"
"I don't believe it; there are scores, thousands, perhaps millions such,
I admit; but the average American loves justice and right, and he is the
one to whom I appeal with frankness and truth. Great heavens! don't you
love to be frank and open?"
She narrowed her eyelids.
"Yes, sometimes I do; once I was; but it's a luxury few of us Negroes
can afford. Then, too, I insist that it's jolly to fool them."
"Don't you hate the deception?"
She chuckled and put her head to one side.
"At first I did; but, do you know, now I believe I prefer it."
He looked so horrified that she burst out laughing. He laughed too. She
was a puzzle to him. He kept thinking what a mistress of a mansion she
would make.
"Why do you say these things?" he asked suddenly.
"Because I want you to do well here in Washington."
"General philanthropy?"
"No, special." Her eyes were bright with meaning.
"Then you care--for me?"
"Yes."
He bent forward and cast the die.
"Enough to marry me?"
She answered very calmly and certainly:
"Yes."
He leaned toward her. And then between him and her lips a dark and
shadowy face; two great storm-swept eyes looked into his out of a world
of infinite pain, and he dropped his head in hesitation and shame, and
kissed her hand. Miss Wynn thought him delightfully bashful.
_Twenty-six_
CONGRESSMAN CRESSWELL
The election of Harry Cresswell to Congress was a very simple matter.
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