There they stood, arms around each other, clapping each other on the back, actually chortling in the pure ecstasy of comradeship, now serious, again laughing, when on the scene appeared Bud Haines, the correspondent, who had returned to interview the new Senator from Mississippi.
"Great heavens!" ejaculated the newspaper man. "A Senator, a United States Senator, hugging a broken-down old 'has-been!' What is the world coming to?" Haines suddenly paused. "I wonder if it can be a pose;—merely for effect. It's getting harder every day to tell what's genuine and what isn't in this town."
CHAPTER VII
LANGDON LEARNS OF THINGS UNPLEASANT
Haines quickly walked over and touched the Southerner on the arm.
"Well, my boy, what can I do for you?" asked the new Senator, turning with a pleasant smile.
"My name is Haines. Senator Stevens was to speak to you about me. I'm the first of the newspaper correspondents come to interview you."
Langdon's familiar smile broadened.
"Well, you don't look as though you'd bite. Reckon I can stand for it.
Is it very painful?"
"I hope it won't be, Senator," Haines said, feeling instinctively that he was going to like this big, hearty citizen.