AN OLD-FASHIONED FATHER
Congressman Norton was startled at the sight of Carolina and Haines
apparently so wrapped up in each other. Perhaps she was getting
interested in the handsome, interfering secretary. That a woman
sometimes breaks her promise to wed he well knew. Plainly Carolina
was carrying things too far for a girl who was the promised wife of
another.
Carolina and Haines showed surprise at Norton's entrance.
The Congressman advanced and spoke sneeringly, his demeanor marking
him to be in a dangerous mood.
"Do I intrude?" he drawled, deliberately.
Carolina drew away her hands from Haines and faced the newcomer.
"Intrude!" she exclaimed, contemptuously, in a tone that Norton
construed as in his favor and Haines in his own.
"Intrude!" Haines laughed, sarcastically, feeling that now he was
leader in the race for love against this Mississippi representative,
who was, he knew, a subservient tool and a taker of bribes. "You
surely do intrude, Norton. Wouldn't any man who had interrupted a
tête-á-tête another man was having with Miss Langdon be intruding?"
"I suppose I can't deny that," he replied.
The secretary smiled again.
"I'll match you to see who stays," he said.
But Norton's turn to defeat his rival had come. He held out a paper to
Haines.
"Senator Langdon gave me this for you. I reckon I don't have to
match."
The secretary opened the note to read:
"Where in thunder does that hydrate come from--South America or
Russia? How much off on the tariff on the creature do we want?
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 flushing 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.
"That's right. Seems like the Senator's coming to think more of this
fellow than he does of his own family. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if
he'd even let one of you girls marry him if he wanted to marry you."
"We'd have something to say about that," Carolina laughed, amusedly.
"Do you think that Hope or I could ever care for a man like this
fellow? Of course not. This Altacoola business must go through right.
It would be too cruel not to have it so. And then--"
"And then you and I'll be married at once, Carolina, whether your
father likes it or not," ended Norton for her. "With Altacoola safe,
we can do as we please, as between us we'll be rich. What does it
matter how we get the money, as long as we get it?"