“You take a body’s breath away!  Would you—­did you wish me to vote for it?  Was that what you wanted to see me about?”

“Your instinct is correct.  I did want you—­I do want you to vote for it.”

“Vote for a fr—­for a measure which is generally believed to be at least questionable?  I am afraid we cannot come to an understanding, Miss Hawkins.”

“No, I am afraid not—­if you have resumed your principles, Mr. Trollop.”

“Did you send for we merely to insult me?  It is time for me to take my leave, Miss Hawkins.”

“No-wait a moment.  Don’t be offended at a trifle.  Do not be offish and unsociable.  The Steamship Subsidy bill was a fraud on the government.  You voted for it, Mr. Trollop, though you always opposed the measure until after you had an interview one evening with a certain Mrs. McCarter at her house.  She was my agent.  She was acting for me.  Ah, that is right—­sit down again.  You can be sociable, easily enough if you have a mind to.  Well?  I am waiting.  Have you nothing to say?”

“Miss Hawkins, I voted for that bill because when I came to examine into it—­”

“Ah yes.  When you came to examine into it.  Well, I only want you to examine into my bill.  Mr. Trollop, you would not sell your vote on that subsidy bill—­which was perfectly right—­but you accepted of some of the stock, with the understanding that it was to stand in your brother-in-law’s name.”

“There is no pr—­I mean, this is, utterly groundless, Miss Hawkins.”  But the gentleman seemed somewhat uneasy, nevertheless.

“Well, not entirely so, perhaps.  I and a person whom we will call Miss Blank (never mind the real name,) were in a closet at your elbow all the while.”

Mr. Trollop winced—­then he said with dignity: 

“Miss Hawkins is it possible that you were capable of such a thing as that?”

“It was bad; I confess that.  It was bad.  Almost as bad as selling one’s vote for—­but I forget; you did not sell your vote—­you only accepted a little trifle, a small token of esteem, for your brother-in-law.  Oh, let us come out and be frank with each other:  I know you, Mr. Trollop.  I have met you on business three or four times; true, I never offered to corrupt your principles—­never hinted such a thing; but always when I had finished sounding you, I manipulated you through an agent.  Let us be frank.  Wear this comely disguise of virtue before the public—­it will count there; but here it is out of place.  My dear sir, by and by there is going to be an investigation into that National Internal Improvement Directors’ Relief Measure of a few years ago, and you know very well that you will be a crippled man, as likely as not, when it is completed.”

“It cannot be shown that a man is a knave merely for owning that stock.  I am not distressed about the National Improvement Relief Measure.”