“To the very end,” said Blake.
Mr. Brown nodded. “I was sure you’d decide that way,” said he.
“I want to thank you for what you’ve said to bring me around,” Blake continued in his new incisive tone. “But it is only fair to tell you that this was only a spell—not the first one, in fact—and that I would have come to my senses anyhow.”
“Of course, of course.” It was not the policy of Mr. Brown, once the victory was won, to discuss to whom the victory belonged.
Blake’s eyes were keen and penetrating.
“And you say that the things I said a little while back will not affect your attitude toward me in the future?”
“Those things? Why, they’ve already passed out of my other ear! Oh, it’s no new experience,” he went on with his comforting air of good-fellowship, “for me to run into one of our political friends when he’s sick with a bad case of conscience. They all have it now and then, and they all pull out of it. No, don’t you worry about the future. You’re O. K. with us.”
“Thank you.”
“And now, since everything is so pleasantly cleared up,” continued Mr. Brown, “let’s go back to my first question. I suppose everything looks all right for the trial to-morrow?”
Blake hesitated a moment, then told of Katherine’s discovery. “But it’s no more than a surmise,” he ended.