Anne O'Hagan

“ To insure it that the calm woman of the gray eyes was properly served, Daniel sent to her aid a city dray driven by a man so sober as to be absolutely taciturn. This being never mentioned to her that the infamously famous Mayor of Crowley had befriended her.
The Mayor was no "lady's man." Fifteen years before he had, as he put it, "buried his wife." Since then he had been too busy to think much about women. Indeed he had been so before poor Mrs. Hennessey had made her final pathetic appeal for thought. ”

“ Had he informed her that a sea-wall was building because she had stood one windy morning directing two rude masons before her house, or that "restricted villas" were rearing themselves in pink- and yellow-gabled angularity that she might have neighbors of the safe sort, or that a trolley-line ran to her back door that her boarders might travel to and fro with ease and her venture prove successful, she would only have thought him a more elaborate liar than she had been already taught to believe him. ”

“ By morning, however, his honor was better. At fifty, the successful politician seldom perishes of love at first sight. He made up his mind to visit the farm-house where some of his horses were pasturing, to buy a library—the Mayor did things on a grand scale—and to start the campaign. Not that there was much arduous campaigning in Crowley. "It's a walk-over for us, all right," said the Mayor, half annoyed at the fact. ”

“ Charmed by her amiability, the Mayor hastened to concede also.
"It has been somewhat—er—neglected in the press of other matters, but now that we seem likely to have a—er—population out that way—something will have to be done."
"The street lamps do not seem to be lighted out there at night. It 's rather gloomy if one 's a stranger," she said.
"Never a whimper about bein' a woman!" thought Mayor Hennessey proudly, while he proclaimed aloud: "If the lighters ain't doin' their duty, ma'am, we 'll soon know the reason." ”

“ But the road to it has to be repaired, Mr.—Mr.——"
"Hennessey," supplied the Mayor.
"Mr. Hennessey. No one would travel over such a road to get anywhere. There ought to be a breakwater all along the river-edge there," she finished severely.
The Mayor began to recover himself.
"Oh, my dear madam," he said in the florid political manner, "we 're not a rich community like the city over there. Ours is a workin' population. A breakwater is an expensive luxury for which our taxpayers would be unable to pay."
The widow gazed at him steadily.
"I 've read all about Crowley," she announced. ”

“ Then she laughed. "You see, I 'm building my own breakwater."
"But—but," sputtered the Mayor, "we can't allow that, Mrs. Downs. When a lady does us the honor to settle with us, she should n't have to—have to——"
"So I think myself, Mr. Hennessey, but I can't have the storms and the river eat away any more of my land. There 's a foot gone in places since I came. So I contracted for these rocks—and I 'm making a temporary wall. Next summer——"
"Next summer, ma'am," declared the Mayor, with sudden decision, "there 'll be two miles of as fine breakwater as you 'd want to see along this road. ”

“ Which Carr did with a smile made up of equal parts of amazement and comprehension.
The lady of the gray eyes looked her astonishment.
"Oh!" she said, "it 's you?"
"It is, ma'am," said Daniel, beaming as he pushed forward a chair with one hand, and with the other sent his cigar stub flying through the open window. "An' delighted if I can be of any service to you. The man I sent—the dray—they were all right?"
"Oh, yes," she replied absently, as she sat down. "They were all right. You were very kind. I did n't understand. The man would take no pay. I thought he was crazy." ”

“ And they continued to let Daniel rule them and rule Crowley, while the opposition languished into a negligible quantity, prating of assessments, civic honor and the hygienic disposal of refuse, but never organizing a barge party in the summer or distributing coals in the winter. ”