“What had you been saying, Mr. Griswold?”
“Oh, really nothing, after all! I’m ashamed of it now! But he’s the most amusing person, with nothing to do but to keep himself amused. We discuss many daring projects, but we are never equal to them. I had just been telling him that we were incapable of action; that while we plan our battles the foe is already breaking down the outer defences and beating in the gates. You see, we are both very ridiculous at times, and we talk that sort of idiocy to keep up our spirits. And having berated my friend for his irresolution, I seized the first opportunity to prove my own capacity for meeting emergencies. The man flattered me with the assumption that I was the governor of South Carolina, and I weakly fell.”
Distress was again written in Miss Osborne’s face. She had paid little heed to the latter half of Griswold’s recital, though she kept her eyes fixed gravely upon him. In a moment the gentleman in blue serge who had manifested so much feeling over the governor’s absence strode again into the room.
“Ah, Miss Osborne, so you are back!”
He bowed over the girl’s hand with a great deal of manner, then glanced at once toward the door of the private office.
“Hasn’t your father come in yet? I have been looking for him since eight o’clock.”
“My father is not home yet, Mr. Bosworth.”
“Not home! Do you mean to say that he won’t be here to-day?”
“I hardly expect him,” replied the girl calmly. “Very likely he will be at home to-night or in the morning.”
Griswold had walked away out of hearing; but he felt that the girl purposely raised her voice so that he might hear what she said.