, with
the insinuation that the governor's real quarrel with the bill which
had passed lay in the fact that it exposed too few millions to
thievery. The erratic editor's virtual allegiance to the Boss whom he
once had flayed, might have caused Shelby a smile, had he not been
saddened by the thought that any human being could misunderstand him so
completely. To him it was a transparent truth that because he had
known the canal's abuses as a politician, so surely must he wish to end
them as governor of the state.

The veto rumor, which Shelby neither fathered nor encouraged,
precipitated two things: the Boss sent word through his nephew, a not
infrequent messenger, that the party's interests plainly required that
the party's governor waive his personal disappointment and sign the
bill at once; while Cora, for some days past of a repentent mind,
requested the same small favor as a reward of virtue.

"Show in this way that you forgive my folly," she cajoled. "You'll
never be President without the Boss's aid--everybody says so. Do as he
wishes and as I wish too."

"And give you a chance to intrigue with the Handsome Ludlows of
Washington?"

By and by, as he sat writing in his study, he would have unsaid the
taunt, and resolved that he would talk rationally with her of his
dilemma and of the course he was prepared to take; but no opportunity
befell that evening, and on the morrow, the last day left him but one,
he breakfasted alone. Partly with the intention of speaking to her,
partly for freedom from the button-holing of the grillroom where he
usually lunched, he left the executive chamber shortly before one
o'clock and set out on foot for his home.

As he turned from the capitol park into his own street, Mrs. Van Dam's
carriage halted abruptly at the curb, and the old lady beckoned him.

"I'll not ask you to get in," she said, "for I'm sure you need the
walk, but I've news to tell you of a friend of ours. Ruth Graves's
husband died in Los Angeles yesterday after an operation for
appendicitis."

Time had softened the rougher memories of his brief rivalry with the
dead man, and the circumstance that each had in some degree given
distinction to their common birthplace threw Bernard Graves into a
light which made his early taking off mildly pathetic, but in this
moment Shelby's mind could compass only the one great fact--Ruth was
free!

Canal, governorship, presidency forgotten, he stared into the muddy
street