"You mustn't be so serious, Mr. Haines. You don't understand Southern girls at all. We are not just like Northern girls. We are used to being made love to from the time we are knee-high. Sometimes, I fear, we flirt a little, but we don't mean any harm. All girls flirt—a little."
"But somebody wins even the Southern girls," declared Haines, eagerly.
The girl's face became serious, earnest, sincere.
"Yes, somebody does, always," she said. "And when a Southern girl is won she stays won, Mr. Haines."
"And I have a chance to win?" questioned the determined young
Northerner.
Carolina smiled sweetly and expressively.
"Who knows? First make my father even a bigger success—that's first. Oh, I wonder if you can realize what all this life means to me! If you can realize what those years of stagnating on the plantation meant to me! No man would have endured it!" she exclaimed bitterly. "I am more of a man than a woman in some ways; I'm ambitious. From the time I was a little girl I've wanted the world, power, fame, money. I want them still. I mean to get them somehow, anyhow. If I can't get them myself, some one must get them for me."
"And love?" suggested the man. "You are leaving love out. Suppose I get all these things for you?"
Bud's pounding heart almost stopped. He could scarcely gain his breath as he saw creep into Carolina's eyes what he believed to be the light of hope for him, the light even of a woman's promise.
"Who knows, Mr. Haines? There's no reward guaranteed. There may be others trying," she answered.