The stately black butler bowed again with quiet dignity.
"Yo' name, sah? I—failed to catch it?"
The messenger lifted his hand:
"No name. Please say to the Senator that I came from an important official with a message of the gravest importance—I wish to see him alone at once—"
The faithful servant eyed his visitor with an ominous look. There was no question of his loyalty to the man he served.
"It's all right, Robert, I'm a friend of Senator Davis."
A moment's hesitation and the black man bowed with deference.
"Yassah—yassah—I tell him right away, sah. You sho' knows me anyhow, sah—"
The Senator was in bed suffering again from facial neuralgia. He rose promptly, dressed hastily but completely and carefully and extended both hands to his visitor.