"How long are you going to stay in Albany?"
Wilkinson raised his hand high in the air, as one about to take an oath.
"Until I've done up this man Beekman," was the magnate's answer to the Governor's private secretary.
Two days later charges of corruption against Governor Beekman had been presented to the legislature. A petition for his impeachment had been handed up; and a committee of three appointed to investigate the charges and to report. What the charges were was not quite clear upon the first news of the affair; but that they were serious seemed to be conceded.
Upon the evening of the very day of the appointment of the committee of three, a woman stepped into the lobby of the Remsen in Albany and exhibited a letter to the clerk. The letter was written upon the private letter-head of Governor Beekman and was addressed to a woman.
The clerk raised his eyebrows imperceptibly, and calling a boy ordered him to take the lady to the Governor's suite.
At the Governor's suite the woman was met by a maid, who unhesitatingly admitted her and escorted her into the Governor's den—a small room fitted with window-seats and couches galore.
"Are you sure this is all right?" asked the woman, somewhat alarmed at the effusive way in which she was made so suddenly at home.
The maid insisted that it was; that Governor Beekman was on his way up from New York; and that he was expected at any moment. The maid left, locking the door behind her.