“But just suppose it WAS, Jack! You would have a horse of your own and we'd build the 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 construction of McGowan's,” he continued, “is especially to be condemned, as there is not the slightest doubt that the contractor has intentionally slighted his work--a neglect which, but for the thorough manner in which MacFarlane had constructed the lower culvert, might have resulted in the loss of many lives.”