"No. Not yet. Ned Merrill's in the running. Strong, too. He's being backed by his father and old P. C. Frome. The idea is to consolidate interests by this marriage. But I've got a fighting chance. She likes me. Since I went into this political fight against her father she's taken pains to show me how friendly she feels. But if this story gets out--I'm smashed. That's all.""Go to her. Tell her the truth. She'll stand by you," his cousin urged. "You don't understand these people, Jeff. I do. Even if she wanted tostand by me she couldn't. They wouldn't let her. Right now I'm carrying all the handicap I can."Jeff walked to the window and stood looking out with his hands in his pockets. The hum of the busy street rose to his ears, but he did not hear it. Nor did he see the motor cars whizzing past, the drays lumbering along, the thronged sidewalks of Powers Avenue. A door that had for years been ajar in his heart had swung to with a crash. The incredible folly of his dream was laid bare to him. Despised, distrusted and disgraced, there was no chance that he might be even a friend to her. She moved in another world, one he could not reach if he would and would not if he could. All that he believed in she had been brought up to disregard. Much that was dear to her he must hammer down so long as there was life in him.
But James--he had fought his way up to her. Why shouldn't he have his chance? Better--far better James than Ned Merrill. He had heard the echoes of a disgraceful story about that young man in his college days, the story of how he had trampled down a working girl for his pleasure. James was clean and honorable . . . and she loved him. Jeff's mind fastened on that last as a thing assured. Had he not seen her with starry eyes fixed on her hero, held fast as a limed bird? She too was entitled to her chance, and there was a way he could give it to her.
He turned back to James, who was sitting despondently at the managing editor's desk, jabbing at the blotting sheet with a pencil.
Jeff touched the _Advocate_ he still held in his hand. "Did you read this story carefully?""No. I just ran my eye down it. Why?"
"Whoever dug it up has made a mistake. He has jumped to the conclusion that I'm Uncle Robert's son. Why not let it go at that?"His cousin looked up with a flash of eager hope. "You mean--""I might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb. Let it go the way they have it."The lawyer's heart leaped, but he could not let this go without a protest. "No, I--I couldn't do that. It's awfully good of you, Jeff."The managing editor smiled in his whimsical way. "My reputation has long been in tatters. A little more can't hurt it."James conceded a reflective assent with a manner of impartiality. "Of course your friends wouldn't think any the less of you. They're not so--so-- ""respectable as yours," Jeff finished for him. "I was going to say so hidebound.""All the same, isn't it?"
"But it would be a sacrifice for you. I recognize that. And I'm not sure that I could accept it. I will have to think that over," the lawyer concluded magnanimously.
"You'll find it is best. But I think I would tell Miss Frome, even if I didn't tell anybody else. She has a right to know.""You may depend upon me to do whatever is best about that."James was hardly out of the office before Captain Chunn blew in like a small tornado. He was boiling with rage.
"What's this infernal lie about you being the son of a convict, David?" he demanded, waving a copy of the Herald.
"Sit down, Captain. I'll tell you the story because you're entitled to it. But I shall have to speak in confidence.""Confidence! Dad burn it, what are you talking about? Are you trying to tell me that Phil Farnum was a thief and a convict?"Jeff's steel-blue eyes looked straight into his. "Nothing so impossible as that, Captain. I'm going to tell you the story of his brother."Jeff told it, but he and the owner of the _World_ disagreed radically about the best way to answer the attack.
"Why must you always stand between that kid glove cousin of yours and trouble? Let him stand the gaff himself. It will do him good," Chunn stormed.
But Jeff had his way. The _World_ made no denial of the facts charged. In a statement on the front page that covered less than three sticks he told the simple story of the defalcation of Robert Farnum. One thing only he added to the account given in the opposition papers. This was that during the past two years the shortage of the bank cashier had been paid in full to the Planters' First National at Shelby.
There were many forecasts as to what the effect of the Farnum story would be on the election returns. It is enough to say that the ticket supported by the _World_ was chosen by a small majority. James was elected to the legislature by a plurality of fifteen hundred votes over his antagonist, a majority unheard of in the Eleventh District.
