“Just a minute now,” he said. “I’m almost through. I told the Senator the straight truth about our post office here. He was surprised. I judged it was different from what he had heard from you. He said he could not understand, considering the story you told him. I said that, according to my experience, you were subject to changes of mind at times. By the way of proof I showed him some letters you wrote me two or three years ago. His name was in those letters. Perhaps you remember--you were a little peeved because he hadn’t used his influence in a matter you were interested in and you spoke out pretty plain. I wouldn’t say the names you called him were compliments, exactly. So--” But Mooney could hold in no longer. His dignity was gone and with it his confident assurance. “You showed him those letters!” he shouted. “Why--why, those were personal letters. What do you mean by--” “Sshh! No they weren’t. You asked me to show them to other people and to do what I could to help you upset the Senator’s plans. Anyhow, I needed ’em to prove my case, just as, I suppose, to prove yours you felt it necessary to say what you did about Reliance Clark’s misusing the Government money and things like that. Never mind what you said about me. I could answer that without the help of anybody’s letters. So--well, to make a long yarn shorter, Senator Gore said he could see I was right and that he would help me. I said the help must be prompt or it would be too late. He made it prompt. The President himself happened to be in New York last week, maybe you saw it in the papers. He was there and the Senator took me to see him. It seemed a kind of a shame to bother the President of this whole United States with a little two-for-a-cent mess like the Harniss post office, but--well, he was patient and so--Reliance!” he called, raising his voice. “Reliance, you can come in now. I have got something for you.” The parlor door swung open and Miss Clark appeared. Her expression was peculiar, but not nearly as peculiar as that of the Honorable Alpheus Mooney when he recognized her. Foster Townsend took from the inside pocket of his coat a folded, official-looking document. He handed it to her. She took it mechanically.