Читать книгу The 13th District. A Story of a Candidate онлайн

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“Aw, cheer up,” said Rankin, “that won’t cut any figure with you—it won’t lose a vote.”

“No, but it may lose me something else—” Garwood spoke with a significance that Rankin could not instantly appreciate. “Of course,” Garwood continued “there was nothing in it, but then—you know, a woman—”

The big fellow vented a little whistle, and then kept his lips puckered up to aid his thought.

“What can we do?” said Garwood, who could not then, in such a mood, endure the delay of silence.

“Well,” said Rankin, “let me think, I can’t straighten it out all at once. It ’as al’ays hard fer me to mix politics and business, or politics and religion, or politics and—” He was a sentimental man who feared to show his sentiment, and he did not speak the tender word of many meanings. But under the influence of the twilight, perhaps because they could not see each other’s face, they talked confidentially, until the gloom of evening was expanding in the room. Then Rankin took out his watch and tried to read its dial.