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goodness and decency themselves. To be banished from this odd
fraternity was a horrible darkness and loneliness he could not face.
And he felt that, in spite of the unpolitical character of Charlie
Bowman's gift, he had somehow failed to keep the faith; the com–
promising lightness of his character had brought shame and scandal
to those who had trusted him. But he was not incapable of action
and understood he could redeem himself only by honestly answering
the charges and resigning. Fortunately, he didn't like being Mayor. It
brought him only a little more money than his law practice and
prevented him from reading Sandburg'S
Lincoln
and thinking serious–
ly about the public good.
Since he had protested his innocence too quickly, he decided to
spend the rest of the afternoon and evening drawing up a short, clear
statement, which would explain his actions and relieve him of of–
ficial duty, for what he had to make plain was that he, through com–
plicated, innocent personal involvement, was simply unable to cope,
as Mayor, with the problem of Charlie Bowman. The Mayor had
only himself to consider. His daughter could no more be disgraced
than a mountain and his wife was not the sort to feel a permanent
injury, although she was presently enduring an embarrassment so
great she hadn't been to church for two weeks. Such was the effect
of evangelical fervor on one Christian.
The next morning Mayor Johnson said very little at breakfast.
He was stricken with doubt over matters of style and wondered if his
attempts at irony might be misinterpreted or garbled by the press.
His wife ate heartily and then announced with a yawn, "Well, we
are saved and it's only right!" In these public matters, things change
very quickly. You may go to sleep peacefully and awaken to find
every folly of your youth known to the whole country, or lie awake
frightened to death only to learn, the next day, that it has all blown
over, as it had in the Mayor's case.
It seemed Mrs. Morton had called reporters to her home and
with magnificent stateliness for one so small had cleared up the
whole "disgusting mess."
Misguided people, possibly sincere, were
playing into the hands of corrupt politicians just recently put out of
power by the preference of the voters of the city for a Roosevelt man,
Mayor James Johnson, etc.
The reporters pressed her: what about
the gift of $500. With her lumpy, interesting smile and great command
