CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 
 OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT 
 FUND GIVEN IN 189I BY 
 
 HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PS 3545.H6755H5 
 
 Her infinite variet' 
 
 3 1924 021 726 348 
 
p^ 
 
 Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021726348 
 
Her Infinite VarietY. 
 
J„,,i, 0'-«*e-'.^'"-^: 
 
HER INFINITE 
 VARIETY 
 
 by 
 
 BRAND WHITLOCK 
 
 Author of "The ISfiiDistricf' 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 HOWARD CHANDLER CHRISTY 
 
 Decorations by 
 Ralph Fletcher Seymour 
 
 Indianapolis 
 
 The BobbsjiMerrill Company 
 
 Publishers 
 
Copyright, 1904 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company 
 
 January 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 BRAUNWORTH ib CO. 
 
 BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS 
 
 BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
 
To My Mother 
 
Her Infinite Variety 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 A MELIA came running eagerly 
 / ■ % down the wide stairs, and 
 ■^ -^- though she was smiling with 
 the joy of Vernon's coming, she stopped 
 on the bottom step long enough to 
 shake out the skirt of the new spring 
 gown she wore, with a manner that 
 told she had it on that evening for the 
 first time. Vernon hastened to meet her, 
 and it was not until he had kissed her 
 and released her from his embrace that 
 she saw the dressing-case he had set 
 down in the hall. 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 "What's that for?" she asked in 
 alarm. Her smile faded suddenly, leav- 
 ing her face wholly serious. 
 
 "I have to go back to-night," he 
 replied, almost guiltily. 
 
 "To-night!" 
 
 "Yes; I must be in Springfield in 
 the morning." 
 
 "But w^hat about the dinner?" 
 
 "Well," he began, helplessly, "I 
 guess you'll have to get somebody in 
 my place." 
 
 Amelia stopped and looked at him 
 in amazement. 
 
 "I thought the Senate never met 
 Mondays until five o'clock in the after- 
 noon?" she said. 
 
 " It doesn't, usually ; but I had a tel- 
 egram from Porter an hour ago; there's 
 to be a conference in the morning." 
 
 They started toward the drawing- 
 
Her Infinite Variety' 
 
 room. Amelia was pouting in her dis- 
 appointment. 
 
 " I knew something would spoil it," 
 she said, fatalistically. And then she 
 added, presently: "I thought that Mon- 
 day afternoon session never lasted longer 
 than a minute. You never went down 
 before until Monday night." 
 
 " I know, dear," said Vernon, apolo- 
 getically, "but now that the session is 
 nearing its close, we're busier than we 
 have been." 
 
 " Can't you wire Mr. Porter and get 
 him to let you off?" she asked. 
 
 Vernon laughed. 
 
 " He isn't my master," he replied. 
 
 "Well, he acts like it," she retorted, 
 and then as if she had suddenly hit upon 
 an unanswerable argument she went on: 
 " If that's so why do you pay any atten- 
 tion to his telegram?" 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 "It isn't he, dear," Vernon explained, 
 it's the party. We are to have a very 
 important conference to consider a sit- 
 uation that has just arisen. I must not 
 miss it." 
 
 "Well, it ruins my dinner, that's 
 all," she said, helplessly. "I wanted 
 you here." 
 
 Vernon had come up from Spring- 
 field as usual for the week's end adjourn- 
 ment, and Amelia had counted on his 
 waiting over, as he always did, for the 
 Monday night train, before going back 
 to his duties in the Senate. More than 
 all, she had counted on him for a dinner 
 she had arranged for Monday evening. 
 
 "What time does your train leave?" 
 she asked, in the voice of one who suc- 
 cumbs finally to a hopeless situation. 
 
 "Eleven twenty," he said. "But I 
 brought my luggage over with me, so I 
 
Her Infinite Variety' 
 
 could start from here at the last minute. 
 I'll go over to the Twenty-third Street 
 station and catch it there," 
 
 Amelia had had the deep chair Vernon 
 liked so well wheeled into the mellow 
 circle of the light that fell from a tall 
 lamp. The lamp gave the only light in 
 the room, and the room appeared vast 
 in the dimness; an effect somehow aided 
 by the chill that was on it, as if the fires 
 of the Ansley house had been allowed 
 to die down in an eager pretense of 
 spring. It was spring, but spring in 
 Chicago. Sunday morning had been 
 bright and the lake had sparkled blue 
 in the warm wind that came up some- 
 where from the southwest, but by night 
 the wind had wheeled around, and the 
 lake resumed its normal cold and men- 
 acing mood. As Vernon sank into the 
 chair he caught a narrow glimpse of 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 the boulevard between the curtains of 
 the large window ; in the brilliant light 
 of a street lamp he could see a cold rain 
 slanting down on to the asphalt. 
 
 " How much longer is this legislature 
 to last, anyway?" Amelia demanded, as 
 she arranged herself in the low chair 
 before him, 
 
 "Three weeks," Vernon replied. 
 
 " Three — weeks — more ! " The girl 
 drew the words out. 
 
 "Yes, only three weeks," said Vernon. 
 "And then we adjourn sine die. The 
 joint resolution fixes the date for June 
 second." 
 
 Amelia said nothing. She was usu- 
 ally disturbed when Vernon began to 
 speak of his joint resolutions; which 
 was, perhaps, the reason why he spoke 
 of them so often. 
 
 "Of course," Vernon went on, with 
 
 6 
 
Her Infinite Variety' 
 
 a certain impression of relief in his 
 words, "I have another session after 
 this." 
 
 "When will that be?" Amelia asked. 
 
 "Winter after next. The governor, 
 though, may call a special session to 
 deal with the revenue question. That 
 would take us all back there again next 
 winter." 
 
 "Next winter!" she cried, leaning 
 over in alarm. " Do you mean you'll 
 have to be away all next winter, too ! " 
 
 The significance of her tone was 
 sweet to Vernon, and he raised himself 
 to take her hands in his. 
 
 "You could be with me then, dear- 
 est," he said softly. 
 
 " In Springfield ! " she exclaimed. 
 
 "Why not?" asked Vernon. "Other 
 members have their wives with them — 
 some of them," he qualified, thinking 
 
 7 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 how few of the members cared to have 
 their wives with them during the session. 
 
 "What could one do in Springfield, 
 pray?" Amelia demanded. "Go to the 
 legislative hops, I suppose? And dance 
 reels with farmers and West Side politi- 
 cians ! " She almost sniffed her disgust. 
 
 "Why, dearest," Vernon pleaded, 
 "you do them a great injustice. Some 
 of them are really of the best people; 
 the society in Springfield is excellent. 
 At the governor's reception at the man- 
 sion the other night — " 
 
 "Now, Morley," Amelia said, with 
 a smile that was intended to reproach 
 him mildly for this attempt to impose 
 upon her credulity. 
 
 "And besides," Vernon hurried on, 
 suddenly taking a different course with 
 her, "you could be a great help to me. 
 I never address the Senate that I don't 
 
Her Infinite Variety; 
 
 think of you, and wish you were there 
 to hear me." 
 
 "I should like to hear you," said 
 Amelia, softening a little. "But of 
 course I couldn't think of appearing in 
 the Senate." 
 
 "Why not? Ladies often appear 
 there." 
 
 "Yes, overdressed, no doubt." 
 
 "Well, you wouldn't have to be over- 
 dressed," Vernon retorted. He seemed 
 to have the advantage, but he decided 
 to forego it. He sank back on the 
 cushions of his chair, folding his hands 
 and plainly taking the rest a senator 
 needs after his legislative labors. 
 
 "Of course," he said, "we needn't 
 discuss it now. The governor may not 
 call the special session. If the party — " 
 but he paused, thinking how little in- 
 terested she was in the party. 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 "I wish you'd let politics alone, 
 Amelia went on relentlessly. " It seems 
 so — so common. I don't see what there 
 is in it to attract you. And how am I 
 ever going to explain your absence to 
 those people to-morrow night? Tell 
 them that politics detained you, I sup- 
 pose?" She looked at him severely, 
 and yet triumphantly, as if she had re- 
 duced the problem to an absurdity. 
 
 "Why," said Vernon, "you can tell 
 them that I was called suddenly to 
 Springfield; that an important matter 
 in the Senate — " 
 
 "The Senate!" Amelia sneered. 
 
 "But dearest," Vernon began, lean- 
 ing over in an attitude for argument. 
 
 She cut him short. 
 
 "Why, Morley, do you think I'd 
 ever let on to those Eltons that I know 
 any one in politics?" 
 
 lO 
 
Her Infinite Variety' 
 
 "Don't they have politics in New 
 York?" he asked. 
 
 "They won't even know where 
 Springfield is!" she went on irrele- 
 vantly. 
 
 "What' 11 they say when they receive 
 our cards next fall?" he asked with a 
 smile. 
 
 "Well, you needn't think your name 
 will be engraved on them as Senator, I 
 can assure you ! " Her dark eyes flashed. 
 
 Vernon laughed again, and Amelia 
 went on: 
 
 " You can laugh, but I really believe 
 you would if I'd let you ! " 
 
 They were silent after that, and 
 Amelia sat with her elbow on the arm 
 of her chair, her chin in her hand, 
 meditating gloomily on her ruined 
 dinner. 
 
 "If you did any good by being in 
 
 II 
 
Her Infinite Variet 
 
 politics," she said, as if speaking to 
 herself. " But I fail to see what good 
 you do. What good do you do?" She 
 lifted her head suddenly and challenged 
 him with a high look. 
 
 "Well," he said, spreading his hands 
 wide, "of course, if you don't care 
 enough to look in the newspapers ! " 
 
 "But how could I, Morley.?" said 
 Amelia. "How was I to know where 
 to look?" 
 
 "Why, in the Springfield despatches." 
 
 "I began by reading the papers," 
 Amelia said. "But, really now, Mor- 
 ley, you know I couldn't find anything 
 in them about you." 
 
 "The most important work in the 
 legislature isn't done in the newspa- 
 pers," said Vernon, with a significance 
 that was intended to hide his inconsist- 
 ency. " There are committee meetings, 
 
 12 
 
Her Infinite VarietY: 
 
 and conferences and caucuses; it is there 
 that policies are mapped out and legis- 
 lation framed." 
 
 He spoke darkly, as of secret sessions 
 held at night on the upper floors of 
 hotels, attended only by those who had 
 received whispered invitations. 
 
 "But if you must be in politics," 
 she said, " why don't you do something 
 big, something great, something to 
 make a stir? Show your friends that 
 you are really accomplishing some- 
 thing ! " 
 
 Amelia sat erect and gave a strenu- 
 ous gesture with one of her little fists 
 clenched. Her dark eyes showed the 
 excitement of ambition. But Vernon 
 drooped and placed his hand wearily to 
 his brow. Instantly Amelia started up 
 from her chair. 
 
 " Does that light annoy you ? " Her 
 
 13 
 
Her Infinite Variety; 
 
 tone was altogether different from her 
 ambitious one. She was stretching out 
 a hand toward the lamp, and the white 
 flesh glowed red between her fingers, 
 held against the light. 
 
 "Never mind," said Vernon. "It 
 doesn't bother me." 
 
 But Amelia rose and twisted the shade 
 of the lamp about, and then, as she was 
 taking her seat again, she went on: 
 
 "I suppose it'll be worse than ever 
 after — after we're — married." She fal- 
 tered, and blushed, and began making 
 little pleats in her handkerchief, study- 
 ing the effect with a sidewise turn of 
 her head. 
 
 Vernon bent over and took both her 
 hands in his. 
 
 "If it were only Washington!" 
 There was a new regret in her tone, as 
 there was in the inclination of her head. 
 
 14 
 
Her Infinite VarietY; 
 
 "It shall be Washington, dear," he 
 said. 
 
 Amelia's eyelids fell and she blushed 
 again, even in the glow the lamp 
 shed upon her face. They were silent 
 for a moment, and then suddenly she 
 looked up. 
 
 "Washington would be ever so much 
 better, Morley," she said. "I should 
 feel as if that really amounted to some- 
 thing. We'd know all the diplomats, 
 and I'm sure in that atmosphere you 
 would become a great man." 
 
 "I will, dear; I will," he declared, 
 "but it will be all for you." 
 
 IS 
 
II 
 
 WHEN Vernon went into the 
 Senate that Tuesday morn- 
 ing and saw the red rose ly- 
 ing on his desk he smiled, and picking 
 it up, raised it eagerly to his face. But 
 when he glanced about the chamber 
 and saw that a rose lay on every other 
 desk, his smile was suddenly lost in a 
 stare of amazement. Once or twice, 
 perhaps, flowers had been placed by 
 constituents on the desks of certain 
 senators, but never had a floral distribu- 
 tion, at once so modest and impartial, 
 been made before. Several senators, 
 already in their seats, saw the check 
 
 i6 
 
Her Infinite Variet-^' 
 
 this impartiality gave Vernon's vanity, 
 and they laughed. Their laughter vs^as 
 of a tone w^ith the tinkle of the crystal 
 prisms of the chandeliers, chiming in 
 the breeze that came through the open 
 windows. 
 
 The lieutenant-governor was just 
 ascending to his place. He dropped 
 his gavel to the sounding-board of his 
 desk. 
 
 "The Senate will be in order," he 
 said. 
 
 The chaplain rose, and the hum of 
 voices in the chamber ceased. Then, 
 while the senators stood with bowed 
 heads, Vernon saw the card that lay on 
 the desk beside the rose. Two little 
 jewels of the moisture that still sparkled 
 on the rose's petals shone on the glazed 
 surface of the card. Vernon read it 
 where it lay. 
 
 17 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 "Will the Hon. Morley Vernon 
 please to wear this rose to-day as a 
 token of his intention to support and 
 vote for House Joint Resolution No. 
 1 9, proposing an amendment to Section 
 I, Article VII, of the Constitution?" 
 
 The noise in the chamber began again 
 at the chaplain's "Amen." 
 
 "New way to buttonhole a man, 
 eh?" said Vernon to Bull Burns, who 
 had the seat next Vernon's. "What's 
 it all about, anyway?" 
 
 Vernon took up his printed synopsis 
 of bills and resolutions. 
 
 " Oh, yes," he said, speaking as much 
 to himself as to Burns; "old man 
 Ames's resolution." Then he turned 
 to the calendar. There it was — House 
 Joint Resolution No. 19. He glanced 
 at Burns again. Burns was fastening 
 his rose in his buttonhole. 
 
 18 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 So you're for it, eh?" he said. 
 
 "To hell with it," Burns growled in 
 the gruiF voice that spoke for the First 
 District. In trying to look down at 
 his own adornment he screwed his fat 
 neck, fold on fold, into his low collar 
 and then, with a grunt of satisfaction, 
 lighted a morning cigar. 
 
 "But — " Vernon began, surprises 
 multiplying. He looked about the 
 chamber. The secretary was reading 
 the journal of the preceding day and 
 the senators were variously occupied, 
 reading newspapers, writing letters, or 
 merely smoking; some were gathered 
 in little groups, talking and laughing. 
 But they all wore their roses. Vernon 
 might have concluded that House Joint 
 Resolution No. 1 9 was safe, had it not 
 been for the inconsistency of Burns, 
 though inconsistency was nothing new 
 
 19 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 in Burns. Vernon ventured once more 
 with his neighbor: 
 
 "Looks as if the resolution were as 
 good as adopted, doesn't it?" 
 
 But Burns cast a glance of pity at 
 him, and then growled in half-humor- 
 ous contempt. The action stung Ver- 
 non. Burns seemed to resent his pres- 
 ence in the Senate as he always resented 
 the presence of Vernon's kind in politics. 
 
