"Who couldn't, with all that money!"
"He and Thorne," went on Miriam, "are rivals for the United States Senatorship. Things are growing warm, too, I hear; but it's only a question of a day or two now...."
Shirley laughed, but her voice was hard when she spoke:—
"He told me once that it cost over half a million dollars in this state to be chosen Senator. Well, he's got the money, anyway——"
Miriam raised her eyebrows.
"He told you that?"
"Yes—before he got the money."
Mrs. Challoner deprecated.
"Shirley, aren't you hard on Murgatroyd? He's a man of character in the city," and she poised her needle in the air and glanced at the girl in a quizzical way. "I think," she went on slowly, "that I understand Murgatroyd. I think he's a man who could go wrong once, and only once."
Shirley shrugged her shoulders. But whatever may have been her opinion to the contrary, she was prevented from expressing it by the sound of approaching footsteps on the stairs.