bold, or of obtruding upon a great man's privacy," &c. &c.
This flattery, which, if offered in the usual legal tender of the
country, would have been looked upon as counterfeit, delivered here in
a foreign accent, with a slightly tropical warmth, was accepted by the
Senator as genuine. These children of the Sun are so impulsive! We,
of course, feel a little pity for the person who thus transcends our
standard of good taste and violates our conventional canon,--but they
are always sincere. The cold New Englander saw nothing wrong in one
or two direct and extravagant compliments, that would have insured his
visitor's early dismissal if tendered in the clipped metallic phrases of
the Commonwealth he represented.
So that in a few moments the black, curly head of the little artist and
the white, flowing locks of the Senator were close together bending
over the rack that contained the engravings. It was then that Carmen,
listening to a graphic description of the early rise of Art in the
Netherlands, forgot herself and put her shawl around her head, holding
its folds in her little brown hand. In this situation they were,
at different times during the next two hours, interrupted by five
Congressmen, three Senators, a Cabinet officer, and a Judge of the
Supreme Bench,--each of whom was quickly but courteously dismissed.
Popular sentiment, however, broke out in the hall.
"Well, I'm blanked, but this gets me." (The speaker was a Territorial
delegate.)
"At his time o' life, too, lookin' over pictures with a gal young enough
to be his grandchild." (This from a venerable official, since suspected
of various erotic irregularities.)
"She don't handsome any." (The honorable member from Dakota.)
"This accounts for his protracted silence during the sessions." (A
serious colleague from the Senator's own State.)
"Oh, blank it all!" (Omnes.)
Four went home to tell their wives. There are few things more touching
in the matrimonial compact than the superb frankness with which each
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