I
am ready to leave the State House now. We'll ride past the Presson
door, and I'll wait while you present your regrets. Tell the fair
Madeleine that duty calls." He smiled. "I hear interesting reports,
young man. Again I say I'm sorry to keep you from your engagement, but
Miss Presson has been near enough to politics to understand what a
duty-call means. Come!"
The young man flushed. Reply failed him. He followed the Governor to his
carriage. It was late afternoon, and the State House was emptying.
As Harlan ran up the steps of the Presson house, Spinney's ugly threat
came to him. The man dealt in gossip. It was an incredible form of
attack. It was slander of the innocent. He could not forewarn Madeleine
Presson. That would be caddish.
But he felt a sudden panic. The impulse of admiration; covetous desire
to win her away from Linton, a desire pricked by his increasing dislike
of that young rival in love and politics; the charm she possessed for
him who had met in her his first woman of intellect and culture--all
drove him to her.
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