said the Honourable Hilary,
sententiously.

The Honourable Adam began to breathe with apparent difficulty, and his
face grew purple. But Mr. Vane did not appear to notice these alarming
symptoms. Then the candidate turned about, as on a pivot, seized Mr.
Vane by the knee, and looked into his face.

"Did you come up here with orders for me to get out?" he demanded, with
some pardonable violence. "By thunder, I didn't think that of my old
friend, Hilary Vane. You ought to have known me better, and Flint ought
to have known me better. There ain't a mite of use of our staying here
another second, and you can go right back and tell Flint what I said.
Flint knows I've been waiting to be governor for eight years, and each
year it's been just a year ahead. You ask him what he said to me when he
sent for me to go to New York. I thought he was a man of his word, and
he promised me that I should be governor this year."

The Honourable Hilary gave no indication of being moved by this
righteous outburst.

"You can be governor next year, when this reform nonsense has blown
over," he said. "You can't be this year, even if you stay in the race."

"Why not?" the Honourable Adam asked pugnaciously.

"Your record won't stand it--not just now," said Mr. Vane, slowly.

"My record is just as good as yours, or any man's," said the Honourable
Adam.

"I never run for office," answered Mr. Vane.

"Haven't I spent the days of my active life in the service of that
road--and is this my reward? Haven't I done what Flint wanted always?"

"That's just the trouble," said the Honourable Hilary; "too many folks
know it. If we're going to win this time, we've got to have a man who's
never had any Northeastern connections."

"Who have you picked?" demanded the Honourable Adam, with alarming
calmness.

"We haven't picked anybody yet," said Mr. Vane, "but the man who goes
in will give you a cheque for what you've spent, and you can be governor
next time."

"Well, if this isn't the d--dest, coldest-blooded proposition ever made,
I want to know!" cried the Honourable Adam. "Will Flint put up a bond
of one hundred thousand dollars that I'll be nominated and elected next
year? This is the clearest case of going back on an old friend I ever
saw. If this is the way you fellows get scared because a sham reformer
gets up and hollers against the road, then I want to serve notice on you
that I'm not made of that kind of stuff. When I go into a fight, I