I showed my amusement.
"Don't smile, Sayler," he protested with some anger in his smooth, heavy voice. "You are not the only strong man in the party. And I venture to take advantage of our long friendship to speak plainly to you. I wish to see a united party. One of my reasons for sending for you was to tell you how greatly I am distressed and chagrined by the attacks on Senator Goodrich in our papers."
"Did you have any other reason for sending for me?" said I very quietly.
"That was the principal one," he confessed.
"Oh!" I exclaimed.
"What do you mean, Sayler?"
"I thought possibly you might also have wished to tell me how unjust you thought the attacks on me in the eastern papers, and to assure me that they had only strengthened our friendship."
He was silent.
I rose, threw my overcoat on my arm, took up my hat.
"Wait a moment, please," he said. "I have always found you very impartial in your judgments—your clear judgment has been of the highest usefulness to me many times."