Have written by to-night’s mail in Appleweight matter. Your vacillating course not understood.
William Dangerfield,
Governor of North Carolina.
“What do you think of that?” she demanded.
“I think it’s impertinent, to say the least,” he replied guardedly.
“Impertinent! It’s the most contemptible, outrageous thing I ever heard of in my life! Governor Dangerfield has dilly-dallied with that case for two years. His administration has been marked from the beginning by the worst kind of incompetence. Why, this man Appleweight and his gang of outlaws only come into South Carolina now and then to hide and steal, but they commit most of their crimes in North Carolina, and they always have. Talk about a vacillating course! Father has never taken steps to arrest those men, out of sheer regard for Governor Dangerfield; he thought North Carolina had some pride, and that her governor would prefer to take care of his own criminals. What do you suppose Appleweight is indicted for in this state? For stealing one ham—one single ham from a farmer in Mingo County, and he’s killed half a dozen men in North Carolina.”
She paced the corner of the veranda angrily, while Griswold groped for a solution of the problem. The telegram from Raleigh was certainly lacking in diplomatic suavity. It was patent that if the governor of North Carolina was not tremendously aroused, he was playing a great game of bluff; and on either hypothesis a prompt response must be made to his telegram.
“I must answer this at once. He must not think we are so stupid in Columbia that we don’t know when we’re insulted. We can go through the side door to father’s study and write the message there,” and she led the way.
“It might be best to wait and see what his letter is like,” suggested Griswold, with a vague wish to prolong this discussion, that he might enjoy the soft glow of the student lamp on her cheek.
“I don’t care what his letter says; it can’t be worse than his telegram. We’ll answer them both at once.”
She found a blank and wrote rapidly, without asking suggestions, with this result: