“Show him in,” nodded the president, adding in an aside: “You better stay, Steve.”
Pelton was a rotund oracular individual in silk hat and a Prince Albert coat of broadcloth. He regarded himself solemnly as a statesman because he had served two inconspicuous terms in the House at Washington. He was fond of proclaiming himself a Southern gentleman, part of which statement was unnecessary and part untrue. Like many from his section, he had a decided penchant for politics.
“Have you seen the infamous libel in that scurrilous sheet of the gutters the Herald?” he demanded immediately of Ridgway.
“Which libel? They don’t usually stop at one, colonel.”
“The one, seh, which slanders my honorable name; which has the scoundrelly audacity to charge me with introducing the mining extension bill for venal reasons, seh.”
“Oh! Yes, I’ve seen that. Rather an unfortunate story to come out just now.”
“I shall force a retraction, seh, or I shall demand the satisfaction due a Southern gentleman.
“Yes, I would, colonel,” replied Ridgway, secretly amused at the vain threats of this bag of wind which had been punctured.
“It’s a vile calumny, an audacious and villainous lie.”
“What part of it? I’ve just glanced over it, but the part I read seems to be true. That’s the trouble with it. If it were a lie you could explode it.”