Josiah accepted the finality of Armstrong's manner. "You show yourself a man in ignoring the flappings and squawkings of that young cockatoo," said he cheerfully. "As for the committee— What do you think of Morris for counsel?"
"You've decided on him?" said Armstrong. His eyes wandered.
But Fosdick was not subtle, and thought nothing of that slight but, in one so close, most significant sign of a concealing mind. "It's settled," replied he. "Joe's an honorable man. Also, he's tied fast to us, and at the same time the public can't charge that he's one of our lawyers. I know, you and he—" There Fosdick stopped. He prided himself on a most gentlemanly delicacy in family matters.
"He'll take orders?" said Armstrong, with no suggestion that he either saw cause for "delicacy" or appreciated it.
"I suppose he would, if it were necessary. But, thank God, Horace, it isn't. As I told him at my house last night, after the governor and I had decided on him—I said to him: 'Joe, go ahead and make a reputation for yourself. We fear nothing—we've got nothing to hide that the public has a right to know. Tear the mask off those damned scoundrels who are trying to seize the O.A.D. and change it from a great bulwark of public safety into a feeder for their reckless gambling.'"
"And what did he say?" inquired Armstrong—a simple inquiry, with no hint of the cynical amusement it veiled.
"He was moved to tears, almost," replied Fosdick, damp of eye himself at the recollection. "And he said: 'Thank you, Mr. Fosdick, and you, Governor Hartwell. I'll regard this commission as a sacred trust. I'll be careful not to give encouragement to calumny or to make the public uneasy and suspicious where there is no just reason for uneasiness and suspicion; and at the same time I'll expose these men who have been prostituting the name of financier.' You really ought to have heard him."
An inarticulate sound came from behind the Westerner's armor of stolid apathy.
"Horace, he's a noble fellow," continued Fosdick, assuming that his "man" was sympathetic. "And he knows the law from cover to cover. He has drawn some of our best statutes, and whenever I've got into a place where it looked as if the howling of the mob was going to stop business, I've always called on him to get up a statute that would make the mob happy and not interfere with us, and he has never failed me. By the time he's fifty, he'll be one of the strongest men in the country—the kind of man the business interests 'd like to see in the White House. If it weren't for that fool wife of his! Do you know her?"
"No," replied Armstrong.