October 13, 2013.

(picture to be added soon)

Top Senate Leaders Trying to Reach a Deal

At this moment his train of thought stopped abruptly. He halted and looked up. He was in a narrow street, with a few dark little shops, interspersed among dwelling houses. Immediately above his head there hung three discoloured metal balls which looked as if they had once been gilded. He seemed to know the place. Of course! He was standing outside the junk-shop where he had bought the diary.

The Senate's two top leaders worked Sunday to overcome differences to avoid a U.S. debt crisis and reopen the federal government as the U.S. Treasury was running out ways to stay under the nation's borrowing limit.

A twinge of fear went through him. It had been a sufficiently rash act to buy the book in the beginning, and he had sworn never to come near the place again. And yet the instant that he allowed his thoughts to wander, his feet had brought him back here of their own accord. It was precisely against suicidal impulses of this kind that he had hoped to guard himself by opening the diary. At the same time he noticed that although it was nearly twenty-one hours the shop was still open. With the feeling that he would be less conspicuous inside than hanging about on the pavement, he stepped through the doorway. If questioned, he could plausibly say that he was trying to buy razor blades.

As the Senate opened its unusual Sunday session, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) struck an optimistic note about his talks with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R, Ky.), but gave no indication that either side had budged 13 days into a partial government shutdown.

The proprietor had just lighted a hanging oil lamp which gave off an unclean but friendly smell. He was a man of perhaps sixty, frail and bowed, with a long, benevolent nose, and mild eyes distorted by thick spectacles. His hair was almost white, but his eyebrows were bushy and still black. His spectacles, his gentle, fussy movements, and the fact that he was wearing an aged jacket of black velvet, gave him a vague air of intellectuality, as though he had been some kind of literary man, or perhaps a musician. His voice was soft, as though faded, and his accent less debased than that of the majority of proles.

"I met yesterday with Sen. McConnell. We're in conversation today,'' Mr. Reid said. "I'm confident Republicans will allow the government to open and extend the ability of this country to pay its bills."