then: "Very well, Harvey. But we must be careful about
him. De Milt has told you how dangerous he is, hasn't he?"

"Yes--how dangerous he tried to be." I was about to add that Goodrich
was a fool to permit any one to go to such a man as Scarborough with
such a proposition; but I bethought me of Burbank's acute moral
sensitiveness and how it would be rasped by the implication of his
opponent's moral superiority. "We're past the last danger, James. That's
all. Sleep sound. Good night."

"Good night, old man," was his reply in his pose's tone for affection.
But I could imagine him posing there in his night shirt, the anger
against me snapping in his eyes.

On the train the next morning, De Milt, who had evidently been doing a
little thinking, said, "I hope you won't let it out to Cousin James that
I told you Goodrich was coming to see him."

"Certainly not," I replied, not losing the opportunity to win over to
myself one so near to my political ward. "I'm deeply obliged to you for
telling me." And presently I went on: "By the way, has anything been
done for you for your brilliant work at Saint X?"

"Oh, that's all right," he said, "I guess Cousin James'll look after
me--unless he forgets about it." "Cousin James" had always had the habit
of taking favors for granted unless reward was pressed for; and since he
had become a presidential candidate, he was inclining more than ever to
look on a favor done him as a high privilege which was its own reward.

I made no immediate reply to De Milt; but just before we reached the
capital, I gave him a cheque for five thousand dollars. "A little
expression of gratitude from the party," said I. "Your reward will come
later." From that hour he was mine, for he knew now by personal
experience that "the boys" were right in calling me appreciative.

It is better to ignore a debt than to pay with words.

XXIV

GRANBY INTRUDES AGAIN

Burbank had grown like a fungus in his own esteem.

The adulation of the free excursionists I had poured in upon him, the
eulogies in the newspapers, the flatteries of those about him, eager to
make themselves "solid" with the man who might soon have the shaking of
the huge, richly laden presidential boughs of the plum tree--this
combination of assaults upon sanity was too strong for a man with such
vanity as his, a traitor within. He had convinced his last prudent doubt
that he was indeed a "child of destiny." He was resentful lest I might
p