Barbara was not particularly surprised at the request.  She knew that Marjorie Moore had been wishing to make her a confidant ever since the reception at the White House.  And she knew that the girl could not come to Mr. Hamlin’s house because of Harriet’s hostile attitude toward her.

So Bab confided the whole story to Ruth, and feeling much mystified and excited, the two girls set out for the Capitol.

During the long walk Barbara thought of her own secret, which she longed to confide to Ruth, but she dared not tell Ruth of the borrowed money for fear Ruth would at once insist on paying her debt.  The money had to be paid, of course, and Bab hoped to pay it back at an early date, but she had not yet come to the point where she could bear to ask Ruth for it.

When Ruth and Bab finally reached the Capitol building, and made their way to the Visitors’ Gallery in the Senate Chamber, Marjorie Moore was not there.  She had failed to keep her appointment.

“I am not so very sorry Miss Moore has not come,” Barbara remarked to Ruth.  “She seems to be such a mysterious kind of person, always suggesting something and never really telling you what it is.”

Ruth laughed.  “The ‘Automobile Girls’ hate mysteries, don’t they, Bab?  But goodness knows, we are always being involved in them!”

The two visitors sat down to listen to the speeches of United States Senators.  There was some excitement in the Chamber, Bab decided, but neither she nor Ruth could exactly understand what was going on.  Both girls listened and watched the proceedings below them with such intensity that they forgot all about Marjorie Moore and her strange request.

A few moments later she dropped down into the vacant seat next to Barbara.  She looked more hurried and agitated than ever.  Her hat was on one side, and her coat collar was half doubled under.  She was a little paler from her trying experience of a few nights before, and an ugly bruise showed over her temple.  But she made no reference to her accident.

“I am sorry I am late,” she whispered.  “But come back here in the far corner of the gallery with me.  I want to talk with you just half a minute.  I am so busy I can’t stay with you any longer.  I just felt I must see you, Miss Thurston, before you go to tea with Mrs. Wilson this afternoon.”

“Tea with Mrs. Wilson!” Bab ejaculated.  “How did you know we were going to Mrs. Wilson’s tea?  And has that anything to do with your message to me?” Barbara did not speak in her usual friendly tones.  She was getting decidedly cross.  It seemed to her that she had been under some one’s supervision ever since her arrival in Washington.

“Yes, it has, Miss Thurston,” the newspaper girl replied quickly.  “I want to ask you something.  Promise me you will grant no one a favor, no matter who asks it of you to-day?”

Barbara flushed.  “Why how absurd, Miss Moore.  I really cannot make you any such promise.  It is too foolish.”