, and cool, and hopeful, while Radbourn was
speaking, but afterward that horrible, weakening fear came back upon
him.

He couldn't look at poor Harry Stillman, who came on a few names
further. Harry had pounded away all the week on Webster's reply to
Hayne, and he now stood forth in piteous contrast to his ponderous
theme. His thin, shaking legs toed-in like an Indian's, and his
trousers were tight, and short, and checked, which seemed to increase
the tightness and shortness. He had narrow shoulders and thin, long
arms, which he used like a jumping jack, each gesture being curiously
unrelated to his facial expression, which was mainly appealing and
apprehensive. As Shep Watson said, "He looked as if he expected a barn
to fall on him."

At last Bradley's name was spoken, and he rose in a mist. The windows
had disappeared. They were mere blurs of light. As he walked up the
aisle the floor fell away from the soles of his feet. He no longer
walked, he was a brain floating in space. He made his way to the stage
without accident, for he had rehearsed it all so many times in his mind
that unconscious cerebration attended to the necessary motions. When he
faced the assembly, he seemed facing a boundless sea of faces. They in
their turn were awed by something they saw in his eyes. His face was
white and his eyes burned with a singular light. A mysterious power
emanated from him as from the born orator.

Like all the rest he had taken a theme that was far beyond his apparent
powers, and the apparent comprehension of his audience; but they had
been fed so long upon William Tell, Rienzi, Marc Antony and Spartacus,
that every line was familiar. Nothing was too ponderous, too lofty, too
peak-addressing for them.

He mispronounced the words, his gestures were awkward and spasmodic,
but lofty emotion exalted him and vibrated in his voice. He thrilled
every heart. He had opened somewhere, somehow, a vast reservoir of
power. A great calm fell upon him. A wild joy of new-found strength
that awed and thrilled his own heart. It seemed as if a new spirit had
taken his flesh. As he went on he grew more dignified and graceful. His
great arms seemed to be gigantic, as he thundered against the
Carthaginians. Everybody forgot his dress, his freckled face, and when
he closed, the applause was instant and generous.

As he walked back to his seat, the exultant light went out of his eyes,
his limbs relaxed, the windows and the sunlight cleared