Hubbell had undertaken, in the name of Reform, to make a
witch's cauldron of the city's politics, which Mr. Beatty had hitherto
conducted so smoothly from the back room of his saloon, Mr. Plimpton had
unselfishly offered his services. Bedloe Hubbell, although he had been a
playmate of Mr. Plimpton's wife's, had not proved "reasonable," and had
rejected with a scorn only to be deemed fanatical the suggestion that Mr.
Hubbell's interests and Mr. Beatty's interests need not clash, since Mr.
Hubbell might go to Congress! And Mr. Plimpton was the more hurt since
the happy suggestion was his own, and he had had no little difficulty in
getting Mr. Beatty to agree to it.

Yet Mr. Plimpton's career in the ennobling role of peacemaker had,
on the whole, been crowned with such success as to warrant his belief
in the principle. Mr. Parr, for instance,--in whose service, as in that
of any other friend, Mr. Plimpton was always ready to act--had had
misunderstandings with eminent financiers, and sometimes with United
States Senators. Mr. Plimpton had made many trips to the Capitol at
Washington, sometimes in company with Mr. Langmaid, sometimes not, and on
one memorable occasion had come away smiling from an interview with the
occupant of the White House himself.

Lest Mr. Plimpton's powers of premonition seem supernatural, it may be
well to reveal the comparative simplicity of his methods. Genius,
analyzed, is often disappointing, Mr. Plimpton's was selective and
synthetic. To illustrate in a particular case, he had met Mr. Parr in
New York and had learned that the Reverend Mr. Hodder had not only
declined to accompany the banker on a yachting trip, but had elected to
remain in the city all summer, in his rooms in the parish house, while
conducting no services. Mr. Parr had thought this peculiar. On his
return home Mr. Plimpton had one day dropped in to see a Mr. Gaines, the
real estate agent for some of his property. And Mr. Plimpton being
hale-fellow-well-met, Mr. Gaines had warned him jestingly that he would
better not let his parson know that he owned a half interest in a certain
hotel in Dalton Street, which was leased at a profitable rate.

If Mr. Plimpton felt any uneasiness, he did not betray it. And he
managed to elicit from the agent, in an entirely casual and jovial
manner, the fact that Mr. Hodder, a month or so before, had settled the
rent of a woman for a Dalton Street flat, and had been curious to
discover the name o