The Governor held up his hand.
"You misunderstand me," he said. "One would suppose I had offered you a purse! I mean simply that the popularity of the man who averts this strike will be an assured fact. He would be the idol of the working people, and hardly less esteemed by the element of capital. Moreover, he would be doing a humane and merciful thing. You are the only man who is in a position to approach Rathbawne, and, if you will excuse the suggestion, I think you can hardly afford to throw away the chance. As it is, you—er—you are not what might be called popular, Mr. Barclay."
This time the silence was broken by a single sharp little click—the latch of the connecting door slipping into place. The Lieutenant-Governor sank slowly into his revolving chair, tipped back, swung round a half circle, and stared out disconsolately over the sloping lawns of the capitol grounds, mottled with thin patches of snow.
II
THE ODDS AGAINST YOUNG NISBET
Young Nisbet leaned forward in his chair.
"And I've been thinking," he added, "that perhaps—that perhaps"—
"That perhaps what?" asked the junior Miss Rathbawne, leaning forward in hers.