 The rose still lay on Vernon's desk; 
 he was the only one of the fifty-one 
 senators of Illinois that had not put his 
 rose on. He opened his bill file and 
 turned up House Joint Resolution No. 
 19. He read it carefully, as he felt a 
 senator should before making up his 
 mind on such an important, even revo- 
 lutionary measure. He remembered 
 that at the time it had been adopted in 
 the House, every one had laughed; no 
 
 20 
 
Her Infinite Variety; 
 
 one, with the exception of its author. 
 Doctor Ames, had taken it seriously. 
 
 Ames was known to be a crank; he 
 was referred to as "Doc" Ames, usually 
 as "Old Doc" Ames. He had intro- 
 duced more strange bills and resolutions 
 than any member at that session; bills 
 to curb the homeopathists, bills to anni- 
 hilate English sparrows, bills to prohibit 
 cigarettes, bills to curtail the liquor 
 traffic, and now this resolution provid- 
 ing for the submission of an amendment 
 to the Constitution that would extend 
 the electoral franchise to women. 
 
 His other measures had received little 
 consideration; he never got any of them 
 out of committee. But on the female 
 suffrage resolution he had been obdu- 
 rate, and when — with a majority so bare 
 that sick men had to be borne on cots 
 into the House now and then to pass 
 
 21 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 its measures — the party had succeeded, 
 after weeks of agony, in framing an ap- 
 portionment bill that satisfied every one. 
 Doctor Ames had seen his chance. He 
 had flatly refused to vote for the re- 
 apportionment act unless his woman- 
 suffrage resolution were first adopted. 
 It was useless for the party managers 
 to urge upon him the impossibility of 
 providing the necessary two-thirds' vote; 
 Ames said he could get the remaining 
 votes from the other side. And so the 
 steering committee had given the word 
 to put it through for him. Then the 
 other side, seeing a chance to place the 
 majority in an embarrassing attitude be- 
 fore the people, either as the proponents 
 or the opponents of such a radical meas- 
 ure — whichever way it went in the end 
 — had been glad enough to furnish the 
 additional votes. The members of the 
 
 22 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 steering committee had afterward whis- 
 pered it about that the resolution was 
 to die in the Senate. Then every one, 
 especially the women of Illinois, had 
 promptly forgotten the measure. 
 
 As Vernon thought over it all he 
 picked up the rose again, then laid it 
 down, and idly picked up the card. 
 Turning it over in his hand he saw that 
 its other side was engraved, and he read : 
 
 MARIA BURLEY GREENE 
 
 ATTORNEY AND COUNSELOR AT LAW 
 
 The Rookery 
 
 Then he knew; it was the work of 
 the woman lawyer. Vernon had heard 
 of her often; he had never seen her. 
 He gave a little sniff of disgust. 
 
 23 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 The Senate was droning along on 
 the order of reports from standing com- 
 mittees, and Vernon, growing tired of 
 the monotony, rose and sauntered back 
 to the lobby in search of company more 
 congenial than that of the gruflF Burns. 
 He carried the rose as he went, raising 
 it now and then to enjoy its cool petals 
 and its fragrance. On one of the leather 
 divans that stretch themselves invitingly 
 under the tall windows on each side 
 of the Senate chamber sat a woman, 
 and about her was a little group of men, 
 bending deferentially. As he passed 
 within easy distance one of the men 
 saw him and beckoned. Vernon went 
 over to them. 
 
 " Miss Greene," said Senator Martin, 
 "let me present Senator Vernon, of 
 Chicago." 
 
 Miss Greene gave him the little hand 
 
 24 
 
Her Infinite Variety' 
 
 that looked yet smaller in its glove of 
 black suede. He bowed low to conceal 
 a surprise that had sprung incautiously 
 to his eyes. Instead of the thin, short- 
 haired, spectacled old maid that had 
 always, in his mind, typified Maria Bur- 
 ley Greene, here was a young woman 
 who apparently conformed to every 
 fashion, though her beauty and distinc- 
 tion might have made her independent 
 of conventions. Physically she was too 
 nearly perfect to give at once an im- 
 pression of aristocracy; but it was her 
 expression that charmed; it was plain 
 that her intellectuality was of the higher 
 degrees. 
 
 As Vernon possessed himself he was 
 able to note that this surprising young 
 woman was clad in a black traveling 
 gown that fitted her perfectly. From 
 her spring hat down to the toes of her 
 
 25 
 
Her Infinite Variety; 
 
 boots there was nothing in her attire 
 that was mannish, but she was of an 
 exquisite daintiness wholly feminine 
 and alluring. 
 
 All these superficial things faded into 
 their proper background when, at last, 
 his eyes looked full in her face. Red- 
 dish brown hair that doubtless had been 
 combed into some resemblance to the 
 prevailing fashion of the pompadour, 
 had fallen in a natural part on the right 
 side and lightly swept a brow not too 
 high, but white and thoughtful. Her 
 other features — the delicate nose, the 
 full lips, the perfect teeth, the fine chin 
 — all were lost in the eyes that looked 
 frankly at him. As he gazed he was 
 conscious that he feared to hear her 
 speak; surely her voice would betray 
 her masculine quality. 
 
 She had seated herself again, and 
 
Her Infinite Variety; 
 
 now made a movement that suggested 
 a drawing aside of her skirts to make 
 a place for some one at her side. And 
 then she spoke. 
 
 "Will you sit down, Senator Ver- 
 non?" she said, with a scrupulous regard 
 for title unusual in a woman. "I must 
 make a convert of Senator Vernon, you 
 know," she smiled on the other men 
 about her. Her accent implied that 
 this conversion was of the utmost im- 
 portance. The other men, of whom 
 she seemed to be quite sure, evidently 
 felt themselves under the compulsion 
 of withdrawing, and so fell back in re- 
 luctant retreat. 
 
 27 
 
Ill 
 
 THE surprise had leaped to Ver- 
 non's eyes again at the final 
 impression of perfection made 
 by her voice, and the surprise changed 
 to a regret of lost and irreclaimable op- 
 portunity when he reflected that he had 
 lived for years near this w^oman lawyer 
 and yet never had seen her once in all 
 that time. When Miss Greene turned 
 to look him in the face again, after the 
 others were gone, Vernon grew suddenly 
 bashful, like a big boy. He felt his 
 face flame hotly. He had been medi- 
 tating some drawing-room speech; he 
 had already turned in his mind a pretty 
 
 28 
 
Her Infinite Variety; 
 
 sentence in which there was a discreet 
 reference to Portia; Vernon was just at 
 the age for classical allusions. But when 
 he saw her blue eyes fixed on him and 
 read the utter seriousness in them he 
 knew that compliments would all be 
 lost, 
 
 " I am one of your constituents. Sen- 
 ator Vernon," she began, "and I am 
 down, frankly, lobbying for this reso- 
 lution." 
 
 "And we both," he replied, "are, I 
 believe, members of the Cook County 
 bar. Strange, isn't it, that two Chicago 
 lawyers should have to wait until they 
 are in Springfield to meet?" 
 
 "Not altogether," she said. "It is 
 not so very strange — my practice is al- 
 most wholly confined to office work; 
 I am more of a counselor than a bar- 
 rister. I have not often appeared in 
 
 29 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 court ; in fact I prefer not to do so ; I 
 am — well, just a little timid in that 
 part of the work." 
 
 The femininity of it touched him. 
 He might have told her that he did 
 not often appear in court himself, but 
 he was new enough at the bar to have 
 to practise the dissimulation of the 
 young professional man. He indulged 
 himself in the temptation to allow her 
 to go undeceived, though with a pang 
 he remembered that her practice, from 
 all that he had heard, must be much 
 more lucrative than his. Something of 
 the pretty embarrassment she felt before 
 courts and juries was evidently on her 
 in this her first appearance in the Sen- 
 ate, but she put it away ; her breast rose 
 with the deep breath of resolution she 
 drew, and she straightened to look him 
 once more in the eyes. 
 
 30 
 
Her Infinite VarietY' 
 
 "But about this resolution, Senator 
 Vernon; I must not take up too much 
 of your time. If you will give me your 
 objections to it perhaps I may be able 
 to explain them away. We should very 
 much like to have your support." 
 
 Vernon scarcely knew what to reply ; 
 such objections as he might have found 
 at other times — the old masculine ob- 
 jections to women's voting and med- 
 dling in politics — had all disappeared at 
 sight of this remarkable young woman 
 who wished to vote herself; he could 
 not think of one of them, try as he 
 would. His eyes were on the rose. 
 
 " Perhaps your objections are merely 
 prejudices," she ventured boldly, in her 
 eyes a latent twinkle that disturbed him. 
 
 "I confess. Miss Greene," he began, 
 trying to get back something of his 
 senatorial dignity, such as state sena- 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 torial dignity is, "that I have not de- 
 voted much thought to the subject; I 
 am indeed rather ashamed to acknow^l- 
 edge that I did not even know the 
 amendment v^^as coming up to-day, 
 until I vi^as — ah — so dehghtfully re- 
 minded by your rose." 
 
 He raised the rose to inhale its fra- 
 grance. She made no reply, but she 
 kept her eyes on him, and her gaze 
 compelled him to go on. It v\^as hard 
 for him to go on, for it vras now but 
 a struggle against the formality of a 
 surrender that had been inevitable from 
 the beginning. But his man's pride 
 forced him to delay it as long as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 "What assurances have you from 
 other senators?" he asked. "Though, 
 perhaps, I need not ask — they have 
 unanimously mounted your colors." 
 
 32 
 
Her Infinite VarietY: 
 
 He looked at his colleagues, sporting 
 their roses. Miss Greene gave a little 
 exclamation of annoyance. 
 
 "Do you think I don't know," she 
 said ; " that I don't understand all that ? 
 I might have known that they would 
 not take it seriously ! And I thought — 
 I thought — to put the matter so easily 
 to them that I should be spared the 
 necessity of buttonholing them ! " 
 
 " It was a novel way of buttonholing 
 them," he laughed. 
 
 "Oh !" she exclaimed, catching her 
 breath, "they wear the roses — and 
 laugh at me ! " 
 
 Her eyes flashed through the mists 
 of vexation that suggested tears. 
 
 "You are all alone then?" 
 
 Vernon said this in a low, solicitous 
 tone, as if he were dealing with some 
 deep grief. 
 
 33 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 "All alone." 
 
 "And you represent no one — that is, 
 no society, no club?" 
 
 " I am not a paid lobbyist," she said, 
 "though I believe it is not beyond the 
 proprieties of our profession. I do what 
 I do only from a love of principle. I 
 represent only my sex." She said it 
 impressively, and then with a quick 
 little laugh that recognized the theat- 
 rical that had been in her attitude, she 
 added: "And that, I suspect, without 
 authorization." 
 
 "The ladies, generally, do not seem 
 to be interested," Vernon acquiesced. 
 
 '^No," she shook her head sadly, 
 "no, on the contrary, I suppose most 
 of them oppose the measure." 
 
 " I have generally found them of that 
 feeling," Vernon observed. 
 
 "The slaves, before the war, often 
 
 34 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 petitioned congress not to set them 
 free, you will remember." 
 
 Miss Greene spoke with a bitterness. 
 Then quickly she collected herself. 
 
 "But your objections. Senator Ver- 
 non.?" she said. "Really, we must get 
 down to business." 
 
 She raised the little chatelaine watch 
 that hung at her bosom and looked 
 down at it. And then suddenly, with- 
 out waiting for his objections, as if she 
 had quite forgotten them indeed, she im- 
 pulsively stretched forth a hand and said: 
 
 "You will help me, won't you.?" 
 
 Vernon looked into her eyes. His 
 gaze, after an instant, fell. He tried 
 to run the stem of the rose through 
 his buttonhole. The thorns caught in 
 the cloth. 
 
 "You'll have to do it," he said, help- 
 lessly. 
 
 3S 
 
Her Infinite Variety; 
 
 From some mysterious fold of her 
 habit she took a pin, and then, leaning 
 over, she pinned the rose to his coat, 
 pinned it with its long stem hanging, 
 as a woman would pin a flower to a 
 man's lapel, 
 
 "Thank you." He was looking into 
 her eyes again. 
 
 " Rather let me thank you^' she said. 
 "It's so good of you to vote for my 
 measure." 
 
 His eyes widened suddenly. He had 
 quite forgotten the resolution. She must 
 have perceived this, for she blushed, and 
 he hastened to make amends. 
 
 " I'll not only vote for it," he rushed 
 ahead impulsively, "but I'll make a 
 speech for it." He straightened and 
 leaned away from her to give a proper 
 perspective in which she could admire 
 him. He sat there smiling. 
 
Her Infinite VarietY; 
 
 "How splendid of you!" she cried. 
 "I feel encouraged now." 
 
 Then Vernon's face lengthened. He 
 stammered: "But you'll have to give 
 me some data; I — I don't know a thing 
 about the subject." 
 
 "Oh," she laughed, "I brought some 
 literature. It shall all be at your dis- 
 posal. And now, I must be about my 
 work. Can you make any suggestions? 
 Can you tell me whom I should see, 
 whom I should interest, who has the 
 — ah — pull, I believe you call it?" 
 
 "I'll bring them to you," Vernon 
 said. "You sit here and hold court." 
 
 He rose and his eyes swept the cham- 
 ber. They lighted on Burns, and an 
 idea suddenly came to him. He would 
 revenge himself on Burns for all the 
 slights of the session. 
 
 "Of course you'll have to see Sam 
 
 37 
 
Her Infinite Variety 
 
 Porter, but I'll begin by bringing Sen- 
 ator Burns — familiarly known as Bull 
 Burns." 
 
 "I've read of him so often in the 
 newspapers," she said. "It would be 
 an experience," 
 
 Vernon went over to Burns's seat and 
 touched him on the shoulder. 
 
 " Come on," he said in a tone of 
 command, speaking for once from the 
 altitude of his social superiority. And 
 for once he was successful. The burly 
 fellow from the First District stood up 
 and looked inquiringly. 
 
 "Come with me," Vernon said; 
 "there's a Chicago lawyer back here 
 who wants to see you." 
 
 Burns followed and an instant later 
 Vernon halted before Miss Greene. The 
 other men, who had quickly returned 
 to her side, made way, and Vernon said: 
 
 38 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 " Miss Greene, may I present Senator 
 Burns, of the First District?" 
 
 Miss Greene smiled on the big 
 saloon-keeper, who instantly flamed 
 with embarrassment. She gave him 
 her hand, and he took it in his fat 
 palm, carefully, lest he crush it. 
 
 "I am delighted to meet Senator 
 Burns; I've heard of you so often," 
 she said, looking up at him. "And do 
 you know I count it a privilege to meet 
 one of your acknowledged influence in 
 our state's affairs?" 
 
 Vernon stood back, delighted beyond 
 measure with the confusion into which 
 Burns for once had been betrayed. The 
 senator from the First District was 
 struggling for some word to say, and at 
 last he broke out with: 
 
 "Aw now, lady, don't be t'rowin' 
 de con into me." 
 
 39 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 The men in the little group on that 
 side of the Senate chamber burst out 
 in a laugh, but Burns becoming sud- 
 denly grave, and dangerous and terrible 
 in his gravity, they broke off in the 
 very midst of their mirth. The group 
 became silent. 
 
 "Really, Senator Burns," said Miss 
 Greene, "this is no — ah — confidence 
 game, I assure you." She rose w^ith a 
 graceful sweep of her skirts. Then she 
 went on: "If you will permit me, I 
 should like to explain my mission to 
 you. I am down here to ask the Senate 
 to adopt a resolution that will submit 
 an amendment to the Constitution per- 
 mitting the women of Illinois to vote 
 at all elections, as they vote at school 
 elections now. If you can give it, I 
 should like your support; I should, at 
 least, like to tell you my reasons." 
 
 40 
 

Her Infinite Variety 
 
 Slowly she seated herself again 
 saying: "Will you sit down?" 
 
