Again she was scarcely more than polite and seemed perfectly indifferent to him.
After a long while Bernard decided that Viola, who seemed to be very ambitious, treated him thus because he had not done anything worthy of special note.

He somewhat slacked up in his attentions and began to devote himself to acquiring wide spread popularity with a view to entering Congress and reaching Viola in this way.
The more he drew off from Viola the more friendly she would seem to him, and he began to feel that seeming indifference was perhaps the way to win her.

Thus the matter moved along for a couple of years.
In the mean time, Mr.Tiberius Gracchus Leonard, Bernard's old teacher, was busy in Norfolk looking after Bernard's political interests, acting under instructions from Bernard's father, Senator -- ----.
About this stage of Bernard's courtship Mr.Leonard called on him and told him that the time was ripe for Bernard to announce himself for Congress.

Bernard threw his whole soul into the project.

He had another great incentive to cause him to wish to succeed, Viola Martin's hand and heart.
In order to understand what followed we must now give a bit of Virginia political history.
In the year -- -- there was a split in the democratic party of Virginia on the question of paying Virginia's debt to England.