Part 15 (1/2)

Come over to the committee room, where I am, right away. Say it's an urgent message and get in with a tip.”

The secretary looked up, with a laugh.

”You win, Norton. I'm off. Good-by.” And he started on a run to the Senator's aid.

Norton turned angrily on the girl as the door closed.

”See here, Carolina,” he cried, ”what do you mean by letting that fellow make love to you?”

Carolina Langdon would not permit rebuke, even from the man she cared for. She tossed back her head and said, coolly:

”Why shouldn't I let him make love to me if I choose?”

”You know why,” exclaimed Norton, his dark face flus.h.i.+ng sullenly.

”Because I love you and you love me!” And he seized her and pressed her to him. ”That is why!” he cried, and he kissed her again and again.

”Yes, I love you, Charlie; you know that,” Carolina said, simply. She was conquered by the Southerner's masterfulness.

”Then why do you stand for that whippersnapper's talk?” asked Norton, perplexedly.

Carolina laughed.

”Don't you see, Charlie, I have to stand for it? I have to stand for it for your sake, for Randolph's sake, for my own sake, for all our sakes. You know the influence he has over father.

”He can make father do anything he wants, and suppose I don't lead him on? Where's our project? Let him suspect a thing and let him go to father, and you know what will happen. Father would turn against that Altacoola scheme in a moment. He'd beggar himself, if it were necessary, rather than let a single one of us make a dollar out of a thing he had to decide.”

”You're right, I reckon, Carolina,” said Norton, dejectedly. ”Your father is a real type of the Southern gentleman. He hasn't seen any real money in so long he can't even bear to think of it. Somebody's got to make money out of this, and we should be the ones.”

”We'd lose frightfully, Charlie, if they changed to Gulf City, wouldn't we?” said the girl, apprehensively. ”I'm horribly afraid sometimes, Charlie. That's why I came here to-day. I wanted to influence Haines, to keep him straight. Is there any danger that they'll change? You don't think there is, do you?”

”Of course not, child. Stevens has got his money in, and Peabody.

There are only five on the committee. It's bound to go through.”

”Then why is father so important to them?” asked Carolina.

”It's past my understanding, Carolina. I don't see how he's done it, but the whole country has come to believe whatever your father does is right, and they've got to have him.”

”And father is completely under the domination of this secretary,”

murmured the girl, thoughtfully.

Norton nodded.

”We've got to get rid of him, Carolina. That's all there is to it. He has to go! When it comes to bossing the Senator and making love to you, too, he's getting too strong.”

”How can you do it?” she asked. ”You know when father likes any one he won't believe a thing against him.”

Norton agreed, sorrowfully.