Then they all looked at Peter, and became silent. Peter puffed his cigar
thoughtfully.
"What do you say?" said Number One.
Peter merely shook his head.
"But I tell you it's done," cried one of the men, a little excitedly.
"It's too late to backslide! We want to please you, Stirling, but we
can't this time. We must do what's right for the party."
"I'm not letting my own feeling decide it," said Peter. "I'm thinking of
the party. For every vote the Labor people give Maguire, the support of
that party will lose us a Democratic vote."
"But we can't win with a triangular fight. The Republicans will simply
walk over the course."
If Peter had been a hot-headed reformer, he would have said: "Better
that than that such a scoundrel shall win." But Peter was a politician,
and so saw no need of saying the unpleasantest thing that occurred to
him, even if he felt it. Instead, he said: "The Labor party will get as
many votes from the Republicans as from us, and, for every vote the
Labor party takes from us, we shall get a Republican vote, if we put up
the right kind of a man.
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