Kate hurried the party away; she explained later that while looking toward the White House she was sure that she saw the hostess looking through the window at her and smiling at her. "I declare!" she said, with downcast eyes and cheeks a-flame, "there's no living with Trixy, nor----" "Nor any living without her--eh?" added Jermyn. The remainder of the day was the very merriest, so four people said, that any party had ever spent in Washington. Jermyn took his guests to the old chamber of the House of Representatives, and mystified them a few moments with the "whispering gallery" over the Speaker's desk, making Kate his latest victim, despite her appeals to him to be quiet, and his assurances that no one else could hear a word he was saying, although he was forty feet away. Kate became so embarrassed that she suddenly withdrew and Trixy took her place--a change which Jermyn did not notice until he heard a peal of childish laughter, and, stepping forward, saw Kate and Trif standing some steps from the arch and Trixy joining them, and saying: "That's the funniest thing I ever heard of!" "What is the funniest thing, dear?" asked Trif. "Trixy," exclaimed Jermyn, "don't tell, please." "But I must mind mamma," pleaded the child. "Besides----" "Trixy," exclaimed Jermyn, "if you repeat what I said I'll never speak to you again." "Trixy," said Kate, "if you don't tell I'll never speak to you again--I mean," for Kate had caught an appealing look from Jermyn--"I won't speak to you if you do tell." The child was so confused that she did not know what to do, so she turned to her mother for advice, and Trif hurried her a few steps in advance. "Remember, Trixy!" cried Kate after them. "Don't forget, Trixy!" shouted Jermyn, in his sternest tone of command. Two more uncomfortable lovers than Kate and Jermyn were in the next five minutes could not have been found anywhere, for Kate wondered what it was all about and insisted upon knowing, and Jermyn replied that he would tell her at some future time, and Kate wanted to know why he couldn't tell her at once, and Jermyn replied, somewhat sheepishly, that some things might be said in the privacy of a whispering gallery that could not easily be said face to face in a crowded street, upon which Kate wailed: "But that child heard it!" "Never mind, my dear; she'll forget it." "Not she! I'm beginning to believe that the smaller the child the less chance there is of her forgetting what shouldn't be remembered. And, oh, Jermyn! Of all men in the world, here comes Admiral Allison! What if she should tell him?" "If she does," said Jermyn desperately, "I'll never again dare look him in the face; I shall always believe he is laughing at me. 'Tis all your fault, my dear. If you hadn't made me love you so dearly, I wouldn't have said----" "Let us overtake them--quick!" said Kate. "We've been up to the whisp'rin' gall'ry," Trixy was already saying to the Admiral, "and----"