anybody---- What would be the object of anybody
spying on this particular little seance----?" He paused at the quick
consternation which the suggestion aroused.

"What do you mean, Philip?" demanded the Honorable Milton sharply. He
sat up more alertly. "Why do you ask such a foolish question? Are you
talking at random or----?"

"Very much at random," assured Kendrick hastily. "I was just
wondering. Because---- Well, it would be the only way anybody who
happened to be interested would find out about your meeting, wouldn't
it? I don't intend to talk about it, as I said before. I thought
perhaps if it had anything to do with the political situation, for
instance,--detectives, you know--around election time. I don't pretend
to know very much about these things, of course."

"You are fortunate," grunted the Honorable Milton, dryly. "Seems to me
you are allowing your imagination to run away with you, young man.
Advise you to curb it."

Phil took a long pull at his cigar and studied his uncle keenly as he
blew the smoke into the air.

"Do you want to know how I really got this beauty spot--this 'flower of
folly' as you called it?" he asked unexpectedly. "I had a little
argument with a fellow to-night who insisted that you were--he
retracted it, of course--were a political grafter!"

The smile with which the Honorable Milton Waring had welcomed the
promised change of subject faded slowly. He wagged his head in reproof.

"Very foolish of you, Philip--to take any notice of that sort of thing.
Let 'em talk!" Yet he looked at this nephew of his with a new
interest. "Grafter, eh? Didn't believe it, eh?"

"Anyone who looks up your political record, Uncle Milt, must respect
you," said Phil seriously. "These newspapers that are so fond of
handing out roasts seem to overlook the fact that you were the man
mainly responsible for kicking out Rives and his crowd and cleaning up
the whole rotten administration. It makes me mad. And some of them
have got the nerve to hint that the present Government----"

"Don't let's get into any political discussion, Philip," interrupted
his uncle, holding up his hand in protest. "Please. I'm too tired for
that. I'm sick of it, d'you hear? Politics! Politics! The same
miserable tactics of misrepresentation! The same petty motives that
have bedeviled public life for the past---- Damn them!"

He heaved himself abruptly from his chair and began to pace the room
restless