Blount was balancing the spoon on the edge of his coffee-cup and scowling abstractedly. It was the first little discord in the filial harmony--this evidence that the powers were at work; almost a breach of confidence. There was no avoiding the distasteful conclusion. Without consulting his wishes, without waiting for his decision, his father had publicly committed him--taken "snap judgment" upon him was the way he phrased it. "Dick, will you believe me if I say that I haven't authorized any such talk as this you've been hearing?" he asked, looking up quickly. This time Gantry's smile was a grin of complete intelligence. "Oh, that's the way of it, eh? The Honorable Senator took it out of your hands, did he? You'll understand that I'm not casting any aspersions when I say that it's exactly like him. If he has slated you, you are booked to run; and if he runs you, you'll be elected. Those are two of the things that practically speak right out and say themselves here in the old Sage-brush State." Blount was indignant--justly indignant, he persuaded himself. "If that is the case, Gantry, it is high time that some one should have nerve enough to break the charm. I haven't said that I would accept the nomination if it were tendered me, and I am not at all sure that I am going to say it. And if I don't say it, by all that's good and great, that settles it!" Gantry was plainly shocked. "You're not trying to make me believe that you've got nerve enough to buck the old m--your father, I mean? Why, great cats, Evan! you don't know what that stands for in the greasewood hills!" "And I don't care, Dick. Up to this present moment I am a free moral agent; I haven't surrendered any right of decision to my father, or to any one else, so far as I am aware." Gantry's eyes dropped to his plate, and his rejoinder was not wholly free from guile. "Will you authorize me to contradict the talk as I can?" he asked, without looking up. Blount was still warm enough to be peremptory. "Yes, you may contradict it. You may say that it is entirely unauthorized--that I have told you so myself." Then he remembered the claims of friendship. "I'll be frank with you, Dick; this thing has been mentioned to me once, but nothing was decided--absolutely nothing. I didn't even promise to take it under advisement." Among those who knew him only externally, Mr. Richard Gantry had the reputation of owning a loose tongue. But none recognized more justly than the real Richard Gantry the precise instant at which to bridle the loose tongue or when to make it wag away from the subject which has reached its nicely calculated climax. While the flush of irritation was still making him ashamed that he had shown so much warmth, Blount found himself gossiping with his table companion over a social function two days old; and subsequently, when the waiter brought the cigars, Gantry was congratulating himself that the danger-point, if any there were, was safely past.