They had reached the dimly lighted front vestibule, and her hand was still on his arm.
"I was interested in it," he admitted, correcting the present to the past tense.
"But after it went to the House committee on judiciary you left it to more skilful, or perhaps we'd better say, to less scrupulous hands?"
"I believe you are a witch. Is there anything you don't know?"
"Plenty of things. For example, I don't know exactly how much it cost our good friends of the 'vested interests' to have that bill mislaid in the committee room. But I do know they made a very foolish bargain."
"Beyond all doubt a most demoralizing bargain, which, to say the best of it, was only a choice between two evils. But why foolish?"
"Because—well, because mislaid things have a way of turning up unexpectedly, you know, and—"
He stopped her in a sudden gust of feverish excitement.
"Tell me what you mean in one word, Miss Van Brock. Don't those fellows intend to stay bought?"
She smiled pityingly.