s public
record and mine. I want people to see both sides and judge between
them, not in the red glare of a newspaper denunciation, but in the
plain daylight of common-sense. Charges against the private morality of
a public man are usually made in such a blare of headlines and cloud of
mud-throwing that the voice he lifts up in his defence can not make
itself heard. In this case I want the public to hear what I have to say
before the yelping begins. My letter will take the wind out of the
'Spy's' sails, and if the verdict goes against me, the case will have
been decided on its own merits, and not at the dictation of the writers
of scare heads. Even if I don't gain my end, it will be a good thing,
for once, for the public to consider dispassionately how far a private
calamity should be allowed to affect a career of public usefulness, and
the next man who goes through what I am undergoing may have cause to
thank me if no one else does."

Shackwell sat silent for a moment, with the ring of the last words in
his ears.

Suddenly he rose and held out his hand. "Give me the letter," he said.

The Governor caught him up with a kindling eye. "It's all right, then?
You see, and you'll take it?"

Shackwell met his glance with one of melancholy interrogation. "I think
I see a magnificent suicide, but it's the kind of way I shouldn't mind
dying myself."

He pulled himself silently into his coat and put the letter into one of
its pockets, but as he was turning to the door the Governor called
after him cheerfully: "By the way, Hadley, aren't you and Mrs.
Shackwell giving a big dinner to-morrow?"

Shackwell paused with a start. "I believe we are--why?"

"Because, if there is room for two more, my wife and I would like to be
invited."

Shackwell nodded his assent and turned away without answering. As he
came out of the lobby into the clear sunset radiance he saw a victoria
drive up the long sweep to the Capitol and pause before the central
portion. He descended the steps, and Mrs. Mornway leaned from her furs
to greet him.

"I have called for my husband," she said, smiling. "He promised to get
away in time for a little turn in the Park before dinner."

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hermit and the Wild Woman and
Other Stories, by Edith Wharton

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HERMIT AND WILD WOMAN ***

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