their hats, and will be fit subjects for a lunatic asylum if the thing
doesn't end soon, one way or another. And they reiterate and reiterate
that they don't want war, when they know that any determined step we
can take is bound to lead to it. I have no patience with them. They
either are fools or are trying to keep on both sides of the fence at
once."

"Politics are very complicated," said Senator North, dryly.

"How do you and Mary manage to live in the same house?" asked Betty.
"She is all for war."

"Oh, I think she rather likes the opportunity to argue. And she is so
divided between the desire for me to be a good American and the desire
that England shall have an excuse to hug us that she could not get
into a temper over it if she tried. She has made no attempt to
influence my course. Heaven knows how much money I've been made to
disburse in behalf of the reconcentrados, but I like women to be
tender-hearted and would not harden them for the sake of a few
dollars, even were they dumped in Havana Harbor--By the way, I wonder
if the _Maine_ is all right down there? She has the city under her
guns, and they know it--"

"Oh, for heaven's sake, don't suggest any new horrors," said Senator
North, rising. "Besides, the Spaniards are not in the final stages of
idiocy. It would be like the New York _Journal_ to blow up the
_Maine_, as it seems to have reached that stage of hysteria which
betokens desperation; but the ship is safe as far as the Spaniards are
concerned."