She still clasped the envelope of clippings and thrust it at him accusingly.  The calmness of his inspection irritated her and she broke out sharply:—­

“I shouldn’t think a man with a wife and family would lay himself open to such attacks in all the newspapers in the country.  Those papers call you another such political boss as Quay and Gorman.  There’s nothing they don’t say about you.”

“Well, Hallie, they’ve been saying it for some time; they will go on saying it probably not only about me but about every other man who won’t be dictated to by impractical reformers and pharisaical newspapers.  But I must confess that this is rather hard luck!” He held up two of the cuttings.  “I’ve undertaken to do just what papers like the New York ‘Evening Post’ and the Springfield ‘Republican’ are forever begging somebody with courage to do—­I’ve been trying to drive a rascal out of politics.  I’m glad of this chance to talk to you about Thatcher.  He and I were friends for years, as you know.”

“I never understood how you could tolerate that man; he’s so coarse and vulgar that his wife stays abroad to keep her daughters away from him.”

“Well, that’s not my affair.  I have had all I want of him.  There’s nothing mysterious about my breaking with him; he got it into his head that he’s a bigger man in this state than I am.  I have known for several years that he intended to get rid of me as soon as he felt he could do it safely, and be ready to capture the senatorship when he saw that our party was in shape to win again.  I’ve always distrusted him, and I’ve always kept an eye on him.  When he came into Fraser County and stooped low enough to buy old Ike Pettit, I thought it time to strike.  You read a lot about courage in politics in such newspapers as these that have been philosophizing about me at long range.  Well, I’m not going to brag about myself, but it required some courage on my part to take the initiative and read the riot act to Thatcher.  I’ve done what men are sometimes praised for doing; but I don’t want praise; I only want to be judged fairly.  I’ve always avoided bringing business or politics home; I’ve always had an idea that when a man goes home he ought to close the door on everything but the interests the home has for him.  I may have been wrong about that; and I’m very sorry that you have been troubled—­sincerely sorry.  But you may as well know the truth now, which is that Thatcher is out of it altogether.  You know enough of him to understand that he’s not a man to trust with power, and I’ve done the state and my party a service in turning him out of doors.”

He had spoken quietly and earnestly, and his words had not been without their effect.  He had never been harsh with her or the children; his manner to-day was kind and considerate.  He had to an extent measurably rehabilitated himself as a heroic public character, a man of honor and a husband to be proud of; but she had not spent a sleepless night and a gray day without fortifying herself against him.  All day her eyes had been fixed upon an abandoned squirrel box in the crotch of an elm outside her window; it had become the repository of her thoughts, the habitation of her sorrows.  She turned her head slightly so that her eyes might rest upon this tabernacle of fear and illusion, and renewed the assault refreshed.