Lifted Masks

ic appreciation of the situation, and then slowl

the seconds had begun ticking off the last hour of his official life. On the stroke of twelve a

gh the open transom. People were beginning to gather in the corridors, and h

letters. "Could you see Whitefield now?"

m off, Charlie. Tell him you can talk to h

rnor added, "And, Charlie, keep everybody out, if you

sed it behind him, and then turned to say, "Except Fran

mpatiently as he answe

he drawers, tossed back a few things and drew out a newspaper. He unfolded this and spread it out on the desk. Running across the page was the big black line, "Real Governors

ngs that he had, as a matter of fact, never been anybody at all. And the bitterest part of it was that, looking back on it now, getting it from the viewpoint of one

and delivered an oration on "The Responsibilities of Statesmanship." He smiled as the title came back to him, and yet-what had become of the spirit of that seventeen-year-old boy? He had meant it all then; he could remember the thrill with which he st

sy, confident tap, and there was a good deal

in a little

from a row with Dorman. Everybody is holding him up for tickets, and he-poor young fool-look

r and looking about the room, "I thought I'd look in on you for a minute. You see I'll not have the entree to the Govern

rvey Francis is the most dangerous type of boss politician. His is not the crude and vulgar method that asks a man what his vote i

duty. But the very first week Francis had asked one of those little favours of him, and, wishing to show his appreciation of support given him in his election, he had gr

self and murmured:

ventured t

d all of h

n another hour this same fool will be Govern

it up. They don't know how. Oh, no," he insisted, cheerfully, "Leyman will never be re-elected. Fact is, I'm counting on this contract business w

ast hour was going fast. In a very short time he must join the party in the anteroom of th

ut it was not a strong one. People who wanted to say nice things of the Governor called him pleasant

f felt. He had signed the documents; Harvey Francis had always "suggested"-the term was that man's own-the course to be pursued. And the "sugges

he wanted to get from his desk, and his time was growing very short. He found what he wanted,

e envelope and remove the documents it contained; and th

t over those contracts the Governor now had spread out before him. The convict labour question was being fought out in the State just then-organised labour demanding its repeal; country taxpayers insisting that it be maintained. Under the system the penitentiary

d whatever he does about it is going to prove a bad thing for him. If he doesn't sign, he's in bad with the country fellows, the men who elected him. Don

ever do for him to go upstairs with a long, serious face. He had had his day, and now Leyman was to have his, and if the new Governor did better than the old o

re looking out across the snow, and once more he went back now at the end of th

hem would say about the new Governor's arriving on foot. Leyman had requested that the inaugural parade be done away with-but one would suppose he would at l

was coming up to take his place. How firmly the new Governor walked! With what confidence he looked ahead at the State-house. The

oing in the city close by-the fight he was making almost single-handed against corruption, how he was striking in the high places fast and hard as in the low, the opposition, threats, and time after time there had been that same secret thrill at thought of there being a man like that. And when the people of the State, convinced that here was one man who would serve them,

ce. Some friends had stopped him just outside the Governor's door with a laughing "Here's hoping you'll do as much for us in

pointed to thirteen minutes of twelve; they would be asking for him upstairs. There were some scraps of pa

d to deeper meanings.... Why not clean it up in earnest? Why not

ke up a little, both to his own soul and to the world, for the years he had weakly served as another man's puppet? The consciousness that he could do it, that i

lded the contracts. He dipped his pen into the ink; he even brought it down on the pape

's-" his head went lower and lower until

tle of glory. It would only be a form of self-indulgence. They would call it, and perhaps rightly, hush money to his conscience. They would say he went back on them

Some one was tapping at the door, and the secretary appeared to say they were waiting for him upstairs. He replied th

y called public service, he was leaving it all now with a sense of defeat and humiliation. A lump was in the old man's throat; his eyes were blurred. "Bu

in the little red schoolhouse, and close upon it came the picture of this other young man against whom all powers of corruption had been turned in vain. With the one it had been the emotional luxury of a sentiment, a thing from life's actualities apar

o the career of this other man who within the hour would come there in his stead. How glorious was his opportunity, how

hing honourable and fine to his own record, had altogether left him, and with t

otive would be put upon it, how they would call him traitor and coward; but that mattered little. The very fact that the man for whom he was doing it would never see it as it was brought him no pang. A

g strains as he closed the door