 But Burns only stood and looked at 
 her. There was a trace of fear in her 
 face. 
 
 "Do you want dis resolution put 
 t'rough?" he asked bluntly. 
 
 " I ? Indeed I do ! " she said. 
 
 "Is dere anyt'ing in it fer you?" he 
 went on. 
 
 "Why," Miss Greene said, somewhat 
 at a loss, " only that I am interested as a 
 matter of principle in seeing it adopted. 
 It would be a great day for me if I 
 could go back to Chicago feeling that 
 I had had just a little bit to do with 
 such a result." 
 
 " Den I'm wit' you," said Burns, and 
 wheeling, he went back to his desk. 
 
 Miss Greene watched him a moment, 
 and then turned to the men, their num- 
 
 41 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 bers augmented now by others who had 
 come up to see Burns in the presence 
 of such a woman. The glance she gave 
 them was a question. 
 
 "Oh, he means it," said Monroe of 
 Whiteside. "He'll vote for the reso- 
 lution." 
 
 "Yes, he's given his word," said 
 Brownell of Cook. 
 
 Vernon devoted half an hour to bring- 
 ing senators to meet Maria Greene. It 
 was not difficult work, though it had 
 its disadvantages; it did not allow Ver- 
 non to remain with her long at a time. 
 But at last it was done, and he found a 
 moment alone with her. She had given 
 him some pamphlets on equal suffi*age. 
 
 "Ah, \S. you could only address the 
 Senate ! " he exclaimed, in open admi- 
 ration. And then, as if an inspiration 
 had come to him, he added: 
 
 42 
 
Her Infinite Variety; 
 
 "Perhaps I could arrange it; it has 
 been done." 
 
 She gasped and stretched out her 
 hand to stay him. 
 
 "Oh, not for all the world!" she 
 protested. 
 
 " But you'll come and meet the lieu- 
 tenant-governor ? " 
 
 "Up there?" she said, incredulously, 
 pointing to the dais under the flags. 
 
 "Why, yes," Vernon answered; "why 
 not ? It's where all the eminent lawyers 
 who come down here to lobby sit." 
 
 She looked up at the desk behind 
 which the lieutenant-governor sat, 
 swinging gently in his swivel chair, 
 while the secretary read Senate bills on 
 third reading. There was a reluctance in 
 her eyes, but when she caught Vernon's 
 smile, she gathered her skirts and said: 
 
 "Well, if I must." 
 
 43 
 
IV 
 
 WHILE Miss Greene sat chat- 
 ting with the lieutenant- 
 governor, who gladly neg- 
 lected the duties of his high office, 
 Vernon went out into the rotunda, 
 lighted a cigarette, glanced over the 
 pamphlets, and tried to arrange the 
 heads of his speech in his mind. 
 
 At the thought of the speech, 
 Vernon grew cold and limp with nerv- 
 ousness. His hands were clammy, his 
 knees trembled, his mouth became dry 
 and parched, and the cigarette he had 
 lighted imparted all at once an evil 
 taste. Yet he smoked on, and as he 
 
 44 
 
Her Infinite Variety 
 
 wandered around the rotunda, men 
 from both houses, passing to and fro, 
 greeted him, but they seemed to him 
 to be strange new creatures flitting by 
 in a dream. If he was conscious of 
 them at all it was only as of envied 
 beings, all on a common happy plane, 
 fortunate ones who did not have to 
 make a speech within the hour. He 
 went over to the state library, thinking 
 that its quiet would soothe, but when 
 he stood among the tall stacks of books 
 he suddenly remembered that he must 
 not smoke in those precincts; and so he 
 turned out into the rotunda again, for 
 he must smoke. He walked round and 
 round the rotunda, pausing at times to 
 lean over the brass railing and look far 
 down to the main floor where the red 
 light glowed at the cigar stand; he 
 sauntered back into the dim and un- 
 
 45 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 disturbed corridors, his mind racing 
 over all the things he might say. 
 
 Once or twice he glanced into the 
 pamphlets Miss Greene had given him, 
 but he could not fix his mind on them; 
 their types danced meaninglessly before 
 his eyes. He was angry with himself 
 for this nervousness. Why must it 
 assail him now, just when he wished to 
 be at his best? He had spoken before, 
 a hundred times; he knew his audience, 
 and he had the proper contempt for his 
 colleagues. He had never, to be sure, 
 made a set speech in that presence; sel- 
 dom did any one do that; the speeches 
 were usually short and impromptu, and 
 there was no time for anticipation to 
 generate nervous dread. And yet his 
 mind seemed to be extraordinarily clear 
 just then; it seemed to be able to com- 
 prehend all realms of thought at once. 
 
 46 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 But it was not so much the speech 
 he thought of, as the effect of the 
 speech; already he could see the news- 
 papers and the big headlines they 
 would display on their first pages the 
 next morning; he could see his mother 
 reading them at breakfast, and then he 
 could see Amelia reading them. How 
 her dark eyes would widen, her cheeks 
 flush pink! She would raise her hand 
 and put back her hair with that pretty 
 mannerism of hers; then impulsively 
 resting her arms on the table before 
 her, she would eagerly read the long 
 columns through, while her mother 
 reminded her that her breakfast was 
 getting cold. How proud she would 
 be of him! She would never chide 
 him again; she would see that at last 
 he had found himself. 
 
 The Eltons, too, would read, and his 
 
 47 
 
Her Infinite Variety; 
 
 absence from their dinner would react 
 on them impressively. And Maria 
 Greene — but a confusion arose — Maria 
 Greene! He had not thought of 
 Amelia all the morning until that very 
 instant; Amelia's letter lay still un- 
 opened on his desk back there in the 
 Senate chamber. Maria Greene! She 
 vv^ould hear, she would color as she 
 looked at him, and her eyes would 
 glow; he could feel the warm pressure 
 of the hand she would give him in 
 congratulation. 
 
 And it was this handsome young 
 woman's presence in the chamber that 
 gave rise to all this nervousness. He 
 was sure that he would not have been 
 nervous if Amelia were to be there. 
 She had never heard him speak in 
 public, though he had often pressed her 
 to do so; somehow the places where he 
 
 48 
 
Her Infinite Variety 
 
 spoke were never those to which it 
 would be proper for her to go. She 
 would wish she had heard this speech, 
 for in twenty-four hours it would be 
 the one topic of conversation through- 
 out the state; his picture would be in 
 the newspapers — "The brilliant young 
 Chicago lawyer who electrified the 
 Illinois Senate with his passionate ora- 
 tory and passed the woman -suffrage 
 measure," It would be an event to 
 mark the beginning of a new era — 
 
 But his imaginings were broken, his 
 name was spoken; he turned and saw 
 Miss Greene. 
 
 " Come," she said. " It's up! Hurry!" 
 
 She was excited and her cheeks 
 glowed. His teeth began to chatter. 
 He followed her quick steps in the 
 direction of the chamber. 
 
 " But," he stammered. " I— I didn't 
 
 49 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 know — I haven't even arranged for 
 recognition." 
 
 " Oh, I've fixed all that!" the vi^oman 
 said. "The lieutenant-governor promised 
 me." She was holding her rustling 
 skirts and almost running. 
 
 SO 
 
A S they entered the Senate cham- 
 / % ber, Vernon heard the lieuten- 
 -^ -^ ant-governor say: "And the 
 question is: Shall the resolution be 
 adopted? Those in favor will vote 
 'aye,' those opposed will vote *no,' 
 when their names are called; and the 
 secretary will call the — " 
 
 " Mr. President ! " Vernon shouted. 
 There was no time now to retreat; he 
 had launched himself on the sea of 
 glory. A dozen other senators were on 
 their feet, likewise demanding recog- 
 nition. 
 
 SI 
 
Her Infinite Variety; 
 
 The senator from Cook," said the 
 lieutenant-governor . 
 
 Vernon stood by his desk, arranging 
 complacently the documents Miss 
 Greene had given him. Once or twice 
 he cleared his throat and wiped his lips 
 with his handkerchief. The other sen- 
 ators subsided into their seats, and, see- 
 ing that they themselves were not then 
 to be permitted to speak, and like all 
 speakers, not caring to listen to the 
 speeches of others, they turned philo- 
 sophically to the little diversions with 
 which they whiled away the hours of 
 the session — writing letters, reading 
 newspapers, smoking, Vernon glanced 
 around. Maria Greene was sitting pre- 
 cariously on the edge of a divan. Her 
 face was white and drawn. She gave 
 a quick nod, and a smile just touched 
 her fixed lips. And then Vernon began. 
 
 52 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 He spoke slowly and with vast deliber- 
 ation; his voice was very low. He 
 outlined his subject with exquisite pains, 
 detail by detail, making it clear just 
 what propositions he would advance. 
 His manner was that of the lawyer in 
 an appellate court, making a masterly 
 and purely legal argument; when it 
 was done, the Senate, if it had paid 
 attention — though it seldom did pay 
 attention — would know all about the 
 question of woman-suffrage. 
 
 In his deliberation, Vernon glanced 
 now and then at Maria Greene. Her 
 eyes were sparkling with intelligent in- 
 terest. As if to choose the lowest point 
 possible from which to trace the rise 
 and progress of legislation favorable to 
 women, Vernon would call the atten- 
 tion of the Senate, first, to the decision 
 of the Illinois Supreme Court In re 
 
 53 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 Bradwell, ^^ 111. 525. That was away 
 back in 1869, when the age was vir- 
 tually dark; and that was the case, 
 gentlemen would remember, just as if 
 they all kept each decision of the court 
 at their tongues' ends, in which the 
 court held that no woman could be 
 admitted, under the laws of Illinois, to 
 practise as an attorney at law. But, — 
 and Vernon implored his colleagues to 
 mark, — long years afterward, the court 
 of its own motion, entered a nunc pro 
 tunc order, reversing its own decision 
 in the Bradwell case. Vernon dilated 
 upon the importance of this decision; 
 he extolled the court; it had set a white 
 milestone to mark the progressing 
 emancipation of the race. Then, 
 briefly, he proposed to outline for them 
 the legislative steps by which woman's 
 
 54 
 
Her Infinite Variety 
 
 right to equality with man had been 
 at least partly recognized. 
 
 He fumbled for a moment among 
 the papers on his desk, until he found 
 one of the pamphlets Miss Greene had 
 given him, and then he said he wished 
 to call the Senate's attention to the 
 Employment Act of 1872, the Drain- 
 age Act of 1885, and the Sanitary Dis- 
 trict Act of 1890. Vernon spoke quite 
 familiarly of these acts. Furthermore, 
 gentlemen would, he was sure, instantly 
 recall the decisions of the courts in 
 which those acts were under review, as 
 for instance, in Wilson vs. Board of 
 Trustees, 133 111. 443; and in Daven- 
 port vs. Drainage Commissioners, 25 
 111. App. 92. 
 
 Those among the senators who were 
 lawyers, as most of them were, looked 
 
 55 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 up from their letter writing at this, and 
 nodded profoundly, in order to show 
 their familiarity with Vernon's cita- 
 tions, although, of course, they never 
 had heard of the cases before. 
 
 **This recognition of woman's nat- 
 ural right," Vernon shouted, "this rec- 
 ognition of her equality with man, can 
 not be overestimated in importance!" 
 He shook his head fiercely and struck 
 his desk with his fist. But then, hav- 
 ing used up all the facts he had marked 
 in Miss Greene's pamphlets, he was 
 forced to become more general in his 
 remarks, and so he began to celebrate 
 woman, ecstatically. He conjured for 
 the senators the presence of their moth- 
 ers and sisters, their sweethearts and 
 wives; and then, some quotations for- 
 tunately occurring to him, he reminded 
 
 56 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 them that Castiglione had truly said that 
 "God is seen only through women"; 
 that "the woman's soul leadeth us up- 
 ward and on." He recounted the serv- 
 ices of women in time of war, their 
 deeds in the days of peace, and in the 
 end he became involved in an allegory 
 about the exclusion of the roses from 
 the garden. 
 
 The senators had begun to pay atten- 
 tion to him as soon as he talked about 
 things they really understood and were 
 interested in, and now they shouted to 
 him to go on. It was spread abroad 
 over the third floor of the State House 
 that some one was making a big speech 
 in the Senate, and representatives came 
 rushing over from the House. The 
 correspondents of the Chicago news- 
 papers came over also to see if the 
 
 57 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 Associated Press man in the Senate was 
 getting the speech down fully. All the 
 space on the Senate floor was soon 
 crowded, and the applause shook the 
 desks and made the glass prisms on the 
 chandeliers jingle. The lieutenant- 
 governor tapped from time to time 
 with his gavel, but he did it perfunc- 
 torily, as though he enjoyed the ap- 
 plause himself, as vicariously expressing 
 his own feelings; his eyes twinkled 
 until it seemed that, were it not for 
 certain traditions, he would join in the 
 delighted laughter that made up most 
 of the applause. 
 
 Once a page came to Vernon with a 
 glass of water, and as he paused to wipe 
 his brow and to sip from the glass, he 
 glanced again at Maria Greene. Her 
 face was solemn and a wonder was grow- 
 ing in her eyes. Beside her sat old 
 
 58 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 "Doc" Ames, scowling fiercely and 
 stroking his long white beard. There 
 were sharp cries of "Go on! Go on!" 
 But Vernon, not accustomed to think- 
 ing on his feet, as talkers love to phrase 
 it, and having stopped, could not in- 
 stantly go on, and that awkward halt 
 disconcerted him. He was conscious 
 that the moments were slipping by, 
 and there were other things — many 
 other things — that he had intended to 
 say; but these things evaded him — 
 floated ofi^, tantalizingly, out of reach. 
 And so, for refuge, he rushed on to the 
 conclusion he had half formed in his 
 mind. The conclusion was made up 
 mostly from a toast to which he had 
 once responded while in college, enti- 
 tled "The Ladies." The words came 
 back to him readily enough; he had 
 only to apply them a little differently 
 
 59 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 and to change his figures. Thus it was 
 easy to work up to a panegyric in which 
 IlHnois stood as a beautiful woman lead- 
 ing her sister states up to new heights 
 of peace, of virtue and of concord. He 
 had a rapt vision of this woman, by her 
 sweet and gentle influence settling all 
 disputes and bringing heaven down to 
 earth at last. 
 
 The Senate was in raptures. 
 
 "This is the face," he cried, "'that 
 launched a thousand ships and burned 
 the topless towers of Ilium!' . . . 'she 
 is wholly like in feature to the death- 
 less goddesses ! ' " So he went on. " 'Age 
 can not wither, nor custom stale, her 
 infinite variety.' " 
 
 He was growing weary. He already 
 showed the impressive exhaustion of the 
 peroration. He had sacrificed a collar 
 and drunk all the water from his glass. 
 
 60 
 
r-H rw,„:,f,,^ fhpc , I ,,. 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 He fingered the empty tumbler for a 
 moment, and then lifted it on high 
 while he said: 
 
 "^I filled this cup to one made up 
 
 Of loveliness alone, 
 A woman, of her gentle sex 
 
 The seeming paragon — 
 Her health ! and would on earth there stood 
 
 Some more of such a frame, 
 That life might le all poetry. 
 
 And weariness a name' " 
 
 When he had done, there was a 
 moment's stillness; then came the long 
 sweep of applause that rang through 
 the chamber, and while the lieutenant- 
 governor rapped for order, men crowded 
 around Vernon and wrung his hand, as 
 he wiped his forehead with his hand- 
 kerchief. And then the roll was called. 
 It had not proceeded far when there 
 was that subtile change in the atmos- 
 
 6i 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 phere which is so easily recognized by 
 those who have acquired the sense of 
 political aeroscepsy; the change that 
 betokens some new, unexpected and 
 dangerous manoeuver. Braidwood had 
 come over from the House. His face, 
 framed in its dark beard, was stern and 
 serious. He whispered an instant to 
 Porter, the Senate leader. Porter rose. 
 
