“It's true,” he said. “I'm sorry if you object, for it's absolutely the only available way.”
She raised her full, trusting eyes to his.
“You make me want to kiss you, Alan, but—”
He did not let her finish. Putting his arm around her, he drew her close to him and kissed her on the lips. “Now, darling,” he said, “you are mine.”
“Yes, I am yours, Alan.”
As they were nearing her house he told her that Wilson had agents out secretly buying land, and that she must not allow her father to dispose of his timbered interests until it was decided whether the railroad would be built.
She promised to keep an eye on the Colonel's transactions and do all she could to prevent him from taking a false step. “You may not know it,” she said, “but I'm his chief adviser. He 'll be apt to mention any offer he gets to me.”
“Well, don't tell him about the railroad unless you have to,” he said, in parting with her at the gate. “But it would be glorious to have him profit by our scheme, and I think he will.”
“We are going to hope for success, anyway, aren't we?” she said, leaning over the gate. “I have believed in you so much that I feel almost sure you are to be rewarded.”
“Miller thinks the chances are good,” he told her, “but father is afraid those men over there will do their best to ruin the whole thing.”