As soon as we were alone he would break out into a kind of lamentation, punctuated by occasional bursts of objurgation.

He especially distrusted the Quadrilateral, making an exception in my case, as well he might, because however his nomination had jarred my judgment I had a real affection for him, dating back to the years immediately preceding the war when I was wont to encounter him in the reporters' galleries at Washington, which he preferred to using his floor privilege as an ex-member of Congress.
It was mid-October.

We had heard from Maine; Indiana and Ohio had voted.
He was for the first time realizing the hopeless nature of the contest.
The South in irons and under military rule and martial law sure for Grant, there had never been any real chance.

Now it was obvious that there was to be no compensating ground swell at the North.

That he should pour forth his chagrin to one whom he knew so well and even regarded as one of his boys was inevitable.