Cable news finally delivered at seven, but gave only the top four cabinet appointments. Schenker called Cramm’s room immediately to find that his assistant, ever the great anticipator, had at that very moment plucked the information from the Reuters wire service. Driscoll had got Agriculture. Schenker beamed. He beamed at himself in the mirror as he adjusted his tie, and he smiled at Cramm as they descended to the Plaza’s main lobby and went out to the waiting limo. There were still faint signs of pleasure on his face as they headed downtown to their appointment on Madison Avenue. ‘The right man,’ he remarked in a self-indulgent murmur. ‘Absolutely,’ echoed Cramm dutifully. And the right man twice over, Schenker comforted himself. Not only was Driscoll a friend in the most beneficial sense of the word, but almost any change would have been a vast improvement on the last incumbent, Cranbourne, whose obstructive little ways had been a thorn in Schenker’s flesh for a long time.
