Van Stuyler almost
to fainting point and made Zaidie gasp for breath, away southward to
Santa Fe and New Orleans.
Then northward again up the Mississippi Valley to St. Louis, and thence
eastward across the Alleghanies back to Washington--such was the famous
night-voyage of the _Astronef_, and so by means of that long silver
tongue of light did she spread the message of common-sense and
commercial honesty throughout the length and breadth of the Great
Republic. The world knows how America received and interpreted it the
next day.
Meanwhile Mr. Russell Rennick had taken train to Washington, and the day
after the election he willingly took back all that he had intended with
regard to the Marquis of Byfleet, accepted Lord Redgrave in his stead,
and bestowed his avuncular blessing at the wedding breakfast held in the
deck-chamber of the _Astronef_ poised in mid-air, five hundred feet
above the dome of the Capitol, a week later. To this he added a cheque
for a million dollars--payable to the Countess of Redgrave on her return
from her wedding trip.
Breakfast over, the wedding party made an inspection of the wonderful
vessel under the guidance of her Commander. After this, while they were
drinking their coffee and liqueurs, and the men were smoking their
cigars in the deck-chamber, a score of the most distinguished men and
women in the United States experienced the novel sensation of sitting
quietly in deck-chairs while they were being hurled at the rate of a
hundred and fifty miles an hour through the atmosphere.
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