 " Mr. President," he said. 
 
 The lieutenant-governor was looking 
 at him expectantly. 
 
 "The gentleman from Cook," the 
 lieutenant-governor said. 
 
 " Mr. President," said Senator Porter, 
 "I move you, sir, that the further dis- 
 cussion of the resolution be postponed 
 until Wednesday morning, one week 
 from to-morrow, and that it be made a 
 special order immediately following 
 the reading of the journal." 
 
 62 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 If there are no objections it will 
 be so ordered," said the lieutenant- 
 governor. 
 
 Bull Burns shouted a prompt and 
 hoarse "Object!" 
 
 But the lieutenant-governor calmly 
 said: 
 
 "And it is so ordered." 
 
 The gavel fell. 
 
 63 
 
VI 
 
 AFTER the adjournment Vernon 
 L % sought out Maria Greene and 
 •^ -^- walked with her down Capitol 
 Avenue toward the hotel. He was pre- 
 pared to enjoy her congratulations, but 
 she was silent for a while, and before 
 they spoke again "Doc" Ames, striding 
 rapidly, had caught up with them. He 
 was still scowling. 
 
 "I was sorry you didn't finish your 
 speech as you intended, sir," he said, 
 with something of the acerbity of a 
 reproach. 
 
 "Why," began Vernon, looking at 
 him, «I— " 
 
 64 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 "You laid out very broad and com- 
 prehensive ground for yourself," the 
 old man continued, "but unfortunately 
 you did not cover it. You should have 
 developed your subject logically, as I 
 had hopes, indeed, in the beginning, 
 you were going to do. An argument 
 based on principle would have been 
 more to the point than an appeal to 
 the passions. I think Miss Greene will 
 agree with me. I am sorry you did not 
 acquaint me with your intention of 
 addressing the Senate on this important 
 measure; I would very much have liked 
 to confer with you about what you 
 were going to say. It is not contem- 
 plated by those in the reform move- 
 ment that the charms of woman shall 
 be advanced as the reason for her right 
 to equal suffrage with man. It is purely 
 a matter of cold, abstract justice. Now, 
 
 6S 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 for instance," the doctor laid his finger 
 in his palm, and began to speak didac- 
 tically, "as I have pointed out to the 
 House, whatever the power or the 
 principle that gives to man his right to 
 make the law that governs him, to 
 woman it gives the same right. In 
 thirty-seven states the married mother 
 has no right to her children; in sixteen 
 the wife has no right to her own earn- 
 ings; in eight she has no separate right 
 to her property; in seven — " 
 
 Vernon looked at Miss Greene help- 
 lessly, but she was nodding her head in 
 acquiescence to each point the doctor 
 laid down in his harsh palm with that 
 long forefinger. Vernon had no chance 
 to speak until they reached the hotel. 
 She was to take the midday train back 
 to Chicago, and Vernon had insisted on 
 going to the station with her. Just as 
 
 66 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 she was about to leave him to go up 
 to her room she said, as on a sudden 
 impulse: 
 
 "Do you know that the women of 
 America, yes, the people of America, 
 owe you a debt?" 
 
 Vernon assumed a most modest 
 attitude. 
 
 " If we are successful," she went on, 
 "the advocates of equal suffrage all 
 over the United States will be greatly 
 encouraged; the reform movement 
 everywhere will receive a genuine im- 
 petus." 
 
 " You will be down next Wednesday 
 when the resolution comes up again, 
 won't you?" asked Vernon. 
 
 " Indeed, I shall," she said. " Do you 
 have any hopes now?" 
 
 "Hopes?" laughed Vernon. "Why 
 certainly; we'll adopt it. I'll give my 
 
 67 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 whole time to it between now and 
 then. If they don't adopt that resolu- 
 tion I'll block every other piece of 
 legislation this session, appropriations 
 and all. I guess that will bring them 
 to time!" 
 
 "You're very good," she said. "But 
 I fear Mr. Porter's influence." 
 
 "Oh, I'll take care of him. You 
 trust it to me. The women will be 
 voting in this state next year." 
 
 "And you shall be their candidate 
 for governor!" she cried, clasping her 
 hands. 
 
 Vernon colored; he felt a warm thrill 
 course through him, but he waved the 
 nomination aside with his hand. He 
 was about to say something more, but 
 he could not think of anything quickly 
 enough. While he hesitated. Miss 
 Greene looked at her watch. 
 
 68 
 
Her Infinite VarietY; 
 
 "I've missed my train," she said, 
 quietly. 
 
 Vernon grew red with confusion. 
 
 "I beg a thousand pardons!" he said. 
 "It was all my fault and it was certainly 
 very stupid of me." 
 
 " It's of no importance. Where must 
 I go to reserve space on the night 
 train?" said Miss Greene. 
 
 Vernon told her, and proffered his 
 services. He was now delighted at the 
 philosophical way in which she ac- 
 cepted the situation — it would have 
 brought the average woman, he re- 
 flected, to tears — and then he went on 
 to picture to himself the practical re- 
 sults in improving women's characters 
 that his new measure, as he had already 
 come to regard it, would bring about. 
 
 69 
 
VII 
 
 MARIA GREENE would not 
 let Vernon attend to her tick- 
 ets; she said it was a matter 
 of principle with her; but late in the 
 afternoon, when they had had luncheon, 
 and she had got the tickets herself, she 
 did accept his invitation to drive. The 
 afternoon had justified all the morning's 
 promise of a fine spring day, and as they 
 left the edges of the town and turned 
 into the road that stretched away over 
 the low undulations of ground they call 
 hills in Illinois, and lost itself mysteri- 
 ously in the country far beyond. Miss 
 Greene became enthusiastic. 
 
 70 
 
Her Infinite Variety 
 
 " Isn't it glorious ! " she cried. "And 
 to think that when I left Chicago last 
 night it was still winter ! " She shud- 
 dered, as if she would shake off the 
 memory of the city's ugliness. Her 
 face was flushed and she inhaled the 
 sweet air eagerly. 
 
 " To be in the country once more ! " 
 she went on. 
 
 " Did you ever live in the country ? " 
 Vernon asked. 
 
 "Once," she said, and then after a 
 grave pause she added: "A long time 
 ago." 
 
 The road they had turned into was 
 as soft and as smooth as velvet now that 
 the spring had released it from the 
 thrall of winter's mud. It led beside 
 a golf links, and the new greens were 
 already dotted with golfers, who played 
 with the zest they had accumulated in 
 
 71 
 
Her Infinite Variety:' 
 
 the forbidding winter months. They 
 showed their enthusiasm by playing 
 bare-armed, as if already it were the 
 height of summer. 
 
 As the buggy rolled noiselessly along, 
 Vernon and Miss Greene were silent; 
 the spell of the spring was on them. 
 To their right rolled the prairies, that 
 never can become mere fields, however 
 much they be tilled or fenced. The 
 brown earth, with its tinge of young 
 green here and there, or its newly 
 ploughed clods glistening and steaming 
 in the sun, rolled away like the sea. 
 Far off, standing out black and forbid- 
 ding against the horizon, they could 
 see the ugly buildings of a coal shaft; 
 behind, above the trees that grew for 
 the city's shade, the convent lifted its 
 tower, and above all, the gray dome of 
 the State House reared itself, dominat- 
 
 72 
 
Her Infinite VarietY: 
 
 ing the whole scene. The air shim- 
 mered in the haze of spring. Birds 
 were chirping in the hedges; now and 
 then a meadow-lark sprang into the air 
 and fled, crying out its strange staccato 
 song as it skimmed the surface of the 
 prairies. Vernon idly snapped the whip 
 as he drove along; neither of them 
 seemed to care to speak. Suddenly they 
 heard a distant, heavy thud. The earth 
 trembled slightly. 
 
 "What's that?" said Miss Greene, 
 in some alarm. " It couldn't have been 
 thunder." 
 
 "No," said Vernon, "it was the 
 miners, blasting." 
 
 "Where.?" 
 
 "Down in the ground underneath 
 us." 
 
 She gave him a strange look which 
 he did not comprehend. Then she 
 
 73 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 turned and glanced quickly at the black 
 breakers of the coal shaft, half a mile 
 away; then at the golf-players. 
 
 "Do the mines run under this 
 ground?" she asked, sweeping her 
 hand about and including the links in 
 her gesture. 
 
 "Yes, all over here, or rather under 
 here," Vernon said. He was proud of 
 his knowledge of the locality. He 
 thought it argued well that a legislator 
 should be informed on all questions. 
 Maria thought a moment, then she said: 
 
 " The golfers above, the miners 
 below." 
 
 Vernon looked at her in surprise. 
 The pleasure of the spring had gone 
 out of her eyes. 
 
 " Drive on, please," she said. 
 
 "There's no danger," . said Vernon 
 reassuringly, clucking at his horse, and 
 
 74 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 the beast flung up its head in a spas- 
 modic burst of speed, as livery-stable 
 horses will. The horse did not have 
 to trot very far to bear them away from 
 the crack of the golf-balls and the dull 
 subterranean echoes of the miners' 
 blasts, but Vernon felt that a cloud had 
 floated all at once over this first spring 
 day. The woman sitting there beside 
 him seemed to withdraw herself to an 
 infinite distance. 
 
 "You love the country?" he asked, 
 feeling the need of speech. 
 
 "Yes," she said, but she went no 
 farther. 
 
 "And you once lived there?" 
 
 "Yes," she said again, but she vouch- 
 safed no more. Vernon found a deep 
 curiosity springing within him; he 
 longed to know more about this young 
 woman who in all outward ways seemed 
 
 75 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 to be just like the women he knew, and 
 yet was so essentially different from 
 them. But though he tried, he could 
 not move her to speak of her own life 
 or its affairs. At the last he said 
 boldly : 
 
 "Tell me, how did you come to be 
 a lawyer?" 
 
 Miss Greene turned to meet his in- 
 quisitive gaze. 
 
 "How did you?" she asked. 
 
 Vernon cracked his whip at the road. 
 
 "Well — " he stammered. "I don't 
 know; I had to do something." 
 
 "So did I," she replied. 
 
 Vernon cut the lazy horse with the 
 whip, and the -horse jerked the buggy 
 as it made its professional feint at trot- 
 ting. 
 
 " I did not care to lead a useless life," 
 he said. " I wanted to do something — 
 
 76 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 to have some part in the world's work. 
 The law seemed to be a respectable 
 profession and I felt that maybe I could 
 do some good in politics. I don't think 
 the men of my class take as much in- 
 terest in politics as they should. And 
 then, I'd like to make my own living." 
 
 "I have to make mine," said Maria 
 Greene. 
 
 " But you never thought of teaching, 
 or nursing, or — well — painting or 
 music, or that sort of thing, did you?" 
 
 "No," she replied; "did you?" 
 
 Vernon laughed at an absurdity that 
 needed no answering comment, and 
 then he hastened on: 
 
 "Of course, you know I think it 
 fine that you should have done as you 
 have. You must have met with dis- 
 couragements." 
 
 She laughed, and Vernon did not note 
 
 77 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 the bitterness there was concealed in 
 the laugh; to him it seemed intended 
 to express only that polite deprecation 
 demanded in the treatment of a personal 
 situation. 
 
 " I can sympathize with you there," 
 said Vernon, though Miss Greene had 
 not admitted the need of sympathy. 
 Perhaps it was Vernon's own need of 
 sympathy, or his feeling of the need 
 of it, that made him confess that his 
 own family and friends had never sym- 
 pathized with him, especially with what 
 he called his work in politics; he felt, 
 at any rate, that he had struck the 
 right note at last, and he went on to 
 assure her how unusual it was to meet 
 a woman who understood public ques- 
 tions as well as she understood them. 
 And it may have been his curiosity that 
 led him to inquire: 
 
 78 
 
Her Infinite Variety; 
 
 "How did your people feel about 
 your taking up the law ?" 
 
 Miss Greene said that she did not 
 know how her people felt, and Vernon 
 again had that baffled sense of her evad- 
 ing him. 
 
 "I've felt pretty much alone in my 
 work," he said. "The women I know 
 won't talk with me about it; they won't 
 even read the newspapers. And I've 
 tried so hard to interest them in it ! " 
 
 Vernon sighed, and he waited for 
 Miss Greene to sigh with him. He 
 did not look at her, but he could feel 
 her presence there close beside him. 
 Her gloved hands lay quietly in her 
 lap; she was gazing out over the prai- 
 ries. The light winds were faintly stir- 
 ring her hair, and the beauty of it, 
 its warm red tones brought out by the 
 burnishing sun, suddenly overwhelmed 
 
 79 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 him. He stirred and his breath came 
 hard. 
 
 "Do you know," he said, in a new 
 confidence, " that this has* been a great 
 day for me ? To meet you, and to know 
 you as I think I do know you now! 
 This morning, when I was speaking, I 
 felt that with you to help me, I could 
 do great things." 
 
 Miss Greene drew in her lips, as if 
 to compress their fullness; she moved 
 away on the seat, and raised her hand 
 uneasily and thrust it under her veil to 
 put back a tress of hair that had strayed 
 from its fastening. Vernon saw the 
 flush of her white cheeks come and go. 
 Her eyebrows were drawn together 
 wistfully, and in her blue eyes, that 
 looked far away through the meshes 
 of her dotted veil, there was a little 
 cloud of trouble. She caught her lip 
 
 80 
 
Her Infinite Variety 
 
 delicately between the edges of her teeth. 
 Vernon leaned slightly forward as if 
 he would peer into her face. For him 
 the day had grown suddenly hot, the 
 spring had developed on the instant the 
 oppressive heat of summer. He felt its 
 fire ; he could see its intensity vibrating 
 in the air all about him, and he had 
 a sense as of all the summer's voices 
 droning in unison. The reins drooped 
 from his listless fingers; the horse 
 moped along as it pleased. 
 
 "I have always felt it, vaguely," Ver- 
 non went on, his voice dropping to a 
 low tone, "and this morning it was 
 suddenly revealed to me — " 
 
 Miss Greene raised her hand as if to 
 draw it across her brow; her veil stopped 
 her. 
 
 " Let's not talk about that now," she 
 pleaded. "Let's enjoy the air and the 
 
 8i 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 country. I don't have them often." 
 Her hand fell to her lap. The color 
 had gone out of her cheeks. And Ver- 
 non suddenly felt that the summer had 
 gone out of the air; a cold wind was 
 blowing as over soiled patches of snow 
 left in shaded depressions of the fields; 
 the earth was brown and bare; the 
 birds were silent. He jerked the horse 
 smartly, and it gave an angry toss of its 
 head, as it broke into its tentative trot. 
 
 "I do wish you could know the 
 women I know," said Vernon, obvi- 
 ously breaking a silence. He spoke in 
 an entirely different voice. "I meant 
 to put it the other way. I meant that 
 I wish they could know you, and I 
 mean that they shall. You would be a 
 revelation to them." 
 
 Miss Greene smiled, though her face 
 was now careworn, almost old. 
 
 82 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 " Right along the line of our consti- 
 tutional amendment, now," he said, 
 with a briskness, "do you think the 
 women will become interested?" 
 
 "The women of your acquaintance, 
 or of mine?" asked Miss Greene. 
 
 "You're guying," said Vernon, and 
 when Miss Greene seriously protested, 
 Vernon said he meant all the women, 
 as politicians pretend to mean all the 
 people, when they mean only the party. 
 
 "I'm afraid not," she skid. "They 
 could have the ballot to-morrow if 
 they'd only ask for it. The trouble is 
 they don't want it." 
 
