CHAPTER XXXI.
CONFLICTS.
Lispenard went back with Peter to the city. He gave his reason on thetrain:
"You see I go back to the city occasionally in the summer, so as to makethe country bearable, and then I go back to the country, so as to makethe city endurable. I shall be in Newport again in a week. When will youcome back?"
"My summering's over."
"Indeed. I thought my cousin would want you again!"
"She did not say so."
"The deuce she didn't. It must be the only thing she didn't say, then,in your long confabs?"
Peter made no reply, though Lispenard looked as well as asked aquestion.
"Perhaps," continued Lispenard, "she talked too much, and so did notremember to ask you?"
Still Peter said nothing.
"Are you sure she didn't give you a chance to have more of her society?"Lispenard was smiling.
"Ogden," said Peter gently, "you are behaving contemptibly and you knowit."
The color blazed up into Lispenard's face and he rose, saying:
"Did I understand you aright?" The manner and attitude were boththreatening though repressed.
"If you tell me that I misunderstood you, I will apologize. If you thinkthe statement insulting, I will withdraw it. I did not speak to insultyou; but because I wished you to know how your questions impressed me."
"When a man tells another he is contemptible, he cannot expect to escaperesults. This is no place to have a scene. You may send me your apologywhen we reach New York--"
Peter interrupted. "I shall, if you will tell me I wronged you insupposing your questions to be malicious."
Lispenard paid no attention to the interjection. "Otherwise," hefinished, "we will consider our relations ended." He walked away.
Peter wrote Lispenard that evening a long letter. He did not apologizein it, but it ended:
"There should be no quarrel between us, for we ought to be friends. If alienation has come, it is due to what has occurred to-day, and that shall not cause unkind feelings, if I can help it. An apology is due somewhere. You either asked questions you had no right to ask, or else I misjudged you. I have written you my point of view. You have your own. I leave the matter to your fairness. Think it over, and if you still find me in the wrong, and will tell me so, I will apologize."
He did not receive a reply. Meeting Ogden Ogden a few days later, he wastold that Lispenard had gone west for a hunting trip, quiteunexpectedly. "He said not to expect him back till he came. He seemedout of sorts at something." In September Peter had a letter from Miss DeVoe. Merely a few lines saying that she had decided to spend the winterabroad, and was on the point of sailing. "I am too hurried to see myfriends, but did not like to go without some good-byes, so I writethem." On the whole, as in the case of most comedies, there was littleamusement for the actual performers. A great essayist has definedlaughter as a "feeling of superiority in the laugher over the objectlaughed at." If this is correct, it makes all humor despicable.Certainly much coarseness, meanness and cruelty are every daytolerated, because of the comic covering with which it is draped.
It is not to be supposed that this comedy nor its winter prologue haddiverted Peter from other things. In spite of Miss De Voe's demands onhis time he had enough left to spend many days in Albany when thelegislature took up the reports of the Commissions. He found stronglobbies against both bills, and had a long struggle with them. He hadthe help of the newspapers, and he had the help of Costell, yet evenwith this powerful backing, the bills were first badly mangled, andfinally were side-tracked. In the actual fight, Pell helped him most,and Peter began to think that a man might buy an election and yet not beentirely bad. Second only to Pell, was his whilom enemy, the formerDistrict-Attorney, now a state senator, who battled himself into Peter'sreluctant admiration and friendship by his devotion and loyalty to thebills. Peter concluded that he had not entirely done the man justice inthe past. Curiously enough, his chief antagonist was Maguire.
Peter did not give up the fight with this defeat. His work for the billshad revealed to him the real under-currents in the legislative body, andwhen it adjourned, making further work in Albany only a waste of time,he availed himself of the secret knowledge that had come to him, tosingle out the real forces which stood behind and paid the lobby, and tointerview them. He saw the actual principals in the opposition, andspoke with utmost frankness. He told them that the fight would berenewed, on his part, at every session of the legislature till the billswere passed; that he was willing to consider proposed amendments, andwould accept any that were honest. He made the fact very clear to themthat they would have to pay yearly to keep the bills off the statutebook. Some laughed at him, others quarrelled. But a few, after listeningto him, stated their true objections to the bills, and Peter tried tomeet them.
