But this was a divagation, and he pulled himself back to the askings of the moment, agreeing with her again without reference to his private convictions.
“For one, I should have said,” he amended. “We mean to have it that way, though an unprejudiced onlooker might be foolish enough to say that there is a pretty good present prospect of two.”
But Miss Carteret was in a contradictory mood. Moreover, she was a woman, and the way to a woman's confidence does not lie through the neutral country of easy compliance.
“If you won't take the other side, I will,” she said. “There will be two.”
Jastrow acquiesced a second time.
“I shouldn't wonder. Our competitor's road seems to be only a question of time—a very short time, judging from the number of men turning out in the track gang down yonder.”
Virginia leaned over the railing to look past the car and the dovecote station shading her eyes to shut out the snow-blink from the sun-fired peaks.
“Why, they are soldiers!” she exclaimed. “At least, some of them have guns on their shoulders. And see—they are forming in line!”
The secretary adjusted his eye-glasses.
“By Jove! you are right; they have armed the track force. The new chief of construction doesn't mean to take any chances of being shaken loose by main strength. Here they come.”