preferred that Johnson County be represented that session by a less
able man.

A great hush fell over the Chamber, for ayes and noes followed
almost in alternation. After a long minute of waiting the secretary
called, in a tense voice:

"Ayes, 30; Noes, 32."

The Senator from Johnson had proven too faithful a servant of his
constituents. The boy in the penitentiary was denied his chance.

The usual things happened: some women in the galleries, who had boys
at home, cried aloud; the reporters were fighting for occupancy of
the telephone booths, and most of the Senators began the perusal of
the previous day's Journal with elaborate interest. Senator Dorman
indulged in none of these feints. A full look at his face just then
told how much of his soul had gone into the fight for the boy's
chance, and the look about his eyes was a little hard on the theory
of psychological experiment.

Senator Harrison was looking out at the budding trees, but his face
too had grown strange, and he seemed to be looking miles beyond and
years ahead. It seemed that he himself was surrendering the voices
of the night, and the comings and goings of the sun. He would never
look at them--feel them--again without remembering he was keeping
one of his fellow creatures away from them. He wondered at his own
presumption in denying any living thing participation in the
universe. And all the while there were before him visions of the boy
who sat in the cramped cell with the volume of a favourite poet