A Gentleman from Mississippi Part 18

She sighed in relief.

"Father will be coming back soon," she said. "You won't want to see him."

Haines arose.

"No, I won't want to see him. Give him this note. I'll have to come back while he's away to clear up some things. Good-by."

Haines bowed and hurried from the room through a side doorway just as Senator Langdon came in through the main entrance.

"Bud! Bud!" he called, but the secretary did not halt.

Carolina Langdon stood with Haines' note in her hand, wondering at what she had done. She regretted having become entangled in the wars of men in Was.h.i.+ngton. She saw that the man's game was played too strongly, too furiously fast, for most women to enter, yet she rejoiced that the coveted fortune had not been lost. She was sorry that her means of saving it had not been less questionable. She saw that ambition and honesty, ambition and truth, with difficulty follow the same path.

Senator Langdon's face was unusually grave as he came to greet Carolina. Lines showed in his face that the daughter had never noticed before.

She saw Norton and Randolph, who had followed him, exchange significant glances--jubilant glances--and wondered what new development they had maneuvered.

"He's gone without a word," the Senator sighed. "Well, perhap's that's best."

"He left a note for you," said the girl, handing him the letter which Haines had given her.

Langdon opened it and read:

"I am giving up the job. You can understand why. The least said about it between us the better. I am sorry. That's all. BUD HAINES."

Slowly he read the letter a second time.

"And he was making the best kind of a secretary, I thought."

Divining that something against Haines had been told her father, Carolina glanced at Norton.

"I told your father how we caught Mr. Haines," he spoke as an answer to her.

The girl was startled. She had not thought that things would go this far.

"I told him how Haines wanted to get in some land speculation scheme with Altacoola, how we tricked him and caught him with the goods when he made the proposition to me and how we forced him to confess."

"You told father that?" gasped Carolina.

Norton nodded.

"I don't understand it," said Langdon. "To think that he was that kind!"

Son Randolph now took his turn in the case against the secretary.

"We were both here, father. I heard him--Carolina heard him," he said.

"Didn't you, Carolina?"

"Yes," said the girl weakly, "I was here." Then she turned abruptly.

"I must go," she said, "must go right away. Mrs. Holcomb is waiting for me."

The Senator turned to his desk bent and discouraged.

"I suppose I should have taken a secretary who was a Southerner and a gentleman. Well, Randolph, you'll have to act now. Take this letter--"

The young man sat down and took the following from the Senator's diction:

"MR. HAINES--

"Sir: I quite understand your feelings and the impossibility of your continuing in my employ. The least said about it the better.

I am sorry, too.

"WILLIAM H. LANGDON."

"You boys run away. I've got to think," said the Senator.

When the pair had gone the old man drew the letter to him, and below his signature he added a postscript: "Don't forget there's some money coming to you."

Walking across the room to leave, he sighed:

"He was making the best kind of a secretary."

CHAPTER XVI

A RESCUE IN THE NICK OF TIME

Later in that never-to-be-forgotten day Bud Haines ventured back to his desk in the committee room, after first ascertaining that Senator Langdon would not return. Some of the Senator's papers must be straightened out, and he wanted personal doc.u.ments of his own.

The secretary regretfully, sorrowfully performed these final duties and found himself stopping at various intervals to try to explain to himself how he had been deceived in both the Langdons, father and daughter. He had to give up both problems. To him neither was explainable. "I've known enough Senators to know that I'd never meet an honest one," he muttered. "But as to women--well, there's too much carefully selected wisdom in their innocence to suit me."

This cynic, new born from the sh.e.l.l of the chronic idealist that was, suddenly was disturbed in his ruminations by a sound at the door.

Looking up, he saw Hope Georgia Langdon standing, shyly, embarra.s.sed, in the main entrance.

"Mr. Haines," she said, timidly.

Bud jumped to his feet.

"Yes, Miss Hope Georgia."

As the Senator's younger daughter came toward him he noticed that she was excited over something, and for a newly made cynic he took altogether too much notice of her youthful beauty, her fresh, rosy complexion and her dancing, sparkling eyes. The thought occurred to him, "What a woman she will make--if she doesn't imitate her sister!"

"I couldn't let you go, Mr. Haines, without telling you good-by and letting you know that, no matter what the others say, I don't think there has been anything wrong."

Before Haines could reply, the young girl rushed on, excitedly: