For the moment he seemed about to answer her, but thought better of it and left the room without speech, taking his napkin with him.
To tell the truth, he had been near to giving way.

In his heart he echoed Miss Marty's protest; and it touched him with an accent of reproach--faint indeed; an accent and no more--which yet he had detected and understood.

Was he not in some sort responsible?
Would the Millennium be imminent to-day--or, if imminent, would it be wearing so momentous an aspect ?--if at the last Mayor-choosing he had modestly declined to be re-elected (for the fifth successive year), and had stood aside in favour of some worthy but less eminent citizen?
Hansombody, for instance?
Hansombody admired him, idolised him, with a devotion almost canine.

Yet Hansombody might be expected to cherish hopes of the mayoral succession sooner or later, for one brief year at any rate; and for a few moments after acceding for the sixth time to the unanimous request of the burgesses, the Major had almost fancied that Hansombody's feelings were hurt.

Hansombody would have made a competent mayor; provoking comparison, of course, but certainly not provoking the jealousy of the gods.