When the fall elections came, Peter endeavored to further his cause inanother way. Three of the city's assemblymen and one of her senators hadvoted against the bills. Peter now invaded their districts, and talkedagainst them in saloons and elsewhere. It very quickly stirred up hardfeeling, which resulted in attempts to down him. But Peter's bloodwarmed up as the fight thickened, and hisses, eggs, or actual attemptsto injure him physically did not deter him. The big leaders wereappealed to to call him off, but Costell declined to interfere.
"He wouldn't stop anyway," he told Green, "so we should do no good. Letthem fight it out by themselves." Both of which sentences showed thatMr. Costell understood his business.
Peter had challenged his opponents to a joint debate, and when that wasdeclined by them, he hired halls for evenings and spoke on the subject.He argued well, with much more feeling than he had shown since hisspeech in "the case." After the first attempt of this kind, he had nodifficulty in filling his halls. The rumor came back to his own districtthat he was "talkin' foin," and many of his friends there turned out tohear him. The same news went through other wards of the city and drewmen from them. People were actually excluded, for want of room, andtherefore every one became anxious to hear his speeches. Finally, bysubscription of a number of people who had become interested, headed byMr. Pell, the Cooper Union was hired, and Peter made a really greatspeech to nearly three thousand people.
The papers came to his help too, and stood by him manfully. By theiraid, it was made very clear that this was a fight against a selfishlobby. By their aid, it became one of the real questions of the localcampaign, and was carried beyond the borders of the city, so as to playa part in the county elections. Peter met many of the editors, andbetween his expert knowledge, acquired on the Commissions, and hispractical knowledge, learned at Albany, proved a valuable man to them.They repaid his help by kind words and praise in their columns, andbrought him forward as the chief man in the movement. Mrs. Stirlingconcluded that the conspiracy to keep Peter in the background had beenabandoned.
"Those York papers couldn't help my Peter's getting on," was the way sheput it.
The results of this fight were even better than he had hoped. OneAssemblyman gave in and agreed no longer to oppose the bills. Anotherwas defeated. The Senator had his majority so cut down that he retiredfrom the opposition. The questions too had become so much morediscussed and watched, and the blame so fastened upon the lobby thatmany members from the country no longer dared to oppose legislation onthe subject. Hence it was that the bills, newly drawn by Peter, toreduce opposition as far as possible, when introduced by Schlurger soonafter the opening of the legislature, went through with a rush, not evenayes and nays being taken. Aided by Mr. Costell, Peter secured theirprompt signing by Catlin, his long fight had ended in victory.
The "sixt" was wild with joy over the triumph. Whether it was because itwas a tenement ward, or because Peter had talked there so much about it,or because his success was felt to redound to their credit, the votersgot up a display of fireworks on the night when the news of the signingof the bills reached New York. When Peter returned to the city, he wascalled down to
a hall one evening, to witness a torchlight processionand receive resolutions "engrossed and framed" from his admiringfriends. Blunkers was chairman and made a plain speech which set theboys cheering by its combination of strong feeling and lack of grammar.Then Justice Gallagher made a fine-sounding, big-worded presentation. Inthe enthusiasm of the moment, Dennis broke the programme by rising andgiving vent to a wild burst of feeling, telling his audience all thatthey owed to Peter, and though they knew already what he told them, theycheered and cheered the strong, natural eloquence.
"Yer was out a order," said Blunkers, at the end of the speech.
"Yez loi!" said Dennis, jumping on his feet again. "It's never out avorder to praise Misther Stirling."
The crowd applauded his sentiment.