rruption is not only detected, but it
is to be dragged forth to meet its judge; at last, it is not going to be
shared by our public officials. It behooves every man and every woman in
Roma to uphold the present investigation and the new mayor."

But the "ring sheet" spoke otherwise:

"After months of promising to 'reform' something, the woman-mayor
and the lady-like gentlemen who are supporting her, are going to
do something great. They have--by crooked and devious ways--
discovered (so they affirm) Graft, with a big, big G. It is
hinted that the Mayor herself is to go on the witness stand to
prove that men who know a hundred-fold more about running a
municipality are dishonest boodlers. Just like a woman! She has
got beyond the rudiments of municipal financiering and into the
sub-divisions which she cannot understand and there she cries
'Graft.' She is beyond her depth and so she imagines there is
fraud. Well, let her prove it; in the meantime, while she is
trying to do so, she will demonstrate--exactly as we predicted
last fall--what a dangerous thing it may be to a city to let a
woman loose upon its administrative functions. Women were never
intended for public officials. Perhaps--as the opposite party
piously claim--the hand of Providence put her there; just to
prove to Roma and her voters what a dangerous thing a little
power may be in the hands of the incompetent and inexperienced
public servant."

Gertrude read all these editorial sayings and smiled or sighed according
to her mood. Sometimes they helped her gird on her armor all the more
bravely, ready to do battle for her principles to the last breath.
Again, "that other Gertrude Van Deusen" came to the front and she wished
in secret that she were a quiet, protected home woman, with a husband
who loved her and little children to lead along the right paths. But why
should John Allingham always come into her mind just there?

CHAPTER XVII

A Dumbfounded Populace

Just one week after Vickery's last call, the district attorney and the
city solicitor met in the mayor's office. The former official, Robert
Joyce, was a young man with most of his reputation to gain; and he had
welcomed the Vickery case as an excellent weapon with which to gain it.
How he had happened to win his office was a cause for wonder to some
people, until they stopped to remember that all interest in the el