Page:Despotism and democracy; a study in Washington society and politics (IA despotismdemocra00seawiala).pdf/264

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more on this subject to me now, or at any other time."

"Well, I've said about all I had to say," replied Senator Mulligan, warmly. "I asked you to marry me, I did, and I tould you, I did, if you had to lose what money you had because I'm an American, thank God, that I'd make it up to you a dozen times over. I said that, I did, and I didn't desaive you about the senatorship." The brogue by this time was rampant. "The thing was going a-beggin', and the Governor, he sends for me, and he says to me, 'Mike,' says he, 'you'll be nothin' but a stop-*gap, and don't get any other notion into your red head but that—and ye'll step down and out the first of January,' says he; 'and don't monkey with the buzz saw,' says he. And I says, says I, 'I won't, Governor, and I'll have my fling at Washington, and I'll take down my Panhard red devil, and go a-scorchin' over the Washington streets, and have the time of my life,' and bedad, I have. And I had no more thought of falling in love and getting married than I have of trying to get up a diligation to present my name to the next Prisidential convention. But then I met you, Miss