THE FRIENDLY WITNESS
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of breath, Yes, Mrs. Morton knew .all about that ignominious lie,
too! She had witnessed the actual exchange of money and remem–
bered the Mayor's words exactly. The Mayor had said he could not
prevent Mr. Bowman from showing a kindness to his daughter, but
he felt it necessary to tell him that he meant to close down every
illegal gambling room in town and if there was gambling at the
Tropical Club, as had been alleged and rumored, the license would
be the first to be revoked.
The Mayor made no comment to his wife or to his public. In
the evening Mrs. Morton's maid brought over a splendid lemon
pie, the way people do when there is trouble in the family, to which
a note was attached. It said, "We must work hard, Mayor Johnson,
not sit around dreaming and sighing. Yours faithfully, Cecile Morton."
Even then the Mayor managed only a humble, "Thank you." He
was not ungrateful nor unrelieved; his silence was truly a profound
one. He had the feeling of dream-like displacement, even of non–
existence-but then that is not uncommon to people of a sensitive
nature and indeed is often felt to be the very genius of our age.
