e of
amity.

"Maybe I never have," he replied slowly. "I didn't have your advantage
of seeing a place to begin."

"But you have the advantage of every one; you have the thing that I can
never hope to have, that I don't ask for: you have the power in your
hands to do everything!"

His quick, direct glance expressed curiosity as to whether she were
appealing to his vanity or implying a sincere belief in his power.

"Power is too large a word to apply to me, Miss Garrison. I have had a
good deal of experience in politics, and in politics you can't do all
you like."

"I didn't question that: men of the finest intentions seem to fail, and
they will probably go on failing. I know that from books; you know it of
course from actual dealings with the men who find their way to
responsible places, and who very often fail to accomplish the things we
expect of them."

"The aims of most of the reformers are futile from the beginning.
Legislatures can pass laws; they pass far too many; but they can't make
ideal conditions out of those laws. I've seen it tried."

"Yesterday, when you were able to make that convention do exactly what
you wanted it to, without even being there to watch it, it must have
been because of some ideal you were working for. You thought you were
serving some good purpose; it wasn't just spite or to show your power.
It couldn't have been that!"

"I did it," he said doggedly, as though to destroy with a single blunt
thrust her tower of illusions--"I did it to smash a man named Thatcher.
There wasn't any ideal nonsense about it."

He frowned, surprised and displeased that he had spoken so roughly. He
rarely let go of himself in that fashion. He expected her to take
advantage of his admission to point a moral; but she said instantly:--

"Then, you did it beautifully! There was a certain perfection about it;
it was, oh, immensely funny!"

She laughed, tossing her head lightly, a laugh of real enjoyment, and he
was surprised to find himself laughing with her. It seemed that the
Thatcher incident was not only funny, but that its full humorous value
had not until that moment been wholly realized by either of them.

She rose quickly. One of her gloves fell to the floor and he picked it
up. The act of restoring it brought them close together, and their talk
had, he felt, justified another searching glance into her face. She
nodded her thanks, smiling again, and moved toward the door. He admired
the tact wh