legislation, and defend the liberties of the people by force of the oratorical gifts which he possessed.  Elton had referred to these gifts in complimentary terms.  Was it not reasonable to infer that Elton would be inclined to promote his political fortunes?  Such an ally would be invaluable, for Elton was a growing power in the industrial development of the section of the country where they both lived.  He had continued to find him friendly in spite of his own antagonism on the public platform to corporate power.  A favorite and conscientious hope in his political outlook was that he might be able to make capital as well as labor believe him to be a friend without alienating either; that he might obtain support at the polls from both factions, and thus be left free after election to work out for their mutual advantage appropriate legislation.  He had avowed himself unmistakably the champion of popular principles in order to win the confidence of the common people, but his policy of reasonable conciliation led him to cast sheep’s eyes at vested interests when he could do so without exposing himself to the charge of inconsistency.  Many of his friends were wealthy men, and his private ambition was to amass a handsome fortune.  That had been the cause of his speculative ventures in local enterprises which promised large returns, and in the stock market.  Horace Elton was a friend of but three years’ standing; one of the men who had consulted him occasionally in regard to legal matters since he had become a corporation attorney.  He admired Elton’s strong, far-reaching grasp of business affairs, his capacity to formulate and incubate on plans of magnitude without betraying a sign of his intentions, and his power to act with lightning despatch and overwhelming vigor when the moment for the consummation of his purposes arrived.  He also found agreeable Elton’s genial, easy-going ways outside of business hours, which frequently took the form of social entertainment at which expense seemed to be no consideration and gastronomic novelties were apt to be presented.  Lyons attended one of these private banquets while in Washington—­a dinner party served to a carefully chosen company of public men, to which newspaper scribes were unable to penetrate.  This same genial, easy-going tendency of Elton’s to make himself acceptable to those with whom he came in contact took the form of a gift to Mrs. Lyons of a handsome cameo pin which he presented to her a day or two after their dialogue at the President’s reception, and for which, as he confidentially informed Selma, he had been seeking a suitable wearer ever since he had picked it up in an out-of-the-way store in Brussels the previous summer.

On the day of their departure Selma, as she took a last look from the car window at the Capitol and the Washington Monument, said to her husband:  “This is a beautiful city—­worthy in many respects of the genius of the American people—­but I never wish to return to Washington until you are United States Senator.”