During this social interval he saw little of his father, though he was
still occupying his share of the private dining-room suite at the
Inter-Mountain. Part of the time, as he knew, the Honorable Senator was
at Wartrace Hall, looking after his mammoth ranch, and helping to
entertain the visitors from Massachusetts. But now and again the father
came and went; and occasionally there was a dinner _a deux_ in the hotel
_cafe_, with a little good-natured raillery from the senator's side of
the table.
"Got you chasing your feet right lively in the social merry-go-round
these days, haven't they, son? Like it, as far as you've gone?" said the
ex-cattle-king one evening when Evan had come down in evening clothes,
ready to go to madam the governor's wife's strictly formal "informal" a
little later on.
"It's all in the day's work," laughed the younger man. "I shall need all
the 'pull' I can get a little later on, sha'n't I?"
"I shouldn't wonder if you did, son; I shouldn't wonder if you did. And
I reckon you're doing pretty good work, too, mixing and mingling the way
you do. Was it McVickar's idea, or your own--this sudden splash into the
social water-hole?"
"I don't mind telling you that it is a part of the new policy," returned
the social splasher, still smiling. "We are out to make friends this
time; good, solid, open-eyed friends who will know just what we are
doing and why we are doing it.
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