verything that one
would like to be."

"I've heard of him, of course," said the girl slowly. "Father has been
fighting him ever since he went into politics; but I never saw Mr.
Benhem close enough to speak to him until the other evening." She raised
her black lashes and looked straight at Stephen with her challenging
glance. "All the men seemed so serious, except you."

He laughed and flushed slightly. "And I did not?"

Though her manner could not have been more indifferent, there was an
undercurrent of feeling in her voice, as if she meant something more
than she had put into words. He might take it as he chose, lightly or
seriously, her look implied--and it was, he admitted, a thrilling look
from such eyes as hers.

"You are nearer my age," she rejoined, "though you do seem so old
sometimes."

A depressing dampness fell on his mood. "Do I seem old to you? I am only
twenty-six."

Her inquiring eyebrows were raised in mockery. "That is too old to play,
isn't it?"

"Well, I might try," he answered, and added curiously, "I wonder whom
you find to play with? Not your father?"

"Oh, no, not Father. He is as serious as Mr. Benham, only he laughs a
great deal more. Father jokes all the time, but there is something
underneath that isn't a joke at all."

"I should like to talk to your father. I want to find out, if I can,
what he really believes."

"You won't find out that," said Patty, "by talking to him."

"You mean he will not tell me?"

"Oh, he may tell you; but you won't know it. Half the time when he is
telling the truth, it sounds like a joke, and that keeps people from
believing him. He says the best way to keep a secret is to shout it from
the housetops; and I've heard him say things straight out that sounded
so far fetched nobody would think he was in earnest. I was the only
person who knew that he was speaking the truth. They call that a
'method', the politicians. They used to like it before he was elected;
but now it makes them restless. They complain that they can't do
anything with him."

"That," remarked Stephen, as she paused, "appears to be the chronic
complaint of politicians."

"Does it? Well, Mr. Gershom is always saying now that Father can't be
depended on. It was much more peaceable," she concluded with artless
confidence, "when he let them manage him. Now there are discussions and
disagreements all the time. It all seems to be about what they think
people want. Have you any idea what t