“I heard you were in New York, Mr. Secretary.  Jonas called me up!”

“Jonas had no business to do so.  I am humiliated beyond words!”

Enoch spoke with a dreary sort of hopelessness.

“I thought we were friends,” said Diana calmly.  “It isn’t as if we hadn’t known each other and all about each other since childhood.  You must not say a word against Jonas.”

“How could I?  He is my guardian angel,” said Enoch.

Diana went on still in the commonplace tone of the tea table.  “I want to apologize for my fit of temper, Mr. Secretary.  I was very stupid and I’m thoroughly ashamed of myself.  You may tell me anything you please!”

“I don’t deserve it!” Enoch spoke abruptly.

Diana’s voice suddenly deepened and softened.  “Ah, but you do deserve it, dear Mr. Secretary.  You deserve all that grateful citizens can do for you, and even then we cannot expect to discharge our full debt to you.  Here’s my house.  Perhaps when you’re not too busy, you’ll ask me to dine again with you.”

Enoch did not reply.  He stood with bared head while she ran up the steps.  Then he reentered the cab and was driven home.  But it was not till two weeks later that Enoch sent a note to Diana, asking her to take dinner with him.  Even his diary during that period showed no record of his inward flagellations.  He did not receive an answer until late in the afternoon.

It had been an exceptionally hectic day.  Enoch had been summoned before the Senate Committee on appropriations, and with the director of the Reclamation Service had endured a grilling that had had some aspects of the third degree.

After some two hours of it the Director had lost his temper.

“Gentlemen!” he had cried, “treat me as if I were a common thief, attempting to loot the public funds, if you find satisfaction in it, but at least do not humiliate the Secretary of the Interior in the same manner!”

“These people can’t humiliate me, Whipple.”  Enoch had spoken quietly.

The blow had struck home and the Senator who was acting as chairman had apologized.

Enoch had nodded.  “I know!  You are in the position of having to appropriate funds for the carrying on of a highly specialized business about which you are utterly ignorant.  You are uneasy and you mistake impertinent questioning for keen investigation.”

“I move we adjourn until to-morrow,” a member had said hastily.  The motion had carried and Enoch, as though it was already past six o’clock, had started for his office, Whipple accompanying him.

“After all this howl over the proposed Paloma Dam,” said Whipple, “we may not be able to build it.  There’s a bunch of Mexicans both this and the other side of the border that have made serious trouble with the preliminary survey, and I have the feeling that there is some power behind that wants to start something.”