第54章

A MAN IN HIS MIGHT.

Olivia came to attend the convention as Fred was a delegate from Marion County.Pauline and Gladys accepted her invitation and shared her box--the convention was held in the Saint X Grand Opera House, the second largest auditorium in the state.

Pauline, in the most retired corner, could not see the Marion County delegation into which Scarborough went by substitution.

But she had had a glimpse of him as she came in--he was sitting beside Fred Pierson and was gazing straight ahead, as if lost in thought.He looked tired and worn, but not cast down.

"You should have been here, Polly, when Scarborough came in,"said Olivia, who was just in front of her."They almost tore the roof off.He's got the audience with him, even if the delegates aren't.A good many of the delegates applauded, too,"she added--but in a significantly depressed tone.

"Why isn't he a candidate, Mrs.Pierson?" asked Gladys.

"They wanted him to be, of course," replied Olivia, "and Ithink it was a mistake that he didn't consent.But he wouldn't hear of it.He said it simply wouldn't do for him to make the fight to carry the convention for himself.He said that, even if he were nominated, the other side would use it against him.""That seems reasonable," said Gladys.

"But it isn't," replied Olivia."He may not know it but he can lead men where they wouldn't go for his merely sending them.""I suppose it was his modesty," suggested Gladys.

"Modesty's a good deal of a vice, especially in a leader,"replied Olivia.

There was an hour of dullness--routine business, reports of committees, wearisome speeches.But, like every one of those five thousand people, Pauline was in a fever of anticipation.

For, while it was generally assumed that Scarborough and his friends had no chance and while Larkin was apparently carrying everything through according to program, still it was impossible to conceive of such a man as Scarborough accepting defeat on test votes tamely taken.He would surely challenge.Larkin watched him uneasily, wondering at what point in the proceedings the gage would be flung down.Even Merriweather could not keep still, but flitted about, his nervousness of body contrasting strangely with his calmness of face; himself the most unquiet man in the hall, he diffused quiet wherever he paused.

At last came the call for nominations.When the secretary of the convention read Cass from the roll of counties, a Larkin henchman rose and spoke floridly for twenty minutes on the virtues of John Frankfort, put up as the Larkin "draw-fire," the pretended candidate whose prearranged defeat was to be used on the stump as proof that Boss Larkin and his gang had been downed.At the call of Hancock County, another--a secret--Larkin henchman rose to eulogize "that stanch foe of corporate corruption and aggression, Hancock County's favorite son, the people's judge, Judge Edward Howel Graney!" Then the roll-call proceeded amid steadily rising excitement which abruptly died into silence as the clerk shouted, with impressive emphasis, "Wayne!" That was the home county of the Scarborough candidate.A Wayne delegate rose and in a single sentence put ex-Governor Bowen in nomination.There was a faint ripple of applause which was instantly checked.A silence of several seconds and--"Mr.Chairman, and gentle--"

It was the voice Pauline knew so well.She could not see him, but that voice seemed to make him visible to her.She caught her breath and her heart beat wildly.He got no further into seconding Bowen's nomination than the middle of the fourth word.

There may have been ears offended by the thunder-clap which burst in that theater, but those ears were not Pauline's, were not in Olivia Pierson's box.And then came tumbling and roaring, huge waves of adulation, with his name shouted in voices hoarse and voices shrill like hissing foam on the triumphant crests of billows.And Pauline felt as if she were lifted from her bodily self, were tossing in a delirium of ecstasy on a sea of sheer delight.

And now he was on the platform, borne there above the shoulders of a hundred men.He was standing pale and straight and mighty.