od
books, and he considered himself to be a very clever man indeed.

At the very least, he was clever enough to realize that his position
was now strategically favourable, and that as long as he moved neither
forward nor backward, he was in no danger from any source. He had a
living salary, and he was saving enough out of it to reduce his
indebtedness; in a year he could snap his fingers at the world.
Furthermore, he could see no possibility of legislating himself out of
his job before that time--certainly not if he played his cards
craftily, and didn't push his success too far. And by the end of the
year, he could select a future to fit the circumstances.

For the time being, however, it seemed advisable to Mr. Mix to make
haste slowly; he had turned an impending personal catastrophe into a
personal triumph, but the triumph could be spoiled unless he kept it
carefully on ice. The failure of the public to rise up and flay the
League had lifted Mr. Mix into a position of much prominence, and
conveyed the very reasonable supposition that he was individually
powerful. When a man is supposed to possess power, he can travel a
long distance on the effect of a flashing eye, and an expanded chest;
also, it is a foolhardy man who, regardless of his reputation, engages
to meet all-comers in their own bailiwick.

He had committed himself to the preparation of an amendment to the
ordinance, which should be more definite, and more cerulean, than the
original, but he knew that if he pressed it too soon, it might topple
back and crush him. The people could be led, but they couldn't be
driven. And therefore Mr. Mix, who had naturally made himself solid
with the reactionaries and the church-going element (except those
liberals who regarded him as an officious meddler), and who had
actually succeeded in being mentioned as the type of man who would
make a good Mayor, or President of Council, followed out a path which,
unless his geography of common-sense was wrong, could hardly end at a
precipice.

He became, overnight, a terror to the boys and young men who rolled
dice in the city parks, and on the alley sidewalks in the business
district; and this was held commendable even by the church-goers who
played bridge at the Citizens Club for penny points. He headed a
violent onslaught upon the tobacconists who sold cigarettes to minors,
and this again was applauded by those who in their youth had avoided
tobacco--because it was too expens