Messengers ran hurriedly through the corridors; men passed the door talking in tones faintly audible; but the excitement in the rival camps communicated nothing of its intensity to this quiet chamber.

Men had feared Morton Bassett; this girl, with her wondering dark eyes, did not fear him.

But he was following a course he had planned for this meeting, and he dared not shift his ground.
"I don't want you to think that I haven't been grieved to see you working for your living; I never meant that you should do that.
Hereafter that will be unnecessary; but I am busy to-night.

To-morrow, at any time you say, we will talk of those things." There was dismissal in his manner and tone.

He was anxious to be rid of her.