The Price He Paid — page 227: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

218 A VACATION IN THE CAPITAL. The baron’s brow clouded over very noticeably at this question, and there was a pause of some seconds before he responded. “Yes,” he said at length. “The answer reached me this morning.” “Well?” asked the colonel, eagerly. Raven leaned back in his chair, and replied in a tone wherein irony and bitterness were equally blended: “Our friends in the capital appear to have lost sight of the fact that, as their representative, I have acted in their name, and that through long years they have sec nded me in all my acts to the best of their ability. You were right in warning me against the intrigues at headquarters which were secretly undermining me. I see now how hollow is the ground on which I stand. A’few months ago they would not have dared to give me such an answer.” “What! they have not tried to hint——” the colonel stopped; he did not like to finish the phrase. “They have hinted much—in the most courteous form, naturally, and with an unusually lavish ex- penditure of fair words—but the meaning remains the same. I think it would not be disagreeable to the gentlemen in office yonder, if I were to make my bow and withdraw from the scene. [Lam a stum- bling block in the way of several persons there, and they, of course, seek to profit by any attack upon me. At present, however, I am not inclined to make room for them.” Colonel Wilten remained silent, and studied the carpet diligently. “The late events in this city have also given rise to serious differences of opinion,” continued Raven. “There has been a constant interchange of dis- patches on the subject. They cannot be made to un- derstand that the intervention cf the troops was necessary, and preach to me of the heavy responsi- bility incurred, of the exasperated state of public feeling, and more in the same style. I reply simply that these matters cannot be judged from a dis- tance. Iam on the spot, and know what is neces- Eomichooks:. co