THE FRIENDLY WITNESS
347
nation, Mrs. Morton gave no notice and only the pure, undiminished
gleam of her gratuitous cares and principles could be observed by
the world. The gray satin gown and seed pearls, her astonishing stone
citadel of a house, fenced off from the street by links of iron-all
of this mixed miserably. in the Mayor's mind with the chartreuse
drapery and leopard-spotted bar stools of Charlie Bowman's club.
The reformers, in an excess of energy, were, alas, not satisfied
with the disappearance of the gambling tables and kept talking
about "ramifications" and "the whole situation." Their committee,
once organized, was clearly reluctant to give up newspaper space
and these poor, hard-working people spent long hours of the night
composing statements that were marked by such virulent and effective
Puritan rhetoric Johnson wondered if they might have outside help.
«That the Godless, lawless Bowman has an intimate, protective
friendship with the highest official in town .
.. "
this line, appearing
in the press, filled poor Johnson with anguish. He could salvage only
the consoling vow that, no matter what indignities he might suffer,
he would remain true to his friend, indeed more true than ever as he
felt, like vague aches about the heart, the weight of the rhetoric against
him. This gentlemanly resolve lightened johnson's spirits and even
made him long for martyrdom. He felt quite ready to resign and
might have done so except for the marvelous difficulty of stating his
position-to be both factually and psychologically accurate seemed
impossible. Charlie Bowman was a refractory topic and revived feel–
ings of intellectual incompetence the Mayor had sometimes ex–
perienced in college, when his brain refused to put in order all its
scattered possessions. Could he say he had nothing in common with
the gambler, was not attracted to any part of his personality, least
of all to his way of earning a living, and that he could see no hope
for his friend unless he retired? No, this was to be a private penance.
That he might have chosen a more worthy scourger, except for the
football team, Johnson was dreadfully reminded when he received
an obscure telegram from Bowman, reading,
Who knows about the
transaction? Any witnesses?
The Mayor could not follow this, because,
as usual, he was not "acquainted with all the facts," but he felt from
the first that something secret and diabolical was hinted. Again
Charlie had anticipated the opposition and it was not until the next
