The day of reckoning is coming fast for men like you, who have made a mystery of politics, playing it as a game in the dark.

I don't pretend to know much of these things, but I can see that men of your type are passing out; there would be no great glory for you in waiting to be the last to go.

And there are things enough for you to do.

If you ally yourself with the good causes that cry for support and leadership, you can be far more formidable than you have ever been as a skulking trickster; you can lead men up as you have led them down." "The change is coming; I have seen it coming," he replied, catching at the one thing it seemed safest to approve.
But she was not to be thwarted by his acquiescence in generalities.

He saw that she had brought him back to a point whence he must elect his course, but he did not flinch at the flat restatement of her demand.
"You have done nothing to deserve the senatorship; you are not the choice of the people of this state.