Pusey had loyally begun the campaign for Garwood's reëlection by writing daily editorials in his praise, and these, printed in the _Citizen_, which the postmaster continued to edit, gave Emily a welcome antidote for the _Advertiser's_ venom. Pusey published all of Garwood's speeches in full, and the _Advertiser_, with the relish of one who discloses state secrets, described the little postmaster as darkly setting up the pins for a county convention which should select a delegation to the congressional convention instructed to use all honorable means to bring about the renomination of Jerome B. Garwood. The _Advertiser's_ editor, with a wit that sometimes illumined the recesses of his mind, printed the word "honorable" in quotation marks. This account of Pusey's secret doings was varied at times by a description of the conferences that were nightly held in the back room of the post-office. The _Advertiser_ pretended to lay bare all the ramifications of the little man's designs, and as if its duty lay in the direction of its joy, did all it could to confound his politics and frustrate his knavish tricks. But amid all this confusion, Emily was sure of one thing, that there was another contest, with all its nervous strain, before her; that the months to come, the beautiful months of the spring and summer she had longed for as ardently as an invalid longs for the days when he can be wheeled out into the sun, would bring more abuse and recrimination, more hatred and strife, and she had grown so weary of it all. If Jerome could have become a candidate for some other office it would at least relieve the monotony, but this everlasting repetition of the unchanging sordid struggle to stay in Congress--she wished that he would leave politics altogether; she almost wished in her bitterness, that he would be defeated, if it would bring him home, and make him himself once more. IV Dade had provisionally accepted Beck's invitation to the Army and Navy ball, but after Mrs. Emerson had showed her endurance in an Easter service at one of the fashionable churches, there was no longer doubt that she would postpone her return to Illinois and the resumption of Doctor Larkin's treatment until that great event should have passed into history. As the night of the ball drew near, Beck was in a flutter almost feminine, and Dade's preparations went forward in such excitement that the old lady herself finally awakened an interest and determined to accompany Dade as chaperon.