o in until she had made sure. In a
little time her patience was rewarded. The huge engine came storming
up the grade on the new line, pushing its three flat-cars, which were
black with clinging men. On the car nearest the locomotive, where the
dazzling beam of the headlight pricked him out for her, stood Winton,
braced against the lurchings of the train over the uneven track.

"God speed you, my--love!" she murmured softly; and when the gloom of
the upper canyon cleft had engulfed man and men and storming engine
she turned to go in.

She was groping for the door-knob in the darkness made thicker by the
glare of the passing headlight when a voice, disembodied for the
moment, said: "Wait a minute, Miss Carteret; I'd like to have a word
with you."

She drew back quickly.

"Is it you, Mr. Jastrow? Let me go in, please."

"In one moment. I have something to say to you--something you ought to
hear."

"Can't it be said on the other side of the door? I am cold--very cold,
Mr. Jastrow."

It was his saving hint, but he would not take it.

"No, it must be said to you alone. We have at least one thing in
common, Miss Carteret--you and I: that is a proper appreciation of the
successful realities. I--"

She stopped him with a quick little gesture of impatience.

"Will you be good enough to stand aside and let me go in?"

The keen breath of the snow-caps was summer-warm in comparison with
the chilling iciness of her manner; but the secretary went on unmoved:

"Success is the only thing worth while in this world. Winton will
fail, but I shan't. And when I do succeed, I shall marry a woman who
can wear the purple most becomingly."

"I hope you may, I'm sure," she answered wearily. "Yet you will excuse
me if I say that I don't understand how it concerns me, or why you
should keep me out here in the cold to tell me about it."

"Don't you? It concerns you very nearly. You are the woman, Miss
Carteret."

"Indeed? And if I decline the honor?"

The contingency was one for which the suitor seemed not entirely
prepared. Yet he evinced a willingness to meet the hypothesis in a
spirit of perfect candor.

"You wouldn't do that, definitely, I fancy. It would be tantamount to
driving me to extremities."

"If you will tell me how I can do it 'definitely,' I shall be most
happy to drive you to extremities, or anywhere else out of my way,"
she said frigidly.

"Oh, I think not," he rejoined. "You wouldn't want me to go and tell