“Of course you ought to understand about this matter better than I,” she said; “but I have the feeling, James, that your constituents will be disappointed if we don’t show ourselves appreciative of the dignity of your position.  We both agree that we should make Benham our home, and that it will be preferable if I visit Washington a month or two at a time during the session rather than for us to set up housekeeping there, and I can’t help believing that the people will be better pleased if you, as their representative, make that home all which a beautiful home should be.  They will be proud of it, and if they are, you needn’t mind what a few fault-finders say.  I have been thinking it over, and it seems to me that we shall make a mistake to let this house go.  It just suits us.  I feel sure that in their hearts the American people like to have their public men live comfortably.  This house is small compared to many in New York, and I flatter myself that we shall be able to satisfy everyone that we are rootedly opposed to unseemly extravagance of living.”

Lyons yielded readily to this argument.  He had been accustomed to simple surroundings, but travel and the growth of Benham itself had demonstrated to him that the ways of the nation in respect to material possessions and comforts had undergone a marked change since his youth.  He had been brought in contact with this new development in his capacity of adviser to the magnates of Benham, and he had fallen under the spell of improved creature comforts.  Still, though he cast sheep’s eyes at these flesh pots, he had felt chary, both as a worker for righteousness and an ardent champion of popular principles, of countenancing them openly.  Yet his original impulse toward marriage had been a desire to secure an establishment, and now that this result was at hand he found himself ambitious to put his household on a braver footing, provided this would do injury neither to his moral scruples nor to his political sincerity.  The problem was but another phase of that presented to him by his evolution from a jury lawyer, whose hand and voice were against corporations, to the status of a richly paid chamber adviser to railroads and banking houses.  He was exactly in the frame of mind to grasp at the euphemism offered by Selma.  He was not one to be convinced without a reason, but his mind eagerly welcomed a suggestion which justified on a moral ground the proceeding to which they were both inclined.  The idea that the people would prefer to see him as their representative living in a style consistent with the changes in manners and customs introduced by national prosperity, affording thereby an example of correct and elevating stewardship of reasonable wealth, by way of contrast to vapid society doings, came to him as an illumination which dissipated his doubts.