He was calm but intensely in earnest.
"Then you are all for reform--one of the new reformers, eh?" inquired
the Senator. He cast a look of reproach at Thornton, as though that
trusted manager had loosed a tiger on their defenceless party.
The General smiled--smiled so sweetly that he almost disarmed their
resentment.
"No, the Arba Spinneys of this State are the reformers. I'm not under
salary to run round and make disturbances in settled order. I'm not a
bigot with a single idea, nor a fanatic insisting that the world ought
to follow the diet that my dyspepsia imposes upon me. I'm merely an old
man, gentlemen, who has got past a lot of the follies of youth and the
passions of manhood, and has had a chance to reflect for a few years. I
have not asked to return to public life. But if I do return, if you put
power into my hands, I propose to render unto the people the things that
are the people's, and that term includes every man in this room. It is
not a programme that should alarm honest gentlemen!"
There was appeal in the tone--there was a hint of rebuke in that final
sentence that troubled the conscience of even Senator Pownal.
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