He laughed soberly.
"It sounds fine, doesn't it?"
Leslie continued to gaze at him with pride.
"Do you know, Leslie," he went on, "I can't realise it—can't understand why Broderick—why the organisation picked me of all men for the office. Wanted a clean man, they said—the wave of reform demanded it, and they didn't know anyone who would fill the bill as well as I."
Leslie sobered.
"It's destiny," she said. "You were meant to go up, up, up...."
"Stop!" he called out with a well-feigned frightened look on his face. "I'm high enough now."
"Wouldn't it be fine," she continued with girlish enthusiasm, "if, after this, you could be United States Senator, Vice-President, and after that possibly——"
"The Big Job?" He laughed. "Why, I haven't even been sworn in yet." He stopped suddenly. "But I want to see your father, Leslie," his voice losing its note of gaiety, "I want to tell him——"
Leslie, too, left laughter behind her.