“Yes,” answered Rankin, “but they said you didn’t answer the’r letters personally. Does Crawford sign your name, or stamp it onto the letters?”
“The damn fools!” Garwood could only exclaim, helplessly.
“Well, you know ol’ General Bancroft’s strong holt al’ays was ’at he answered his constits’ letters right away, an’ in his own hand write. An’—oh, ther’ ’as a lot o’ little things like that.”
“Was there any feeling over my vote on the armor-plate bill?” asked the congressman.
“Oh, some, that is, some talk about your sidin’ in ’ith the corporations, but not a great deal, mostly just such little feelin’s as a man al’ays encounters after he’s been in office a little while. I didn’t think it ’uld amount to much, but—”
“But it did,” said Garwood, setting his lips.
“Yes, it did,” acquiesced Rankin. “But Pusey was at the bottom of it all.”
“Pusey?”
“Yes, Pusey. The truth is I underrated Pusey’s stren’th—that’s the whole of it.”
They were silent a minute, and then Garwood said: