"Well, between the two sites merely as sites Altacoola seems to me rather better." Miss Langdon held out her hand impulsively. "Then it will be Altacoola!" she cried. "Thank you, Mr. Haines. We are partners, then, for Altacoola." The young man grasped her hand earnestly. "I'd like to be your partner for good, Carolina!" he cried. They stood there close together, holding each other's hands, looking into each other's eyes, when the door opened and in came Charles Norton. CHAPTER XIII AN OLD-FASHIONED FATHER Congressman Norton was startled at the sight of Carolina and Haines apparently so wrapped up in each other. Perhaps she was getting interested in the handsome, interfering secretary. That a woman sometimes breaks her promise to wed he well knew. Plainly Carolina was carrying things too far for a girl who was the promised wife of another. Carolina and Haines showed surprise at Norton's entrance. The Congressman advanced and spoke sneeringly, his demeanor marking him to be in a dangerous mood. "Do I intrude?" he drawled, deliberately. Carolina drew away her hands from Haines and faced the newcomer. "Intrude!" she exclaimed, contemptuously, in a tone that Norton construed as in his favor and Haines in his own. "Intrude!" Haines laughed, sarcastically, feeling that now he was leader in the race for love against this Mississippi representative, who was, he knew, a subservient tool and a taker of bribes. "You surely do intrude, Norton. Wouldn't any man who had interrupted a tête-á-tête another man was having with Miss Langdon be intruding?" "I suppose I can't deny that," he replied. The secretary smiled again. "I'll match you to see who stays," he said. But Norton's turn to defeat his rival had come. He held out a paper to Haines. "Senator Langdon gave me this for you. I reckon I don't have to match." The secretary opened the note to read: "Where in thunder does that hydrate come from--South America or Russia? How much off on the tariff on the creature do we want? Come over to the committee room, where I am, right away. Say it's an urgent message and get in with a tip." The secretary looked up, with a laugh. "You win, Norton. I'm off. Good-by." And he started on a run to the Senator's aid. Norton turned angrily on the girl as the door closed. "See here, Carolina," he cried, "what do you mean by letting that fellow make love to you?" Carolina Langdon would not permit rebuke, even from the man she cared for. She tossed back her head and said, coolly: "Why shouldn't I let him make love to me if I choose?" "You know why," exclaimed Norton, his dark face flushing sullenly. "Because I love you and you love me!" And he seized her and pressed her to him. "That is why!" he cried, and he kissed her again and again. "Yes, I love you, Charlie; you know that," Carolina said, simply. She was conquered by the Southerner's masterfulness.