room. I'll be back in a moment," he added, nodding to the others.

But the man on his right removed his cigar from his lips and said in an
undertone, "No, sit down, stay where you are;" and the elderly gentleman
at Arkwright's side laid his hand detainingly on his arm. "Oh, you won't
take Mr. Arkwright away from us, Stanton?" he asked, smiling.

Stanton shrugged his shoulders and sat down again, and there was a
moment's pause. It was broken by the man in the overcoat, who laughed.

"He's paying you a compliment, Mr. Arkwright," he said. He pointed with
his cigar to the gentleman at Arkwright's side.

"I don't understand," Arkwright answered doubtfully.

"It's a compliment to your eloquence--he's afraid to leave you alone
with the senator. Livingstone's been telling us that you are a better
talker than Stanton." Arkwright turned a troubled countenance toward the
men about the table, and then toward Livingstone, but that young man had
his eyes fixed gravely on the glasses before him and did not raise them.

Arkwright felt a sudden, unreasonable fear of the circle of
strong-featured, serene and confident men about him. They seemed to
be making him the subject of a jest, to be enjoying something among
themselves of which he was in ignorance, but which concerned him
closely. He turned a white face toward Stanton.

"You don't mean," he began piteously, "that--that you are not going? Is
that it--tell me--is that what you wanted to say?"

Stanton shifted in his chair and muttered some words between his lips,
then turned toward Arkwright and spoke quite clearly and distinctly.

"I am very sorry, Mr. Arkwright," he said, "but I am afraid I'll have to
disappoint you. Reasons I cannot now explain have arisen which make my
going impossible--quite impossible," he added firmly--"not only now, but
later," he went on quickly, as Arkwright was about to interrupt him.

Arkwright made no second attempt to speak. He felt the muscles of his
face working and the tears coming to his eyes, and to hide his weakness
he twisted in his chair and sat staring ahead of him with his back
turned to the table. He heard Livingstone's voice break the silence with
some hurried question, and immediately his embarrassment was hidden in a
murmur of answers and the moving of glasses as the men shifted in their
chairs and the laughter and talk went on as briskly as before. Arkwright
saw a sideboard before him and a servant arranging some silver on one o