 "Well, we must educate them," said 
 Vernon. "I have great hopes that the 
 women whom I know will be aroused 
 by what we are doing." 
 
 "I have no doubt they will," said 
 Miss Greene. There was something 
 
 83 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 enigmatical in her words, and Vernon 
 glanced uneasily at her again. 
 
 "How do you mean?" he asked. 
 
 "You'll learn when you see the news- 
 papers to-morrow," said Miss Greene. 
 
 " Do you think they'll have it in 
 full?" asked Vernon. He was all alert, 
 and his eyes sparkled in a new interest. 
 
 " On the first page," she replied, with 
 conviction. "Have they your picture?" 
 
 "I don't know," Vernon replied. 
 "They can get it, though," he added, 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 "They keep the portraits of all dis- 
 tinguished public men on hand," Miss 
 Greene said, with a certain reassurance 
 in her tone. 
 
 "Oh, well, I hope they'll not print 
 it," said Vernon, as if just then recalling 
 what was expected of a distinguished 
 public man under such circumstances. 
 
 84 
 
-ijMv^ti i|,i>,/)„ i"liri,':,t,: ,,,,,,, 
 
Her Infinite Variety 
 
 " That's one of the penalties of being 
 in public life," she answered with a 
 curious smile. 
 
 "A penalty the ladies will be glad to 
 pay when our reform is accomplished; 
 isn't that so?" said Vernon, seeking re- 
 lief in a light bantering tone. 
 
 "I thought we were not going to 
 talk politics," she said, turning and 
 looking at him. She adjusted her hat 
 and held herself resolutely erect. 
 
 The sun was going down behind the 
 prairies, the afternoon was almost gone; 
 as they watched the sunset. Miss Greene 
 broke the silence. 
 
 " It's a familiar sight," she said, and 
 Vernon thought that he had a clue at 
 last. She must know the prairies. 
 
 " It is just like a sunset at sea," she 
 added. 
 
 When they had driven back to the 
 
 85 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 town and Vernon had left her at the 
 hotel, he turned to drive to the livery 
 stable. 
 
 "By George!" he said, suddenly, 
 speaking to himself. "I haven't read 
 Ameha's letter ! " 
 
 He fumbled in his coat pocket. 
 
 86 
 
VIII 
 
 MISS GREENE'S predictions 
 were all realized in the sen- 
 sation Vernon's speech cre- 
 ated. The newspapers gave whole col- 
 umns to it and illustrated their accounts 
 with portraits of Vernon and of Maria 
 Greene. Vernon thought of the pleasure 
 Amelia must find in his new fame, and 
 when he wrote to her he referred briefly 
 but with the proper modesty to his re- 
 markable personal triumph, and then 
 waited for her congratulations. 
 
 The legislative session was drawing 
 to a close; the customary Friday ad- 
 
 87 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 journment was not taken, but sessions 
 were held that day and on Saturday, 
 for the work was piling up, the pro- 
 crastinating legislators having left it all 
 for the last minute. 
 
 The week following would see House 
 and Senate sweltering in shirt sleeves 
 and night sessions, and now, if a bill 
 were to become law it was necessary 
 that its sponsor stay, as it were, close 
 beside it, lest in the mighty rush of the 
 last few days it be lost. 
 
 Vernon, by virtue of his speech, 
 had assumed the championship of the 
 woman-suffrage resolution, and he felt 
 it necessary to forego his customary visit 
 to Chicago that week and remain over 
 Sunday in Springfield. He devoted the 
 day to composing a long letter to Miss 
 Greene, in which he described the sit- 
 uation in detail, and suggested that it 
 
 88 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 would be well for her, if possible, to 
 come down to Springfield on Monday 
 and stay until the resolution had been 
 adopted. He gave her, in closing, such 
 pledges of his devotion to the cause of 
 womankind that she could hardly resist 
 any appeal he might make for her pres- 
 ence and assistance. 
 
 On Monday he wired, urging the 
 necessity of her presence. Tuesday 
 morning brought him a reply, thank- 
 ing him, in behalf of women, for his 
 disinterested devotion to their cause, as- 
 suring him of her own appreciation of 
 his services, and saying that she would 
 reach Springfield — Wednesday morn- 
 ing. 
 
 Meanwhile he had had no letter from 
 Amelia, and he began to wonder at her 
 silence. He was not only disappointed, 
 but piqued. He felt that his achieve- 
 
 89 
 
Her Infinite Variety; 
 
 ment deserved the promptest recogni- 
 tion from her, but he found a consola- 
 tion, that grew in spite of him, in the 
 thought that Maria Greene would soon 
 be in Springfield, and to his heart he 
 permitted Amelia's silence to justify him 
 in a freer indulgence of attention to this 
 fascinating woman lawyer. 
 
 Tuesday evening the crowd, that 
 grows larger as the session nears its 
 close, filled the lobby of the Leland. 
 The night was warm, and to the heat 
 of politics was suddenly added the heat 
 of summer. Doors and windows were 
 flung wide to the night, and the tall 
 Egyptians, used as they were to the 
 sultry atmospheres of southern Illinois, 
 strode lazily about under their wide 
 slouch hats with waistcoats open and 
 cravats loosened, delighting in a new 
 cause for chafling the Chicago men, 
 
 90 
 
Her Infinite VarietY; 
 
 who had resumed their customary com- 
 plaints of the Springfield weather. 
 
 The smoke of cigars hung in the air. 
 The sound of many voices, the ring of 
 heavy laughter, the shuffle of feet over 
 the tiles, the clang of the clerk's gong, 
 the incessant chitter of a telegraph in- 
 strument that sped news to Chicago 
 over the Courier's private wire, all these 
 influences surcharged the heavy air with 
 a nervous excitement that made men 
 speak quickly and their eyes glitter 
 under the brilliant lights of countless 
 electric bulbs. There was in that at- 
 mosphere the play of myriad hopes and 
 ambitions, political, social, financial. 
 Special delegations of eminent lawyers, 
 leading citizens and prominent capital- 
 ists were down from Chicago to look 
 after certain measures of importance. 
 Newspaper correspondents hurried from 
 
 91 
 
Her Infinite Variety 
 
 group to group, gathering bits of infor- 
 mation to be woven into their night's 
 despatches. 
 
 Late in the evening the governor 
 came over from the mansion, and his 
 coming stirred the throng with a new 
 sensation. His secretary was by his side, 
 and they mingled a while with the boys, 
 as the governor called them, after the 
 politician's manner. Half a dozen con- 
 gressmen were there, thinking always 
 of renomination. Over in one corner 
 sat a United States senator, his high 
 hat tilted back on his perspiring brow. 
 A group of men had drawn their chairs 
 about him; they laughed at his stories. 
 
 One was aware that the speaker's 
 apartments upstairs were crowded. One 
 could easily imagine it ; the door of his 
 inner room, as men came and went, 
 opening now and then, and giving a 
 
 92 
 
Her Infinite VarietY; 
 
 glimpse of the speaker himself, tired 
 and worn under the strain that would 
 tell so sorely on him before another 
 week could bring his labors and his 
 powers and his glories to an end. 
 Through all that hotel that night, in 
 lobby and in bar-room, on the stairs, in 
 the side halls and up and down in the 
 elevators, throbbed the fascination of 
 politics, which men play not so much 
 for its ends as for its means. 
 
 Vernon was of this crowd, moving 
 from one group to another, smoking, 
 laughing, talking. His heart may have 
 been a little sore at the thought of 
 Amelia's strange neglect of him, but 
 the soreness had subsided until now it 
 was but a slight numbness which he 
 could forget at times, and when he did 
 think of it, it but gave him resolution 
 to play the game more fiercely. 
 
 93 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 He knew that it was incumbent on 
 him to make sure of the adoption of the 
 resolution on the morrow. He had al- 
 ready spoken to the lieutenant-governor 
 and had promise of recognition. But he 
 realized that it would be wise to make 
 a little canvass, though he had no doubt 
 that all was well, and that by the next 
 night he could mingle with this crowd 
 serene and happy in the thought that 
 his work was done; perhaps he might 
 even spend the evening in the company 
 of Maria Greene. His heart gave 
 a little leap at this new and happy 
 thought, and if the remembrance of 
 Amelia came back just at that instant, 
 its obtrusion only made his eyes burn 
 the brighter. 
 
 He found it pleasant as he threaded 
 his way through the crowd to halt sen- 
 ators as he met them and say: 
 
 94 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 Well, the woman -suffrage resolu- 
 tion comes up to-morrow. You'll be 
 for it, of course?" 
 
 It gave him such a legislative and 
 statesmanlike importance to do this. 
 As he was going leisurely about this 
 quest, testing some of the sensations of 
 a parliamentary leader, Cowley, the 
 correspondent of the Courier, accosted 
 him, and, showing his teeth in that odd 
 smile of his, asked if he cared to say 
 anything about the resolution, 
 
 " Only that it comes up as a special 
 order in the morning, and that I have 
 no doubt whatever of its adoption by 
 the Senate." 
 
 "Have you assurances from — " 
 
 "From everybody, and every assur- 
 ance," said Vernon. "They're all for 
 it. Come and have a cigar." 
 
 They went over to the cigar stand, 
 
 9S 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 and when they had lighted their cigars 
 Cowley said: 
 
 "Let's go out for a little walk; I 
 may be able to tell you something that 
 will interest you." 
 
 96 
 
IX 
 
 VERNON was glad enough of 
 a breath of the evening air, and 
 they went down the steps to 
 the sidewalk. Along the curbstone 
 many men had placed chairs and in 
 these cool and quiet eddies of the 
 brawling stream of politics they joked 
 and laughed peacefully. Sixth Street 
 stretched away dark and inviting. Ver- 
 non and Cowley turned southward and 
 strolled along companionably. The air 
 was delicious after the blaze of the 
 hotel; the black shade of a moonless 
 night was restful; their cigars were 
 fragrant. 
 
 97 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 "I've just got hold of a story," be- 
 gan Cowley, after they had enjoyed the 
 night for a moment in silence. "I've 
 just got hold of a story — " he spoke, 
 of course, as always, from the detached 
 standpoint of a newspaper man, "which 
 you ought to know." 
 
 "What is it?" asked Vernon. 
 
 "Porter and Braidwood are against 
 your resolution." Cowley spoke these 
 names in a tone that told how futile 
 any opposition would be. "And 
 Wright and his fellows are against it, 
 too," he added. 
 
 "Nonsense," said Vernon. 
 
 "Well, you'll see," replied Cowley. 
 
 " But they told me — " 
 
 " Oh, well, that's all right. They've 
 changed in the last day or two." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 98 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 "Well, they say it's risky from a 
 party standpoint. They think they 
 already have all the load they want to 
 carry in the fall campaign. Besides, 
 they—" 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "They say there's no demand for 
 such a radical step, and so see no rea- 
 son for taking it." 
 
 "No demand for it?" 
 
 "No, on the contrary," Cowley 
 halted an instant and in his palm 
 sheltered a lighted match for his ex- 
 tinguished cigar. "On the contrary, 
 there's a lot of people against it." 
 
 "Since when?" 
 
 "They've been getting letters in the 
 last few days — they've just been pour- 
 ing in on 'em — and they're from wo- 
 men, too." 
 
 99 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 "From women!" 
 
 "Yes, from women; the first ladies in 
 the land." Cowley spoke with a sneer. 
 
 Vernon laughed. 
 
 "All right," said Cowley in the care- 
 less tone of one who has discharged 
 a duty. "Wait till you see Mrs. 
 Overman Hodge-Lathrop land in here 
 to-morrow." 
 
 "Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop!" 
 Vernon stopped still in the middle of 
 the sidewalk and turned in surprise and 
 fear to Cowley. Cowley enjoyed the 
 little sensation he had produced. 
 
 "Yes, she's coming down on the 
 Alton to-night. And she's bringing 
 some of her crowd with her. The 
 women's clubs are all stirred up about 
 the matter." 
 
 Vernon was silent for a moment, 
 
 lOO 
 
_)iJ>^l>i|'L K'.'rtiilN'^-r- L (in ^-t V 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 then he wheeled suddenly, and said: 
 "Well, I'm much obliged to you, 
 Cowley, but I'd better be getting back 
 to the hotel." 
 
 "It may not be serious after all," 
 Cowley said with tardy reassurance, 
 "but there's danger, and I thought I'd 
 let you know. I'm sending a pretty 
 good story in to-night about it; they'll 
 cover the Chicago end from the office." 
 
 "But they were all for it," Vernon 
 muttered. 
 
 "Oh, well, you know they never 
 took the thing very seriously. Of course 
 they passed it in the House just to line 
 up old man Ames for the apportion- 
 ment bill. They didn't think it would 
 amount to anything." 
 
 "Yes, I know — but Maria Bur ley 
 Greene — " 
 
 lOI 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 " Well, she's a pretty woman ; that's 
 all." 
 
 "You bet she is," said Vernon, "and 
 she'll be down here again to-morrow, 
 too." 
 
 "Will she?" said Cowley eagerly, 
 with his strange smile. 
 
 "Yes — but, look here, Charlie!" 
 Vernon exclaimed, "don't you go mix- 
 ing me up with her, now, understand?" 
 
 "Oh, I understand," said Cowley, 
 and he laughed significantly. 
 
 When Vernon reached the hotel he 
 set to work in earnest. He tramped 
 about half the night, until he had seen 
 every senator who could be found. He 
 noted a change in them; if he did not 
 find them hostile he found many of 
 them shy and reluctant. But when he 
 went to his room he had enough prom- 
 ises to allay his fears and to restore, in 
 
 1 02 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 a measure, his confidence, and he fell 
 asleep thinking of Maria Greene, happy 
 in the thought that she would be there 
 with her charms to offset the social 
 influence of Mrs. Overman Hodge- 
 Lathrop. 
 
 103 
 
X 
 
 VERNON went down to break- 
 fast the next morning wearing 
 the new summer clothes his 
 tailor had sent to him from Chicago 
 the day before. He had a flower in 
 his buttonhole; a red rose, indeed, 
 showing his colors for the final tri- 
 umphant day. 
 
 The rotunda of the hotel, swept of 
 the litter of the night before, was clean 
 and cool, and the morning air of a per- 
 fect day came in refreshingly at the 
 open doors. The farmer members, con- 
 firmed in the habit of early rising, were 
 already sauntering aimlessly about, but 
 
 104 
 
^r^.,:n...k-. 
 
 - srtixf 
 
Her Infinite VarietY; 
 
 otherwise statesmen still slumbered, 
 tired out by their labors of the night 
 before. 
 
 Vernon, in the nervous excitement 
 which arouses one at the dawn of any 
 day that is to be big with events, had 
 risen earlier than was his wont. He 
 hastened into the dining-room, and 
 there, at the first table his eye alighted 
 on, sat Maria Burley Greene. She saw 
 him at once, for she faced the door, 
 and she greeted him with a brilliant 
 smile. With springing step he rushed 
 toward her, both hands extended in his 
 eagerness. She half rose to take them ; 
 their greeting silenced the early break- 
 fasters for an instant. Then he sat down 
 opposite her and leaned over with a 
 radiant face as near to her as might be, 
 considering the width of table-cloth and 
 the breakfast things between. 
 
 105 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 "And so you're here at last ! " he ex- 
 claimed. 
 
 His eyes quickly took in her toilet; 
 remarkably fresh it was, though it had 
 been made on the Springfield sleeper. 
 It gave none of those evidences of being 
 but the late flowering of a toilet that 
 had been made the night before, as do 
 the toilets of some ladies under similar 
 circumstances. She wore this morning 
 a suit of brown, tailored faultlessly to 
 every flat seam, and a little turban to 
 match it. Beside her plate lay her veil, 
 her gloves, and a brass tagged key. And 
 her face, clear and rosy in its rich beauty, 
 was good to look upon. The waiter 
 had just brought her strawberries. 
 
