Chapter 32 - Page 2

should rather have liked the fellow, confound him, if I hadn't lost my patience before he came into the room."

"Did he tell you the story of the claim?" enquired his married daughter.

"No, I didn't let him. I was feeling pretty sick of claims, and I had no time."

"Oh, father, I wish you had let him tell it," exclaimed the pretty young woman. "The truth is, I am beginning to be interested in that claim myself. I am in love with Judge Rutherford and his stories of Jenny and Tom Scott. His whole soul is bound up in 'pushing this thing through'--that's what he calls it. He is the most delightful lobbyist I ever met. He is like a bull in a china shop--though I don't believe anyone ever saw a bull in a china shop."

"He does not know enough to give his friends a rest," said the Senator. "If he was not such a good fellow he would bore a man to death. He bores many a man as it is, and people in office won't stand being bored. He's too ingenuous. The shrewd ones say his ingenuousness is too good to be true. He can't keep De Willoughby's virtues out of his stories of him--and a man's virtues have nothing much to do with his claim."

"I met him in one of the squares yesterday," said Mrs. Meredith, "and he almost cried when he spoke of the claim. He told me that everything was going wrong--that it was being pushed aside by all sorts of things, and he had lost heart. His eyes and nose got quite red, and he had to wink hard to keep back the tears."

"The fellow believes in it, at any rate," said the Senator; "he has that to support him."

"He believes in everything," said Mrs. Meredith, "and it would have touched your heart to hear him talk about the claimants. There is a young nephew and a beautiful girl creature, who is big Mr. De Willoughby's adopted daughter. She is not a claimant, it is true, but they all adore each other, and the nephew is in love with her; and if the claim goes through they will be happy forever afterwards. I saw the nephew once, and he was a beautiful boy with Southern eyes and a charming expression. Upon the whole, I think I am in love with the young couple, too. Their story sounded like a pastoral poem when Judge Rutherford told it."

"Suppose you tell it to us, Marion," said the Senator, with a laugh, and a glance round the table. "It may appeal to our feelings and advance the interests of the claim."

"Pray, tell it, Mrs. Meredith," Baird put in; "the mere mention of it has appealed to my emotions. Perhaps Senator Harburton and Mr. Lewis will be moved also, and that will be two votes to the good--perhaps more."

"The charm of it is that it is a story without a plot," Mrs. Meredith said. "There is nothing in it but youth and love and innocence and beauty. It