The Vice President said, ``If you hear of any names that would fix me cheap in return for advertising they decorated the Vice President's home, let me know. I can do business with that kind.''

Again, Lawrence thought a little sadly, these were the fees of poverty and ambition. Boxell did not have the chance to grow up graciously. He had to acquire everything he was going to get in four years.

They had brandy in the library. Boxell looked at Lawrence with a searching glance, the kind that a prosecuting attorney would give a man on trial. What are your weaknesses? Where will you break? How best to destroy your peace?

The Vice President said with a slight bluster, ``There isn't anyone who loves the President more than I do. Old Chris is my ideal. At the same time, you have to face facts and realize that a man who's been in the Marine Corps all his life doesn't understand much about politics. What does a monk know about sex?''

Lawrence listened with the practiced, deceptive calm of the lawyer, but his face was in the shadow.

``So, we have to protect the old man for his own good. You see what I mean. Congress is full of politicians, and if you want to get along with them, you have to be politic. This is why I say we just can't go ahead and disarm the Germans and pull down our own defenses. Let me tell you what happened to me today. A fellow came up to me, a Senator, I don't have to tell you his name, and he told me,' I love the President like a brother, but God damn it, he's crucifying me. I've got a quarter of a million Germans in my state, and those krautheads tune in on Father Werther every night, and if he tells them to go out and piss in the public square, that's what they do. He's telling them now to write letters to their Congressmen opposing the disarmament of Germany'. And another one comes to me and he says,' Look here, there's a mill in my state employs five thousand people making uniforms for the Navy.