 "Send John to me," said Vernon to 
 the waiter. "I'll take my breakfast 
 here. May I?" He lifted his eyes 
 to Miss Greene's. 
 
 1 06 
 
Her Infinite Variety; 
 
 "Surely," said she, "we'll have much 
 to discuss." 
 
 "And so you're here again at last," 
 repeated Vernon, as if he had not al- 
 ready made the same observation. He 
 laid, this time, perhaps a little more 
 stress on the " at last." She must have 
 noted that fact, for she blushed, red as 
 the straw^berries she began to turn over 
 w^ith a critically poised fork. 
 
 "And did you come down alone.?" 
 Vernon went on. 
 
 "No, not exactly," said Miss Greene. 
 " Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop, and, I 
 believe, several — " 
 
 "Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop!" 
 
 "I think," said Miss Greene, "that 
 she sits somewhere behind." There was 
 a twinkle in the eyes she lifted for an 
 instant from her berries. 
 
 Vernoi scanned the dining-room. 
 
 107 
 
Her Infinite Variety; 
 
 There was Mrs. Overman Hodge- 
 Lathrop, in all her — and yes, beside 
 her, sheltered snugly under her all-pro- 
 tecting wing, was Amelia Ansley ! They 
 were at a long table, Mrs. Overman 
 Hodge-Lathrop at the head, and with 
 them half a dozen women, severe, and 
 most aggressively respectable. They 
 sat — all of them — erect, pecking at 
 their food with a distrust that was not 
 so much a material caution as a spiritual 
 evidence of their superiority to most of 
 the things with which they were thrust 
 in contact every day. Their hats 
 scarcely trembled, such was the im- 
 mense propriety of their attitudes ; they 
 did not bend at all, even to the cream. 
 Vernon, who was taking all this in 
 at a glance, saw that Mrs. Overman 
 Hodge-Lathrop was severer than he had 
 ever imagined it possible for women to 
 
 1 08 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 be — even such a woman as she. He 
 would not have been surprised had he 
 suddenly been told that her name had 
 acquired another hyphen; certainly her 
 dignity had been rehyphenated. There 
 she sat, with her broad shoulders and 
 ample bust, her arms jeopardizing the 
 sleeves of her jacket. 
 
 It was the most impressive breakfast 
 table he had ever seen. It might have 
 given him a vision of the future, when 
 he should have secured for women all 
 their civil and political rights, and the 
 nation had progressed to female lieu- 
 tenant-generals, who would be forced 
 at times to dine in public with their 
 staffs. But he had no such vision, of 
 course; the very spiritual aversion of 
 those women to such a thought would 
 have prevented it, occultly. 
 
 In point of fact, his regard in an in- 
 
 109 
 
Her Infinite Variety 
 
 stant had ceased to be general and had 
 become specific, having Amelia for its 
 objective. She sat on the right of her 
 commander, a rather timid aide; and 
 she seemed spiritually to snuggle more 
 closely under her protecting shadow 
 vv^ith each passing moment. She seemed 
 to be half frightened, and had the look 
 of a little girl who is about to cry. Her 
 gray figure, with its hat of violets above 
 her dark hair, was, on the instant, half 
 pathetic to Vernon. She sat facing 
 him, her face downcast. 
 
 There was no conversation at that 
 table; it was to be seen at a glance in- 
 deed that among those ladies there 
 would be need for none, all things hav- 
 ing been prearranged for them. Vernon 
 noted that Amelia seemed to him more 
 dainty, more fragile than she had ever 
 been before, and his heart surged out 
 
 no 
 
Her Infinite VarietY^ 
 
 toward her. Then she raised her eyes 
 slowly, and held him, until from their 
 depths she stabbed with one swift 
 glance, a glance full of all accusation, 
 indictment and reproach. The stab 
 went to his heart with a pain that made 
 him exclaim. Then perceiving that 
 the complicating moments were flying, 
 he rose hastily, and with half an apol- 
 ogy to Miss Greene, he rushed across 
 the dining-room. 
 
 Ill 
 
XI 
 
 NONE of the ladies relaxed at 
 Vernon's approach, Mrs. Over- 
 man Hodge-Lathrop least of 
 all. On the contrary she seemed to 
 swell into proportions that were co- 
 lossal and terrifying, and when Vernon 
 came within her sphere of influence 
 his manner at once subdued itself into 
 an apology. 
 
 "Why, Amelia — Mrs. Hodge-Lath- 
 rop!" he cried, "and Mrs. Standish, 
 Mrs, Barbourton, Mrs. Trales, Mrs. 
 Langdon — how do you do?" 
 
 He went, of course, straight to Mrs. 
 Overman Hodge-Lathrop's side, the side 
 
 III 
 
Her Infinite VarietY;' 
 
 that sheltered Amelia, and he tried to 
 take the hands of both women at once. 
 Amelia gave him hers coldly, without 
 a word and without a look. He grew 
 weak, inane, and laughed uneasily. 
 
 "Delightful morning," he said, "this 
 country air down here is — " 
 
 "Morley," said Mrs. Overman 
 Hodge - Lathrop, severely, "take that 
 seat at the foot of the table." 
 
 He obeyed, meekly. The ladies, he 
 thought, from the rustle of their skirts, 
 withdrew themselves subtly. The only 
 glances they vouchsafed him were side- 
 long and disapproving. He found it 
 impossible to speak, and so waited. He 
 could not recall having experienced 
 similar sensations since those menacing 
 occasions of boyhood when he had been 
 sent to the library to await his father's 
 coming. 
 
 113 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 " Delightful morning, indeed ! " Mrs. 
 Overman Hodge-Lathrop said, in her 
 most select tones. "Delightful morn- 
 ing to bring us poor old ladies down 
 into the country!" 
 
 "I bring you down!" ejaculated 
 Vernon. 
 
 "Morley," she said, "I don't wish 
 to have one word from you, not one; 
 do you understand? Your talent for 
 speech has caused trouble enough as it 
 is. Lucky we shall be if we can undo 
 thehalf of it!" 
 
 Vernon shrank. 
 
 "Morley Vernon," Mrs. Overman 
 Hodge-Lathrop continued, "do you 
 know what I have a notion to do?" 
 
 " No, Mrs. Hodge-Lathrop," he said 
 in a very little voice. 
 
 " Well, sir, I've a notion to give you 
 a good spanking." 
 
 114 
 
Her Infinite Variety; 
 
 Vernon shot a glance at her. 
 
 " Oh, you needn't look, sir," she con- 
 tinued, "you needn't look! It wouldn't 
 be the first time, as you well know — 
 and it isn't so many years ago — and I 
 have your mother's full permission, too." 
 
 The chain of ladylike sympathy that 
 passed about the table at this declara- 
 tion was broken only when its ends 
 converged on Vernon. Even then they 
 seemed to pinch him. 
 
 "Your poor, dear mother," Mrs. 
 Overman Hodge -Lathrop went on, 
 "insisted, indeed, on coming down her- 
 self, but I knew she could never stand 
 such a trip. I told her," and here Mrs. 
 Overman Hodge-Lathrop paused for an 
 instant, "I told her that I thought / 
 could manage." 
 
 There was a vast significance in this 
 speech. 
 
 115 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 The waiter had brought the substan- 
 tial to the ladies, and Mrs. Overman 
 Hodge - Lathrop began eating deter- 
 minedly. 
 
 " It was, of course, just what I had 
 always predicted," she went on, in a 
 staccato that was timed by the rise of 
 her fork to her lips, " I knew that pol- 
 itics would inevitably corrupt you, soon 
 or late. And now it has brought you 
 to this." 
 
 "To what?" asked Vernon, suddenly 
 growing bold and reckless. Amelia had 
 not given him one glance; she was 
 picking at her chop. 
 
 Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop, rais- 
 ing her gold glasses and setting them 
 aristocratically on the bridge of her 
 nose, fixed her eyes on Vernon. 
 
 " Morley," she said, " we know. We 
 have heard and we have read. The 
 
 ii6 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 Chicago press is an institution that, for- 
 tunately, still survives in these icono- 
 clastic days. You know very well, of 
 course, what I mean. Please do not 
 compel me to go into the revolting 
 particulars." She took her glasses down 
 from her nose, as if that officially termi- 
 nated the matter. 
 
 "But really, Mrs. Hodge-Lathrop," 
 said Vernon. He was growing angry, 
 and then, too, he was conscious some- 
 how that Miss Greene was looking at 
 him. His waiter, John, timidly ap- 
 proached with a glance at the awful 
 presence of Mrs. Overman Hodge- 
 Lathrop, and said: 
 
 "Yo' breakfus, Senato', is gettin* 
 col'." 
 
 "That may wait," said Mrs. Over- 
 man Hodge-Lathrop, and John sprang 
 back out of range. 
 
 117 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 Vernon was determined, then, to have 
 it out. 
 
 "Really, Mrs. Hodge-Lathrop, jest- 
 ing aside — " 
 
 "Jesting!" cried Mrs. Overman 
 Hodge-Lathrop, "jesting! Indeed, my 
 boy, this is quite a serious business ! " 
 She tapped with her forefinger. 
 
 "Well, then, all right," said Vernon, 
 "I don't know what I've done. All I 
 have done has been to champion a 
 measure — and I may add, without 
 boasting, I hope, with some success — 
 all I have done has been to champion 
 a measure which was to benefit your 
 sex, to secure your rights, to — " 
 
 " Morley ! " Mrs. Overman Hodge- 
 Lathrop said, cutting him short. "Mor- 
 ley, have you indeed fallen so low.? It 
 is incomprehensible to me, that a young 
 man who had the mother you have, 
 
 ii8 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 who had the advantages you have had, 
 who was born and bred as you were, 
 should so easily have lost his respect for 
 women ! " 
 
 " Lost my respect for women ! " cried 
 Vernon, and then he laughed. "Now, 
 Mrs. Hodge-Lathrop," he went on with 
 a shade of irritation in his tone, "this 
 is too much!" 
 
 Mrs, Overman Hodge-Lathrop was 
 calm. 
 
 "Have you shown her any respect?" 
 she went on. "Have you not, on the 
 contrary, said and done everything you 
 could, to drag her down from her ex- 
 alted station, to pull her to the earth, 
 to bring her to a level with men, to 
 make her soil herself with politics, by 
 scheming and voting and caucusing and 
 buttonholing and wire-pulling? You 
 would have her degrade and unsex her- 
 
 119 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 self by going to the polls, to caucuses 
 and conventions; you would have her, 
 no doubt, in time, lobbying for and 
 against measures in the council cham- 
 ber and the legislature." 
 
 Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop 
 paused and lifted her gold eye-glasses 
 once more to the bridge of her high, 
 aristocratic nose. 
 
 "Is it that kind of vsromen you 
 have been brought up with, Morley? 
 Do we look like that sort? Glance 
 around this table — do we look like 
 that sort of women?" 
 
 The ladies stiffened haughtily, dis- 
 dainfully, under the impending inspec- 
 tion, knowing full well how easily they 
 would pass muster. 
 
 "And, if that were not enough," 
 Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop went on 
 inexorably, "we come here to plead 
 
 1 20 
 
Her Infinite VarietY; 
 
 with you and find you hobnobbing with 
 that mannish thing, thaX female lawyer! " 
 
 She spoke the word female as if it 
 conveyed some distinct idea of re- 
 proach. She was probing another chop 
 with her fork. She had sent the pot 
 of coffee back to the kitchen, ordering 
 the waiter to tell the cook that she was 
 accustomed to drink her coffee hot. 
 
 " And now, Morley Vernon, listen to 
 me," she said, as if he were about to 
 hear the conclusion of the whole mat- 
 ter. "If you have any spark of honor 
 left in you, you will undo what you 
 have already done. This resolution 
 must be defeated in the Senate to-day; 
 I am down here to see that it is done. 
 We go to the State House after break- 
 fast, and these ladies will assist me in 
 laying before each member of the 
 Senate this matter in its true and exact 
 
 121 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 light. As for our rights," she paused 
 and looked at him fixedly, "as for our 
 rights, I think we are perfectly capable 
 of preserving them." 
 
 Her look put that question beyond 
 all dispute. 
 
 "And now," she resumed, "you 
 would better take a little breakfast 
 yourself; you look as if you needed 
 strength." 
 
 Vernon rose. He stood for an instant 
 looking at Amelia, but she glanced at 
 him only casually. 
 
 "I suppose, Amelia, I shall see you 
 later in the morning?" 
 
 " I suppose so, Mr. Vernon," she said. 
 " But pray do not let me keep you from 
 rejoining your companion." She was 
 quite airy, and lifted her coffee-cup with 
 one little finger quirked up higher than 
 he had ever seen it before. 
 
 122 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 He went back to where Miss Greene 
 sat, and where his breakfast lay. 
 
 "My goodness!" he said, seating 
 himself. "I've had a time!" 
 
 "I should imagine so," said Miss 
 Greene. 
 
 She was just touching her napkin to 
 her lips with a final air. She carefully 
 pushed back her chair, and rose from 
 the table. 
 
 " I beg your pardon," he stammered, 
 getting up himself, "I'll see you after 
 breakfast." 
 
 Miss Greene bowed. Then she left 
 the dining-room. 
 
 123 
 
XII 
 
 MORLEY VERNON came out 
 of the dining-room in a tem- 
 per far different from that he 
 had worn when he went in. His break- 
 fast, after so many vicissitudes, was sure 
 to be a failure, though John, striving 
 against fate, had tried to restore the 
 repast to its original excellence by re- 
 placing each dish with a fresh one. He 
 affected a heroic cheerfulness, too, but 
 the cheer was hollow, for his experi- 
 ence of men and of breakfasts must 
 have taught him that such disasters can 
 never be repaired. 
 
 124 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 Vernon, however, had heavier things 
 on his mind. In his new position as 
 knight-errant of Illinois womankind, 
 he had looked forward to this day as the 
 one of triumph ; now, at its beginning, 
 he found himself with two offended 
 women on his hands, and two hopelessly 
 irreconcilable mistresses to serve. He 
 began to see that the lot of a construct- 
 ive statesman is trying ; he would never 
 criticize leaders again. 
 
 The lobby of the hotel was filling 
 rapidly, and men with their hair still 
 damp from the morning combing were 
 passing into the breakfast room with 
 newspapers in their hands. In the 
 center of the lobby, however, he saw 
 a group of senators, and out of the 
 middle of the group rose a dark bonnet; 
 the flowers on the bonnet bobbed now 
 and then decisively. Around it were 
 
 125 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 clustered other bonnets, but they were 
 motionless, and, as it were, subordinate. 
 
 "Can you tell me who that is?" 
 asked Brooks of Alexander, jerking his 
 thumb at the group. 
 
 "Yes," said Vernon, "that's General 
 Hodge-Lathrop. She's on her way to 
 the front to assume command." 
 
 " Oh ! " said Brooks. " I saw some- 
 thing in the papers — " And he went 
 away, reading as he walked. 
 
 Vernon looked everywhere for Miss 
 Greene, but he could not find her. The 
 porter at the Capitol Avenue entrance 
 told him that she had driven over to 
 the State House a few minutes before. 
 Vernon was seized by an impulse to 
 follow, but he remembered Amelia. 
 He could not let matters go on thus 
 between them. If only Mrs. Overman 
 Hodge-Lathrop were not in command ; 
 
 126 
 
Her Infinite Variety 
 
 if he could get Amelia away from her 
 for a while, if he could see her alone, 
 he felt that explanations would be pos- 
 sible. 
 
