"
"My faith, I believe you are serious in this! Have you really
formulated any plans?" He was safe in the trap, and the other knew
it.
"Sir, I will not discredit you by choosing methods. As to the
results desired, I say no more."
"Yet we sit here and discuss this matter as though we contemplated
a simple, proper and dignified act!"
"Murder is perhaps not legal, even for the sake of one's country.
But suppose we halt this side of murder. Suppose that by means
known only to yourself, and not even to myself, you gained this
young woman's _free consent_ to accompany you, say, to Europe--that
would be legal, dignified, proper--and ah! so useful."
"And rather risky!"
"And altogether interesting."
"And quite impossible."
"Altogether impossible. Oh, utterly!"
"Quite utterly!"
They spoke with gravity. What the gentleman from New York really
thought lay in his unvoiced question: "Could it by any possibility
be true that the Fillmore administration would give me support for
the next nomination if I agree to swing the Free Soil vote nearer
to the compromise?" What the gentleman from Kentucky asked in his
own mind, was this:
"Will he play fair with us, or will he simply make this an occasion
to break into our ranks?" What they both did was to break out into
laughter at least feignedly hearty.
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