"Then I want an opportunity for some conversation with you about this business of the post office. I suppose you are here to examine into this affair, and are willing to hear both sides. There are some things in connection with the matter, which I think you ought to know."
"I was just going to the hotel for my dinner," said I. "Government officers must eat, you know, as well as other people, and for a while after dinner I shall be engaged; but if what you have to communicate is of importance, I will endeavor to confer with you before I leave town."
"I hope you will; and allow me one word now. I understand that you have been closeted with Squire W., and I want you to know something about his position in this matter. Everybody allows him to be an honest and a sincere man, but the fact is, he has been very active in effecting the removal of the site of the post-office from the other side of the river to its present location, and could hardly be called a disinterested witness in such an investigation as you no doubt intend to give the subject."
How far this dig at the Squire was just, I could not then certainly know; but a glance at his law dispensary and the post-office, distant from each other only a few rods, both being a good quarter of a mile from the old post-office site, gave some plausibility to the intimation that the Squire's interest and love for justice, happened in this instance, to run in the same direction.
My presence in the village had become pretty generally known, as appeared by various unmistakable indications, particularly some not very flattering remarks which I overheard at the dinner-table, such as "a one-sided affair," "consulting interested persons," "don't know how he expects to find out the truth," and the like; all of which I pretended neither to hear nor to notice. It was very evident that our man of letters hadn't many friends in that house, for those of its inmates and frequenters who were not in some way influenced by rival interests, were no doubt more or less disaffected by the removal of the post office from that immediate neighborhood.
As I was one of the last to leave the table, the usual cloud of tobacco smoke had taken possession of the bar-room, and was enveloping its occupants in an atmosphere
"Darkly, deeply, beautifully blue,"
when I entered the apartment devoted to the production of this mollifying vapor. The narcotic herb seemed to have lost its ordinary soothing power, for the company then and there present bestowed upon me glances cool and scrutinizing enough to dispel effectually any inclination I might have had for indulging a short time in the delights of social intercourse. So I seized my over-coat, and passed out; and this movement was the signal for a spasmodic giggle by the entire assemblage, in which the landlord joined, as I supposed, for I distinctly recognised his grum voice just as I closed the door, uttering, in a contemptuous tone, the following remark, "I guess the Agent don't like tobacco smoke!"
I was little disturbed, however, by these and sundry other indications that I was not establishing a reputation for impartiality and shrewdness with a majority of the citizens. If I were to listen to all they might be ready to tell me, I should be spending valuable time to no sort of purpose, for the proofs of the post master's delinquency which I had thus far obtained were derived, not from them, but from himself, and it was in that direction only that I could reasonably expect to obtain conclusive evidence of his guilt, for all the accusations which his enemies had sent to the Department had been supported by nothing better than the opinions of those who made them.
If I failed in securing what I expected from the course I was pursuing, it would then be time to see what other proof could be procured from different quarters; and until the result of my investigations should be known, I was content to rest under the cloud of misapprehension which appeared to be gathering about me, knowing that thus I could best serve the interests of justice, and that time would set me right with those who were now disposed to look on me as one whose mind had been preoccupied by the artful tales of the post master and his friends.