CHAPTER LII.
Aucune chose au monde et plus noble et plus belle
Que la sainte ferveur d'un véritable zèle
Le Tartuffe, a. 1, sc. 6.
With faire discourse the evening so they pas;
For that olde man of pleasing wordes had store,
And well could file his tougue, as smooth as glas—
Faerie Queene.
—II prit un air bénin et tendre,
D'un Laudate Deum leur prêta le bon jour,
Puis convia le monde au fraternal amour!
Roman du Renard (Prologue).
THE weeks drifted by monotonously enough, now. The "preliminaries" continued to drag along in Congress, and life was a dull suspense to Sellers and Washington, a weary waiting which might have broken their hearts, maybe, but for the relieving change which they got out of an occasional visit to New York to see Laura. Standing guard in Washington or anywhere else is not an exciting business in time of peace, but standing guard was all that the two friends had to do; all that was needed of them was that they should be on hand and ready for any emergency that might come up. There was no work to do; that was all finished; this was but the second session of the last winter's Congress, and its action on the bill could have but one result—its passage. The House must do its work over again, of course, but the same membership was there to see that it did it.—The Senate was secure—Senator Dilworthy was able to put all doubts to rest on that head. Indeed it was no secret in Washington that a two-thirds vote in the Senate was ready and waiting to be
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