use," remarked Vetch, with his
hearty laugh which sounded a trifle strained and affected to-day. "She
thinks it probable that I shall be President."

"Why not, Father?" asked Patty loyally. "They couldn't find a better
one."

"Do you hear that?" demanded the Governor in delight. "That is what one
coming voter thinks of me."

"And a good many others, I haven't a doubt," replied Corinna, with her
cheerful friendliness. Through the windows of the dining-room she could
see the long grape arbour and the gray boughs of the crepe myrtle trees
in the garden.

She had dressed herself carefully for the occasion in a black gown that
followed closely the lines of her figure. Her beauty, which a painter in
Europe had once compared to a lamp, was still so radiant that it seemed
to drain the colour and light from her surroundings. Even Patty, with
her fresh youth, lost a little of her vividness beside the glowing
maturity of the other woman. When Corinna had accepted the girl's
invitation, she had resolved that she would do her best; that, however
tiresome it was, she would "carry it off." Always a match for any
situation that did not include Kent Page or a dangerous emotion, she
felt entirely competent to "manage," as Mrs. Culpeper would have said,
the most radical of Governors. She liked the man in spite of his errors;
she was sincerely attached to Patty; and their artless respect for her
opinion gave her a sense of power which she told herself merrily was
"almost political." Though the Governor might be without the rectitude
which both Benham and Stephen regarded as fundamental, she perceived
clearly that, even if Vetch were lacking in the particular principle
involved, he was not devoid of some moral excellence which filled not
ignobly the place where principle should have been. She was prepared to
concede that the Governor was a man of many defects and a single virtue;
but this single virtue impressed her as more tremendous than any
combination of qualities that she had ever encountered. She admitted
that, from Benham's point of view, Vetch was probably not to be trusted;
yet she felt instinctively that she could trust him. The two men, she
told herself tolerantly, were as far apart as the poles. That the
cardinal virtue Vetch possessed in abundance was the one in which Benham
was inadequate had not occurred to her; for, at the moment, she could
not bring herself to acknowledge that any admirable trait was absent
from the ma