"Every hour of my life has been covered by a word of three letters."
"What an elastic word!"
"It is, for it has covered everything at which I looked—both the earth and the sky."
"And the General and the Great South Midland and Atlantic Railroad?"
"Without that word the General and the railroad would have been nothing."
"How very much obliged to it the poor General must be!"
"Will you hear it?" I asked, for when I was once started to the goal there was no turning me by laughter.
She raised her eyes, which had been lowered, and looked at me long and deeply—so long and deeply that it seemed as if she were seeking something within myself of which even I was unconscious.
"Will you hear it?" I asked again.
Her gaze was still on mine. "What is the word?" she asked, almost in a whisper.