And now to be cheated through the polite blunderings of a gentleman who was so engaged in considering himself that he had neither time nor eyes for any other! Richard swore roundly in mental fashion at his contrary fate.

And yet he saw no way to better the situation; and perforce, for this morning at least, he was driven to push the bell of the veranda door.

He might have gone about the ceremony with more cheer had he known how he was to gain an ally in his troubles; one, moreover, whose aid was sure to prove effective.
As Senator Hanway's black messenger ushered Richard into that statesman's study, the radiant Dorothy, perched at the end of Senator Hanway's table, was the picture that greeted his eyes.

Our radiant one sought to stifle her effulgence beneath a look severe and practical.
This expression of practical severity was a failure, and served to render her more dazzling.
"I have made up my mind," quoth Dorothy, the moment Richard was inside the door, and speaking in the loud, dead-level monotone which she conceived to be the voice for business conversations as against the giggling, gurgling ups and downs of conversations purely social, "I have made up my mind to come in every morning and help Uncle Pat.

I'm tired of being a useless encumbrance." Delivering which, Dorothy wore the resolved manner of a new Joan of Arc who had come seeking fields of politics rather than those of war.
"And I have been of use to you, haven't I, Uncle Pat ?" demanded Dorothy.
"Of measureless use, dear," said Senator Hanway.