arent
fineness of her features, of her hands, awoke in me the feeling of
anxiety I had felt so often during the year after little Benjamin's
death.

"I'm sorry I can't get up to luncheon now, darling, but we are making a
big railroad deal. What have you been doing all day long by yourself?"

She looked up at me, and I remembered the face of Miss Matoaca, as I had
seen it against the red firelight on the afternoon when Sally and I had
gone in to tell her of our engagement.

"I didn't go out," she answered. "It was raining so hard that I stayed
by the fire."

"You've been lying here all day alone?"

"Bonny Page came in for a few minutes."

"Have you read?"

"No, I've been thinking."

"Thinking of what, sweetheart?"

"Oh, so many things. You've come up again, haven't you, Ben, splendidly!
Luck is with you, the General says, and whatever you touch prospers."

"Yes, I've come up, but this is the crisis. If I slip now, if I make a
false move, if I draw out, I'm as dead as a door-nail. But give me five
or ten years of hard work and breathless thinking, and I'll be as big a
man as the General."

"As the General?" she repeated gently, and played with the petals of an
American Beauty rose on the table beside her.

"As soon as I'm secure, as soon as I can slacken work a bit, I'm going
to cut all this and take you away. We'll have a second honeymoon when
that time comes."

"In five or ten years?"

"Perhaps sooner. Meanwhile, isn't there something that I can do for you?
Is there anything on God's earth that you want? Would you like a string
of pearls?"

She shook her head with a laugh. "No, I don't want a string of pearls.
Is it time now to dress for dinner?"

"Would you mind if I didn't change, dear? I'm so tired that I shall
probably fall asleep over the dessert."

An evening or two later, when I came up after seven o'clock, I thought
that she had been crying, and taking her in my arms, I passionately
kissed the tear marks away.

"There's but one thing to do, Sally. You must go away. What do you say
to Europe?"

"With you?"

"I wish to heaven it could be with me, but if I shirk this deal now, I'm
done for, and if I stick it out, it may mean future millions. Why not
ask Bessy Dandridge?"

"I don't think I want to go with Bessy Dandridge."

Her tone troubled me, it was so gentle, so reserved, and walking to the
window, I stood gazing out upon the April rain that dripped softly
through the budding syca