n and money. But there's an honesty that verges on imbecility, and
that's the kind that talks itself hoarse when it ought to keep silent.
Save your talking until you get to the Senate, and then let fly as much
morality as you please; it won't hurt anybody there, heaven knows. You
are the man we need, and a few of us know it, though the majority may
not. But for the next two years give up trying to purify the Democratic
Party. The party's all right, and it's going to stay so."

"It has been my habit to express my convictions," returned the other
quickly.

"Then drop the habit," replied Galt with an affectionate glance that
softened the shrewd alertness of his look. "My dear and valued friend, a
successful politician does not have convictions; he has emotions.
Convictions were all right when Madison was President, but that
gentleman has been in heaven these many years, and they don't thrive
under the present administration. A party man has got to be a party
mouthpiece. He may laugh and weep with the people, but he has got to
vote with the party--and it's the party man who comes out on top. Why,
look at Withers! Hunt about in his senatorial record and you'll find
that he has voted against himself time out of number. You and I may call
that cowardliness, but the party calls it honour and applauds every
time. That applause has kept him the exponent of the machine and the
idol of the people, who hear the fuss and imagine it means something.
Now Webb is like Withers, only smarter. He is just the man to become a
sounding brass reflector, and there's the danger."

"And yet I defeated him!" suggested the governor.

Galt laughed, with a wave of his thin, nervous hand.

"My dear governor, you are the one great man in State politics, but that
unimportant fact would not have landed you into your present seat had
not the little revivalistic episode befuddled the brains of the
convention."

Nicholas shook his head impatiently. "You make too much of that," he
said.

"Perhaps. I want to impress upon you that you have a hard fight before
you. The Webb men are already putting in a little quiet work in the
legislature--and they have even been after the guards at the
penitentiary. Major Rann is your man, and he tells me the Webb leaders
are the quietest, most insidious workers he has ever met. As it is, he
is your great card, and his influence is immense. Webb would give his
right hand for him."

The governor tossed the hair from h