CHAPTER XXXIX.

Col. Selby had just come to Washington, and taken lodgings in Georgetown.

His business was to get pay for some cotton that was destroyed during the

war. There were many others in Washington on the same errand, some of

them with claims as difficult to establish as his. A concert of action

was necessary, and he was not, therefore, at all surprised to receive the

note from a lady asking him to call at Senator Dilworthy's.

At a little after three on Wednesday he rang the bell of the Senator's

residence. It was a handsome mansion on the Square opposite the

President's house. The owner must be a man of great wealth, the Colonel

thought; perhaps, who knows, said he with a smile, he may have got some

of my cotton in exchange for salt and quinine after the capture of New

Orleans. As this thought passed through his mind he was looking at the

remarkable figure of the Hero of New Orleans, holding itself by main

strength from sliding off the back of the rearing bronze horse, and

lifting its hat in the manner of one who acknowledges the playing of that

martial air: "See, the Conquering Hero Comes!" "Gad," said the Colonel

to himself, "Old Hickory ought to get down and give his seat to Gen.

Sutler--but they'd have to tie him on."

Laura was in the drawing room. She heard the bell, she heard the steps

in the hall, and the emphatic thud of the supporting cane. She had risen

from her chair and was leaning against the piano, pressing her left hand

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The Gilded Age