"There's a lot of bargains in politics, marm," he stated, dryly, "that
takes more'n two to put 'em through when the pinch comes." He enjoyed
the discomfiture that her artless confession brought to the Duke. The
old man looked him up and down. That this Niles whom he himself had
helped into office, who had been taking private toll from the liquor
interests of the county as his predecessors had before him, a procedure
condoned by the party leaders of whom the Honorable Thelismer was
one--that this person should whirl on him in such fashion was a
performance that Thornton could not yet fully understand. But there was
the fact to contend with. A man he had helped to elevate was engaged in
humiliating him in the frankly wondering gaze of his own community.
Those who peeped in at doors and windows were not, all of them, enemies.
There were friends who sympathized and were astonished. Their murmurings
told that.
"You infernal Hereford bull!" roared Thornton; "don't you dare to slur
me before my people. You're making this raid because I haven't buttered
you with ten-dollar bills to keep your hands off.
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