. Now, if I could feel sure
that I ought to run again in the interest of reform--"

"You've done so much already," Mr. O'Meagher hastily put in, "you've
sacrificed so heavily that I don't think it would be fair to ask it of
you."

"N-no," said the Mayor, dubiously, "I suppose it wouldn't, now, would
it?"

"Of course not."

"And yet I don't like to run away from the call, so to speak, of duty."

"Don't be worried about that."

"But I am worried, O'Meagher. I can't help it. By every mail I am
receiving hundreds of letters from the best citizens of New-York, urging
me to let my name be used. Deputations wait on me constantly with the
same request, and, as you know, they are going to hold a mass-meeting
to-morrow night, and they threaten to nominate me, whether or no. What
can I do? I tell them I don't want to run, that my private business has
already suffered by neglect, but they answer imploring me not to desert
the cause of reform just when it needs me most. It is very
embarrassing."

"Very," said Mr. O'Meagher. "It's astonishing how thoughtless people
are. But they wouldn't be so hard on you if they knew how you were
fixed."

"That's just it. They don't know, and I don't want to appear selfish."

Mr. O'Meagher coughed, not because he needed to cough, but for want of
something better to do.

"The Tammany ticket," Mr. Ruse continued, "will be hotly opposed this
year, and I'm bound to say that I don't think it is sufficiently
identified with reform. They tell me you are going to nominate Wimples
for the Supreme Court. Wimples is a good lawyer, but he has no reform
record. Neither has Colonel Bellows, whom you talk of for
District-Attorney. McBoodle for Sheriff does not appeal to reformers.
Bierbocker for Register might get the German vote, but how could
reformers support a common butcher? I don't know whom you think of for
my place, but it seems to me that there's only one way to save your
ticket from defeat and that is to indorse the candidate for Mayor
presented by the citizens' mass-meeting to-morrow night. That would make
success certain. The public would praise your noble fidelity to reform,
and you'd sweep the city! Think of it, Mr. O'Meagher! What a glorious,
what a golden opportunity!"

"My eyes are as wide open as the next man's for golden opportunities,
Mr. Ruse," replied Mr. O'Meagher. "But the question is, who will be
nominated."

"Well, 'hem! of course I can't definitely say. I'm trying to get