"But I yield a little to them, too, George. What is it? Has Genevieve become a convert to suffrage?" "Has Genevieve--has my wife----" Then George remembered that his uncle was an older man and that chivalry is not limited to the treatment of the weaker sex. "No," he said with a calm hardly less magnificent than the tempest would have been, "no, Uncle Martin, Genevieve has not become a suffragist." "Well," said Doolittle rising, as if such things were hardly worth his valuable time, "I fail to see the difference between a suffragette an' a woman who goes pokin' her nose into what----" "You're speaking of my wife, Mr. Doolittle," said George, with a significant lighting of the eye. "Speakin' in general," said Doolittle. Uncle Martin was interested. "Has Genevieve been--well, we won't say poking the nose--but taking a responsible civic interest where it would be better if she didn't?" "It seems," answered George, casting an angry glance at his campaign manager, "that Mr. Doolittle has heard from a friend of his who overheard a conversation between Betty Sheridan and my wife at luncheon. From this he inferred that the two were planning an investigation of some of the city's problems." Uncle Martin looked relieved. "Oh, your wife and your stenographer. That can be stopped, I suppose, without undue exertion." "Betty is no longer my stenographer." "Left, has she?" said Jaffry. "I had an idea she would not stay with you long." This intimation was not agreeable to George. He would have liked to explain that Miss Sheridan's departure had been dictated by the will of the head of the firm; in fact he opened his mouth to do so. But the remembrance that this would entail a long and wearisome exposition of his reasons caused him to remain silent, and his uncle went on: "Well, anyhow, you can get Genevieve to drop it." If Doolittle had not been there, George would have been glad to discuss with his uncle, who had, after all, a sort of worldly shrewdness, how far a man is justified in controlling his wife's opinions. But before an audience now a trifle unsympathetic, he could not resist the temptation of making the gesture of a man magnificently master in his own house. He smiled quite grandly. "I think I can promise that," he said. Doolittle got up slowly, bringing his jaws together in a relentless bite on the unresisting gum. "Well," he said, "that's all there is to it." And he added significantly as he reached the door, "If you kin _do_ it!" When the campaign manager had gone, Uncle Martin asked very, very gently: "You don't feel any doubt of being able to do it, do you, George?" "About my ability to control--I mean influence, my wife? I feel no doubt at all." "And Penfield, I suppose, can tackle Betty? You won't mind my saying that of the two I think your partner has the harder job." A slight cloud appeared upon the brow of the candidate.