Still she was a little grave, and Mr.Schneidekoupon could only declare that she was a trump; that he had told Ratcliffe she was the cleverest woman he ever met, and he might have added the most obliging, and Ratcliffe had only looked at him as though he were a green ape.

At all which Mrs.Lee laughed good-naturedly, and sent him away as soon as she could.
When he was gone, she walked up and down the room and thought.

She saw the meaning of Ratcliffe's sudden change in tone.

She had no more doubt of his coming to the dinner than she had of the reason why he came.
And was it possible that she was being drawn into something very near a flirtation with a man twenty years her senior; a politician from Illinois; a huge, ponderous, grey-eyed, bald senator, with a Websterian head, who lived in Peonia?
The idea was almost too absurd to be credited; but on the whole the thing itself was rather amusing.

"I suppose senators can look out for themselves like other men," was her final conclusion.