“Yes, about the campaign.”
“There’s nothing to do. I am beaten. When the convention meets, in half an hour, Conover will be nominated. Only my two little blocks of delegates will be left to oppose him, against all that whole——”
“Yes; yes, I know that,” she interposed, “but what then?”
“That is the end, I suppose. Perhaps by the next gubernatorial campaign——”
“The next? This campaign hasn’t fairly begun yet. Do you mean to say you are going to sit by with folded hands and accept defeat?”
“What else is left?”
“Everything is left. You have tried to fight an all-powerful machine, to fight it on its own ground, along its own lines, yet refusing to use its own weapons or to guard against them. And you have failed. The real fight begins now.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you must call on the people at large to help you. You have aroused them. Already there is so much discontent against Boss rule that Mr. Conover is troubled. You have no right to abandon the Cause now that you’ve interested others in it. Put yourself in the people’s hands.”
“You mean, to——?”