Were Mr.Clay not quite so old, I might suggest his name for this last and most crucial endeavor of a long and troublous life!" "By the Eternal Jove!" broke in the dark man at the right, shaking off the half-moodiness which had seemed to possess him.

"When it comes to wheedling, age is no such bar.

I call to mind one man who could side with Old Hickory in the case of Mrs.Peggy Eaton.

I mean him whom we call the Old Fox of the North." "He was a widower, even then, and hence immune," smiled the man across the table.

"Now he is many years older." "Yet, none the less a widower, and all the more an adjuster of nice matters.