"
The senator's pleasantry was not well received. But Miss Cairns
alone had the temerity to speak of what the others were thinking.
"What would become of Mr. Marshall?" she asked. The senator smiled
tolerantly.
"I don't know that I was thinking of Mr. Marshall," he said. "I
can't recall anything he has done for this administration. You see,
Miss Cairns," he explained, in the tone of one addressing a small
child, "Marshall has been abroad now for forty years, at the
expense of the taxpayers. Some of us think men who have lived that
long on their fellow-countrymen had better come home and get to
work."
Livingstone nodded solemnly in assent. He did not wish a post
abroad at the expense of the taxpayers. He was willing to pay for
it. And then, with "ex-Minister" on his visiting cards, and a sense
of duty well performed, for the rest of his life he could join the
other expatriates in Paris.
Just before dinner, the cruiser RALEIGH having discovered the
whereabouts of the SERAPIS by wireless, entered the harbor, and
Admiral Hardy came to the yacht to call upon the senator, in whose
behalf he had been scouring the Caribbean Seas. Having paid his
respects to that personage, the admiral fell boisterously upon
Marshall.
The two old gentlemen were friends of many years. They had met,
officially and unofficially, in many strange parts of the world. To
each the chance reunion was a piece of tremendous good fortune.
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