The new President was to arrive on Monday.

Intrigues and combinations, of which the Senator was the soul, were all alive, awaiting this arrival.

Newspaper correspondents pestered him with questions.

Brother senators called him to conferences.
His mind was pre-occupied with his own interests.

One might have supposed that, at this instant, nothing could have drawn him away from the political gaming-table, and yet when Mrs.Lee remarked that she was going to Mount Vernon on Saturday with a little party, including the British Minister and an Irish gentleman staying as a guest at the British Legation, the Senator surprised her by expressing a strong wish to join them.