some direction or other?"

"Yes, Judge Rossmore is such a man. He is one of the few men in
American public life who takes his duties seriously. In the
strictest sense of the term, he serves his country instead of
serving himself. I am no friend of his, but I must do him that
justice."

He spoke sharply, in an irritated tone, as if resenting the
insinuation of this vulgarian that every man in public life had
his price. Roberts knew that the charge was true as far as he and
the men he consorted with were concerned, but sometimes the truth
hurts. That was why he had for a moment seemed to champion Judge
Rossmore, which, seeing that the judge himself was at that very
moment under a cloud, was an absurd thing for him to do.

He had known Rossmore years before when the latter was a city
magistrate in New York. That was before he, Roberts, had become a
political grafter and when the decent things in life still
appealed to him. The two men, although having few interests in
common, had seen a good deal of one another until Roberts went to
Washington when their relations were completely severed. But he
had always watched Rossmore's career, and when he was made a judge
of the Supreme Court at a comparatively early age he was sincerely
glad. If anything could have convinced Roberts that success can
come in public life to a man who pursues it by honest methods it
was the success of James Rossmore. He could never help feeling
that Rossmore had been endowed by Nature with certain qualities
which had been denied to him, above all that ability to walk
straight through life with skirts clean which he had found