She made no reply, but drew from her purse a cutting from a newspaper and handed it to him. "That's from last night's Columbia _Vidette_, which is very hostile to my father." He was already running over the heavily leaded column that set forth without equivocation the fact that Governor Osborne had not been in Columbia since he went to New Orleans. It scouted the story that he was abroad in the state on official business connected with the Appleweight case--the yarn which Griswold had forced upon the friendly reporter at the telegraph office in Columbia. The governor of a state, the _Vidette_ went on to elaborate, could not vanish without leaving some trace of himself, and a _Vidette_ representative had traced the steps of Governor Osborne from New Orleans until--the italics are the _Vidette's_--he had again entered South Carolina _under cover of night and for purposes which, for the honor of the state, the Vidette hesitated to disclose_. The writer of the article had exhausted the possibilities of gentle suggestion and vague innuendo in an effort to create an impression of mystery and to pique curiosity as to further developments, which were promised at any hour. Griswold's wrath was aroused, not so much against the newspaper, which he assumed had some fire for its smothered trifle of smoke, but against the governor of South Carolina himself, who was causing the finest and noblest girl in the world infinite anxiety and pain. "The thing is preposterous," he said lightly. "The idea that your father would attempt to enter his own state surreptitiously is inconceivable in these days when public men are denied all privacy, and when it's any man's right to deceive the press if he finds it essential to his own comfort and peace; but the intimation that your father is in South Carolina for any dishonorable purpose is preposterous. One thing, however, is certain, Miss Osborne, and that is that we must produce your father at the earliest possible moment." "But"--and Barbara hesitated, and her eyes, near tears as they were, wrought great havoc in Griswold's soul--"but father must not be found until this Appleweight matter is settled. You understand without making me speak the words--that he might not exactly view the matter as we do." It was a painful subject; and the fact that she was driven by sheer force of circumstances to appeal to him, a stranger, to aid her to perform a public service in her father's name rallied all his good impulses to her standard. It was too delicate a matter for discussion; it was a thing to be ignored; and he assumed at once a lighter tone.