ar, noble hero, but that Japan or no Japan, she
would not begrudge one copper of any sum I might be obliged to spend in
order to defeat that odious wretch, Mr. Daniel Spinney. A few days
later, after my letter of acceptance was published, she said that she
did not see how anyone who had the least respect for the sacred right
of suffrage could hesitate between us.

"Spinney is not such a bad fellow at bottom," I replied, albeit touched
by the warm partisanship of my wife.

"Didn't I read in the newspaper this morning that he is a notorious
spoilsman?"

"Very likely, dear. Spinney has always called Civil Service Reform a
humbug."

"And he is all wrong on the tariff."

"We think so."

"Well, then, how can you say that he isn't a bad fellow at bottom?"

"I mean, Josephine, that apart from politics he is a very decent sort
of person. I couldn't help thinking while I was chatting with him
yesterday that there was something quite attractive about him. He
isn't exactly the kind of man I should hold up as a model to my sons,
but, as I said before, he is by no means a bad fellow."

Josephine had been looking at me aghast ever since the opening sentence
of this speech. "You don't mean to tell me, Fred, that you stopped and
chatted with that wretch?"

"Indeed I do. We happened to meet, and so we hobnobbed for five
minutes on the street corner and drew each other out in the friendliest
sort of fashion as to our mutual prospects. He says he has a
walk-over, and I told him that he isn't in it."

"I'm glad you showed a little spirit, anyhow."

"What would you have had me do? Make a fell assault upon his hair and
eyeballs? As it was, I perpetrated a deliberate falsehood in the good
cause. He knows that I know I am beaten from the start."

"Nonsense," said Josephine. "You provoke me, Fred, when you talk in
that fashion. What was the use of accepting if you didn't intend to
win if you could?"

"So I do intend, but I can't."

"You can't certainly if you hobnob with the rival candidate and call
him a good fellow."

"You ought to have been a politician, Josephine."

"No, I'm only crazy to have you win, Fred, and I'm convinced you can
win if you only think so yourself and pitch in as if you thought so. I
dare say Mr. Spinney may be well enough apart from politics, but it is
politics we are interested in at present, and it seems to me it is your
duty to hate him--until the election is over, anyway. If you def