I shook my head, and answered wearily: "Worse than that."
My wife regarded me in anxious silence, while manifestly she was cudgelling her brains to divine what could have happened. As she told me afterward, she imagined, from my doleful air, that I must at least have a seed in my little sac.
"They have asked me to run for Congress in this district," I finally vouchsafed to state.
Josephine dropped her fancy-work and sat upright with an air of satisfaction which was wholly out of keeping with my own dejected mien.
"Really, Fred! Who has asked you? The Governor?"
"The Governor does not usually go round on his bended knees asking candidates to run for Congress," I answered, with mild sarcasm.
"Well, the Mayor then?"
I have labored for years to make plain to Josephine the ramifications of our National, State, and Munic.i.p.al Government; but just as I am beginning to think that she understands the matter tolerably well, she is sure to break out in some such hopeless fashion as this, which shows that her conceptions are still crookeder than a ram"s horn. And the strangest part is that she can tell you all about the English Parliament and Home Rule, and whether any given statesman is a Liberal or a Liberal Unionist, and about M. Clemenceau and the relative strength of the Bonapartists and Orleans factions. But when it comes to distinguishing clearly between an Alderman and a State Senator, or a Member of Congress and a Member of the Legislature, she is apt to get exasperatingly muddled. I asked her once, in my most impressive manner, why it was that she did not take a more vital interest in the politics of her native country, and after reflecting a moment, she told me that she thought it must be because they were so stupid. On the other hand, with apparent inconsistency, she has many times expressed the hope that I would some day be conspicuously connected with them. I have been conscious for some time that it would suit her admirably to have me round off my professional career as Speaker of the National House of Representatives or Minister to the Court of St. James.
"Josephine," I said, in a tone of despair, "have I not explained to you time and time again that Members of Congress are the Representatives from the several States who are sent to Washington? How could the Governor, who is a State officer, or the Mayor, who is a munic.i.p.al officer, have anything to do with the nomination of a Member of the National House of Representatives? Only think, dear, what you are saying."
Probably Josephine would have evinced more contrition in tribute to this harangue had not her ears been fascinated by my reference to the Capital of our country.
"It _was_ stupid of me, Fred. Do you mean to tell me, dear, they are going to send you to Washington? That would be perfectly delightful."
"I merely have been asked to accept the nomination for Congress in the Fourth District," I answered, dryly.
"And what did you tell them?"
"I said I would think it over."
"You must accept. Of course you will accept? It would be splendid, Fred. I would a great deal rather have you in Congress than go on our trip to j.a.pan. I have often thought I should like to pa.s.s a winter in Washington."
By dint of economy and some shrewd investments I had managed to save up a vacation fund of more than normal size, by means of which Josephine and I were proposing to enjoy a jaunt to j.a.pan. We had been looking forward to this excursion, which I felt that we had fairly earned by strict devotion to home and business ties for a long period of years.
"The district is hopelessly Republican, in the first place, my dear, and I, as you know, am a Democrat."
Josephine looked grave for a moment. "But a great many Republicans would vote for you, Fred. Oh, I am sure they would!" she added, eagerly, impressed by the plausibility of the idea. "Harry Bolles is a Republican, and I am certain he would vote for you; so would Dr.
Meredith and Sam Bangs."
"They are three out of several thousand voters in the district, Josephine. You argue like the committee which waited upon me."
"They said a great many Republicans would vote for you, didn"t they?
And they thought you would be elected?"
"They were kind enough to state that I had a good fighting chance; which means, my dear, that I haven"t the ghost of a show."
Josephine regarded me a moment distrustfully. "It doesn"t seem to me there is any use in being too modest about such a matter as this, Fred.
Somebody has to be elected, and it might as well be you as anybody. I have always hoped you would go into politics, you know. If they hadn"t wanted you they wouldn"t have asked you."
"The only certain thing about it is, that, if they had supposed I could possibly be elected, they wouldn"t have offered me the nomination."
"What do you mean, Fred? I call that mock modesty, darling."
I did not consider that I was called upon to unfold more particularly to my wife the cynical estimate of the case which I entertained in my secret soul, especially in view of the fact that the committee which had waited upon me comprised not merely politicians, but some of our best citizens. Although a man who is invited to run for Congress in a district hopelessly hostile is likely to cherish secret suspicions as to the sincerity of those who offer him the nomination, the bait of self-sacrifice for the public good has lured many a cleverer man than I to his destruction. Besides, a fighting chance invariably seems more prodigious to the one who is said to have it, than to anyone else.
