“O—ought to have come right to me,” said Mr. Braden, leaning over until his face was in close proximity to Mr. Crewe's. “Whitredge told you to come to me, didn't he?”
Mr. Crewe was a little taken aback.
“The senator mentioned your name,” he admitted.
“He knows. Said I was the man to see if you was a candidate, didn't he? Told you to talk to Job Braden, didn't he?”
Now Mr. Crewe had no means of knowing whether Senator Whitredge had been in conference with Mr. Braden or not.
“The senator mentioned your name casually, in some connection,” said Mr. Crewe.
“He knows,” Mr. Braden repeated, with a finality that spoke volumes for the senator's judgment; and he bent over into Mr. Crewe's ear, with the air of conveying a mild but well-merited reproof, “You'd ought to come right to me in the first place. I could have saved you all that unnecessary trouble of seein' folks. There hasn't be'n a representative left the town of Leith for thirty years that I hain't agreed to. Whitredge knows that. If I say you kin go, you kin go. You understand,” said Mr. Braden, with his fingers on Mr. Crewe's knee once more.
Five minutes later Mr. Crewe emerged into the dazzling sun of the Ripton square, climbed into his automobile, and turned its head towards Leith, strangely forgetting the main engagement which he said had brought him to town.