"No more do I," declared the other; "but it's a chill day this is. Well, and when are you coming round to see the boys? Terry O'Donnell and me, we was just talking about you and Mr. Suydam." Van Dyne did not see why it should annoy him to know that he had been the subject of conversation between Pat McCann and Terry O'Donnell, but he was instantly aware of the annoyance. If he intended to throw in his lot with these people, he must look forward to many intimacies not quite to his liking. "Oh, you were talking about me, were you?" he said. "We was that," continued the district leader. "We want you to meet the boys and let them know you, don't you see? We want you to give them the glad hand." When Van Dyne had used this slang phrase to the Judge, it had seemed to him amusing; now it struck him as vulgar. "We want you to jolly them up a bit," McCann went on. "The boys will be glad to know you better." "Yes," was the monosyllabic response to this invitation. The district leader looked at the young lawyer, and his manner changed. "We'd like to get acquainted with you, Mr. Van Dyne," he said, "if you're going to be one of us." "If I'm going to be one of you," Van Dyne repeated. "That's just the question. Am I going to be one of you?" "I thought we had settled all that last week," cried McCann. "I don't think I told you that I would join you," Van Dyne declared, wondering just how far he had committed himself at that last interview. "You told me you thought you would," McCann declared. "Oh, maybe I thought so then," Van Dyne answered. The district leader was generally wary and tactful. Among people of his own class he was a good judge of men; and he owed his position largely to his persuasive powers. But on this occasion he made a mistake, due perhaps in some measure to his perception of the other's assumption of superiority. "And now you don't think so?" he retorted, swiftly. "Is that what it is? Well, it's for you to say, not me. I'm not begging any man to come into the organization if they don't want. But I can't waste my time any more on them that don't want. It's for you to say the word, and it's now or never." "Since you put it that way, Mr. McCann," said Van Dyne, "it's never." "Then you don't want to join the organization?" asked the district leader, a little taken aback by the other's sudden change of determination. "No," Van Dyne replied, "I don't." And when he was left alone on the top of the City Hall steps, the young lawyer was puzzled to know whether it was Judge Jerningham or Pat McCann that had most influenced his decision. (1898) [Illustration: "Sisters Under Their Skins"]