“So I hear, Mr. Ballymolloy,” answered John with a pleasant smile. “I hope I may count on you, in spite of what you said yesterday. These are the times when men must keep together.”
“Now Mr. Harrington, you’ll not believe that I could go to the House and vote against my own party, surely, will you now?” said Patrick. But there was a tinge of irony in his soft tones. He knew that Vancouver could make him great and advantageous business transactions, and he treated him accordingly. John Harrington was, on the other hand, a mere candidate for his twenty votes; he could make John senator if he chose, or defeat him, if he preferred it, and he accordingly behaved to John with an air of benevolent superiority. “I trust you would do no such thing, Mr. Ballymolloy,” said John gravely. “Without advocating myself as in any way fit for the honors of the Senate, I can say that it is of the utmost importance that we should have as many Democrats in Congress as possible, in the Senate as well as in the House.”
“Surely you don’t think I doubt that, Mr. Harrington? And indeed the Senate is pretty well Democratic as it is.”
“Yes,” said John, smiling, “but the more the better, I should think. It is a very different matter from the local legislature, where changes may often do good.”
“Indeed and it is, Mr. Harrington. And will you please to tell me what you will do about free trade, when you’re in the Senate, sir?”
“I am afraid I cannot tell you anything that I did not tell you yesterday, Mr. Ballymolloy. I am a tariff reform man. It is a great Democratic movement, and I should be bound to support it, even if I were not myself so thorough a believer in it as I am.”
“Now see here, Mr. Harrington, it’s the gospel truth I’m telling you, when I say you’re mistaken. Here are plenty of us Democrats who don’t want the least little bit of free trade. I’m in the iron business, Mr. Harrington, and you won’t be after thinking me such an all-powerful galoot as to cut my own nose off, will you?”
“Well, not exactly,” said John, who was used to many peculiarities of language in his visitors. “But, of course, iron will be the thing last on the tariff. I am of opinion that it is necessary to put enough tax on iron to protect home-producers at the time of greatest depression. That is fair, is not it?”
“I dare say you may think so, Mr. Harrington,” said Ballymolloy, knocking the ashes from his cigar. “But you are not an iron man, now, are you?”
“Certainly not,” said John. “But I have studied the question, and I know its importance. In a reformation of the tariff, iron would be one of the things most carefully provided for.”