He opened it.
"Be so kind as to leave the room, gentlemen," he invited, icily. "I'll
not detain you even to have you apologize for your intrusion on my
privacy or ask pardon of a guest whom you've insulted!"
They obeyed him, sullenly. Even their effrontery could not withstand
that dignity. But they muttered among themselves, and one man called
back over his shoulder: "It isn't the first time, General, that a man
brave enough to lead battle charges hasn't shown that he's got the
spirit to declare for the right against the wrong, when politics stands
by with open ears!"
"There go some of the reformers you were asking your grandfather about a
few weeks ago, Harlan," sneered the indignant chairman. "Those are the
men who are holding themselves up as examples for all the rest of men to
follow. Every one else is a rummy and a hellion, according to their
ranking."
"As bad an element as the rumsellers themselves," declared the
General--"men of that type! I'm speaking now of the interests of true
reform--reform that gets to the individual and is something else than
this everlasting wrangle and racket between factions.
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