How late did Governors work at governing?... She directed her chauffeur to drive to the Capitol, and there she alighted because she had no idea what else to do. She climbed the imposing steps and entered the building. It was a repellent sort of place; a mausoleum of assassinated ambitions, and it chilled her. The corridors were all but deserted. Leaning against a column adjacent to a brass cuspidor was an old man in a uniform which might have been that of a prison guard, a janitor, or a retired street car conductor. Carmel approached him. “Where will I find the Governor?” she asked. “Gawd knows,” said this official, and made a generous and accurate contribution to the receptacle. “Who does know?” Carmel asked, impatiently. “I hain’t here to locate governors. I show folks through the buildin’, and mostly they give me a quarter a head.” “Well, show me to the Governor’s office and I’ll give you fifty cents a head,” Carmel said. He peered at her, took a last, regretful look at the cuspidor and sighed. “’Tain’t wuth it,” he said, sententiously. “’Tain’t wuth fifty cents to see no Governor I ever knowed, and I’ve come through the terms of six.... Foller me.” Grasping at straws, she questioned him. “What sort of man is the Governor.” “The kind that can git himself elected to office,” said her guide. “Allus worked at it. Had his snoot in the trough since his fust vote.” “Is it difficult to see him?” “Depends on who you are.” “Supposing you’re just nobody.” “If ye hain’t got nothin’ to _give_, ye hain’t got nothin’ to git nothin’ _with_.” “You don’t seem to approve of him.” “Him! Don’t think nothin’ about him. He’s jest the Governor. Be another next year, and then another and another. He’s all right as Governors go.” “Can’t you tell me _anything_ about him?” she asked, desperately. “He’s dark complected and takes a spoonful of bakin’ sody after each meal,” said the guide. “There’s his office.... Said fifty cents, didn’t ye?” Thus fortified for her encounter, Carmel opened the door and found herself in a large reception room where were two or three unoccupied desks, and one at which a young man was seated. He looked up as she entered, scowled, but as he comprehended her trim loveliness he manipulated his face into a smirk and got to his feet. “I wish to see the Governor,” she said. “Have you an appointment?” “No.” He advanced with an ingratiating air. “Well, I might be able to fix it for you....”