There were certainly weak joints in the armor (an a.n.a.logy supplied me by the committee) of my opponent, who was a dyed-in-the-wool politician, and indisputably I had a great many friends. Could I afford to disregard the piteous, eloquent argument of the spokesman, Honorable David Flint, that the sacred cause of Reform demanded me as its champion, and that victory was possible only under my banner? I had promised to think it over, which was a coy way of stating that I would accept. Having made up my mind to run, I was obliged to tell Josephine that this would mean good-by for many a long and weary month to our jaunt.
"If you"re elected, Fred, I shall be only too glad to postpone it. And if by any chance you don"t get in, we"ll forget all about it in dear j.a.pan."
"You do not quite understand the situation, pet. We stay at home in any case, election or no election. The expenses will eat up my savings for a rainy day in j.a.pan. I shall have to contribute handsomely to everybody and everything. It"s an outrage, but one of the painful results of having greatness thrust upon one."
Thereupon Josephine flung her arms around my neck and informed me that I was not only a dear, n.o.ble hero, but that j.a.pan or no j.a.pan, she would not begrudge one copper of any sum I might be obliged to spend in order to defeat that odious wretch, Mr. Daniel Spinney. A few days later, after my letter of acceptance was published, she said that she did not see how anyone who had the least respect for the sacred right of suffrage could hesitate between us.
"Spinney is not such a bad fellow at bottom," I replied, albeit touched by the warm partisanship of my wife.
"Didn"t I read in the newspaper this morning that he is a notorious spoilsman?"
"Very likely, dear. Spinney has always called Civil Service Reform a humbug."
"And he is all wrong on the tariff."
"We think so."
"Well, then, how can you say that he isn"t a bad fellow at bottom?"
"I mean, Josephine, that apart from politics he is a very decent sort of person. I couldn"t help thinking while I was chatting with him yesterday that there was something quite attractive about him. He isn"t exactly the kind of man I should hold up as a model to my sons, but, as I said before, he is by no means a bad fellow."
Josephine had been looking at me aghast ever since the opening sentence of this speech. "You don"t mean to tell me, Fred, that you stopped and chatted with that wretch?"
"Indeed I do. We happened to meet, and so we hobn.o.bbed for five minutes on the street corner and drew each other out in the friendliest sort of fashion as to our mutual prospects. He says he has a walk-over, and I told him that he isn"t in it."
"I"m glad you showed a little spirit, anyhow."
"What would you have had me do? Make a fell a.s.sault upon his hair and eyeb.a.l.l.s? As it was, I perpetrated a deliberate falsehood in the good cause. He knows that I know I am beaten from the start."
"Nonsense," said Josephine. "You provoke me, Fred, when you talk in that fashion. What was the use of accepting if you didn"t intend to win if you could?"
"So I do intend, but I can"t."
"You can"t certainly if you hobn.o.b with the rival candidate and call him a good fellow."
"You ought to have been a politician, Josephine."
"No, I"m only crazy to have you win, Fred, and I"m convinced you can win if you only think so yourself and pitch in as if you thought so. I dare say Mr. Spinney may be well enough apart from politics, but it is politics we are interested in at present, and it seems to me it is your duty to hate him--until the election is over, anyway. If you defeat him, you may ask him to dinner, if you like."
Her eyes sparkled like diamonds, and there was a dangerous look in them which would have boded ill for Mr. Spinney or any other Republican had he happened to thrust his head inside our doors just then. As for me, I felt a little sheepish at my lack of courage, I must confess, and I cried with genuine ardor:
"Hurrah for Reform! You"re right, my dear," I added, "I must pitch in.
I haven"t been quite so pusillanimous, however, as it would seem, for I have got Nick Long to superintend my campaign."
You may remember that Nicholas Long, or Nick Long, as we always speak of him, has never stood high in Josephine"s good graces on account of his unorthodox habits regarding church-going. He has an unpleasant way of encountering us on our way to the sanctuary in the toggery of a man who is going to take a day off in the country. He has, however, a cool, a.n.a.lytical mind, and his name has been a.s.sociated for some years with reform politics. In obtaining his services as a manager I felt that I had done well and wisely. Josephine looked a little sober, as though she was not altogether gratified at my selection, but realizing, very likely on second thought, that the children"s habits were formed, she contented herself by remarking:
"I shall keep my eye upon him and make sure that he doesn"t get you into any mischief."