“Thank God for that,” she murmured.

Lyons stepped forward and put his arm around her.  “You shall live your own life as you desire, Selma.  No act of mine shall spoil it.”

“Superior ethics taught you by your wife!  Your poor, wise wife in whom you would not confide!” She tapped him playfully on his fat cheek.  “Naughty boy!”

“There are moments when a man sees through a glass, darkly,” he answered, kissing her again.  “This is a solemn decision for us, Selma.  Heaven has willed that you should save me from my own errors, and my own blindness.”

“We shall be very happy, James.  You will be chosen Senator, and all will be as it should be.  The clouds on my horizon are one by one passing away, and justice is prevailing at last.  What do you suppose I heard to-day?  Pauline Littleton is to marry Dr. Page.  Mrs. Earle told me so.  Pauline has written to the trustees that after the first of next January she will cease to serve as president of Wetmore; that by that time the college will be running smoothly, so that a successor can take up the work.  There is a chance now that the trustees will choose a genuine educator for the place—­some woman of spontaneous impulses and a large outlook on life.  Pauline’s place is by the domestic hearth.  She could never have much influence on progress.”

“I do not know her very well,” said Lyons.  “But I know this, Selma, you would be just the woman for the place if you were not my wife.  You would make an ideal president of a college for progressive women.”

“I am suited for the work, and I think I am progressive,” she admitted.  “But that, of course, is out of the question for me as a married woman and the wife of a United States Senator.  But I am glad, James, to have you appreciate my strong points.”

On the following day Lyons vetoed the gas bill.  His message to the Legislature described it as a measure which disposed of a valuable franchise for nothing, and which would create a monopoly detrimental to the rights of the public.  This action met with much public approval.  One newspaper expressed well the feeling of the community by declaring that the Governor had faced the issue squarely and shown the courage of his well-known convictions.  The Benham Sentinel was practically mute.  It stated merely in a short editorial that it was disappointed in Governor Lyons, and that he had played into the hands of the demagogues and the sentimentalists.  It suggested to the Legislature to show commendable independence by passing the bill over his veto.  But this was obviously a vain hope.