"Did you see her blush when she proposed that toast?"

"Yes. So would anybody--with all those men, and their eyes hanging out on their cheeks!"

"Pooh! She got up the whole show. Do you know why?"

"I only know it's politics."

"Politics!" He glanced over his shoulder, and then, leaning toward her, he said, in a low tone: "I'll tell you in confidence, Minnie; she's sending him to Congress!"

"Ah!" she cried triumphantly. "If she loved him she wouldn't do _that_, would she?"

"Minnie!" Briscoe turned upon her sternly. "I don't want to hear any more talk like that. It's the way with some papers to jibe at our great inst.i.tutions, and you've been reading them; that's the trouble with you.

The only criticism any one has any business making against Congress is that it's too good for some of the men we send there. Congress is our great virtue, understand; the congressmen are our fault."

"I didn't mean anything like that," protested the girl. "I haven't been reading any papers except the 'Herald.' I meant why should she send him away if she cared about him?"

"She'll go with him."

"They couldn't both go. What would become of the 'Herald'?"

"They'd fix that easy enough; there are plenty of smart young fellows in Rouen they could get to run it while they are in Washington."

"Mr. Harkless is sure to be elected, is he?"

"He is, if he's nominated."

"Can't he get the nomination?"

"Get it! n.o.body ever happened to think of him for it till it came into _her_ head; and the only thing I look to see standing in the way of it is Harkless himself; but I expect we can leave it to her to manage, and I guess she will. She's got more diplomacy than Blaine. Kedge Halloway is up the spout all right, but they want to keep it quiet; that's why she had them come here instead of the office."

"She wouldn't marry him a minute sooner because he went to Congress,"

said Minnie thoughtfully.

"You're giving up," he exclaimed. "You know I'm right."

"Wait and see. It might--No, you're wrong as wrong can be! I wish you weren't. Don't you see? You're blind. She _couldn't_ do all these things for him if she loved him. That's the very proof itself. I suppose you--well, you can't understand."

"I'll tell you one thing," he returned. "If she doesn't, the rest of it won't amount to a rip with John Harkless."

"Yes, it will. n.o.body could help liking to find himself as big a man as he'll be when he comes back here. Besides, don't you see, it's her way of making it up to him for not liking him as much as he wants. _You_ give up, don't you?"

"No," he cried, with feeble violence, "I don't. She'll find out some things about herself when she sees him again."

Minnie shook her head.

There was a sound of wheels; the buckboard drew up at the gate, and Helen, returning from her evening's labor, jumped out lightly, and ran around to pat the horses' heads. "Thank you so much, Mr. Willetts," she said to the driver. "I know you will handle the two delegates you are to look after as well as you do the judge's team; and you ought to, you know, because the delegates are men. You dears!" She stroked the sleek necks of the colts and handed them bunches of gra.s.s.

Briscoe came out, and let the friendly animals nose his shoulder as he looked gravely down on the piquant face beside him in the dusk. "Young lady," he said, "go East. Wait till we get on to Washington, and sit in the gallery, and see John Harkless rise up in his place, and hear the Speaker say: 'The Gentleman from Indiana!' I know the chills would go up and down my spine, and I guess you'd feel pretty well paid for your day's work. I guess we all would."

"Aren't you tired, Helen?" asked Minnie, coming to her in the darkness and clasping her waist.

"Tired? No; I'm happy. Did you ever see the stars so bright?"

CHAPTER XVIII. THE TREACHERY OF H. FISBEE

An Indiana town may lie asleep a long time, but there always comes a day when it wakes up; and Plattville had wakened in August when the "Herald"

became a daily and Eph Watts struck oil. It was then that history began to be made. The "Herald" printed News, and the paper was sold every morning at stands in all the towns in that section of the State. Its circulation tripled. Parker talked of new presses; two men were added to his staff, and a reporter was brought from Rouen to join Mr. Fisbee. The "Herald" boomed the oil-field; people swarmed into town; the hotel was crowded; strangers became no sensation whatever. A capitalist bought the whole north side of the Square to erect new stores, and the Carlow Bank began the construction of a new bank building of Bedford stone on Main Street. Then it was whispered, next affirmed, that the "Herald" had succeeded in another of its enterprises, and Main Street was to be asphalted. That was the end of the "old days" of Plattville.

