Then he looked out of the window to escape seeing the pain in his
mother's face, and the bitterness in the Senator's. He did not
illustrate his contention with examples, for with these the Senator and
his friends were familiar. A light arose on the poor man's horizon.
Looking timidly at Anne, after a moment's pause, he said:

"I never thought of all that. You've put me on the right track, Artie. I
thank you."

"What can I do," he whispered to Anne, "since it's plain he wants me to
give in--no, to avoid the comic papers?"

"Whatever he wishes must be done," she replied with a gesture of
despair.

"The boy is a wonder," thought the Senator. "He has us all under that
little California thumb."

"I was a fool to think of the nomination," he said aloud as Arthur
turned from the window. "Of course there'd be no end to the ridicule.
Didn't the chap on Harper's, when I was elected for the Senate, rig me
out as a gladiator, without a stitch on me, actually, Artie, not a
stitch--most indecent thing--and show old Cicero in the same picture
looking at me like John Everard, with a sneer, and singing to himself: a
senator! No, I couldn't stand it. I give up. I've got as high as my kind
can go. But there's one thing, if I can't be mayor myself, I can say
who's goin' to be."

"Then make it Birmingham, uncle," Arthur suggested. "I would like to see
him in that place next to you."

"And Birmingham it is, unless"--he looked at Anne limp with
disappointment--"unless I take it into my head to name you for the
place."

She gave a little cry of joy and sat up straight.

"Now God bless you for that word, Senator. It'll be a Dillon anyway."

"In that case I make Birmingham second choice," Arthur said seriously,
accepting the hint as a happy ending to a rather painful scene.

The second part of the Chief's order proved more entertaining. To visit
the Mayor and sound him on the question of his own renomination appeared
to Arthur amusing rather than important; because of his own rawness for
such a mission, and also because of their relationship. Livingstone was
his kinsman. Of course John Everard gave the embassy character, but his
reputation reflected on its usefulness. Nature had not yet provided a
key to the character of Louis' father. Arthur endured him because Louis
loved him, quoted him admiringly, and seemed to understand him most of
the time; but he could not understand an Irishman who maintained, as a
principle of history