 He looked at his watch ; it was half- 
 past nine; the Senate would convene 
 at ten; the resolution would not be 
 reached before half-past ten at any 
 rate; and so he determined to brave 
 Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop again. 
 He turned back into the lobby; there 
 she was, hobnobbing with men; she 
 did not pass from group to group, after 
 the manner of any other lobbyist, but 
 by some coercion he wished he might 
 be master of, she drew them unerringly 
 to her side. Now she had Braidwood, 
 the leader of the House, and chairman 
 of the steering committee, and Porter, 
 the leader of the Senate. She appeared 
 to be giving them instructions. 
 
 127 
 
Her Infinite Variety 
 
 She had set her committee on less 
 important game; the ladies were scat- 
 tered over the rotunda, each talking to 
 a little set of men. When Mrs. Overman 
 Hodge- Lathrop saw Vernon coming, 
 she turned from Braidwood and Porter 
 and stood awaiting him. Strangely 
 enough Braidwood and Porter stayed 
 where they were, as if she had put 
 them there. And Vernon reflected that 
 he had never known them, as doubtless 
 no one else had ever known them, to 
 do such a thing as that before, 
 
 "Where's Amelia?" he asked before 
 she could speak. 
 
 "I have sent her upstairs," said 
 Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop, "poor 
 child!" 
 
 Vernon wondered why "poor child." 
 
 "It's really too bad," Mrs. Overman 
 Hodge-Lathrop continued. 
 
 128 
 
Her Infinite VarietY; 
 
 "What is too bad?" demanded Ver- 
 non. He had grown sulky. 
 
 Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop 
 looked at him pityingly. 
 
 "Morley," she said in a vast solemn 
 tone that came slowly up from her 
 great stays, " I can make allowances, of 
 course. I know something of the 
 nature of man; I will admit that that 
 Greene woman is remarkably hand- 
 some, and of her cleverness there can 
 be no doubt. I don't altogether blame 
 you." 
 
 She paused that Vernon might com- 
 prehend to the fullest her marvelous 
 magnanimity. 
 
 "But at the same time it has been 
 hard on poor little Amelia. I saw no 
 other way than to bring her down. 
 You must go to her at once." 
 
 She turned toward Braidwood and 
 
 129 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 Porter, still standing where she had 
 left them. 
 
 "When you have done, I'll see you 
 with reference to this miserable resolu- 
 tion; but that can wait till we are at 
 the Capitol. This other matter comes 
 first, of course." 
 
 She smiled with a fat sweetness. 
 
 "And Morley," she said, "order two 
 carriages for us at ten o'clock. You 
 may drive to the Capitol with us." 
 
 And she went away. 
 
 Vernon ordered the carriages, and in 
 turning the whole matter over in his 
 mind he came to the conclusion that 
 he must deal with these complications 
 one at a time; Miss Greene, as events 
 now had shaped themselves, would have 
 to wait until he got over to the State 
 House. 
 
 130 
 
XIII 
 
 VERNON found Amelia in one 
 of the hotel parlors, seated on 
 a sofa by a window. She was 
 resting her chin in her hand and look- 
 ing down into Capitol Avenue. 
 
 "Amelia," he said, bending over her. 
 "What is it? tell me." 
 
 He sat down beside her, and sought 
 to engage one of her hands in his own, 
 but she withdrew it, and pressed it with 
 the other and the handkerchief in both, 
 to her lips and chin. Vernon glanced 
 about the respectable parlors, maintained 
 in instant readiness for anybody that 
 might happen along with his little com- 
 
 131 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 edy or his little tragedy. She continued 
 to look obdurately out of the window. 
 
 "Amelia," he said, "aren't you going 
 to speak to me? Tell me what I have 
 done." 
 
 Still there came no answer. He flung 
 himself back on the sofa helplessly. 
 
 " Well," he said, " I don't know what 
 it all means. I've tried to fathom it in 
 the last hour, but it's too deep for me; 
 I give it up." He flung out his hands 
 to illustrate his abandonment. 
 
 " God knows," he suddenly exclaimed, 
 "I was only trying to do something 
 worthy — for your sake!" 
 
 " Please don't swear, Morley," Ame- 
 lia said. 
 
 He looked up swiftly. 
 
 "Well — " he began explosively, but 
 he didn't continue. He relapsed into 
 a moody silence. He stretched his legs 
 
 132 
 
Her Infinite VarietY; 
 
 out before him in an ungainly attitude, 
 with his hands plunged deep in his 
 trousers' pockets. Then he knitted his 
 brows and tried to think. 
 
 " I suppose," he said, as if he were 
 thinking aloud, "that you expect some 
 explanation, some apology." 
 
 "Oh, not at all," she said lightly, 
 in the most musical tone she could 
 command. 
 
 "Very well," he said, "I wouldn't 
 know where to begin if you did. I'm 
 sure I'm not aware of having — " 
 
 She began to hum softly, to herself, 
 as it were, some tuneless air. He re- 
 membered that it was a way she had 
 when she was angry. It was intended 
 to show the last and utmost personal 
 unconcern. In such circumstances the 
 tune was apt to be an improvisation 
 and was never melodious. Sometimes 
 
 ^33 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 it made her easier to deal with, some- 
 times harder; he could never tell. 
 
 "I don't exactly see what we are 
 here for," he ventured, stealing a look 
 at her. She had no reply. He fidgeted 
 a moment and then began drumming 
 with his fingers on the arm of the sofa. 
 
 "Please don't do that," she said. 
 
 He stopped suddenly. 
 
 " If you would be good enough, kind 
 enough," he said it sarcastically, " to in- 
 dicate, to suggest even, what I am to 
 do — to say." 
 
 "I'm sure I can't," she said. "You 
 came. I presumed you had something 
 to say to me." 
 
 "Well, I have something to say to 
 you," Vernon went on impetuously. 
 "Why didn't you answer my letters? 
 Why have you treated me this way? 
 That's what I want to know." 
 
 134 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 He leaned toward her. He was 
 conscious of two emotions, two passions, 
 struggling within him, one of anger, 
 almost hate, the other of love, and 
 strangely enough they had a striking 
 similarity in their effect upon him. He 
 felt like reproaching, yet he knew that 
 was not the way, and he made a des- 
 perate struggle to conquer himself. 
 
 He tried to look into her face, but 
 she only turned farther away from him. 
 
 " I've spent the most miserable week 
 I ever knew, doomed to stay here, un- 
 able to get away to go to you, and with 
 this fight on my hands!" 
 
 "You seemed to be having a fairly 
 good time," the girl said. 
 
 " Now, Amelia, look here," said Ver- 
 non, "let's not act like children any 
 longer; let's not have anything so fool- 
 ish and little between us." 
 
 135 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 His tone made his words a plea, but 
 it plainly had no effect upon her, for 
 she did not answer. They sat there, 
 then, in silence. 
 
 "Why didn't you write?" Vernon 
 demanded after a little while. He 
 looked at her, and she straightened up 
 and her eyes flashed. 
 
 "Why didn't I write!" she exclaimed. 
 " What was I to write, pray .? Were not 
 your letters full of this odious Maria 
 Burlaps Greene? And as if that were 
 not enough, weren't the papers full of 
 you two? And that speech — oh, that 
 speech — that Portia and Helen, and ' I 
 fill this cup to one made up,' ah, it was 
 sickening!" She flirted away again. 
 
 "But, darling," Vernon cried, "listen 
 — ^you misunderstood — I meant all that 
 for you, didn't you understand?" 
 
 She stirred. 
 
 136 
 
Her Infinite VarietY; 
 
 "Didn't you see? Why, dearest, I 
 thought that when you read the papers 
 you'd be the proudest girl alive!" 
 
 Her lip curled. 
 
 "I read the papers," she said, and 
 then added, significantly, "this once, 
 anyway." 
 
 " Well, you certainly don't intend to 
 hold me responsible for what the papers 
 say, do you?" 
 
 She resumed her old attitude, her 
 elbow on the arm of the sofa, her chin 
 in her hand, and looked out the win- 
 dow. And she began to hum again. 
 
 "And then," he pressed on, "to 
 come down here and not even let me 
 know; why you even called me Mister 
 Vernon when I came into the dining- 
 room." 
 
 " Yes," she exclaimed, suddenly 
 wheeling about, " I saw you come into 
 
 137 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 the dining-room this morning ! " Her 
 eyes grew dark and flashed. 
 
 He regretted, on the instant. 
 
 " I saw you ! " she went on. " I saw 
 you rush up to that Maria Burlaps 
 Greene woman, and — oh, it was hor- 
 rid!" 
 
 " Her name isn't Burlaps, dear," said 
 Vernon. 
 
 "How do you know her name, I'd 
 like to know ! " She put her hands to 
 her face. He saw her tears. 
 
 "Amelia," he said masterfully, "if 
 you don't stop that! Listen — we've 
 got to get down to business." 
 
 She hastily brushed the tears from 
 her eyes. She was humming once more, 
 and tapping the toe of her boot on the 
 carpet, though she was not tapping it 
 in time to her tune. 
 
 "Why did you come down without 
 
 138 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 letting me know?" Vernon went on; 
 but still she was silent. 
 
 "You might at least have given 
 me—" 
 
 "Warning?" she said, with a keen 
 inflection. 
 
 "Amelia ! " he said, and his tone car- 
 ried a rebuke. 
 
 "Well, I don't care!" she cried. 
 "It's all true! You couldn't stay for 
 my dinner, but you could come off 
 down here and — " 
 
 She covered her face with her hands 
 and burst suddenly into tears. Vernon 
 gazed at her in astonishment. 
 
 "Why, dearest!" he said, leaning 
 over, and trying to take her in his arms. 
 She drew away from him, and sobbed. 
 Vernon glanced about the room help- 
 lessly. He pleaded with her, but she 
 would not listen; neither would she 
 
 139 
 
Her Infinite Variety 
 
 be comforted, but continued to sob. 
 Vernon, in a man's anguish with a 
 weeping woman, stood up. 
 
 "Amelia! Amelia!" He bent over 
 her and spoke firmly. "You must not! 
 Listen to me ! We must go over to — " 
 
 Suddenly he stood erect, and jerked 
 out his watch. 
 
 "Heavens!" he cried. "It's half- 
 past ten!" 
 
 She tried to control herself then, and 
 sitting up, began to wipe her eyes. 
 
 "Sweetheart," he said, "I must go 
 now. I should have been in the Senate 
 at ten o'clock ; I hate to leave you, but 
 I'll explain everything when I get 
 back." 
 
 He waited an instant, then he went 
 on: 
 
 "Aren't you going to say 'Good 
 by'?" 
 
 140 
 
Her Infinite Variety 
 
 Amelia got up. 
 
 "I'll go, too," she said. She was 
 still catching little sobs in her throat, 
 now and then. Vernon looked at her 
 in some surprise. 
 
 "Why — " he began, incredulously. 
 
 She must have divined his surprise. 
 
 "I have to help Mrs. Hodge- Lath- 
 rop," she said, as if in explanation. 
 "But, of course, I hate to bother you." 
 
 ** Oh, nonsense, dearest," he said, im- 
 patiently. "Come on. Let's start." 
 
 "But I can't go looking this way," 
 she said. She walked across the room, 
 and standing before a mirror, wiped her 
 eyes carefully, then arranged her hat 
 and her veil. 
 
 "Would anybody know?" she asked, 
 facing about for his inspection. 
 
 "Never — come on." 
 
 They went out, and down the eleva- 
 
 141 
 
Her Infinite Variety:' 
 
 tor. When they reached the entrance, 
 Vernon looked up and down the street, 
 but there was no carriage in sight. The 
 street was quiet and the hotel wore an 
 air of desertion, telling that all the po- 
 litical activity of Illinois had been trans- 
 ferred to the State House. Vernon 
 looked around the corner, but the old 
 hack that always stood there was not 
 at its post. 
 
 "We'll have to walk," he said. "It'll 
 take too long for them to get a carriage 
 around for us. It's only a few blocks, 
 anyway. The air will do you good." 
 
 As they set forth in the bright morn- 
 ing sun they were calmer, and, having 
 come out into public view, for the time 
 being they dropped their differences 
 and their misunderstandings, and began 
 to talk in their common, ordinary 
 fashion. 
 
 14a 
 
Her Infinite Variety; 
 
 Did Mrs. Hodge-Lathrop ask you 
 to change me on the Ames Amend- 
 ment?" Vernon asked her. 
 
 "The what?" 
 
 "The Ames Amendment; that's the 
 woman-sufFrage measure." 
 
 "No, do her justice; she didn't." 
 
 "What then?" 
 
 "She said she wanted me to work 
 against it, that's all." 
 
 " Didn't she say anything about ask- 
 ing me not to vote for it?" 
 
 "Well, yes; but I told her — " 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "That I wouldn't try to influence 
 you in the least." 
 
 Vernon made no reply. 
 
 "No," she went on, "I'm to work 
 against it, of course." 
 
 They were silent then, till suddenly 
 she appealed to him: 
 
 H3 
 
Her Infinite Variety' 
 
 " Oh, Morley, I've got to ask strange 
 men, men I never met, to vote against 
 it ! How am I ever ! " 
 
 She shuddered. 
 
 "It's all very strange," Vernon said. 
 
 144 
 
XIV 
 
 THEY walked briskly down the 
 sloping street under the rail- 
 road bridge and then up the 
 little hill whereon sits the Capitol of 
 Illinois. They could see the big flag 
 high up on the dome standing out in 
 the prairie wind, and the little flags on 
 the House wing and the Senate wing 
 whipping joyously, sprightly symbols 
 of the sitting of both houses. 
 
 Now and then they heard cheers 
 from the House wing, where the legis- 
 lative riot that ends a session was already 
 beginning. They passed into the dark 
 and cool corridors of the State House, 
 
 145 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 then up to the third floor, where mem- 
 bers and messenger-boys, correspondents 
 and page-boys, rushed always across 
 from one house to the other, swinging 
 hurriedly around the brass railing of 
 the rotunda. It seemed that the tide of 
 legislative life was just then setting in 
 toward the Senate. 
 
 "Oh, Morley," whispered Amelia, 
 forgetting his offense, and clinging close 
 to him, "I can't go in there, really I 
 can't." 
 
 "Nonsense," said Vernon, "come on. 
 I'll deliver you to Mrs. Hodge-Lathrop 
 in a minute; then you'll be perfectly 
 safe. Besides, you have your lobbying 
 to do." 
 
 They reached the Senate entrance, 
 and the doorkeeper, seeing a senator, 
 opened a way through the crowd for 
 their passage. There was confusion 
 
 146 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 everywhere, the nervous and excited 
 hum of voices from the floor, from the 
 vestibule, from the galleries, from all 
 around. And just as they stepped up to 
 the raised floor whereon the desks of 
 senators are placed, the gavel fell, and 
 stillness with it. They saw the lieu- 
 tenant-governor leaning over his desk, 
 studying a slip of paper he held in his 
 hand. 
 
 "On this question," he said, "the 
 yeas are thirty and the nays are seven- 
 teen; and two-thirds of the members- 
 elect having failed to vote in the affirm- 
 ative, the resolution is lost." 
 
 Vernon stood transfixed. The whole 
 thing was borne in upon him; he saw 
 Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop, and the 
 expression of calm and lofty satisfaction 
 that had settled on her face told him 
 that it was the Ames Amendment that 
 
 147 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 had been lost. But some new thought 
 seemed to strike her, for when Senator 
 Porter looked around with something 
 like a smile of congratulation, she beck- 
 oned him, and he hastened to her side. 
 
 "Move to reconsider and to lay on 
 the table," she said, and with a look 
 of admiration he turned and made the 
 motion. It was put, it was carried of 
 course, and the amendment was lost 
 irrevocably. 
 
 "Well, that's attended to," said Mrs. 
 Overman Hodge-Lathrop. "Ah, Mor- 
 ley," she said calmly, "you here? And 
 Amelia?" 
 
