husiast of their absolute sympathy with his
aims, as well as their own integrity of purpose, and then he is elected
and goes to Albany.

She was interrupted by the waiter with the lunch. She directed him to
serve them.

"Never mind the lunch--go on with 'The Governor'!" commanded Trent.

"That's enough for this session. Come and eat your brief repast--time is
nearly up."

"But what are you going to have him do when he finds out the corporation
is rotten?"

While he ate his lunch he plied her with questions and objections. When
he had finished, he hesitated at the door.

"Let's talk about the play to-night. I'll come after you. For this
relief much thanks; it was both mental and physical."

This play, introduced as a soporific by Bob, proved a real bond. Trent
became deeply interested in it, talked it, thought about it, contended
fiercely over points. When Bob remarked that it was, after all, her
play, and she would do with it as she saw fit, he always defended
himself gravely.

He debated the necessity of the love story. It took time which might be
used for preachment.

"Oh, you mere man," she exploded, "you can't go on disregarding women
in this way. We're here, we've got to be admitted and considered."

"Well, but----"

"The governor's love affair will be of much more interest to an audience
than the reform bills he puts through."

"Stupid cattle!"

"Of more interest to the governor, too," she added.

"Heretic! You don't believe that."

"Certainly I do."

"You think that his courting a woman and having a few children is as
important as what he can do for the whole State of New York?"

She hesitated a moment, chin in hand.

"I think that in so far as a man is normal he understands the needs of
the people. It's normal for a man to marry and have a family. My
governor will be a bigger man, if he wins this girl in the play."

"But all that interrupts him, takes his mind off his bigger usefulness."

"The bigger the man, the bigger his usefulness. Don't you see, you've
got to feed all a man's needs, or a woman's, to get the highest
results?"

"Do you think everybody needs this, this food, as you call it?"

"Do I think every baby needs mother's milk?" she inquired.

"They don't all get it, and they live just the same."

"Yes, but you can never say how much stronger they would have been with
it," she smiled.

"Irish sophistry," he remarked, but he found that talk recurring to
him. She had phr