prize pupils! Bah!"

His wife presently fetched her outdoor wraps and adjusted them before a
mirror in the dimly lit hall.

"I'm going to take a tumbler of jelly to poor lonely Mrs. Weatherwax,"
she announced from the door.

Bowers roused suddenly.

"I hope, Eliza, you don't intend raking them over the coals with her,"
he protested, rummaging for his slippers; but his consort was beyond
hail.

A literal transcript of the talk in progress over the way would have
confounded the evil thinking; to illustrate the blameless text with an
equally faithful record of Shelby's actions might salt the narrative.
He had a lawyer's perception of the values of words as words, and
through extended practice with Mrs. Hilliard excelled in that deft
juggling of pregnant trifles without which Platonic friendships must
die of inanition. He now thanked the lady for her successful coup at
the club without specifically naming it--to hint at prearrangement were
too fatuous; and Mrs. Hilliard admired his tact. Parenthetically she
reflected that Joe had no tact. Without specifically naming it, Shelby
contrived to suggest that she could do him yet greater service by
shepherding society at his ratification meeting.

"To be significant, that sort of thing should be broadly
representative," said he.

His words were impersonal, but there was no misreading his look.

Mrs. Hilliard offered her aid with equal thrift of speech and
prodigality of glance. She rejoiced in transparent subtleties. Joe
was never subtle.

"But I've no right to ask it of you--I don't ask it," Shelby deprecated
with his lips.

"You have every right, dear friend," she reassured. "Friend! We are
more than friends, you and I. We are spiritually akin. We fairly
speak without words."

"Exactly." His business despatched, Shelby prepared to go. "My time
isn't my own now," he explained. "It belongs to the party."

"Selfish party," she pouted. "I hate it."

CHAPTER V

By the night of the meeting it was clear that that bugaboo of
politicians, a general apathy, had blanketed the candidate's own
community. Shelby should have stirred local pride. Not for years, in
fact not since Bowers himself sat in Congress, had the nomination come
to Tuscarora County out of the several counties which the Demijohn
District comprised. Nor had the interval since the convention been a
time for folding of hands. Mrs. Hilliard rounded her social circle,
rallying the mem