Let her go on--even if she loses everything she is still safe--this

interest will always afford her a good easy income."

Laura was on excellent terms with a great many members of Congress, and

there was an undercurrent of suspicion in some quarters that she was one

of that detested class known as "lobbyists;" but what belle could escape

slander in such a city? Fairminded people declined to condemn her on

mere suspicion, and so the injurious talk made no very damaging headway.

She was very gay, now, and very celebrated, and she might well expect to

be assailed by many kinds of gossip. She was growing used to celebrity,

and could already sit calm and seemingly unconscious, under the fire of

fifty lorgnettes in a theatre, or even overhear the low voice "That's

she!" as she passed along the street without betraying annoyance.

The whole air was full of a vague vast scheme which was to eventuate in

filling Laura's pockets with millions of money; some had one idea of the

scheme, and some another, but nobody had any exact knowledge upon the

subject. All that any one felt sure about, was that Laura's landed

estates were princely in value and extent, and that the government was

anxious to get hold of them for public purposes, and that Laura was

willing to make the sale but not at all anxious about the matter and not

at all in a hurry. It was whispered that Senator Dilworthy was a

stumbling block in the way of an immediate sale, because he was resolved

that the government should not have the lands except with the

understanding that they should be devoted to the uplifting of the negro

race; Laura did not care what they were devoted to, it was said, (a world

362

The Gilded Age