turned to him, an impetuous rush of new life leaped torrent-like
in his heart. Her eyes met his slowly, and for a moment he felt a
pleasure acute with the exquisiteness of pain. Such sensations are
usually transient, and in another moment he had himself well in hand.

"I want to say good night," he said quietly, "and--"

"Will you come here to-morrow at eleven?" she asked hurriedly. "There
is something I want to say to you."

"I know that you are sorry for me."

"That isn't what I mean to say."

A wistful but imperious message was flashed to him from her eyes.

"I will come," he replied gravely.

When he reached headquarters he found the committee dismayed and
distracted. Like Wilder, they counseled a sweeping denial, but David
was firm.

"It is true," he reiterated.

"It will cost us the vote of a certain element," predicted the
chairman, "and we haven't one to spare."

David listened to a series of similar sentiments until Knowles--a new
Knowles--came in. The usual blank placidity of his face was rippled by
radiant exultation.

"David," he announced, "before that parade started to-night I had made
out another conservative estimate, and thought I could pull you
through by a slight majority. Now, it's different. While you may lose
some votes from the 'near-silk stocking' class, yet for every vote so
lost hundreds will rally to you. That all men are created equal is
still a truth held to be self-evident. The spark of the spirit that
prompted the Declaration of Independence is always ready to be fanned
to a flame, and the Democrats have furnished us the fans in their
flying pennants."

David found no balm in this argument. All the wounds in his heart were
aching, and he could not bring his thoughts to majorities. He passed a
night of nerve-racking strain. The jeopardy of election did not
concern him. That night at the dinner party he had realized that he
had a formidable rival in Fletcher, who had a place firmly fixed in
the Winthrop household. Still, against odds, he had determined to woo
and win Carey.

He had thought to tell her of his father's imprisonment under
softening influences. To have it flashed ruthlessly upon her in such a
way, and at such a time, made him shrink from asking her to link her
fate with his, and he decided to put her resolutely out of his life.

Unwillingly, he went to keep his appointment with her the next
morning. He also dreaded an encounter with Mrs. Winthrop. He felt that