Haines bowed and hurried from the room through a side doorway just as Senator Langdon came in through the main entrance.
"Bud! Bud!" he called, but the secretary did not halt.
Carolina Langdon stood with Haines' note in her hand, wondering at what she had done. She regretted having become entangled in the wars of men in Washington. She saw that the man's game was played too strongly, too furiously fast, for most women to enter, yet she rejoiced that the coveted fortune had not been lost. She was sorry that her means of saving it had not been less questionable. She saw that ambition and honesty, ambition and truth, with difficulty follow the same path.
Senator Langdon's face was unusually grave as he came to greet Carolina. Lines showed in his face that the daughter had never noticed before.
She saw Norton and Randolph, who had followed him, exchange significant glances--jubilant glances--and wondered what new development they had maneuvered.
"He's gone without a word," the Senator sighed. "Well, perhap's that's best."
"He left a note for you," said the girl, handing him the letter which Haines had given her.
"I am giving up the job. You can understand why. The least said about it between us the better. I am sorry. That's all. BUD HAINES."
"And he was making the best kind of a secretary, I thought."
Divining that something against Haines had been told her father, Carolina glanced at Norton.
"I told your father how we caught Mr. Haines," he spoke as an answer to her.
The girl was startled. She had not thought that things would go this far.
"I told him how Haines wanted to get in some land speculation scheme with Altacoola, how we tricked him and caught him with the goods when he made the proposition to me and how we forced him to confess."
"I don't understand it," said Langdon. "To think that he was that kind!"
Son Randolph now took his turn in the case against the secretary.
"We were both here, father. I heard him--Carolina heard him," he said. "Didn't you, Carolina?"
"Yes," said the girl weakly, "I was here." Then she turned abruptly. "I must go," she said, "must go right away. Mrs. Holcomb is waiting for me."
The Senator turned to his desk bent and discouraged.
"I suppose I should have taken a secretary who was a Southerner and a gentleman. Well, Randolph, you'll have to act now. Take this letter--"