Mason shook hands with him without enthusiasm. He had sat too long at the feet of the sages of the Civic Club not to believe that this man and his kind were the very bacillus of corruption. He had met him a year or two before at a conference held with a view to allying the Democrats and the reformers in favour of an independent candidate for city treasurer. But McQuirk had been against the fusion—and it had failed.
And Mason, after he had taken his departure and walked homeward, admitted to himself, with some bitterness, that McQuirk’s voice, in this ward at least, would very likely be the deciding one in the matter in hand.
Chapter X
“Oh! The room was decorated,
With the flags of every land,
The gents were elevated,
Malone he couldn’t stand;
Canaries in their cages,
With flowers in a tub,
Stood on the piano,