Owen's protegee. Mrs. Bassett was obliged
to hear a lively dialogue between the minister and Sylvia touching some
memory of his first encounter with her about the stars. He brought her
as a "commencement present" Bacon's "Essays." People listened to Sylvia;
Sylvia had things to say! Even the gruff admiral paid her deference. He
demanded to know whether it was true that Sylvia had declined a position
at the Naval Observatory, which required the calculation of tides for
the Nautical Almanac. Mrs. Bassett was annoyed that Sylvia had refused a
position that would have removed her from a proximity to Mrs. Owen that
struck her as replete with danger. And yet Mrs. Bassett was outwardly
friendly, and she privately counseled Marian, quite unnecessarily, to be
"nice" to Sylvia. On the same evening Mrs. Bassett was disagreeably
impressed by Harwood's obvious rubrication in Mrs. Owen's good books.
It seemed darkly portentous that Dan was, at Mrs. Owen's instigation,
managing Sylvia's business affairs; she must warn her husband against
this employment of his secretary to strengthen the ties between Mrs.
Owen and this object of her benevolence.
Mrs. Bassett's presence at the convention did not pass unremarked by
many gentlemen upon the floor, or by the newspapers.
"While the state chairman struggled to bring the delegates to order,
Miss Marian Bassett, daughter of the Honorable Morton Bassett, of Fraser
County, was a charming and vivacious figure in the balcony.
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