"Why take the trouble?"
"Why? Listen to the man! Why? So you'll know what you're up against, that's why."
"But I'm not up against anything," he objected mildly. "I told 'em I didn't want the job."
"What?"
He rubbed an outraged ear. "No need to deafen me," said he.
"Deafen you?" she cried. "I could take a club to you, you fat-head! The opportunity of a lifetime and you turn it down! Oh! I could shriek my head off with rage! I never was so hopping in my life! The first time an honest man is offered a political job in this county, for the honest man to turn up his nose, is——" Words failed her. She almost choked.
"So-o, so-o," he soothed. "Don't get so excited. Remember we are young but once, and every outburst brings us nearer the grave. I hadn't reached the end of my tale when you blew up and hit the ceiling. Lemme finish, that's a good child. I told 'em I didn't want the job, but they wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. They said for me to think it over, and they'd be back in a couple of days and take it up with me again."
"Bill," said Sally Jane, leaning forward, her violet eyes shining, "I'm serious."
"I'll try to believe it," he said, regarding her with admiration. "But just this minute you look like the most unserious thing I ever saw—and the most beautiful. Listen, Sally Jane, I wish you'd do as I ask you. Close your eyes and plunge right in. We'd be as happy as two pups in a basket. Sign on the dotted line and leave the rest to me."
Which nonsense she quite properly disregarded utterly. "Bill, I want you to take that nomination."