The clock on the huge central tower of the Capitol marked nine, as the
Lieutenant-Governor passed rapidly through the lofty entrance hall
toward the corridor leading to his office and that of Governor Abbott.
Already his promptness was proverbial, and there were those in the
great, grim building who looked forward to the moment of his arrival,
each morning, with a kind of eagerness. These were the simpler folk of
the official world with which circumstance housed him for eight hours
daily,--bootblacks, elevator-boys, porters, doormen. For to the big,
clean, wholesome personality which appeals irresistibly to these humbler
people, Barclay added an astonishing memory for faces, and for the names
and circumstances connected with them. It was a gift which counted as an
unspeakably important factor in the establishment and maintenance of
unusually cordial relations with all those with whom he came in contact.
No one brought within the radius of his personal magnetism long resisted
it. It was only those who judged him from a distance, as did the press
and the rank and file of his party, or those who deliberately
misinterpreted him, as did his political enemies, who permitted
themselves anything short of enthusiasm for John Barclay. And this
faculty for attracting admiration and commanding respect, this
infallible kindness and this inherent dignity, were never made manifest
to so great advantage as in his attitude toward his inferiors. These
adored him. He accumulated, bit by bit, a remarkable store of intimate
information relating to them, and employed it in his intercourse with
them, with a tact and a frank sincerity of interest which never failed
of their effect. The response thus elicited was strongest of the minor
pleasures in his life. He was aware--none better--of the shrewdness
native to those who have no claim upon one's recognition, their
appreciation of notice that is unfeignedly interested, their
sensitiveness to open indifference, their resentment of the simulated
consideration which is mere impertinence; and he was conscious of a
little inward thrill of satisfaction at the difference of attitude in
the employees at the Capitol as toward Governor Abbott and himself.
Where the former's suavity elicited only formal respect, manifestly
obligatory, his own whole-heartedness lined his way with smiles and
kindly greetings. His official existence, beset with annoyance,
mortification, and disappointment, was, as he often r