CHAPTER XXII.
POLITICS.
Peter sat up later than was prudent that night, studying his blank wall.
Yet when he rose to go to bed, he gave his head a puzzled shake.

When he had gone through his papers, and drunk his coffee the next morning, he went back to wall-gazing again.

He was working over two conundrums not very easy to answer, which were somewhat to this effect: Does the best man always make the best official?
Is the honest judgment of a fellow verging on twenty-four better than the experienced opinion of many far older men?
Peter began to think life had not such clear and direct "right" and "wrong" roads as he had thought.

He had said to himself long ago that it was easy to take the right one, but he had not then discovered that it is often difficult to know which is the right, in order to follow it.

He had started in to punish Bohlmann, and had compromised.