dearest little home and--"

"But it never can be true, blessed,--not out of the Cumberland
property--" protested Jack.

"But, Jack! Can't we SUPPOSE? Why, supposing is the best fun in the
world. I used to suppose all sorts of things when I was a little girl.
Some of them came true, and some of them didn't, but I had just as much
fun as if they HAD all come true."

"Did you ever suppose ME?" asked Jack. He knew she never had,--he wasn't
worth it;--but what difference did it make what they talked about!

"Yes,--a thousand times. I always knew, my blessed, that there was
somebody like you in the world somewhere,--and when the girls would
break out and say ugly things of men,--all men,--I just knew they were
not true of everybody. I knew that you would come--and that I should
always look for you until I found you! And now tell me! Did you suppose
about me, too, you darling Jack?"

"No,--never. There couldn't be any supposing;--there isn't any now. It's
just you I love, Ruth,--you,--and I love the 'YOU' in you--That's the
best part of you."

And so they talked on, she close in his arms, their cheeks together;
building castles of rose marble and ivory, laying out gardens with
vistas ending in summer sunsets; dreaming dreams that lovers only dream.

CHAPTER XXIV

The check "struck" MacFarlane just as the chairman had said it would,
wiping out his losses by the flood with something ahead for his next
undertaking.

That the verdict was a just one was apparent from the reports of both
McGowan's and the Railroad Company's experts. These showed that the
McGowan mortar held but little cement, and that not of the best; that
the backing of the masonry was composed of loose rubble instead of split
stone, and that the collapse of his structure was not caused by the
downpour, but by the caving in of culverts and spillways, which
were built of materials in direct violation of the provisions of the
contract. Even then there might have been some doubt as to the outcome
but for Holker Morris's testimony. He not only sent in his report, but
appeared himself, he told the Council, so as to answer any questions Mr.
McGowan or his friends might ask. He had done this, as he said openly at
the meeting, to aid his personal friend, Mr. MacFarlane, and also that
he might raise his voice against the slipshod work that was being done
by men who either did not know their business or purposely evaded their
responsibilities. "This constr