“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.”

“Oh indeed I am not trying to distress you.  I only wished, to make good my assertion that I knew you.  Several of you gentlemen bought of that stack (without paying a penny down) received dividends from it, (think of the happy idea of receiving dividends, and very large ones, too, from stock one hasn’t paid for!) and all the while your names never appeared in the transaction; if ever you took the stock at all, you took it in other people’s names.  Now you see, you had to know one of two things; namely, you either knew that the idea of all this preposterous generosity was to bribe you into future legislative friendship, or you didn’t know it.  That is to say, you had to be either a knave or a—­well, a fool —­there was no middle ground.  You are not a fool, Mr. Trollop.”

“Miss Hawking you flatter me.  But seriously, you do not forget that some of the best and purest men in Congress took that stock in that way?”

“Did Senator Bland?”

“Well, no—­I believe not.”

“Of course you believe not.  Do you suppose he was ever approached, on the subject?”