The Ramrodders Part 35

They were away before even the eager platform notables could intercept them. The cheering was still going on when the carriage started. From the open windows of the hall the riot of the convention--voices and music--pursued them until the racket of the busy street drowned it out.

"At the present moment, Mr. Thornton, it is not likely that the Republican State Committee is in a mood for poetry," remarked General Waymouth. Gayety that was a bit wistful had succeeded his sombre earnestness.

"But something in the sentiment of this old song might appeal to them while they are thinking of me just now:

"'The mother may forget the child That smiles so sweetly on her knee; But I'll remember thee, Glencairn, And all that thou hast done to me.'"

Harlan did not reply. At that moment, strangely enough, something besides the fury and the results of that tremendous convention occupied his thoughts. While he had stood beside General Waymouth he had not looked down into the pit of roaring humanity. He had looked straight up into the eyes of Madeleine Presson, whose gaze, by some chance, caught his the moment he stepped upon the platform. She had leaned on the gallery-rail and studied him intently. In spite of all else that had happened and was happening, he could not help wondering why.

CHAPTER XIX

THE RAMRODDERS RAMPANT

Though Mrs. Luke Presson was not especially interested in the practical side of plain politics, yet it was a part of her social methods to make tame cats of men of State influence as far as she was able. She did this instinctively, rather from the social viewpoint than the political. Luke Presson did not take her into his confidence to the extent that he desired her to cultivate men of power for his own purposes. He only dimly and rather contemptuously recognized that women had any influence in political matters. But it did occur to him, after that State convention, that perhaps he needed his wife to a.s.sist him in beginning a reconciliation with General Waymouth.

Mrs. Presson came to him, directly the convention had adjourned. The few men who were lingering in headquarters dodged out, for they perceived that the chairman's wife had something on her mind.

He endured her indignant reproaches for some time. She taxed him with betrayal of her personal interests.

"I've never tried to pry into your schemes. I don't care about them. But when you make a fool of me in regard to the next Governor of this State, you shall answer for it to me!"

"I did no such thing," he protested, wanting to placate her for private reasons of his own.

"I say you did. You're chairman of the State Committee. You knew which man would be nominated--you must have known it all along. You wouldn't be State chairman if you didn't know that!"

The unhappy magnate was ashamed to tell her the bitter truth.

"You allowed me to come here to-day with Mrs. Dave Everett and her daughters. Here is the bouquet I brought to present to her husband!" She shook it under his nose and tossed it into a corner. "You never told me a word about the plan to nominate General Waymouth. It was deliberate deceit on your part--for what reason I cannot understand."

Presson tried to think of a story that would explain and shield him, but the convention had not been an affair to promote clear thinking.

"Here's a legislative session at hand, and you've allowed me to stay entirely out of touch with the next first gentleman of the State! I'm like all the rest of the trailers, now. I haven't any prior social claim on him. And I can't even find him at this late hour to offer my congratulations."

"I haven't been able to offer mine, either," said the chairman, grimly.

"I'll endure no more of this foolery, Luke! If you propose to make a plaything of your own wife from now on--"

"I'm telling you the truth. General Waymouth hurried out of the hall before I could get to him. That devilish Canibas bull moose picked him up, like he's been picking up--"

But the astonishment in his wife's eyes stopped him. He was revealing too much of his secret.

"Why, Harlan Thornton went away with him--Thelismer's grandson! Some one told me who saw them in the carriage together. What do you mean by Canibas moose?"

"Can't you see that I'm all stirred up by the excitement of this convention?" he demanded. "I don't know what I'm saying. I'll explain to you later, Lucretia."

"I think you'd better. Where did General Waymouth go?"

"To the hotel, I suppose."

"No, he's not there. I have telephoned. Luke, we must have him at lunch with us. It's his place to lunch with us--you're the chairman of the State Committee! It's a late start for me--and it's your own fault because it is so. But you must find the General and make him come to luncheon. I have arranged for the party in the English Room at the hotel. You _must_ have him there!" She hurried away to where the ladies were waiting for her.

Presson, the politician's instinct of self-preservation now getting the better of his rancor, promptly determined that his own interests would be helped by his wife's luncheon-party, provided the victor could be cajoled and coralled. He put pride behind him. It was not so easy to do as much with his shame and the downright fear that a.s.sailed him when he reflected on his plot and its outcome. But he decided that although little might be gained for him by making up to the victorious General, a great deal would be surely lost if the antagonism were emphasized.

He put on his hat and hurried to the street. Inquiry at the cab-stand afforded him the information that General Waymouth and his companion had not given a definite destination. "But there's the man who took them,"

said the manager. "He's just back. Ask him."

The driver said that he had dropped them at the park, at their request, and the chairman jumped into the carriage, directing that he be conveyed to the same place.

He found them sitting democratically on a bench, taking the air.

Without preliminary the chairman extended Mrs. Presson's invitation.

"There will be a very small party of us, and it may save you from the annoyances of the public rooms," added Chairman Presson, humbly.

The General arose and accepted with cordiality, somewhat to Harlan's surprise, for his unbending youth could not yet understand how political hatchets could be buried so quickly.

"I want to congratulate you, General," said the chairman on the way to the carriage. "And I want to tell you that the State Committee will swing into line behind you for the campaign. You'll find us loyal.

There's a good deal more I'd like to say, but there'll be time enough for that later. I'll merely say this: both of us have been in politics years enough, I believe, to be able to wash a convention slate clean, when it's a question of a State campaign against the opposite party."

"I'll meet you frankly on that plane, Mr. Presson. I have too much ahead of me to waste time in quarrels. It isn't my nature to retaliate. I have understood the situation better than some men would."

Harlan, hoping that the chairman appreciated that magnanimity, gave Presson a look that expressed much. But in his new humility the latter was getting rid of ancient grudges as fast as he could. While the General was entering the carriage, the chairman offered rather embarra.s.sed apology. "But you introduced some original specialties in politics that took me off my feet, young man!" he added, with a sickly smile.

Harlan was still a little stiff. It was not easy for him to get into the state of political pliability that he saw others a.s.sume so readily.

"I'm a countryman, and pretty awkward in most everything I undertake,"

he said. "I have no business meddling in the big affairs of this State.

I'll take my place where I belong, after this, Mr. Presson. If I don't, I'll not have a friend left--not even my own grandfather."

The chairman glanced at him curiously, scenting something like duplicity under this bitter frankness. He was not used to seeing men throw aside such advantages as this young man had gained.

The three entered the hotel through the side door, and at the General's request the chairman accompanied him and his young lieutenant to their headquarters. It was near the luncheon hour, and Presson had suggested that he conduct them to Mrs. Presson.

A party of men had taken possession of the General's suite. They rose when he entered. They paid no attention to Harlan, but surveyed Chairman Presson with disfavor that was very noticeable.

Several of the men were clergymen, advertised as such by their white ties and frock-coats. Those who attended them had the unmistakable air of zealots. Their demeanor showed that they had come on business that they considered serious.

General Waymouth knew them. He addressed one or two by name, and was gracious in his greeting of the others.

"We wait on you," began their spokesman, one of the ministers, "as a committee from the United Temperance Societies."

"My time is not my own just now, gentlemen," explained General Waymouth.

"I have a luncheon engagement with Mr. and Mrs. Presson. I will see you at some other time."

The faces of all of them grew saturnine at that announcement. For Chairman Presson was not recognized as the especial friend of prohibition by the fanatics of the State.