"From a source always well informed and usually accurate, it has been whispered that the sudden change of policy in a certain senator--whose resignation surprised his congressional colleagues--finds explanation in the menaced divulgement of some damaging facts connecting the ex-senator's votes with crooked syndicate dealings in the West. How this record was unearthed is not yet known, but it is rumored a blondined Circe of the lobby Aeaea used her knowledge of it quite successfully in furtherance of the Bison Head bill that hung so long in committee room, and also to secure the senator's resignation in favor of a rival candidate for whom she shows deep sympathy. Her threat to place her information at the service of the approaching Legislature of the incumbent's native State hastened his resignation some months prior to the expiration of his term, and he promptly 'left his country for his country's good,' to recuperate in foreign lands. Truly, 'God's fruit of justice ripens slow,'--but fate takes care to shake the tree. Now and then we have proof in public life that '_Dieu paie, mais il ne paie pas tous les Samedis._'" The name of the paper did not appear in the clipping and date and signature had been erased. The envelope bore postmark of a Colorado town, and the address was type-written. It was not from the State represented in the Senate by the Hon. Rufus Higginbottom, but Eglah's intuitions assured her the extract had been sent by the hand of Miss Ethelberta. Doubtless it had appeared while they were in Europe, but whether the press circulated it freely she was now barred from investigating. A moan she could not repress escaped her usually well guarded lips, and she shivered as if a freezing wind swung her to and fro. A stealthy hand creeping around the dial had reached that predestined hour she so vaguely dreaded, and its strokes sounded the knell of her life's dearest hope. Was it merely a party libel--one of the scandalous personalities used in retaliation for some stinging blow her father had dealt Democracy--a foul partisan aspersion such as political opponents hurl with shameful recklessness?