“Humph!  A sucked orange.  That’s what he said, is it?  A sucked orange,” Hilary repeated.

“That’s what he said,” declared Mr. Jane, and remembered afterwards how Hilary had been struck by the simile.

At ten o’clock at night, at the very height of the tumult, Senator Whitredge had received an interrogatory telegram from Fairview, and had called a private conference (in which Hilary was not included) in a back room on the second floor (where the conflicting bands of Mr. Crewe and Mr. Hunt could not be heard), which Mr. Manning and Mr. Jane and State Senator Billings and Mr. Ridout attended.  Query:  the Honourable Hilary had quarrelled with Mr. Flint, that was an open secret; did not Mr. Vane think himself justified, from his own point of view, in taking a singular revenge in not over-exerting himself to pull the Honourable Adam out, thereby leaving the field open for his son, Austen Vane, with whom he was apparently reconciled?  Not that Mr. Flint had hinted of such a thing!  He had, in the telegram, merely urged the senator himself to see Mr. Hunt, and to make one more attempt to restrain the loyalty to that candidate of Messrs. Bascom and Botcher.

The senator made the attempt, and failed signally.

It was half-past midnight by the shining face of the clock on the tower of the state-house, and hope flamed high in the bosom of the Honourable Adam B. Hunt a tribute to the bellows-like skill of Messrs. Bascom and Botcher.  The bands in the street had blown themselves out, the delegates were at last seeking rest, the hall boys in the corridors were turning down the lights, and the Honourable Adam, in a complacent and even jubilant frame of mind, had put on his carpet slippers and taken off his coat, when there came a knock at his door.  He was not a little amazed and embarrassed, upon opening it, to see the Honourable Hilary.  But these feelings gave place almost immediately to a sense of triumph; gone were the days when he had to report to Number Seven.  Number Seven, in the person of Hilary (who was Number Seven), had been forced to come to him!

“Well, upon my soul!” he exclaimed heartily.  “Come in, Hilary.”

He turned up the jets of the chandelier, and gazed at his friend, and was silent.

“Have a seat, Hilary,” he said, pushing up an armchair.

Mr. Vane sat down.  Mr. Hunt took a seat opposite, and waited for his visitor to speak.  He himself seemed to find no words.

“Adam,” said Mr. Vane, at length, “we’ve known each other for a good many years.”

“That’s so, Hilary.  That’s so,” Mr. Hunt eagerly assented.  What was coming?

“And whatever harm I’ve done in my life,” Hilary continued, “I’ve always tried to keep my word.  I told you, when we met up there by the mill this summer, that if Mr. Flint had consulted me about your candidacy, before seeing you in New York, I shouldn’t have advised it—­this time.”

The Honourable Adam’s face stiffened.