“Would cost and ten per cent. interest them?”
“If you could get them waked up. You’d have to get them to think less about themselves and more about the country.”
“But don’t you think a change is taking place in public opinion?”
Potter paused before replying. “Yes,” he said. “There has been a change, a slow movement. Right now I wouldn’t even guess how far it had traveled.”
The major leaned back in his chair and gazed at the table-cloth; his companions did not speak. At the next table two men in the prime of their middle age were talking in tones louder than one expects in such a place. But these men were privileged. Both were millionaires; both were manufacturers of automobiles; both had worked, less than twenty years ago, as machinists at the bench. They were big men, rough men, but able men.
“This gin they serve here can’t be touched in town,” said the heavier of the two.
“It’s bully.... Reminds me, are you getting ready for the long thirst, Bob?”
“You can lay a sweet bet on that. I’m planting enough in the cellar to last till the birdies nest again—and I’m looking out for more.... Hey, waiter.”
The waiter approached.
“Call the steward. I want to talk to him.”