Finding this a laborious and not always an instructive task, she began to skip the dull parts; and in the absence of any exciting question, she at last resigned herself to skipping the whole.

Nevertheless she still had energy to visit the Senate gallery occasionally when she was told that a splendid orator was about to speak on a question of deep interest to his country.
She listened with a little disposition to admire, if she could; and, whenever she could, she did admire.

She said nothing, but she listened sharply.

She wanted to learn how the machinery of government worked, and what was the quality of the men who controlled it.

One by one, she passed them through her crucibles, and tested them by acids and by fire.
A few survived her tests and came out alive, though more or less disfigured, where she had found impurities.