Carolina laughed.
"Don't you see, Charlie, I have to stand for it? I have to stand for it for your sake, for Randolph's sake, for my own sake, for all our sakes. You know the influence he has over father.
"He can make father do anything he wants, and suppose I don't lead him on? Where's our project? Let him suspect a thing and let him go to father, and you know what will happen. Father would turn against that Altacoola scheme in a moment. He'd beggar himself, if it were necessary, rather than let a single one of us make a dollar out of a thing he had to decide."
"You're right, I reckon, Carolina," said Norton, dejectedly. "Your father is a real type of the Southern gentleman. He hasn't seen any real money in so long he can't even bear to think of it. Somebody's got to make money out of this, and we should be the ones."
"We'd lose frightfully, Charlie, if they changed to Gulf City, wouldn't we?" said the girl, apprehensively. "I'm horribly afraid sometimes, Charlie. That's why I came here to-day. I wanted to influence Haines, to keep him straight. Is there any danger that they'll change? You don't think there is, do you?"
"Of course not, child. Stevens has got his money in, and Peabody.
There are only five on the committee. It's bound to go through."
"Then why is father so important to them?" asked Carolina.
"It's past my understanding, Carolina. I don't see how he's done it, but the whole country has come to believe whatever your father does is right, and they've got to have him."
"And father is completely under the domination of this secretary," murmured the girl, thoughtfully.
Norton nodded.