ust. I have
forfeited the right to reproach you as man to wife--granted that I
never had it; as a man I waive my personal affront. But as the
governor of this state to the mistress of this, the state's house, I
warn you that this brazen mockery of decency must end. When I am
governor no longer you may go your way in such fashion as you will.
Till then you must take no step which shall discredit my office or the
position to which my office raises you. You will tell Ludlow this, and
when you have told him, you will hold no private speech with him until
my successor takes his oath. Promise."

His volcanic outburst cowed her flippancy.

"I promise," she said.

Before the week elapsed the newspapers announced that Ludlow had
decided to resume the practice of law in New York. Cora made no
comment; but Shelby read into the retreat her purpose to keep their
sorry truce inviolate, and strove to shut his mind to every thought
alien to his work.

The public business was absorbing enough in truth. His great canal
project, which during a month of hearings, conferences, committee
enmeshments, and the like, had hung in jeopardy, was wrecked beyond
repair. Nor was this the worst. The governor's forcing of the issue
had convinced the Boss that a popular demand for canal legislation of
some sort really existed, and he prepared to respond with a measure
after his own heart. A vicious substitute, which it was given out that
the organization fully indorsed, glided facilely to its final reading
after the manner of bills bearing the mystic sign manual of the Boss.
Foreseeing disaster, Shelby sought at least to rescue the wise
provision of his plan which looked to the administration of the canals
along business lines, and to this end used his personal influence with
various members of the Legislature. Achieving little here, he even
appealed to the leader himself.

The Boss wrote him in his ironic mood.

"Naturally I cannot forecast the action of the Legislature," he said,
following his modest custom of disclaiming foreknowledge of the events
he shaped; "but in my opinion any measure which ignores the legitimate
expectation of patronage on the part of the party in power is too
idyllic for this workday world."

Shelby was at no loss to give this dictum its true interpretation. His
own scheme had secured the party's legitimate rights sufficiently--he
was too clear-sighted to overlook that. It was the party's illicit
greed f