little boy and housekeeping,--I don't complain of her, mind that--but
she really hasn't entered into my ambitions, my inner life. She
doesn't often read my editorials, and when she does, she hasn't been
serious in her consideration of them and of my purposes. Sometimes she
differed openly from me and sometimes greeted my work for truth and
light with indifference! I had learned to bear this, and more; to save
myself pain I had come to shrink from exposing my real self to
her. Then, when this young girl came, for the first time in my life I
found real sympathy and knew what I thought I never should know; a
heart attuned to my own, a mind that sought my own ideals, a soul of
the same aspirations--and a perfect faith in what I was and in what it
was my right to attain. She met me with open hands, and lifted me to
my best self. What, unhappily, I did not find at home, I found in
her--encouragement. I went to her in every mood, always to be greeted
by the most exquisite perception, always the same delicate
receptiveness. She gave me a sister's love!"

I nodded; I knew he thought so.

"Well, when I went into this campaign, what more natural than that I
should seek her ready sympathy at every turn, than that I should
consult with her at each crisis, and, when I became the fusion
candidate, that I should go to her with the news that I had taken my
first great step toward my goal and had achieved thus far in my
struggle for the cause of our hearts--reform?"

"You went up to Buskirk's after the convention?" I asked.

"No; the night before." He took his head in his hands and groaned, but
without pausing in his march up and down the room. "You remember, it