he Governor smiled. "You talk as if Ella had a political _salon_and distributed _lettres de cachet!_I'm glad she approves of Ashford; but if you think my wife makes my appointments for me--" He broke off with a laugh at the superfluity of such a protest.
Mrs. Nimick reddened. "One never knows how you will take the simplest thing. What harm is there in my saying that Ella approves of Mr. Ashford? I thought you liked her to take an interest in your work."
"I like it immensely. But I shouldn't care to have it take that form."
"What form?"
"That of promising to use her influence to get people appointed. But you always talk of politics in the vocabulary of European courts. Thank Heaven, Ella has less imagination. She has her sympathies, of course, but she doesn't think they can affect the distribution of offices."
Mrs. Nimick gathered up her furs with an air at once crestfallen and resentful. "I'm sorry--I always seem to say the wrong thing. I'm sure I came with the best intentions--it's natural that your sister should want to be with you at such a happy moment."
