went on in a resigned voice:
"Of course I can't keep you with a padlock and chain, but--for the life
of me, I can't catch your point of view. To my mind it appears the
honorable and courageous thing to correct a mistake, even at the last
moment, rather than stand by it for appearance's sake."

"You see I don't regard our principles as a mistake."

But he went back to his office marveling at himself for the ease with
which West had put him in the wrong.

For friendship's sake, West had meant to call at the Charities
Department that day, and explain to his two friends there how his sense
of responsibility to the larger good had made it necessary for him to
inflict a momentary disappointment upon them. But this disturbing
interview with his assistant left him not so sure that an immediate call
would be desirable, after all. At the moment, both Dayne and the dearest
girl in the world would naturally be feeling vexed over the failure of
their plan; wouldn't it be the sensible and considerate thing to give
them a little time to conquer their pique and compose themselves to see
facts as they were?

The _Chronicle_ that afternoon finally convinced him that this would be
the considerate thing. That offensive little busybody, which pretended
to have been a champion of "this people's institution" came out with a
nasty editorial, entitled "The _Post's_ Latest Flop." "Flop" appeared to
be an intensely popular word in the _Chronicle_ office. The article
boldly taxed "our more or less esteemed contemporary" with the murder of
the reformatory, and showed unpleasant freedom in employing such phrases
as "instantaneous conversion," "treacherous friendship," "disgusting
somersaulting," and the like. Next day, grown still more audacious, it
had the hardihood to refer to the _Post_ as "The Plonny Neal organ."

Now, of course, the reformatory had not been in any sense a burning
public "issue." Measures like this, being solid and really important,
seldom interest the people. There was not the smallest popular
excitement over the legislature's conduct, or the _Post's_. The
_Chronicle's_ venomous remarks were dismissed as the usual "newspaper
scrap." All this West understood perfectly. Still, it was plain that a
few enthusiasts, reformatory fanatics, were taking the first flush of
disappointment rather hard. For himself, West reflected, he cared
nothing about their clamor. Conscious of having performed an
unparalleled service to his party,