“He told me something like that once.  The trouble with him is that he hasn’t a point of view, but a vision.  He sees the whole, and politics is only a little part of it.”

“Yes, he sees a human fight, while they are trying to make a political squabble.  He may win them over to-night, but this is only the beginning.  The real fight is against individual self-interest.”  He laughed in an undertone.  “I remember he told me once that the only trouble with Christianity was the Christians.  ‘You can’t have Christianity’, he said, ‘until Christians are different’.  That’s just as true, of course, of politics.  The only trouble with politics is the politicians.”

“Well, it’s a muddle,” she responded impatiently.  “However you look at it.  Come back in an hour or two, and I may be able to help you.”  Her cheerful smile shone on him for an instant; then she entered the house and closed the door after her.

In one of the worn leather chairs in the library, Patty was sitting perfectly still, with her eyes fixed on the orderly row of papers on the Governor’s desk.  She wore a white dress with a black ribbon at her waist, and in the dim light, with her pale face and her cloudy hair, she had a ghostly look as if she would turn to mist at a touch.  When Corinna entered, she rose and held out her hands.  “You are so good,” she said.  “I never dreamed that any body could be so good and so beautiful too!”

“My dear,” began Corinna brightly, and while she spoke she drew the girl to the leather-covered couch by the window, and sat down still holding the cold hands in her warm ones.  “So you are going to marry Stephen.”

“I can’t,” replied Patty, and she turned her face slightly away as if she shrank from meeting Corinna’s eyes.  “I can’t after what I know.  I can’t do it because of Father.”

“Because of your father?” repeated Corinna.  “But surely your father wishes you to be happy?”

“Oh, I know he does.  It isn’t that.  But this will all come out.  That is what Julius Gershom meant when he threatened.  They are trying to do him some harm—­Father, I mean—­”

“I understand that, but still how in the world—­”

Before she could finish her sentence Patty interrupted in an hysterical voice—­the voice of youth that is always dramatic:  “Nobody will ever mean as much to me as Father does,” she cried.  “I know that now.  I’ve known it ever since I found out that he began it just out of kindness—­that I had no claim on him of any kind—­”

“That is natural, dear, but still I don’t understand.”

Rising from the couch, Patty moved to a chair in front of Corinna, and sinking into it, began nervously plaiting and unplaiting a fold of her white dress.  “I can do anything with Julius Gershom if I am nice to him,” she murmured.  “If he stands by Father most of the others will also.”

With a gasp Corinna sat up very straight and tried to see Patty’s eyes in the obscurity.  What sordid horror was the child facing now?  What unspeakable degradation?  “You can’t think of marrying Gershom, Patty!” she exclaimed, with a gesture of loathing.  “You must be out of your mind even to dream of it!”