In the course of these cogitations, his walk brought him to his hotel, where he found his friends of the night before awaiting him. He tried to put on a cheerful face. But his disappointment and humiliation showed through his smile, as the hollows and bones through the skin of a cadaver. "Well, what luck?" asked Col. Mason, cheerfully. "Are we to congratulate you?" put in Mr. Perry. "Not yet, not yet, gentlemen. I have not seen the President yet. The fact is--ahem--my Congressman is out of town." He was not used to evasions of this kind, and he stammered slightly and his yellow face turned brick-red with shame. "It is most annoying," he went on, "most annoying. Mr. Barker won't be back for a week, and I don't want to call on the President until I have had a talk with him." "Certainly not," said Col. Mason, blandly. "There will be delays." This was not his first pilgrimage to Mecca. Mr. Johnson looked at him gratefully. "Oh, yes; of course, delays," he assented; "most natural. Have something." At the end of the appointed time, the office-seeker went again to see the Congressman. This time he was admitted without question, and got the chance to state his wants. But somehow, there seemed to be innumerable obstacles in the way. There were certain other men whose wishes had to be consulted; the leader of one of the party factions, who, for the sake of harmony, had to be appeased. Of course, Mr. Johnson's worth was fully recognized, and he would be rewarded according to his deserts. His interests would be looked after. He should drop in again in a day or two. It took time, of course, it took time. Mr. Johnson left the office unnerved by his disappointment. He had thought it would be easy to come up to Washington, claim and get what he wanted, and, after a glance at the town, hurry back to his home and his honors. It had all seemed so easy--before election; but now-- A vague doubt began to creep into his mind that turned him sick at heart. He knew how they had treated Davis, of Louisiana. He had heard how they had once kept Brotherton, of Texas--a man who had spent all his life in the service of his party--waiting clear through a whole administration, at the end of which the opposite party had come into power. All the stories of disappointment and disaster that he had ever heard came back to him, and he began to wonder if some one of these things was going to happen to him. Every other day for the next two weeks, he called upon Barker, but always with the same result. Nothing was clear yet, until one day the bland legislator told him that considerations of expediency had compelled them to give the place he was asking for to another man. "But what am I to do?" asked the helpless man. "Oh, you just bide your time. I'll look out for you. Never fear."