' He served them better than he did
me."
III
THE Governor stared at the card with a frown. Half an hour had
elapsed since his wife had gone upstairs to dress for the big dinner
from which official duties excused him, and he was still lingering
over the fire before preparing for his own solitary meal. He
expected no one that evening but his old friend Hadley Shackwell,
with whom it was his long-established habit to talk over his defeats
and victories in the first lull after the conflict; and Shackwell
was not likely to turn up till nine o'clock. The unwonted stillness
of the room, and the knowledge that he had a quiet evening before
him, filled the Governor with a luxurious sense of repose. The world
seemed to him a good place to be in, and his complacency was
shadowed only by the fear that he had perhaps been a trifle
over-harsh in refusing his wife's plea for the stenographer. There
seemed, therefore, a certain fitness in the appearance of the man's
card, and the Governor with a sigh gave orders that Gregg should be
shown in.
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