Mrs. Owen glanced at Ware with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Afraid I'm going to be discovered," he remarked to Sylvia as he
buttered a bit of bread.

"Well, what part of the Army did you serve in?" demanded the admiral.

"Captain, Fifth New York Cavalry," replied the minister quietly,
shrugging his shoulders.

"Captain! You were a fighting man?" the admiral boomed.

"Sort of one. We had a good deal of fun one way or another. Four years
of it. Didn't begin fighting the Devil till afterward. How are things at
the college, Doctor Kelton?"

Ware thus characteristically turned the conversation from himself. It
was evident that he did not care to discuss his military experiences; in
a moment they were talking politics, in which he seemed greatly
interested.

"We've kept bosses out of this state pretty well," Professor Kelton was
saying, "but I can see one or two gentlemen on both sides of the fence
trying to play that game. I don't believe the people of Indiana will
submit to it. The bosses need big cities to prey on and we aren't big
enough for them to work in and hide in. We all live in the open and
we're mostly seasoned American stock who won't be driven like a lot of
foreign cattle. This city isn't a country town any longer, but it's
still American. I don't know of any boss here."