"You leave it to me and I'll give her a talk she'll not forget. I'll
make her understand that she's a queen, and a woman is pretty devilish
skittish about marrying anybody when you convince her that she's a
queen. What does your wife say about it?"

"She hasn't said anything. She's out visiting and I haven't seen her
since Louise told me of her determination to marry him."

"Don't say determination, John. Say foolish notion. But it's all right."

"No, it's not all right."

"What, have you failed to trust me? Is it possible that you have lost
faith in me? Don't do that, John, for if you do it will be a never
failing source of regret. You don't seem to remember what my powers of
persuasion have accomplished in the past. When I was in the legislature,
chairman of the Committee on County and County Lines, what did my
protest do? It kept them from cutting off a ten-foot strip of this
county and adding it to Jefferson. You must remember those things,
John, for in the factors of persuasion lie the shaping of human life.
I've been riding in the hot sun and I think that a mint julep would hit
me now just about where I live. Say, there, Bill, bring us some mint,
sugar and whisky. And cold water, mind you."

"Ah," said old Gideon, sipping his scented drink, "virtue may become
wearisome, and we may gape during the most fervent prayer, but I gad,
John, there is always the freshness of youth in a mint julep. Pour just
a few more drops of liquor into mine, if you please--want it to rassle
me a trifle, you know. Recollect those come-all ye songs we used to
sing, going down the river? Remember the time I snatched the sword out