across the lobby of the State House, and they can say behind my back,
'There's old Thornton--a gone-by. Got licked in his district!' When they
can say that, Luke, life won't be worth living, not if I've got
thousand-dollar bills enough to wad a forty-foot driving-crew quilt!"




CHAPTER VII

WITH THE KAVANAGH AT HOME


When Harlan Thornton rode away out of the yard of the town house he was
the bitterest rebel in the Duke's dominions. But he realized fully the
futility of standing there in public and wrangling with his grandfather.

He understood pretty well the ambitious motive his grandfather had in
forcing his will; Thelismer Thornton had urged the matter in the past.
It had been the only question in dispute between them. And the young man
had never resented the urgings. He appreciated what his grandfather
hoped to accomplish for the only one who bore his name. But this
high-handed attempt to shanghai him into politics outraged his
independence. His protests had been unheeded. The old man had not even
granted him an interview in private, where he could plead his own case.
In business matters they had been co-workers, intimate on the level of
partnership, with the grandfather asking for and obeying the suggestions
the grandson made. On a sudden Harlan felt that he hardly knew this old
man, who had shown himself contemptuous, harsh, and domineering. And
then he thought of the girl who had been so grievously insulted in his