 "She's here," he said, "and I — I 
 didn't get here on time ! " The shame 
 and mortification on his face were 
 pitiable, though they could not have 
 touched Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lath- 
 rop's heart. 
 
 148 
 
Her Infinite VarietY; 
 
 "And I didn't get here on time," he 
 repeated ruefully. 
 
 "Why, my dear boy," said Mrs. 
 Overman Hodge-Lathrop, "I didn't 
 intend that you should." 
 
 He looked at her fiercely, angrily, a 
 second. 
 
 "So that was the game, was it?" he 
 said. He whirled, with another fierce 
 look, on Amelia. 
 
 "That was the game, yes, Morley," 
 said Mrs. Overman - Hodge Lathrop, 
 "but you needn't look at Amelia so — 
 she was utterly innocent, the dear little 
 thing." 
 
 Amelia came up. She had seen Ver- 
 non's expression. 
 
 "What is it — what has happened?" 
 she inquired. 
 
 "Well, I got here too late, that's 
 all," said Vernon. "I was detained, 
 
 149 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 and Mrs. Hodge-Lathrop has just now 
 kindly told me that she had arranged 
 that I should be. I'm ruined, that's all; 
 I'm lost." 
 
 "No, Morley," said Mrs. Hodge- 
 Lathrop, "you're saved. You're saved 
 from yourself." She still smiled at him 
 sweetly. "You might have made, don't 
 you know, another one of your speeches." 
 
 Vernon bit his lip and walked away. 
 He encountered Martin, but could only 
 look at him helplessly. Martin re- 
 turned his look with one of surprise. 
 
 "You here?" he said. 
 
 "Well, yes," replied Vernon. "At 
 last — too late, it seems." 
 
 The surprise had not left Martin's 
 face; to it was now added a perplexity. 
 
 " If we'd known," said Martin; "but 
 we thought, that is, we heard, that you 
 had ducked." 
 
 150 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 Vernon shook his head as with a pain 
 that would not let him speak. He was 
 looking disconsolately across the cham- 
 ber to where Miss Greene stood talking 
 with Bull Burns. As in a dream, he 
 heard Mrs. Overman Hodge -Lathrop 
 exclaim : 
 
 " Ah, there is that Greene woman ! " 
 
 Mrs. Overman Hodge- Lathrop was 
 lifting her gold glasses again. Vernon 
 was wondering how he was to face the 
 Greene woman. But at Mrs. Overman 
 Hodge-Lathrop's words an idea came 
 to him. 
 
 "I'll go bring her and introduce 
 her," he said. He bolted away and 
 went toward her. She was cold and 
 distant. Fortunately, Burns fled at his 
 approach. 
 
 "Can you forgive me?" he said. 
 "I'll explain it all in an instant." 
 
 151 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 "And how?" she asked with a chill 
 rise in her tone. 
 
 " Have you ever met Mrs. Overman 
 Hodge-Lathrop?" he asked significantly. 
 
 "No," she answered. 
 
 "Then permit me," he said. She 
 went with him. Mrs. Overman Hodge- 
 Lathrop had withdrawn her delegation 
 to the rear of the chamber, and there 
 awaited Vernon's return. 
 
 "Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop, 
 permit me to present Miss Greene; 
 Miss Ansley, Miss Greene." And so on, 
 in the order of relative rank, he intro- 
 duced her to the other ladies. 
 
 Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop ex- 
 tended her hand officially. Miss Greene 
 took it with a smile. 
 
 "I am very glad," she said, "to meet 
 Mrs. — Mrs. — ah, pardon me, but what 
 was the name?" 
 
 152 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 "Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop," 
 Vernon said. 
 
 "Ah, Mrs. Lathrop." 
 
 Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop 
 seemed, to the eye, to swell. 
 
 "You have a charming little city 
 here, Mrs. Lathrop. We poor Chi- 
 cagoans love to get down into the 
 country once in a while, you know." 
 
 Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop 
 reared back a little. 
 
 "No doubt," she stammered. "I 
 have always found it so." 
 
 Miss Greene feigned surprise, and 
 affected a look of perplexity. Vernon 
 withdrew a step, and with his chin in 
 his hand looked on out of eyes that 
 gloated. The other women in the 
 party exchanged glances of horror and 
 wrath. Mrs. Barbourton, for her part, 
 seemed unable to endure it. 
 
 ^53 
 
Her infinite VarietY 
 
 "Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop lives 
 in Chicago," she interjected. 
 
 "Oh!" cried Miss Greene. "Is it 
 possible? How very strange that one 
 could live in the city all one's life and 
 yet not have heard!" 
 
 "Not so very strange, I fancy," said 
 Mrs. Overman Hodge-Lathrop. "One's 
 circle is apt to be so far removed." 
 
 "Yes?" said Miss Greene, with that 
 rising inflection. "Then you can not 
 have lived in Chicago long?" 
 
 "All my life," snapped Mrs. Over- 
 man Hodge-Lathrop. 
 
 "So long as that! " said Miss Greene 
 with eyes that stared incredibility. Mrs. 
 Overman Hodge-Lathrop actually col- 
 ored. 
 
 "You are enjoying your visit to 
 Springfield, I trust? You have seen the 
 Lincoln Monument and the Home- 
 
 154 
 
I' ilmm t'im'.iy |'i 
 
Her Infinite Variety 
 
 stead? How very interesting they must 
 be! And the Legislature offers novelty; 
 don't you find it so?" She gathered 
 her skirts as if to withdraw. But Mrs. 
 Overman Hodge - Lathrop achieved a 
 smile. 
 
 "We have not enjoyed the pleasures of 
 sight-seeing. On the contrary, we came 
 to appear before the Senate," she said. 
 
 Miss Greene surveyed her critically, 
 with that look in which one woman 
 inspects another woman's attire. She 
 then extended her critical scrutiny to 
 the dress of the others. 
 
 "To be sure!" she said. **I should 
 have known." 
 
 The ladies again exchanged glances. 
 Mrs. Barbourton plainly could not bear 
 that their position should be equivocal. 
 She doubtless had her little vainglorious 
 wish to have their success known. 
 
 155 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 "Mrs. Overman Hodge -Lathrop 
 came down to appear in opposition to 
 the woman's- rights resolution!" She 
 emphasized the word woman as if she 
 would not for worlds have been a 
 woman herself. 
 
 "Indeed!" exclaimed Miss Greene. 
 "I am sure her appearance must have 
 been a very convincing argument." 
 She gave her opponent another search- 
 ing glance. Mrs. Overman Hodge- 
 Lathrop was having difficulty in getting 
 her breath. 
 
 "We have been having a taste of 
 lobbying. Miss Greene," she began, 
 "and—" 
 
 " How unpleasant ! " said she. 
 
 "You know, possibly," said Mrs. 
 Overman Hodge -Lathrop, regaining 
 something of her position. 
 
 "Indeed I do," Miss Greene assented 
 156 
 
Her Infinite VarietY; 
 
 sweetly, " but where it is in the line of 
 one's profession, duty obscures the un- 
 pleasantness. One can not, you know, 
 always choose one's occupation. Good 
 morning ! " 
 
 And catching her skirts, with a smile 
 and a bow she left. 
 
 The successful lobbyists stood in si- 
 lence a moment, looked one to another 
 with wide and staring eyes. Then at 
 last Mrs. Overman Hodge- Lathrop 
 spoke. 
 
 " Morley," she said, " I do wish you 
 could learn to discriminate in your in- 
 troductions." 
 
 157 
 
XV 
 
 JUST before dinner Amelia and 
 Vernon sat in the little waiting 
 room of the hotel. Mrs. Over- 
 man Hodge-Lathrop and her ladies had 
 gone up to the suite they had taken 
 and were engaged in repairing the toi- 
 lets their political labors of the morn- 
 ing had somewhat damaged. Amelia 
 had completed her toilet more quickly 
 than they and had joined Vernon, wait- 
 ing for her below. 
 
 They sat in the dim little room 
 where Amelia could look across the 
 corridor to the elevator, expecting 
 every moment the coming of Mrs. 
 
 158 
 
Her Infinite Variety' 
 
 Overman Hodge-Lathrop. Now that 
 they found themselves alone and face 
 to face with the necessity of reconcili- 
 ation, a constraint had fallen on them. 
 Amelia constantly kept her eye on the 
 elevator. Men were passing and re- 
 passing the open door, going to or com- 
 ing from the bar-room, and their loud 
 talk and laughter beat in waves into 
 the dim little retreat of the lovers. 
 
 As Vernon sat there he imagined 
 that all that talk was of him ; more 
 than all, that all that laughter was at 
 him — though there was no more of 
 either than there was every day when 
 the legislators came over to the hotel 
 for their big noon dinners. At last 
 Amelia turned to him. 
 
 "You've got the blues, haven't you?" 
 she said. It would seem that somehow he 
 did her an injustice by having the blues. 
 
 159 
 
Her Infinite Variety; 
 
 "No," he answered. 
 
 "Then what's the matter?" she de- 
 manded. 
 
 Vernon glanced at her, and his glance 
 carried its own reproach. 
 
 "Oh!" she said, as if suddenly re- 
 calling a trivial incident. " Still worry- 
 ing about that?" 
 
 "Well," Vernon answered, "it has 
 some seriousness for me." 
 
 Amelia, sitting properly erect, her 
 hands folded in her lap, twisted about 
 and faced him. 
 
 " You don't mean, Morley, that you 
 are sorry it didn't pass, do you?" 
 
 "It puts me in rather an awkward 
 position," he said. "I suppose you know 
 that." 
 
 "I don't see how," Amelia replied. 
 
 "Well," Vernon explained, " to stand 
 for a measure of that importance, and 
 
 1 60 
 
Her Infinite VarietY; 
 
 then at the final, critical moment, to 
 fail — " 
 
 " Oh, I see ! " said Amelia, moving 
 away from him on the couch. "Of 
 course, if you regret the time, if you'd 
 rather have been over in the Senate 
 than to have been w^ith me — why, of 
 course!" She gave a little deprecating 
 laugh. 
 
 Vernon leaned impulsively toward 
 her. 
 
 "But, dear," he said, "you don't un- 
 derstand ! " 
 
 "And after your begging me to come 
 down to Springfield to see you!" 
 Amelia said. Her eyes were fixed on 
 the elevator, and just at that moment 
 the car came rushing down the shaft 
 and swished itself to a stop just when, 
 it seemed, it should have shattered 
 itself to pieces at the bottom. The ele- 
 
 i6i 
 
Her Infinite VarietY 
 
 vator boy clanged the iron door back, 
 and Maria Greene stepped out. 
 
 "There she is now!" said Amelia, 
 raising her head to see. Miss Greene 
 paused a moment to reply to the greet- 
 ing of some one of the politicians who 
 stopped to speak to her. 
 
 Amelia's nose was elevated. 
 
 "And so that's the wonderful hair 
 you all admire so much, is it?" she said. 
 
 "Well," replied Vernon, almost de- 
 fiantly, "don't you think it is rather 
 exceptional hair?" 
 
 Amelia turned on him with a look 
 of superior and pitying penetration. 
 
 "Does that shade deceive you?" she 
 asked. She smiled disconcertingly, as 
 she looked away again at Maria Greene. 
 The woman lawyer was just leaving the 
 politicians. 
 
 "And to think of wearing that hat 
 
 162 
 
Her Infinite VarietY; 
 
 with that hair!" Amelia went on 
 Though of course," she added with 
 deep meaning, "it may originally have 
 been the right shade; the poor hat can't 
 be expected to change its color." 
 
 Vernon had no answer for her. 
 
 "I wonder what explanation she'll 
 have for her defeat," said Amelia in a 
 tone that could not conceal its spirit 
 of triumph. 
 
 "I'm not worried about that," said 
 Vernon. "I'm more concerned about 
 the explanation I'll have." 
 
 "Dearest!" exclaimed Amelia, swiftly 
 laying her hand on his. Her tone had 
 changed, and as she leaned toward him 
 with the new tenderness that her new 
 manner exhaled, Vernon felt a change 
 within himself, and his heart swelled. 
 
 "Dearest," she said, in a voice that 
 hesitated before the idea of some nec- 
 163 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 essary reparation, "are you really so 
 badly disappointed?" 
 
 He looked at her, then suddenly he 
 drew her into his arms, and she let her 
 head rest for an instant on his shoulder; 
 but only for an instant. Then she ex- 
 claimed and was erect and all propriety. 
 
 "You forget where we are, dear," 
 she said. 
 
 " I don't care about that," he replied, 
 and then glancing swiftly about in all 
 directions, he kissed her. 
 
 " Morley ! " she cried, and her cheeks 
 went red, a new and happy red. 
 
 They sat there, looking at each other, 
 
 "You didn't consider, you didn't really 
 consider her pretty, did you?" Amelia 
 asked. 
 
 "Why, Amelia, what a question!" 
 
 "But you didn't? Don't evade, 
 Morley." 
 
 164 
 
'H: 
 
 -.)i..,.ri Cii.nlfr C'linsiv I iil^ 
 
Her Infinite VarietY; 
 
 "Oh well, now, she's not bad look- 
 ing, exactly, but as for beauty — well, 
 she's rather what I'd call handsome." 
 
 " Handsome ! " Amelia exclaimed, 
 drawing back. 
 
 "Why, yes. Don't you see, dear?" 
 Vernon was trying to laugh. "Can't 
 you see the distinction? We call men 
 handsome, don't we? Not pretty, or 
 anything like that. But women! Ah, 
 women ! Them we call, now and then, 
 beautiful! And you, darling, you are 
 beautiful I " 
 
 They were face to face again, both 
 smiling radiantly. Then Amelia drew 
 away, saying: 
 
 "Morley, don't be ridiculous." 
 
 "But I'm dead in earnest, dear," he 
 went on. "And I think you ought to 
 make some sort of amends for all the 
 misery you've caused me." 
 
 165 
 
Her infinite Variety: 
 
 "You poor boy!" she said, with the 
 pity that is part of a woman's triumph. 
 
 "I did it," he said, "just because I 
 love you, and have learned in you what 
 women are capable of, what they might 
 do in politics — " 
 
 "In politics! Morley! Can you 
 imagine me in politics? I thought you 
 had a more exalted opinion of women; 
 I thought you kept them on a higher 
 plane." 
 
 "But you — " Vernon laughed, and 
 shook his head at the mystery of it, 
 but did not go on. 
 
 "Why, Morley, would you want to 
 see your mother or your sister or me, 
 or even Mrs. Hodge-Lathrop in poli- 
 tics?" 
 
 "Well," he said, with a sudden and 
 serious emphasis, "not Mrs. Hodge- 
 Lathrop exactly. She'd be chairman 
 
 i66 
 
Her Infinite VarietY: 
 
 of the state central committee from the 
 start and, well — the machine would be 
 a corker, that's all." 
 
 The elevator was rushing down again 
 in its perilous descent, and when its 
 door flew open they saw Mrs. Overman 
 Hodge-Lathrop come out of the car. 
 Vernon rose hastily. 
 
 "There she is," he said. "We 
 mustn't keep her waiting." 
 
 Amelia rose, but she caught his hand 
 and gave it a sudden pressure. 
 
 " But you haven't answered my ques- 
 tion," she said, with a continuity of 
 thought that was her final surprise for 
 him. "Are you so very badly disap- 
 pointed, after all?" 
 
 "Well, no," he said. "I don't think 
 it would do. It would — well, it would 
 complicate." 
 
 Mrs. Hodge-Lathrop was standing in 
 
 167 
 
Her Infinite Variety: 
 
 the door, peering impatiently into the 
 dim little room. They started toward 
 her. 
 
 " Anyway, dear heart," Amelia whis- 
 pered as they went, " remember this — 
 that you did it all for me." 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 m