The Progressionists, and Angela.

A young, wealthy landowner visits a prominent banking family where a proposed marriage between fortunes and social standing creates private tension. Conversations among the household expose a satire of contemporary political life, portraying municipal and legislative contests as spectacles of bribery, beer, and crowd manipulation. Wealthy operators and party leaders are shown as cynical managers who feed public passion to secure power, while an idealistic temperament contrasts with worldly calculation. Interwoven chapters examine the rhetoric and organization of a modernizing movement and its effects on personal relations and civic morality.