Though Gershom would have scorned philosophy had he ever heard of it, he was well grounded in that practical knowledge of human perversity from which all philosophers and most philosophic systems have sprung.  Had his next words been barbed with steel they could not have pierced Patty’s girlish pride more sharply.  “I reckon he imagines all he’s got to do is to look sweet at a girl, and she’ll fall at his feet.”

Patty’s eyes flashed with anger.  “He is not unusual in that, is he?” she asked mockingly.

“Well, you can’t accuse me of that, Patty,” said Gershom, with a sincerity which made him appear less offensively oily.  “I never looked long at but one girl in my life, not since I first saw you, anyway—­and I don’t seem ever to have had an idea that she would fall at my feet.  But I didn’t bring you out here to begin kidding.  I want to talk to you about the Governor, and I was afraid he would catch on to something if we stayed indoors.”

“About Father?” She looked at him in alarm.  “Is there anything the matter with Father?”

Without turning his head, he glanced at her keenly out of the corner of his eye.  It was a trick of his which always irritated her because it reminded her of the sly and furtive side of his character.

“You’ve a pretty good opinion of the old man, haven’t you, Patty?”

“I think he is the greatest man in the world.”

“And you wouldn’t like him to run against a snag, would you?”

“What do you mean?  Has anything happened to worry him?”

He had stopped just beyond the nearest side entrance to the Square, and he stood now, with his eyes on the automobiles before the City Hall, while he fingered thoughtfully the ornamental scarf-pin in his green and purple tie.  “There’s always more or less to worry him, ain’t there?”

She frowned impatiently.  “Not Father.  He is hardly ever anything but cheerful.  Please tell me what you are hinting.”

“I wasn’t hinting.  But, if you don’t mind talking to me a minute, suppose we get away from these confounded cars.”

He turned east, following the iron fence of the Square until they reached the high grass bank and the old box hedge which surrounded the garden at the back of the Governor’s house.  At the corner of the street, which sank far below the garden terrace, he stopped again and laid a restraining hand on her arm.

“He thinks a great deal of you too.”

She shook his hand from her sleeve.  “Why shouldn’t he?  I am his only child.”  Then her voice hardened, and she glanced at him suspiciously.  “I wish for once you would try to be honest.”

“Honest?” His amusement was perfectly sincere.  “I am as honest as the day, and I’ve always been.  That’s why I’m in politics.”

“Then tell me what you are trying to say about Father.  If there’s anything wrong, I’d rather be told at once.”