It was not yet nine o'clock when he entered the governor's office. He waited in the reception-room, adjoining the official chamber, but the several desks of the clerical staff remained unoccupied. He chafed a bit as time passed and no one appeared, for his north-bound train left at eleven, and he could not fairly be asked to waste the entire day here. He was pacing the floor, expecting one of the clerks to appear at any moment, when a man entered hurriedly, walked to the closed inner door, shook it impatiently, and kicked it angrily as he turned away. He was a short, thick-set man of thirty-five, dressed in blue serge, and his movements were quick and nervous. He growled under his breath and swung round upon Griswold as though to tax him with responsibility for the closed door. "Has no one been here this morning?" he demanded, glaring at the closed desks. "If you don't count me I should answer no," replied Griswold quietly. "Oh!" The two gentlemen regarded each other for a moment, contemptuous dislike clearly written on the smaller man's face, Griswold half-smiling and indifferent. "I am waiting for the governor," remarked Griswold, thinking to gain information. "Then you're likely to wait some time," jerked the other. "The whole place seems to be abandoned. I never saw such a lot of people." "Not having seen them myself, I must reserve judgment," Griswold remarked, and the blue serge suit flung out of the room. Presently another figure darkened the entrance, and the colored servant whom Griswold had seen attending Miss Osborne on the train from Atlanta swept into the reception-room and, grandly ignoring his presence, sat down in a chair nearest the closed door of the inner chamber. Griswold felt that this was encouraging, as implying some link between the governor and his domestic household and he was about to ask the colored woman if she knew the business hours of the office when the closed door opened and Miss Osborne appeared on the threshold. The colored woman rose, and Griswold, who happened to be facing the door when it swung open with such startling suddenness, stared an instant and bowed profoundly. "I beg your pardon, but I wish very much to see Governor Osborne or his secretary." Miss Osborne, in white, trailing a white parasol in her hand, and with white roses in her belt, still stood half withdrawn inside the private office. "I am very sorry that Governor Osborne and his secretary are both absent," she answered, and the two eyed each other gravely. Griswold felt that the brown eyes into which he looked had lately known tears; but she held her head high, with a certain defiance, even. "That is unfortunate. I stopped here last night on purpose to see him, and now I fear that I must leave--" and he smiled the Griswold smile, which was one of the secrets of his popularity at the university--"I must leave Columbia in a very few minutes."