There was a man who had laid the foundation upon which the new Plattville was to be built; he who, through the quiet labor of years, had stamped his spirit upon the people, as their own was stamped upon him; but he lay sick in his friend's house and did not care. One day Meredith found him propped up in bed, reading a letter--reading it listlessly, and with a dull eye.

"PLATTVILLE, _September 1st_.

"_Dear Mr. Harkless_: Yours of the 30th received. Every one here is very glad to know that your health is so far improved as to admit of your writing; and it is our strongest hope that you will soon be completely recovered.

"New subscriptions are coming in at a slightly advanced rate since my last letter; you will see they are distributed over several counties, when you examine the books on your return; and I am glad to state that with our arrangement for Gainesville the 'Herald' is now selling every morning at a prominent store in all the towns within the radius we determined on. Our plan of offering the daily with no advance on the price of the former tri-weekly issue proves a success. I now propose making the issue a quarto every day (at the same price) instead of once a week. I think our experience warrants the experiment. It is my belief that our present circulation will be increased forty per cent. Please advise me if you approve. Of course this would mean a further increase of our working force, and we should have to bring another man from Rouen--possibly two more--but I think we need not fear such enlargements.

"I should tell you that I have taken you at your word entrusting me with the entire charge of your interests here, and I had the store-room adjoining the office put in shape, and offered it to the telegraph company for half the rent they were paying in their former quarters over the post-office. They have moved in; and this, in addition to giving us our despatches direct, is a reduction of expense.

"Mr. Watts informs me that the Standard's offer is liberal and the terms are settled. The boom is not hollow, it is simply an awakening; and the town, so long a dependent upon the impetus of agriculture or its trade, is developing a prosperity of its own on other lines as well. Strangers come every day; oil has lubricated every commercial joint. Contracts have been let for three new brick business buildings to be erected on the east side of the Square. The value of your Main Street frontage will have doubled by December, and possibly you may see fit to tear away the present building and put up another, instead; the investment might be profitable. The 'Herald' could find room on the second and third floors, and the first could be let to stores.

"I regret that you find your copy of the paper for the 29th overlooked in the mail and that your messenger could find none for you at the newspaper offices in Rouen. Mr. Schofield was given directions in regard to supplying you with the missing issue at once.

"I fear that you may have had difficulty in deciphering some of my former missives, as I was unfamiliar with the typewriter when I took charge of the 'Herald'; however, I trust that you find my later letters more legible.

"The McCune people are not worrying us; we are sure to defeat them. The papers you speak of were found by Mr. Parker in your trunk, and are now in my hands.

"I send with this a packet of communications and press clippings indicative of the success of the daily, and in regard to other innovations. The letters from women commendatory of our 'Woman's Page,'

thanking us for various house-keeping receipts, etc., strike me as peculiarly interesting, as I admit that a 'Woman's Page' is always a difficult matter for a man to handle without absurdity.

"Please do not think I mean to plume myself upon our various successes; we attempted our innovations and enlargements at just the right time--a time which you had ripened by years of work and waiting, and at the moment when you had built up the reputation of the 'Herald' to its highest point. Everything that has been done is successful only because you paved the way, and because every one knows it is your paper; and the people believe that whatever your paper does is interesting and right.

"Trusting that your recovery will be rapid, I am

"Yours truly,

"H. FISBEE."

Harkless dropped the typewritten sheets with a sigh.

"I suppose I ought to get well," he said wearily.

"Yes," said Meredith, "I think you ought; but you're chock full of malaria and fever and all kinds of meanness, and----"

"You 'tend to your own troubles," returned the other, with an imitation of liveliness. "I--I don't think it interests me much," he said querulously. He was often querulous of late, and it frightened Tom. "I'm just tired. I am strong enough--that is, I think I am till I try to move around, and then I'm like a log, and a lethargy gets me--that's it; I don't think it's malaria; it's lethargy."