by- the-way, to pluck the feathers of a lucky novice. Will Josie escape them without being stripped of the golden plumage which she has filched from Uncle Sam's eagle ? It seems hardly possible. If she dodges All- chin's marble quarries, there are the Arizo- nian mines ; if these fail to ingulf her, there are the tumbling, crusliing stocks of the Groat Alaska Railroad; if she evades these, she may trip anu)ng the corner.s and margins of the New York Exchange ; every gentleman present has his rascally trap of well-baited and fatal speculation. Finally, there is the wonderful claimant, with her romantic story and her dazzling cent, per cent., no doubt the most dangerous tempter of them all to Josie, who has just pushed a claim to its goal easilj' and profit- ably, and who conseiiuently believes in claim- antcy. Alas fur her, if she listens to these charmers! She will soon have to begin the world again. Perhaps the reader may suggest that, if she lose her fortune, she may marry the rich and love-lorn Hollowbread. 13ut it has been revealed to us that a legal obstacle stands iu the way of this salvation. Mr. Hollowbread, on reaching his relatives (and heirs), presently made known to them a de- termination to will all his property to Mrs. Augustus Murray, and likewise exhibited other symptoms of what they considered — and justly considered — mental alienation. Thereupon they got out a commission de hinatko upon him, and had him jdaccd un- der a conservator. It is saddening to leave our heroine un- der the shadow of such threatening circum- stances. She had her pleasing traits ; she was beautiful, graceful, clever, entertaining, and amiable ; if she had only xiossessed truthfulness and honor, she would have been admirable. One can hardly help wishing her well while conceding that she deserved ill. But money easily and naughtily won is so often easily and foolishly lost ! No doubt, too, Josie's head has been turned by her pro- digious and facile success, and she will be exceptionally ready to lly in the face of niin. On the whole, our hopes for her are feeble —feebler even than our good-will. THE END. 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