"Senator, you will regret those words. Mark me. You will regret it. One of the things I was going to say was------" Maxwell lowered his voice and looked around. "I was going to say that you have it in your power so to shape your own future that the governorship would come to you in two years, or the national senatorship. The party would be willing to reward a man like you------" Paul exploded again. "Governorship! Senatorship!" he almost shouted while Maxwell looked apprehensively at the open door. "Do you think I care about them as reward for political slavery?" Then he suddenly realised how useless it was to let a man like Maxwell understand. "Gentlemen," he said good naturedly, "excuse me. The occasion does not call for excitement. I understand your purpose in coming to see me. It will save your time and mine to say that I shall not change my plans to press these bills even if the result is to disrupt the party. And you are as free to say that as I expect to be in my editorial this evening." Maxwell nervously interrupted. "You are committing political suicide, Mr. Douglas." "That's better than hari kari, eh?" said Douglas with a smile. Maxwell stared. He had heard of hari kari perhaps, but did not know whether it was the name of a new type of airship or a health food. He went away with his two friends, firmly convinced, however, that the editor of the _News_ was on the road to political destruction. After Paul had written his editorial for the _News_ he was not certain himself that he had not really done what Maxwell predicted. He had certainly never spoken so plainly and even bluntly on the issues of the campaign, and he knew perfectly well that the Maxwell political type dominated thousands of voters, men who resent any act in politics which threatens to disarrange the smooth running of the machine. In politics it is almost as easy to raise a howl against reform as it is to raise a cry for it. There are thousands of party men in this republic who as long as they can make their bread and butter out of machine politics don't care what price the people have to pay for their bread and butter. When Paul went home that night he did what he had done for twenty-one years. The minute he was in the hall, he said, "Esther?" with an interrogation point after the name.