his sea-room limited only by the skein, while his aunt wound her yarn
silently, and listened with a face expressive at once of deep interest
and hope, mingled with a certain undefined doubt.

As the ball grew in size, she turned to me, and, with a penetration
and practical insight into affairs for which I had not given her credit,
began to dissect the scheme in detail. She had heard, she said, that
there was lack of connecting lines and consequent absence of freight,
as well as insufficient harbor facilities at Warrentown.

I parried the questions as well as I could, begging off on the plea
that I was only a poor devil of a painter with a minimum knowledge
ofsuch matters, and ended by referring her to Fitz.

The colonel, much to my surprise, listened to every word without opening
his lips--a silence encouraged at first by his pride that she could
talk so well, and maintained thereafter because of certain misgivings
awakened in his mind as to the ultimate success of his pet enterprise.

When she had punctured the last of his little balloons, he laid his
hand on her shoulder, and, looking into her face, said:--

"Nancy, you really don't mean that my railroad will _never_ be built?"

"No, George; but suppose it should not earn its expenses?"

Her thoughts were new to the colonel. Nobody except a few foolish
people in the Street, anxious to sell less valuable securities, and
utterly unable to grasp the great merits of the Cartersville and
Warrentown Air Line Railroad plan, had ever before advanced any such