"And I shall want to avail myself of all," he added, "in the
matter of the Castro claim. A little supper at Welcker's, a glass or two
of champagne, and a single flash of those bright eyes, and the thing is
done."
"But," said Mrs. Hopkinson, "I've promised Josiah that I would give up
all those frivolities, and although my conscience is clear, you know how
people talk! Josiah hears it. Why, only last night, at a reception at
the Patagonian Minister's, every woman in the room gossiped about me
because I led the german with him. As if a married woman, whose
husband was interested in the Government, could not be civil to the
representative of a friendly power?"
Mr. Gashwiler did not see how Mr. Hopkinson's late contract for
supplying salt pork and canned provisions to the army of the United
States should make his wife susceptible to the advances of foreign
princes; but he prudently kept that to himself. Still, not being himself
a diplomat, he could not help saying:
"But I understood that Mr.
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