During these councils of war to plan Marian's belated debut, Sylvia might snowball Allen or Dan or both of them all the way from Elizabeth House to Mrs.Owen's door, and then appear demurely before that amiable soul, with cheeks aglow and dark eyes flashing, and Mrs.Owen would say: "This school-teaching ain't good for you, Sylvia; it seems to be breaking down your health." That was a lively quartette--Sylvia, Marian, Allen, and Dan! Dan, now duly sworn to serve the state faithfully as a legislator, had been placed on several important committees, and a busy winter stretched before him.

Morton Bassett's hand lay heavily upon the legislature; the young man had never realized until he took his seat in the lower house how firmly Bassett gripped the commonwealth.

Every committee appointment in both houses had to be approved by the senator from Fraser.

Dan's selection as chairman of the committee on corporations both pleased and annoyed him.

He would have liked to believe himself honestly chosen by the speaker on the score of fitness; but he knew well enough that there were older men, veteran legislators, more familiar with the state's needs and dangers, who had a better right to the honor.