achievement might bring him was hardly worth while. He had not so very many more years to live. Why die unsatisfied?
One evening he put his arm around her and strained her to his breast. Another time he drew her to his knee, and told her of the life at Washington. Always he had a caress and a kiss for her now, but it was still in a tentative, uncertain way. He did not want to reach for her soul too deeply.
Jennie enjoyed it all innocently. Elements of fancy and novelty entered into her life. She was an unsophisticated creature, emotional, totally inexperienced in the matter of the affections and yet large enough mentally to enjoy the attentions of this great man who had thus bowed, from his high position, to make friends with her.
One evening, she pushed his hair back from his forehead as she stood by his chair, and, finding nothing else to do, took out his watch. The great man thrilled as he looked at her pretty innocence, and said:
“Would you like to have a watch, too?”
“Yes, indeed, I would,” said Jennie, with a deep breath.
The next day he stopped as he was passing a jewelry store, and bought one. It was gold, and had pretty ornamented hands.
“Come here now,” he said, when she came the next time; “I want to show you something. See what time it is by my watch.”
Jennie drew out the watch from his waistcoat pocket and started in surprise.
“This isn’t your watch!” she exclaimed, her face full of innocent wonder.
“No,” he said, pleased with his thought of putting it there, “it’s yours.”
“Mine!” exclaimed Jennie. “Mine! Oh, isn’t it lovely!”
“Do you think so?” he said.
Her ecstasy in its customary vein was one of the most grateful things he knew. Her face shone with light, and her eyes fairly danced.
“That’s yours,” he said. “See that you wear it now, and don’t lose it.”
Jennie took it, and seeing him looking at her so kindly, paused as she was fastening it on.
“You’re so good!” she exclaimed.
“No,” he said, but he held her at arm’s length by the waist, to study out what his reward might be. Slowly he drew her toward him until, when very close, she put her arms about his neck, and laid her cheek in gratitude against his own. This was the quintessence of pleasure for him. He felt as he had been longing to feel for years.
This affectional progress suffered a change when the great senatorial fight came on in the legislature. Attacked by a combination of rivals, Brander was given the fight of his life. To his amazement he discovered that a great railroad corporation, which had always been friendly, was secretly throwing its strength in behalf of an already too powerful candidate. Shocked by this defection, he was thrown into the deepest gloom, and next, into a paroxysm of wrath. These slings of fortune, however well he pretended to know them, never failed to lacerate him. It had been too long since he had endured one.
During this period, Jennie received her earliest lesson in the vagaries of men. For two weeks she did not even get to see him, and one evening, after an extremely comfortless conference with his leader, he met her with the most chilling formality. When she knocked at his door he only troubled to open it a foot and exclaimed almost harshly, “I can’t bother about the clothes to-night! Come tomorrow.”
Jennie turned, shocked and surprised by this reception. She did not know what to think of it. He was restored on the instant to his far-off, mighty throne, and left to rule in peace. Why should he not cut her off shortly if he pleased? But why—
A day or two later he repented mildly, but had no time to readjust things. His washing was taken and delivered with considerable formality, and he went on toiling forgetfully until at last he was miserably defeated by two votes. Astounded by this result, he lapsed into gloom, and brooded mightily, wondering what move he could now make that would be of value to him.
Into this atmosphere came Jennie, bringing with her the lightness and fascination of her own hopeful disposition. Nagged to desperation by his thoughts, Brander first talked to her to amuse himself, but soon got caught by the relief which she supplied. Looking at her, his distress vanished, and he found himself observing that youth was best. Was not this human exhilaration which he found in her presence the greatest thing in the world?
“Ah, Jennie,” he said, talking to her as he might have to a child, “youth is on your side. You have the most valuable thing in life.”
“Do I?”
“Yes, but you don’t realize it. You never will, until it is too late.”
Finding himself wonderfully relieved, he now leaned toward her slightly, and, in these bitter days, waited for her coming. If he should go away now, as minister, to a foreign country, he wondered what he should do.
“I love that girl,” he thought. “I wish I could have her with me.”
Fortune had another fling for him to endure. It got about the hotel that Jennie was, to use the mildest expression, conducting herself strangely. A girl who carries washing must expect criticism if anything not befitting her station is observed in her apparel. Jennie was seen wearing the gold watch. Her mother was informed by the housekeeper of the state of things.
“I thought I’d speak to you about it,” she said. “People are talking. You’d better not let your daughter go to his room for the laundry.”
Mrs. Gerhardt was too astonished and hurt for utterance. Jennie had told her nothing, but even now she did not believe there was anything to tell. The watch had been both approved of and admired by her. She had not thought that it was endangering her daughter’s reputation.
Going home she worried almost incessantly, and talked with Jennie about it. The latter did not admit the implication that things had gone too far. In fact, she did not look at it in that light. She did not own, it is true, what really had happened while she was visiting the senator.
“It’s so terrible that people should begin to talk!” said her mother. “Did you really stay so long in the room?”
“I don’t know,” returned Jennie, compelled by her conscience and the dire import people attach to such things to admit at least part of the truth. “Perhaps I did.”
“He has never said anything out of the way to you, has he?”
“No,” answered her daughter, who did not attach any suspicion of evil to what had passed between them.
If the mother had only gone a little bit further, she might have learned more, but she was only too glad, for her own peace of mind, to hush the matter up. People were slandering a good man, that she knew. Jennie had been the least bit indiscreet. People were always so ready to talk. How could the poor girl, amid such unfortunate circumstances, do otherwise than she did. It made her cry to think of it.
The result of it all was that she decided to get the washing herself.
She came to his door the next Monday after this decision. Brander, who was expecting Jennie, was both surprised and disappointed.
“Why,”
