"Apt as not, you'll be hers, you damn fool!" he retorted.
As the Judge came up on the steps Mrs. Walton appeared in the door. At the sight of him there she threw up her hands and cried:
"Don't tell me we are defeated, John Regis, I can't bear it!"
"Susan, you may now run for sheriff of this county, there are enough more women than men in it to elect you. And you've got 'em in your pocket!" he concluded, laughing as he seized her hands.
"Oh!" she sobbed, sinking down into a chair. "I thought this day would never end. Such suspense!"
"Showed the white feather, too, didn't you? I called at your office early in the afternoon and you were not there," he teased.
"I couldn't stand it. I felt that if we should be defeated, I must hear the news in my own house—in reach of my bed!" she sobbed, half laughing.
"If I was twenty years younger, Susan, I'd ask you to marry me this night by way of celebrating our victory," he said, looking down at her.
"If I was twenty years younger there'd be no such victory to celebrate, John," she replied, "so you wouldn't have asked me!"
"You should see Coleman and Acres. They are taking all the credit of the election, strutting like fighting cocks on the square!"