"I'm getting to be as leaky as Josh Craig is--as he
SEEMS to be," he muttered, so low, however, that not even her
sharp ears caught it.
"So it is to be Attorney-General Craig," said the old lady,
apparently abstracted but in reality catlike in watchfulness, and
noting with secret pleasure Branch's anger at this explicit
statement of the triumph of his hated rival.
"Isn't it frightful?" said Branch. "What is the country coming
to?"
But she had lost interest in the conversation. She rid herself of
Branch as speedily as the circumstances permitted. She wished to
be alone, to revolve the situation slowly from the new viewpoint
which Branch, half-unconsciously and wholly reluctantly, had
opened up. She had lived a long time, had occupied a front bench
overlooking one of the world's chief arenas of action. And, as she
had an acute if narrow mind, she had learned to judge
intelligently and to note those little signs that are, to the
intelligent, the essentials, full of significance. She had
concealed her amazement from Branch, but amazed she was, less at
his news of Craig as a personage full of potentiality than at her
own failure, through the inexcusable, manlike stupidity of
personal pique, to discern the real man behind his mannerisms.
Pages:
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199