If Senator Rutledge was distasteful to her, Elise had little cause to complain of him: for seldom had any of the scores of young fellows who followed in her train the good fortune of a minute’s talk with her alone; and Rutledge, oppressed by the result of their last meeting at Senator DeVale’s, unsatisfied with the empty nothings which passed for conversation in the brief glimpses he had of her at formal gatherings, and chilled by the coldness of her manner which had been oh, so different in that halcyon summer when he had lost his heart to her, was well content to stand further and further away from her in the crowd that was always about her, and to worship in spirit the real Elise Phillips unfettered by convention and unaffected by untoward incident. He took what comfort he could from the fact that as yet no favoured one appeared among Elise’s admirers, and that among the sons of fortune, army officers, attachés, and all that sort who aspired to make life interesting for the President’s eldest daughter it seemed none could flatter himself he was preferred above another. As for those who exhibited the liveliest interest in Elise, gossip gave that distinction to two. One evening at a reception at Secretary Mackenzie’s Senator Rutledge was talking to Lola DeVale when Elise passed, accompanied by a stalwart young fellow whom Rutledge had never seen. "Who is Sir Monocle?" he asked. "Where?" asked Lola. "Miss Phillips’ escort." "Oh. He has no monocle." "I know. But he should have. He looks it. Who is he?" "Captain George St. Lawrence Howard, second son of the Earl of Duddeston. He was taking a look at America, but an introduction to Elise seems to have persuaded him to limit his observations to Washington City." "Sensible fellow," commented Rutledge. "Yes," said Lola, "and a very likable fellow. He won his captaincy with Younghusband in the Thibetan campaign before he was twenty; and the fact that an invalid brother is all that stands between him and the earldom doesn’t make him any the less interesting." "Titles are talismanic—whether military or other. With two, he ought to be fairly irresistible." "Yes, and besides that he has plenty of money and leisure to make love with a thorough care for detail." "With all those and a manifest supremely good taste," said Rutledge, "I would back him for a winner." "You are forgetting Senatorial courtesy!" "How now?" "Senator Richland." "What of him?" "He also is in the running." "Richland? I hadn’t heard." "Yes; and remember that his fortune is ten times that of the Earl of Duddeston, and his brains are of the same grade as his bank account." Rutledge was interested. He had a thorough respect for Richland’s ability.