“Shake once more! Thank God for the sight of a sane man again. I thought they’d all died. We never see them here any more--” Virginia lifted her finger and her father took the outstretched arm and drew it around his neck. “I have to put up with the nincompoops for Virginia’s sake. But I’m going to explode some day and say things. I can feel it coming on me--” He stopped abruptly and leaned forward, releasing Virginia’s arm. “Young man, I can talk to you--you’re not a suffragette--you’re a real man. Between the women, the Jews and the foreigners this country is not only going to the dogs--it’s gone--hell bent and hell bound. It’s no use talking any more. I’ve given up and gone to playing checkers--” “We may save it yet, sir,” Vassar interrupted cheerfully. “Save it? Great Scott, man, have you been down Broadway lately? Look at the signs--Katzmeyers, Einsteins, Epsteins, Abrahams, Isaacs and Jacobs! It would rest your eyes to find a Fogarty or a Casey. By the eternal, an Irishman now seems like a Son of the American Revolution! The Congressman from this district, sir, is a damned Pole from Posen!” Virginia burst into a fit of laughter. “What’s the matter, Miss Troublemaker?” Holland growled. “You didn’t get the name, father dear--this is Mr. John Vassar, the damned Pole Congressman to whom you have so graciously referred--” Holland frowned, searched his daughter’s face for the joke, and looked at Vassar helplessly. “It’s not so!” he snorted. “I never saw a finer specimen of American manhood in my life, strong-limbed, clean-cut, clear-eyed, every inch a man and not a suffragette. It’s not so. You’re putting up a job on me, Virginia--” John Vassar smiled and bowed. “For the high compliment you pay me, Mr. Holland, I forgive the hard words. I understand how the old boys feel who fought to make this country what it is today. And I love you for it. I don’t mind what you _say_--I know where to find your kind when the hour of trial comes--” “You are Congressman Vassar?” the old man gasped. “Guilty!” The mother joined in the laugh at his expense. Holland extended his hand again and grasped Vassar’s. “I have no friends in this house, sir! We make up. I apologize to Poland for your sake. If they’ve got any more like you, let ’em come on. But mind you--” he lifted his finger in protest--“I stand by every word I said about the other fellows--every word!” “I understand!” Vassar responded cheerfully. “That will do now, Frank,” Mrs. Holland softly murmured. “And you come in to see me again, young man--I want to talk to you some time when there are no women around. You’re in Congress. By Geeminy, I want to know why we’ve got no army while twenty million trained soldiers are fighting for the mastery of the world across the water. Just count me in on the fight, will you? By the eternal, I’d like to meet the traitor who’ll try to block your bill--” “I’ve important business with Mr. Vassar,” Virginia broke in. “Excuse us now, children--”