"That would have been a dago's trick; not a white man's," he asserted. "I suppose I might have got in his way and played the dog in the manger generally, and you would have stuck to your word and married me, but I am not looking for that kind of a winning. I don't mind confessing that I played my last card when I released you from your engagement. I said to myself: If that doesn't break down the barriers, nothing will." She looked up quickly. "You will never know how near it came to doing it, Brookes." "But it didn't quite?" "No, it didn't quite." The brother-smile came again. "Let's paste that leaf down and turn the other; the one that has David Kent's name written, at the top. He is going to succeed all around, Elinor; and I am going to help him--for his sake, as well as yours." "No," she dissented. "He is going to fail; and I am to blame for it." He looked at her sidewise. "So you were at the bottom of that, were you? I thought as much, and tried to make him admit it, but he wouldn't. What was your reason?" "I gave it to him: I can't give it to you." "I guess not," he laughed. "I wasn't born on the right side of the Berkshire Hills to appreciate it. But really, you mustn't interfere. As I say, we are going to make something of David; and a little conscience--of the right old Pilgrim Fathers' brand--goes a long way in politics." "But you promised me you were not going to spoil him--only it doesn't matter; you can't." Ormsby chuckled openly, and when she questioned "What?" he said: "I was just wondering what you would say if you knew what he is into now; if you could guess, for instance, that his backers have put up a cool hundred thousand to be used as he sees fit?" "Oh!" she exclaimed; and there was dismay and sharp disappointment in her voice. "You don't mean that he is going to bribe these men?" "No," he said, relenting. "As a matter of fact, I don't know precisely what he is doing with the money, but I guess it is finding its way into legitimate channels. I'll make him give me an itemized expense account for your benefit when it's all over, if you like." "It would be kinder to tell me more about it now," she pleaded. "No; I'll let him have that pleasure, after the fact--if we can get him pardoned out before you go back East." She was silent so long that he stole another sidewise look between his snubbings of the brake-pedal. Her face was white and still, like the face of one suddenly frost-smitten, and he was instantly self-reproachful. "Don't look that way," he begged. "It hurts me; makes me feel how heavy my hand is when I'm doing my best to make it light. He is trying a rather desperate experiment, to be sure, but he is in no immediate personal danger. I believe it or I shouldn't be here; I should be with him."