"Well, not to scramble for office," Percival answered with a flush. "We fellows have been well-enough taught, haven't we, Ellery? to know that it is rather an ugly mess--I mean municipal affairs in this country. The local situation, here in St. Etienne, I have yet to study; and I don't mean to lose any time in beginning." Mr. Elton made no reply for a moment, and when he spoke there was an unpleasant cynicism in his voice that galled Dick's pride. "The young reformer! Well, I suppose a decent man with a little ability could do something here, if he knew what he was going to do. It's a good thing to get on your sea-legs before you try to command a ship." "Father!" Madeline cried out, unable to contain herself. "Don't you be a horrid wet blanket!" The three looked at her to see her face aglow with the lovely feminine belief in masculinity that also belongs to the early twenties. "That's all right," said the elder Elton unemotionally. "I wasn't wet-blanketing--I know things are needed. There's plenty of corruption wanting to be buried, and most of us are content to hold our noses and let it lie. Or perhaps we give an exclamation of disgust when it is served up in the newspapers. Reform if you must, but don't reform all day and Sundays too; and build your cellars before you begin your attics." Then he went on a shade more heartily: "It's a mighty good thing for some of you young fellows to be going into politics; perhaps that's the chief work for the next generation. And Norris--what of you?" Ellery started. It had been a silent evening for him, but his silence had glowed with interest, not so much in the conversation as in his own thoughts. Two things had forced themselves home,--the first when he looked down on that expanse of vivid water, vivid sky, vivid green. Here a man, even a young man, might waken to all his faculties and make something of life. He need not plod dully through years, to reach success only when he is old and tired. The landscape poured like wine into Ellery Norris' veins. And now here was the other side. He had watched with fascination the restfulness of Miss Elton's hands, the one that held her mother's, the one that lay quietly in her lap. He watched her steady eyes that kept upon her father and Dick as they talked. He saw her face glow with sympathy and interest and yet remain calm, as if secure in the goodness of the world; and he told himself that he was glad this wonderful thing belonged to Dick. Dick's restlessness would be held in leash, as it were, by this steadfastness. Once she half turned as though she felt his scrutiny, and queer pains darted through his body when her eyes met his. Now when Mr. Elton attacked him, he came back from his far-away excursion with a sense of surprise that there was a present, but he smiled cheerfully.