"
"They are three out of several thousand voters in the district,
Josephine. You argue like the committee which waited upon me."
"They said a great many Republicans would vote for you, didn't they?
And they thought you would be elected?"
"They were kind enough to state that I had a good fighting chance;
which means, my dear, that I haven't the ghost of a show."
Josephine regarded me a moment distrustfully. "It doesn't seem to me
there is any use in being too modest about such a matter as this, Fred.
Somebody has to be elected, and it might as well be you as anybody. I
have always hoped you would go into politics, you know. If they hadn't
wanted you they wouldn't have asked you."
"The only certain thing about it is, that, if they had supposed I could
possibly be elected, they wouldn't have offered me the nomination."
"What do you mean, Fred? I call that mock modesty, darling."
I did not consider that I was called upon to unfold more particularly
to my wife the cynical estimate of the case which I entertained in my
secret soul, especially in view of the fact that the committee which
had waited upon me comprised not merely politicians, but some of our
best citizens. Although a man who is invited to run for Congress in a
district hopelessly hostile is likely to cherish secret suspicions as
to the sincerity of those who offer him the nomination, the bait of
self-sacrifice for the public good has lured many a cleverer man than I
to his destruction.
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