“Interest me! Confound it all, you have wrecked my peace of mind! I knew it all before. But I'm selfish, like almost everybody else. I kept away where I couldn't hear about these things. Now, if I sleep soundly to-night I'll be ashamed to look up at my father's portrait when I walk into my office to-morrow morning. Why didn't you have better sense than to coax me into your infernal meeting?” He rapped his cane angrily against the curbstone as he strode on. “And the trouble with me is,” continued Mr. Converse, with much bitterness, “I know the conditions are such in this state that a meeting like that can be assembled in every city and town--and the complaints will be just and demand help. But there's no organization--it's only blind kittens miauling. It's damnable!” “But this is the kind of country where some mighty quick changes can be made when the people do get their eyes open,” suggested the young man. Mr. Converse merely grunted, tapping his cane more viciously. They were on the frontier of the Eleventh Ward now. The brighter lights of the avenues of up-town blazed before them. “Then you will not go into politics?” inquired Farr. “I'd sooner sail for India with a cargo of hymn-books and give singing-lessons to Bengal tigers.” “Good night, sir,” said Farr. He halted on the street corner which marked the boundary of the ward. “Good night, sir!” replied Mr. Converse, striding on. The young man watched him out of sight. He heard the angry clack of the cane on the stones long after the Honorable Archer Converse had turned the next corner. “Maxim in the case of a true gentleman,” mused Farr: “tap his conscience on the shoulder, point your finger at the enemy, say nothing, simply stand back and give conscience plenty of elbow-room--it needs no help. There, by the grace of God, goes the next governor of this state.” XX CONSIDERATION: ONE DAUGHTER On the morning following his discomfiture Richard Dodd posted himself in a little tobacco-shop opposite the Trelawny Apartment-house. Lurking behind cigar-boxes in the window, he held the door of the house under surly espionage. It was plain to the shopkeeper that “the gent had made a night of it.” Dodd's eyes were heavy, his face was flushed, and he lighted one cigarette after another with shaky hands.