like herself.
He remembered her bending to look at him under the candle shades of the
Piers' dinner table and announcing her disbelief in the equal
administration of the laws. But yet, if she should come to him--if she
would only come to him, pleading for herself as she had once for a few
minutes pleaded for Evans----He could almost see her there in the circle
of his reading light, close to him--could almost smell the perfume of
violets.

"I hope to God she doesn't come," he said to himself, and desired it
more than anything in life.

At that very moment the doorbell rang. O'Bannon's heart began to beat
till it hurt him. If she were there he must see her, and if he saw her
he must again take her in his arms, and if--it was his duty to present
the case against her.

There was a knock on his door, and his mother entered ushering in
Governor Albee. Great and wise men came from East and West to see her
son, her manner seemed to say.

"Well, O'Bannon," said the governor, "I haven't seen you since--let me
see--the 1916 convention, wasn't it?"

The younger man pulled himself together. He was not a politician for
nothing, and he had control, almost automatically, of a simple, friendly
manner.

"But I've seen you, governor," he answered. "I went in the other day to
hear your cross-examination on that privileged-communication point. I
learned a lot. We're all infants compared with you when it comes to that
sort of thing."

"Oh"--Albee gave one of his straight-armed waves of the band--"everyone
tells me you have your own method of getting the facts. I hear very fine
things of you, O'Bannon. There's an impression that Princess County
will soon be looking for another district attorney."

Mrs. O'Bannon stole reluctantly away, closing the door behind her. The
two men went on flattering each other, as each might have flattered a
woman. Both were now aware that a serious situation was before them.
They began to talk of the great party to which they belonged. The
governor mentioned his personal responsibility--by which he meant his
personal power--as a national committeeman. He spoke of an interview
with the leader of the party in New York--the purveyor of great
positions.

"He's going to put the chairmanship of this new commission up to me.
It's not so much financially--seventy-five hundred--but the opportunity,
the reputation a fellow might make. It needs a big man, and yet a young
one. I'm for putting in a young man."