tily trying to disarm him and to destroy his political movement
which was threatening to destroy the Workingmen's League. "A very
shrewd chap is Dorn," thought Davy--why do we always generously concede
at least acumen to those we suspect of having a good opinion of us?--"A
VERY shrewd chap. It's unfortunate he's cursed with that miserable
envy of those better born and better off than he is."

Davy spent the early evening at the University Club, where he was an
important figure. Later on he went to a dance at Mrs. Venable's--and
there he was indeed a lion, as an unmarried man with money cannot but
be in a company of ladies--for money to a lady is what soil and sun and
rain are to a flower--is that without which she must cease to exist.
But still later, when he was alone in bed--perhaps with the supper he
ate at Mrs. Venable's not sitting as lightly as comfort required--the
things Victor Dorn had said came trailing drearily through his mind.
What kind of an article would Dorn print? Those facts about the
campaign fund certainly would look badly in cold type--especially if
Dorn had the proofs. And Hugo Galland-- Beyond question the mere list
of the corporations in which Hugo was director or large stockholder
would make him absurd as a judge, sitting in that district. And Hugo
the son-in-law of the most offensive capitalist in that section of the
State! And the deal with House, endorsed by Kelly--how nasty that
would look, IF Victor had the proofs. IF Victor had the proofs. But
had he?

"I MUST have a talk with Kelly," said Davy, aloud.

The words startled him--not his voice suddenly sounding in the profound
stillness of his bedroom, but the words themselves. It was his first
admission to himself of the vicious truth he had known from the outset
and had been pretending to himself that he did not know--the truth that
his reform movement was a fraud contrived by Dick Kelly to further the
interests of the company of financiers and the gang of
politico-criminal thugs who owned the party machinery. It is a nice
question whether a man is ever allowed to go in HONEST self-deception
decisively far along a wrong road. However this may be, certain it is
that David Hull, reformer, was not so allowed. And he was glad of the
darkness that hid him at least physically from himself as he strove to
convince himself that, if he was doing wrong, it was from the highest
motives and for the noblest purposes and would result in t