“Because,” he laughed, “having a minor public position—because, by a fluke, having found myself in the place of a common councilman, I have got some things done and kept others from being done.”
“Public life has always been so absorbing for me. I can think of nothing nobler for a man.”
“Than being a common councilman,” he interrupted.
“You laugh,” she said. “But I grew so interested, I followed in the newspapers, from day to day, what you were doing.”
“You were very good,” he answered, gravely. “Or you are very good to say so.”
“Don’t you believe me?” she asked, suddenly arrested by his tone.
“I have heard a good deal of you, Miss Whiting.”
Miriam flushed slightly, but she looked at him steadily.
“What have you heard?”
“I have heard that you have ways of making the worse appear the better reason—that you flatter.”