Beauty Queen

lobbying with the unions and the police force and the firemen, and that this time they are optimistic about getting the bill passed, if one can believe the Times."
    Her father looked engrossed in Barron's again. But suddenly he said, "They're very stubborn, aren't they?"
    "Who? The homosexuals or the firemen?"
    "The . . . homosexuals. If only they could be true Christians, they'd be very staunch soldiers for Christ, wouldn't they?"
    "Well," said Jeannie crisply, "they'd have to give up their perversions first, and be born again."
    Her father was riveting her with his eyes again. "That goes without saying."
    Suddenly he smiled. "I haven't heard you use your speechifying tone of voice in a long time. Good to hear it."
    "Well, the news item just got me stirred up," she said. "Honestly, I don't know why we go on living in the city. There're so many perverts here that they even talk about the gay vote now."
    Her father's smile had vanished perceptibly, as if a cloud shadow had passed over his face.
    "If you go back into politics," he said, "you'll have to consider that vote."
    Jeannie was sitting bolt upright. "Maybe there is a gay vote. But if that bill was voted on by the people of New York, it'd be defeated by a landslide. All the homosexual lobbying would be for nothing."
    Her father was laughing again. Suddenly Jeannie had to laugh, too.
    "You think," she teased, "that I am thinking of running for office again, don't you?"
    "All I think," he said, "is that my little girl is getting back to her old self again."
    He returned to his Barron's again. Jeannie went back to her gazing around.
    The penthouse garden was a picture of affluent peace and quiet. Graceful white birches, weeping willows and flowering crabapple trees grew in giant granite containers. Along the gravel paths, hybrid tea roses and tuberous begonias spilled their red, pink and yellow velvet flowers everywhere. Near the sliding glass doors of the living room, a moss-stained antique marble fountain dripped serenely into a small pool where a few butter-yellow water lilies floated. Her father had put in the garden two years ago when he moved here. He was so fussy about his garden that every day a greenhouse crew came up to spray or wipe the pollution particles from every single leaf. She loved this garden, and wished her father would never give it up. There was definitely something unstable in the way her father moved all the time.
    The morning sunlight came down on her with a peculiar force. She had prayed, and waited for God's call, but He had made her wait. When He did send her the call, in her mind, she would see plainly that it was His call and not something of her own impatient making.
    All during this past year, as she struggled to put her life back together, she had wondered what lay next. The brush with drinking, and the nervous breakdown, and her decision not to run for state senator again, had all made her realize how far she had drifted from the simple faith of her childhood, when her mother was alive to guide her. She had refused to enter a clinic for treatment, because she was afraid it would hurt her political career. Both Sidney and her father had been amazingly understanding and helpful, considering how difficult she had been. And then had come the rush of light, the renewal of faith, the conviction that she had been bom again, the offering of her life to Jesus Christ.
    Suddenly a thought came flaming down into her vacant mind with the force and light of a meteor.
    "Dad, what about politics again?" she said suddenly. "Do you think I have a chance?"
    "Why not?" he said, taking out a silver cigarette case, extracting a Camel, and lighting it with his silver lighter.
    "I mean," she faltered, "if Nixon could make a comeback . . . and I have a good record. I fought everything in the world. I fought gambling and off-track betting and drugs and pornography and prostitution . . . She wrinkled her nose at the cigarette smoke.
    "You even got the disco across the street closed," said her father.
    She smiled. "Don't tease me, now," she said. "I'm very serious. I'm not thinking of running for the legislature again. I'm thinking of running for governor."
    Her father put the paper down again. This time she had his full attention. He looked straight at her, and this time she met his eyes unflinchingly.
    "Why shouldn't I think about it?" she said. "Heavens, Jimmy Carter's staff seriously considered a woman for vice presidential nominee. There are a lot of