I am sure that he will not disappoint us.
Senator, we are waiting for you, sir."
"Very well," said Senator Hammond, "since there seems to be no escape, I
will do the best I can."
IX
SENATOR HAMMOND'S EXPERIENCE
"The facts that I am about to relate occurred many years ago while I was
on a visit to relatives in Charleston, South Carolina. The old house
where I was a guest stands on the Battery, and with its beautiful
gardens is still one of the show places of the city.
"It was on a warm Sunday afternoon, and I found myself alone in the
house, the family and servants at church, and a brooding stillness that
presaged the approach of a storm, settling over all. At that time I was
a dreamy, romantic, long-haired youth with all sorts of notions about
the artistic temperament, carelessness in dress, and painting miniatures
for a living. They told me I had some talent, and I believed them
thoroughly.
"I had wandered in from the garden, my hands full of flowers for the
vases in the library, when a sudden gust of wind tore through the wide
hall, the door shut with a bang, and I found myself face to face with my
ancestors. Grim gentlemen with somber faces, simpering almond-eyed
beauties in cobwebby laces; and in the place of honor a frowning hag,
whose wrinkles even the flattering painter dare not hide.
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