"
Brant heard no more; the facing around of his old companion towards the
bar gave him that opportunity of escaping he had been waiting for. The
defection of Hooker and his peculiar inventions were too characteristic
of him to excite surprise, and, although they no longer awakened his
good-humored tolerance, they were powerless to affect him in his greater
trouble. Only one thing he learned--that Hooker knew nothing of his wife
being in camp as a spy--the incident would have been too tempting to
have escaped his dramatic embellishment. And the allusion to Senator
Boompointer, monstrous as it seemed in Hooker's mouth, gave him a grim
temptation. He had heard of Boompointer's wonderful power; he believed
that Susy would and could help him--Clarence--whether she did or did not
help Hooker. But the next moment he dismissed the idea, with a flushing
cheek. How low had he already sunk, even to think of it!
It had been once or twice in his mind to seek the President, and, under
a promise of secrecy, reveal a part of his story. He had heard many
anecdotes of his goodness of heart and generous tolerance of all things,
but with this was joined--so said contemporaneous history--a flippancy
of speech and a brutality of directness from which Clarence's
sensibility shrank.
Pages:
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198