If Doolittle had not been there, George would have been glad to discuss with his uncle, who had, after all, a sort of worldly shrewdness, how far a man is justified in controlling his wife's opinions. But before an audience now a trifle unsympathetic, he could not resist the temptation of making the gesture of a man magnificently master in his own house.
He smiled quite grandly. "I think I can promise that," he said.
Doolittle got up slowly, bringing his jaws together in a relentless bite on the unresisting gum.
"Well," he said, "that's all there is to it." And he added significantly as he reached the door, "If you kin do it!"
When the campaign manager had gone, Uncle Martin asked very, very gently: "You don't feel any doubt of being able to do it, do you, George?"
"About my ability to control—I mean influence, my wife? I feel no doubt at all."
"And Penfield, I suppose, can tackle Betty? You won't mind my saying that of the two I think your partner has the harder job."
A slight cloud appeared upon the brow of the candidate.
"I don't feel inclined to ask any favor of Penny just at present," he said haughtily. "Has it ever struck you, Uncle Martin, that Penny has an unduly emotional, an almost feminine type of mind?"
"No," said the other, "it hasn't, but that is perhaps because I have never been sure just what the feminine type of mind is."