" It was not a week after that--and I was
still suffering in mind and body--when the newspapers in the
interest of the Rancocus and Great Western Consolidated accused me
(not by name, but the same thing--you know how they do it) of being
guilty of taking bribes. Mr. Filch, of the Shinnebaug Consolidated
had explained to me so beautifully the superior advantages of his
line, that the Directors of the other company took their revenge in
this vile, abominable way.
That was only the beginning of my trouble. What with these
slanders and longing for the quiet of our dear old home at Burroak,
I was almost sick; yet the Legislature sat on, and sat on,
until I was nearly desperate. Then one morning came a despatch
from my husband: "Melissa is drafted--come home!" How I made the
journey I can't tell; I was in an agony of apprehension, and when
Mr. Strongitharm and Melissa both met me at the Burroak Station,
well and smiling, I fell into a hysterical fit of laughing and
crying, for the first time in my life.
Billy Brandon, who was engaged to Melissa, came forward and took
her place like a man; he fought none the worse, let me tell you,
because he represented a woman, and (I may as well say it now) he
came home a Captain, without a left arm--but Melissa seems to have
three arms for his sake.
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