nor were these all awkward consequences of ratcliffe's attentions now that he was distinctly recognized as an intimate friend of mrs lee's and possibly her future husband no one ventured any longer to attack him in her presence but nevertheless she was conscious in a thousand ways that atmosphere became more and more dense under shadow of secretary of the treasury in spite of herself she sometimes felt uneasy as though there were conspiracy in air one march afternoon she was sitting by her fire with an english review in her hand trying to read last symposium on sympathies of eternal punishment when her servant brought in a card and mrs lee had barely time to read name of mrs samuel baker when that lady followed the servant into room forcing countersign in so effective style that for once madeleine was fairly disconcerted her manner when thus intruded upon was cool but in this case on carrington's account she tried to smile courteously and asked her visitor to sit down which mrs baker was doing without an invitation very soon putting her hostess entirely at her ease she was when seen without her veil a showy woman verging on forty decidedly large tall over-dressed even in mourning and with a complexion rather fresher than nature had made it

there was a geniality in her address savouring of easy washington ways a fruitiness of smile and a rich southern accent that explained on spot her success in lobby she looked about her with fine self-possession and approved mrs lee's surroundings with a cordiality so different from northern stinginess of praise that madeleine was rather pleased than offended yet when her eye rested on corot madeleine's only pride she was evidently perplexed and resorted to eye-glasses in order as it seemed to gain time for reflection but she was not to be disconcerted even by corot's masterpiece

"how pretty japanese isn't it sea-weeds seen through a fog i went to an auction yesterday and do you know i bought a tea-pot with a picture just like that"

madeleine inquired with extreme interest about auction but after learning all that mrs baker had to tell she was on point of being reduced to silence when she bethought herself to mention carrington mrs

baker brightened up at once if she could be said to brighten where there was no sign of dimness

"dear mr carrington isn't he sweet i think he's a delicious man i don't know what i should do without him since poor mr baker left me we have been together all time you know my poor husband left directions that all his papers should be burned and though i would not say so unless you were such a friend of mr carrington's i reckon it's just as well for some people that he did i never could tell you what quantities of papers mr

carrington and i have put in fire and we read them all too"

madeleine asked whether this was not dull work

"oh dear no you see i know all about it and told mr carrington the story of every paper as we went on it was quite amusing i assure you"

mrs lee then boldly said she had got from mr carrington an idea that mrs

baker was a very skilful diplomatist

"diplomatist" echoed widow with her genial laugh "well it was as much that as anything but there's not many diplomatists' wives in this city ever did as much work as i used to do why i knew half members of congress intimately and all of them by sight i knew where they came from and what they liked best i could get round greater part of them sooner or later"

mrs lee asked what she did with all this knowledge mrs baker shook her pink-and-white countenance and almost paralysed her opposite neighbour by a sort of grande duchesse wink

"oh my dear you are new here if you had seen washington in war-times and for a few years afterwards you wouldn't ask that we had more congressional business than all other agents put together every one came to us then to get his bill through or his appropriation watched we were hard at work all time you see one can't keep run of three hundred men without some trouble my husband used to make lists of them in books with a history of each man and all he could learn about him but i carried it all in my head"

"do you mean that you could get them all to vote as you pleased" asked madeleine

"well we got our bills through" replied mrs baker

"but how did you do it did they take bribes"

"some of them did some of them liked suppers and cards and theatres and all sorts of things some of them could be led and some had to be driven like paddy's pig who thought he was going the other way some of them had wives who could talk to them and some--hadn't" said mrs baker with a queer intonation in her abrupt ending

"but surely" said mrs lee "many of them must have been above--i mean they must have had nothing to get hold of so that you could manage them"

mrs baker laughed cheerfully and remarked that they were very much of a muchness

"but i can't understand how you did it" urged madeleine "now how would you have gone to work to get a respectable senator's vote--a man like mr

ratcliffe for instance"

"ratcliffe" repeated mrs baker with a slight elevation of voice that gave way to a patronising laugh "oh my dear don't mention names i should get into trouble senator ratcliffe was a good friend of my husband's i guess mr carrington could have told you that but you see what we generally wanted was all right enough we had to know where our bills were and jog people's elbows to get them reported in time sometimes we had to convince them that our bill was a proper one and they ought to vote for it only now and then when there was a great deal of money and vote was close we had to find out what votes were worth it was mostly dining and talking calling them out into lobby or asking them to supper i wish i could tell you things i have seen but i don't dare it wouldn't be safe i've told you already more than i ever said to any one else but then you are so intimate with mr carrington that i always think of you as an old friend"

thus mrs baker rippled on while mrs lee listened with more and more doubt and disgust woman was showy handsome in a coarse style and perfectly presentable mrs lee had seen duchesses as vulgar she knew more about practical working of government than mrs lee could ever expect or hope to know why then draw back from this interesting lobbyist with such babyish repulsion

when after a long and as she declared a most charming call mrs baker wended her way elsewhere and madeleine had given the strictest order that she should never be admitted again carrington entered and madeleine showed him mrs baker's card and gave a lively account of interview

"what shall i do with woman" she asked "must i return her card" but carrington declined to offer advice on this interesting point "and she says that mr ratcliffe was a friend of her husband's and that you could tell me about that"

"did she say so" remarked carrington vaguely

"yes and that she knew every one's weak points and could get all their votes"

carrington expressed no surprise and so evidently preferred to change subject that mrs lee desisted and said no more

but she determined to try same experiment on mr ratcliffe and chose very next chance that offered in her most indifferent manner she remarked that mrs sam baker had called upon her and had initiated her into mysteries of lobby till she had become quite ambitious to start on that career

"she said you were a friend of her husband's" added madeleine softly

ratcliffe's face betrayed no sign

"if you believe what those people tell you" said he drily "you will be wiser than queen of sheba"