Even now had anyone told her that
the ruling passion of her life was to be wooed and made much of by the
very people she professed to despise, she would have spurned the accuser
as a malicious slanderer. Nor indeed would it have been wholly true.
Mrs. Williams had practically told her this at their last meeting in New
York, and its utterance had convinced her on the contrary of repugnance
to them, and of her desire to be the leader of a social protest against
them. Now here, in Washington of all places, she was confronted by the
bitter suggestion that she was without allies, and that her enemies were
the keepers of the door which led to leadership and power. Despondency
stared her in the face, but a splendid possibility--aye probability was
left. She would not forsake her principles. She would not lower her
flag. She would return to Benham. Washington refused her homage now, but
it should listen to her and bow before her some day as the wife of one
of the real leaders of the State, whom Society did not dare to ignore.
CHAPTER VII.
At the close of the fortnight of her stay in Washington subsequent to
the reception at the White House, Selma found herself in the same frame
of mind as when she parted from Mr.
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