Page:Despotism and democracy; a study in Washington society and politics (IA despotismdemocra00seawiala).pdf/311

 slept, with members of the Legislature for three weeks before the election came off. It was a stupendous battle, and neither side got any odds in the betting.

During the latter part of the Christmas recess, Thorndyke went north to pay his sister, Elizabeth, a visit. Her first words to him were:

"Why, Geoffrey, how young you look!"

And everybody who met him told him he looked young, or looked well, or looked prosperous, and one horny-handed old constituent hazarded the opinion that Mr. Thorndyke was "thinkin' o' gittin' spliced." It was all because Constance Maitland had been kind to him.

On his way back to Washington he found himself in the same car with James Brentwood Baldwin, Junior, who was coming home to be nursed and taken to Palm Beach after an attack of the chicken-pox. This fifteen-year-old youth was in charge of a valet who attended to him assiduously, and even went into the dining-car with him to see that he exercised due prudence with regard to his diet. This, however, was superfluous, as the scion of the house of Baldwin was the very epitome of prudence, and