She was a dashing looking girl in those days, with
her black eyes and black ringlets. I remember she had a coltish way of
tossing her head. The story is that when she accepted Polsen another
Kentuckian--a young planter--who was in love with her, drank laudanum.
Now, as you say, she is being taken up socially, and her husband, the
Senator, is very proud of her success. After all, if a woman is
ambitious and has tact, what can she ask better than to be the wife of a
United States Senator?" He paused a moment, then, with a gallant
sidelong glance at his companion, resumed in a concise whisper, which
had the effect of a disclosure, "Prophecies, especially political
prophecies, are dangerous affairs, but it seems to me not improbable
that before many years have passed the wife of Senator Lyons will be
equally prominent--be as conspicuous socially as the wife of Senator
Colman."
Selma blushed, but not wholly with pleasure. Socially conspicuous before
many years? The splendid prophecy, which went beyond the limit of Horace
Elton's usual caution--for he combined the faculty of habitual
discretion with his chatty proclivities--was dimmed for Selma by the
rasping intimation that she was not conspicuous yet. Worse still, his
statement shattered the hope, which Flossy's fluent assertions had
already disturbed, that she was to find in Washington a company of
congenial spirits who would appreciate her at her full value forthwith,
and would join with her and under her leadership in resisting the
encroachments of women of the stamp of Mrs.
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