You would be valuable.

You are so much prized in the opinions of the administration, I am sure, that--" "What do you mean?
Does the administration know of me?
_Why_ should it know?
What have I done ?" But the old statesman before her was no such fool as to waste time in a lost cause.

This one was lost, he knew, and it booted little for him to become involved where, even at the best issue, there was risk enough for him.

He reflected that risk must have existed even had this young lady been a shade more dull of mind, of less brilliant faculty in leaping to conclusions and resolutions.

She _was_ a firebrand, that was sure.