“There is no neutral, Gorden. Either I help the President or I don’t. If I do, yes, I’ll be in opposition to you with every ounce of my strength. If I don’t, I’ll be depriving the President of the counsel he needs to help save him, and in that way aiding you, actively aiding you.”

“Nat, my God, he can obtain a hundred other counselors, black or white. They’ll welcome the chance for the headlines. Look, I’m not saying you’re not better than the others available. If you weren’t, we wouldn’t be hiring you. I’m saying in a special trial like that, he can get all the help he wants.”

“True enough, except for one thing,” said Abrahams. “He wants me.” He considered that a moment, and then added, “I don’t think it’s because he believes I’m more skilled than the others. I think it’s because I’m one of the few human beings on earth he trusts completely.”

Oliver’s brow had contracted ominously, and he said, “You mean, after what I’ve said, you’re still seriously considering going over to that man?”

“I’m considering it.”

Oliver rose, started to speak, then agitatedly circled the room. He came to a halt beside Sue.

“All right, Nat, consider it,” he said. “But then I think I’ve got to tell you-I hate telling you this, but I’m speaking for the company now and not myself, I’ve got to level with you-if you go to the mat for Dilman, you can consider yourself out of Emmich’s camp, for now and forever. If you agree to defend the President, I will be able to see no other course than to withdraw our offer to you.” He waited. “Does that help you make up your mind?”

“I’ll make up my mind when I’m ready to do so, Gorden, and not a minute before.”

“Okay,” said Oliver, “you give me no choice but to pick up my marbles and go home, and wait to see if you’re ready to play the game by the rules.”

He went to the coffee table, retrieved the copies of the contract and the pen, then slipped the contracts back into the manila envelope. He looked at Sue. “Under the circumstances, I don’t imagine any of us has too much of an appetite. Maybe we’ll have cause to-to hold our celebration tomorrow.”

He found his coat and hat, as Sue ran to the door to see him out. At the open door he offered Sue a courtly bow. “Thank you, Sue. Do your lobbying best.” He considered Abrahams. “We’ll wait for you to call us, Nat. I hope you think straight. At this stage in your life, you owe nothing to anyone on earth except yourself and your family.” He held up the manila envelope. “This would be an awful lot of boodle to throw away-like throwing away ten years of life. Good night.”

Abrahams did not move from the sofa. He watched his wife shut the door, then saw her sag and lean against it, her cheek pressed to the panel.

When she came away toward him, her face was drawn and pale, and he knew that she was fighting tears.

He averted his eyes as she came nearer and stood over him, but he could avoid her no longer. “All right, Sue, you’ve heard Oliver and you’ve heard me. What do you say?”

“What do I say? Do you care for one second what I say?” she said, voice rising. “Gorden Oliver said everything for me.”

“Even after hearing that rotten stuff about Emmich and Eagles?”

“You wouldn’t have to be mixed up in that. He promised you. I heard him.”

“You want me to sit by, up there in the Senate gallery, as an employee of Eagles, watching my fellow hatchet men go to work on the body, and tell myself I’m not their accomplice, I’m only an innocent bystander? That’s not like you, Sue.”

“What is like me? Do you know? Do you bother to try to understand? You’ve spent your life, and your health, in musty back halls and dirty courtrooms giving everything you have for people who’ve had nothing to give you-or us. You’ve spent years putting every underdog who whined for help ahead of Roger and David and Deborah and me-yes, me. I didn’t complain. I didn’t obstruct you. In fact, I encouraged you, because I was proud of your love for others and because I loved you for that and for yourself. But I was glad when this Eagles offer came up. I never forced it on you, but I was glad, because I felt at last you were getting what you deserved, and you’d have your health, and we’d have a better life together for years ahead, and live it normally like other people. And now, suddenly, when we’ve got it, you turn your back-you want to think-now, suddenly, Eagles is dirty-what isn’t dirty as well as clean, what business, what profession?-and now, suddenly, Doug Dilman is lost without you, and you’ll throw over everything, your future, your wife, your sons and daughter, to help him-to help a lost cause-when you know and I know that he hasn’t the chance of a snowball in hell, and if he has, as Gorden said, there are dozens of attorneys who can defend him as well as you. You want to know how I feel? That’s how I feel!”

He waited for her hysteria to subside, and then he said, “Sue, while I often take a dim view of myself, I know my virtues and my capabilities. I feel I can do more for Doug than any other attorney on earth. Maybe you’re right, and no one can save him, but if anyone can, I have a feeling I might. He is my friend-”

“And I’m your wife, and I’m the mother of your children! What about us? Do we have to put on blackface to get your help?”

“Sue!”

“Oh, dammit to hell for everything coming apart.” She covered her eyes with her hand.

“Nothing’s come apart,” he said sternly. “I truly haven’t made up my mind yet. I’m just nagged by the lousy feeling that the meaning of our whole lives is being put up on the block for inspection at last-that everything that came before, our paper liberalism, our talk liberalism, our real fiber as two decent people-is being challenged for real, for the very first time. Now it’s not contributions to Crispus or CORE. Now it’s not having a Negro friend to dinner, knowing he’ll go home afterward. Now it’s as-as if a Negro family has moved into the neighborhood, really moved in, and every penny we have in the house, in the world, is being threatened-and-how do we act? Turn our backs, move on?”

“It’s not the same at all!” Sue exclaimed indignantly. “Don’t twist things up with your lawyer sophistries. Nat, how can you? What are you trying to make me out, a heel? You know me, you know I love Doug as much as you do, but I don’t love him or anyone as much as you and the children.” She was pleading now. “Can’t you see that? Won’t you think of us first? Doug will survive or sink without you. But we can’t survive, not without you.”

Abrahams shook his head. “Darling, it’s not all this or that, one thing or another. If I gave up Emmich for Dilman, the world wouldn’t come to an end. Remember that-”

“Is that all you’ve got to say?”

“I’m only trying to-”

“To hell with you, then. Do whatever you damn well want to do. I’ve said all I’ve got to say to you!”

He was startled to see her spin away and dash into the bedroom, slamming the door. He considered following her, but then, instead, he went to the tray of drinks near the suite entrance. He poured himself a whisky-and-water, and was stirring it with a martini mixer, thinking, thinking, when he heard her noisily emerge from the bedroom.

He turned as she brushed past him. She had changed from the dinner sheath and pumps to a woolen blouse and skirt and flat-heeled shoes, and now was taking her heavy corduroy coat out of the closet.

“Sue-where in the devil do you think you’re going?”

“I don’t know, I don’t care. Maybe I’ll look for a truck to walk in front of. What difference does it make to you? I just want to be by myself, not that I haven’t been since Oliver left!”

She was gone, the door resounding behind her, and he was alone with his drink.

After that, he walked the carpet, pacing back and forth, weighing his neatly planned future on some unseen scale against his need to become involved with Doug Dilman and what Doug Dilman represented.