in
his grey eye, would reply:

"Why, certainly, Governor." (He was a governor of some place once, the
senator knew.)

Finally he got on to his marvellous cleverness in the training of the
young. He had no children himself, he said, but he had "raised" two
young men in his office, and as a proof of their wonderful astuteness
from his teaching, "I give you my word, Ma'am," he said, "either of
them could draw a contract now for me, out of which I could slip at any
moment!!!"

Isn't that a superb idea, Mamma! And the complete frankness with which
it was said! What we would call sharp practice he considered "smart,"
and no doubt that is the way to get rich; for when he had gone on to
the smoking car, the senator told us he was five times a millionaire,
and really a good fellow underneath.

"We've got to have all sorts to make a nation, and he's the kind of
machine that does the rough-hewing," he said. "He did no bragging when
he was under dog; he just bottled it up and pushed on, but it was that
spirit which caused him to rise. Now he's made good, won his millions,
and it bursts out."--(It certainly did!)

The Senator always sees straight. He said also: "He rough-hews
everything he handles, including his neighbours' nerves; he has no
mercy or pity or consideration for anyone serving him, and yet he's the
kindest heart towards children and animals, and the good he does to
them is about the only thing he don't brag about."

It interested me immensely, but Tom had got so ruffled that I am sure
even his sense of humour could not have kept him from contradicting
Craik Purdy, his name is--Craik V. Purdy, I mean!

The Senator told us lots more about him and his methods, succeeding by
sheer brute force and shouting all opposition down. Don't you wish,
Mamma, we had some like him at home to deal with the socialists? These
men are the real autocrats of the world, even though America is a
republic. But wouldn't it be frightful to be married to a person like
that! Octavia, who even in the noise of the train had heard some of it,
asked the Senator what the wife was like, and he told us she had been a
girl of his own class who had never risen with him, and was a rare
exception in American women, who rise quicker than the men as a rule.

"She's been every sort of drawback to him," he said, "and yet he is
almighty kind to her and covers her with diamonds; and she is a dullish
sort of woman with a cold in her head."

Octavia said