g his knife
and fork poised for service. He was fair to the point of insipidity, and
his weak blue eyes bulged with joviality.

"Shook hands with him at the train last night," he said. "Hall was a day
ahead of time. Great politician, Hall. Working for Webb like a beaver.
Here, waiter! More potatoes."

"I went to sleep last night to the music of Webb's men," said Galt, "and
I awoke to the tune of Crutchfield. I don't believe either side went to
bed. My wonder is whom they found to work on."

Slate, a muscular little man, with a nervous affection about the mouth
that gave him an appearance of being continually on the point of a
surprising utterance, hesitated over, caught, and finally landed his
speech. "They're dead against Webb down my way," he said. "Our
delegation is instructed to vote for anybody that favours retrenchment,
unless it's Webb--they won't have Webb if he moves to run the State on
the two-cent system. If we'd cast a quarter of a vote for him they'd
drum us out of the district. It's all because he voted for that railroad
bill in Washington last winter. We hate a railroad as a bull hates a red
flag."

Major Baylor, a courtly gentleman, with a face that bore traces of a
survival of the old Virginian legal type, spoke for the first time.

"Fauquier stands to a man for Dudley Webb," he said. "He has a large
following in my section, and I understand, by the way, that if Hartley
withdraws after the first ballot, it will mean a clear gain for Webb in
the eighth district. He's safe, I think."

"Oh, we're Crutchfield strong," laughed the colonel good-humouredly,
reaching for a toothpick from the glass stand in the centre of the
table. "We think a man deserves something who hasn't missed a convention
for fourteen years."

There was a spirit of ridicule tempered with good-humour about the
group, which showed it to be, in the main, indifferent to the result--an
attitude in vivid contrast to the effervescent partisanship of the
leaders. With the exception of the colonel, whose heart was in his
dinner, they appeared to be unconcerned spectators of the events of the
day.

"Hall was telling me a good story on Webb last week," said Diggs, as he
waited for his dessert. "It was about the time he seconded the
nomination of Reed for attorney-general--ever hear it?"

"Fire away!" was Galt's reply, as he leaned back in his chair. The
colonel's stories were the platform which had supported him throughout a
not unsucce