thout his answer.

"Don't say 'good-night' yet," he pleaded, again passing his arm around
her waist. "Tell me first, is it yes or no? Will you be my wife?"

The girl turned and faced him. There was that in her eyes which he had
never seen there before, and which he could not interpret. At last her
lips parted, and she said:

"I cannot tell, yet. You must wait."

And with that she slipped through the door, leaving him no recourse but
to take his leave without other formality than the closing of the front
gate.

XXIII

CAPTAIN WILL HALLAM IN THE GAME

The next morning, very early, Guilford Duncan's negro servant--for he
kept one now--brought him a note from Barbara. It read in this wise:

I wish you would take your meals at the hotel for a few days, or a
week or two--till you hear from me again.

There was no address written at top of the sheet, and no signature at
the bottom. There was nothing that could afford even a ground for
conjectural explanation. There was nothing that could call for a
reply--perhaps there was nothing that could warrant a reply or excuse
its impertinence. Nevertheless Guilford Duncan sent, by the hands of his
negro servitor, an answer to the strange note. In it he wrote:

I have told you of my love. I tell you that again, with all of
emphasis that I can give to the telling. I have asked you to be my
wife. I ask it again with all of earnestness and sincerity, with
all of supplication, that I can put into the asking. Oh, Barbara,
you can never know or dream or remotely imagine how much these
things mean to me and to my life.

I shall take my meals at the hotel--or not at all--until you bid me
come to you for my answer.

Then, with resolute and self-controlled mind, Guilford Duncan set
himself to work. He prepared his report upon the proposed railroad
extension, condemning it and giving adequate reasons for his
condemnation.

He was still indignant that Napper Tandy should have offered him a
bribe, and in the first draft of his report he had made a statement of
that fact as an additional reason for his adverse judgment. But upon
reflection he rewrote the report, omitting all mention of the bribe
offer. Then he wrote to Tandy--a grievous mistake--telling him that he
had sent in an adverse report, and that he had omitted to mention
Tandy's offer in it.

This gave Tandy the opportunity he wanted and Guilford Duncan was not
long