XXIV
As soon as Wallace had closed the door, Fanny leaped into Guy’s arms.
“Oh, you were perfect!” she cried. “I’m glad you didn’t do as we practised, after all.”
Guy kissed her rapturously. “Oh, Fan, I hope you won’t get sick of me!” he said.
The telephone rang, and Fanny had to postpone her reply. “There, go and attend to business,” she said, giving Guy a push. She watched him as he held the receiver at his ear.
“Hello! Yes. Oh, Farley. What?Mr.Briggs is still downstairs. 500? Well, that looks bad, doesn’t it? Do you mean to say they think he’s—? Oh, impossible!”
“What’s impossible?” Fanny cried.
Guy listened intently, ignoring her. “No. I think you’d better come here. He’ll want you. I’ll tell him.”
“Tell him what?” said Fanny.
“Good-bye.” Guy rang off.
“Why don’t you answer me? Tell him what?” Fanny heard footsteps in the hall.
“Well, my dear,” said Douglas Briggs, opening the door, “I feel a good deal better.”
Fanny held her finger at her lips. “’Sh! Guy has something to tell.”
Briggs observed that Guy was waiting for a chance to speak. “News?” he asked, nervously.
Guy nodded. “They say down at the Citizens’ Club that things are looking rather bad.”
Briggs looked steadily at the boy. “Who told you?”
“Farley,” Guy replied.
“Ah!” Briggs sank into a chair. “If Farley is losing courage—! Well, never mind.”
“But you aren’t beaten yet, Uncle Doug,” Fanny exclaimed, resolutely.
“What difference does it make—now or two years from now? It’s only a question of time.”
Michael tapped on the door and entered with the soft step of one bearing important news. “A boy just come in with this telegram, sir.”
“Open it, Guy,” said Briggs.
Guy tore the envelope. “These are the figuresFarley gave me,” he said. He passed the telegram to Briggs.
“It’s all up with me!” said Briggs, just as Helen appeared.
“But they haven’t heard yet from the Nineteenth District,” Guy interposed. “We can count on a two-hundred majority there.”
“No; West has spent more money there than anywhere else. I shall be surprised if—” Briggs stopped at the sound of the telephone bell. Guy darted for the receiver.
“Oh, hello, hello! Is that you, Farley? What? Oh, Bradley. This isn’t the Citizens’ Club, then? Oh, theGazette! No, Farley isn’t here, but he’ll be here in a minute. He’s tearing over from the club in a cab. What district? The Nineteenth? We’ve been waiting for that. How many?”
Guy listened; they all listened. “Well, good-bye. Thank you. Good-bye. I’ll tell him.” Guy turned from the telephone and faced the others.
“For goodness’ sake, speak!” cried Fanny.
Guy’s mouth twitched. “I guess it’s all over,Mr.Briggs.”
“How much majority in the Nineteenth?” Briggs asked.
“Over three hundred against us.”
Briggs drew a long breath. “I’m snowed under, buried! This is the last of me! Oh, well!”
Fanny burst out crying. “I think it’s a shame, and the awful things you see in Washington who go to Congress year after year, till they’re ready to drop!” She started to leave the room. Guy started in pursuit with the hope of comforting her. At the door she met Farley, entering.
“Hello, what’s the matter, Miss Fanny?” he asked.
“Oh, go and find out!” cried Fanny, dashing into the hall and up the stairs, leaving Guy disconsolate in the hall.
“Come in, Farley,” said Briggs.
“You’ve heard the news, then?” Farley asked.
“Yes.”
“They told me just as I was getting into the cab.” Farley smiled at Helen. “Well, we made a good fight, Mrs. Briggs. Too bad all our work was thrown away!”
“It wasn’t, Farley. That is, yours wasn’t,” said Briggs. “And before you and my wife, I can say what I shouldn’t dare to say to anyone else. I’m glad I’m beaten. I’m glad to be outof it. Of course, I am out of it now for good. After such a crushing defeat and with my record, I can never get back.” He saw that Farley was about to protest. “Oh, don’t, Farley! Even if I could I don’t want to. I feel as if all my energy and ambition were gone.”
“They’ll come back after you’ve got rested,” Farley remarked. “You’re only tired out. You’ve been working on your nerves for weeks. Now I’m going to say good-night.” He offered his hand to Helen. “Good-night, Mrs. Briggs.”
“Good-night,” said Helen.
Farley stepped back to let Michael speak to Briggs.
“There’s a gentleman in the reception room, sir, that wants to see you. He says he comes from theChronicle.”
Douglas Briggs looked at the card. His lip curled. “From theChronicle?” he said, contemptuously. “Well, we mustn’t refuse theChronicle. I suppose he’s come to see how I’ve taken my defeat.” He rose, adjusted his frock coat and threw back his shoulders. “You stay here, Farley, till I come back,” he said.
“All right.” Michael followed Briggs from the room, leaving Farley and Helen together.
“Mr.Briggs will be all right after he’s had a rest from the strain,” said Farley.
“I hope so,” Helen sighed. “It’s a relief that it’s over—such a relief.”
“And of course,” Farley went on, “Mr.Briggs will change his mind about going out of politics.”
“Do you think so?” Helen betrayed surprise in her tone.
“We need men like him in Washington.”
Helen did not speak. She held her head down.
“Mrs. Briggs!”
Helen kept her face hidden.
“I hope you’ll pardon me if I speak of something—something that is—well, that concerns you very closely. I do it only because I believe inMr.Briggs, and because I care for his future and for his happiness, and for yours, if you’ll let me say so.”
“Thank you,Mr.Farley,” said Helen, softly. “You’ve been very good to Douglas. He has often spoken of all you’ve done.”
“Oh, that’s nothing. But—he has told me all about that man West.”
Helen looked up, startled.
“He hasn’t spared himself. He has even made the case out worse than it is.”
“He has told you?” Helen repeated.
Farley nodded.
“Of his own accord?”
“Yes.”
“And you still—? You——?”
“Yes, I believe in him. I believe he has been punished for whatever wrong he has done. And I can’t see why a man’s whole future should be spoiled because he has made a mistake at the start. There are plenty of men in public life who have made mistakes like his—men who were young and inexperienced. Some of them have since done fine work.”
“Why have you spoken to me about this,Mr.Farley?”
“Because—well, because I know—that is, I suspect, from whatMr.Briggs has said, that you’re not in sympathy with his public life.”
“That is true. I haven’t been, lately.”
“And I thought perhaps if you looked at things a little differently——”
“I shouldn’t be so harsh?” Helen interrupted, her face flushing. “That is what you mean,Mr.Farley, isn’t it?”
“No, not that,” Farley replied, growing more embarrassed. “I thought perhaps you’d helphim to get back where he belongs, that’s all. It’s going to be a hard fight. Most men wouldn’t have the nerve to make it. But he has, if you’ll help him.”
Helen’s eyes filled with tears. “You make me ashamed,Mr.Farley. If you can forgive him, after all you’ve done for him——”
Farley laughed. “Oh, I haven’t done half so much as you think, Mrs. Briggs. I’ll feel repaid if you’ll only make him see that he ought to stay in the fight.” He heard steps in the hall and Briggs’s voice speaking to the reporter. A few moments later, Briggs entered, looking more cheerful.
“Well, it wasn’t half so bad as I thought. Nice fellow. One of those young college men. He was so ashamed of his assignment I had hard work to put him at his ease.”
Farley offered his hand.
“Now I must be off, Mrs. Briggs.”
“Come in to-morrow, Farley,” said Briggs. “I want to have a talk with you.”