long-distance business in that tavern is painful to handle--hot words
flying over the state about this Thatcher-Bassett rumpus. You may take
it from me that the fight is warm, and I guess somebody will know more
after the convention. But say--!"

"Um," said Harwood, whose gaze was upon the frame of a new building that
was rising across the street. He was thinking of Allen. If Marian and
Allen were subjects of gossip in connection with the break between their
fathers he foresaw trouble; and he was sorry, for he was sincerely
devoted to the boy; and Marian he liked also, in spite of her vagaries.
A great many people were likely to be affected by the personal
difficulties of Thatcher and Bassett. Even quiet Montgomery was teeming,
and on the way from the station he had met half a dozen acquaintances
who had paused to shake hands and say something about the political
situation. His ignorance of Bassett's real intentions, which presumably
the defiance of the "Courier" merely cloaked, was not without its
embarrassment. He had been known as a Bassett man; he had received and
talked to innumerable politicians of Bassett's party in the Boordman
Building; and during the four years of his identification with Bassett
he had visited most of the county seats on political and business
errands. The closeness of their association made all the more surprising
this sudden exclusion.

"I said 'say,'" repeated Miss Farrell, lightly touching the smooth cliff
of yellow hair above her brow with the back of her hand. "I was about to
give you a message from his majesty our king, but if you're on a pipe
dream don't let me call you home."

"Oh, yes; pardon me. What were you about to say?"

"Mr. Bassett said that if you came in before I quit to ask you to come
over to the Whitcomb. Mrs. Bassett blew in to-day from that sanatorium
in Connecticut where they've been working on her nerves. Miss Marian
brought her back, and they've stopped in town to rest. And say,"--here
Miss Farrell lowered her voice,--"the Missis must try his soul a good
deal! I wonder how he ever picked _her_ out of the bunch?"

"That will do!" said Harwood sharply. "I'll find Mr. Bassett at the
Whitcomb and I shan't have anything for you to-day."

There had been a meeting of the central committee preliminary to the
approaching state convention. A number of candidates had already opened
headquarters at the Whitcomb; members of Congress, aspirants for the
governor's seat, to b