Cora shuddered, and the old man bestirred his wits to soothe her outraged sensibilities. "You must remember that he made his run on an economy platform," he reminded. "He believed it, too, every word. After all, you can't say that you've not had things your own way here at the mansion." "It's a mercy I did. He would have had the house reception and the staff dinner equally prim if I hadn't put my foot down. I said no; be as puritanic as you please at the capitol, but the executive mansion concerns me; I'm governor here." "Tolerably big commonwealth, too," commented Bowers, dryly. "Somehow it puts me in mind of what I thought palaces were like when I was a boy." "Oh, yes; it's well enough, though the decorations aren't to my taste; but the location is very unfashionable--orphan asylums, hovels, saloons, and all that under one's very nose." "I hadn't noticed the saloons." "Well, there's a saloon at any rate. I saw it to-day from one of the south windows. The state was stupidly short-sighted to buy a house in this quarter. The executive mansion ought to stand in Quality Row." "What's that?" asked Bowers. "Not much to look at--just a block or two of houses near the capitol, not one of which could have cost more than my own place in New Babylon, for all that famous people have lived in them; but it's the cream of Albany." "Everything else is skim milk, I suppose?" Mrs. Shelby eluded the classification. "Nearly all that's socially significant is grouped thereabouts," she pursued; "the cathedral, the Beverwyck Club, Canon North, and Mrs. Teunis Van Dam. The canon and Mrs. Van Dam are the keys to the social citadel, I assure you. Probably you noticed them on the platform at the Inauguration. Then, she helped me receive this afternoon, thanks to a bit of diplomacy." Bowers absorbed these esoteric deliverances in meekness. "It takes a woman to bottom such things," he said admiringly. "I guess you'll pass." Cora herself harbored no doubts, but she disclaimed a single-handed victory. "I shouldn't know all these things yet if it were not for the governor's military secretary, Colonel Schuyler Smith. Do you know him?" "I'm not sure that I can place the colonel," ruminated Bowers. "Is he that blond young dandy whose sword got tangled in his legs?" "Yes, poor dear! He's not used to wearing it yet. But he's a treasure. He's Mrs. Teunis Van Dam's grandson, you know, and like her is descended from all those delightful old Dutchmen who make such enviable ancestors, and have stained glass windows in the cathedral. He knows who is who, I assure you. Ex-Senator Ludlow does too, for that matter; though he doesn't care for Mrs. Van Dam's circle. He thinks it too stately and old regime. He goes with the younger set--Mrs. Tommy Kidder's--and he says Mrs. Tommy is quite my own style."