click at Mr. Somerville Darrah's touch, had ambitions not automatic.
Some day he meant to put the world of business under foot as a
conqueror, standing triumphant on the apex of that pyramid of success
which the Mr. Somerville Darrahs were so painstakingly uprearing. When
that day should come, there would need to be an establishment, a
menage, a queen for the kingdom of success. Summing her up for the
hundredth time since the beginning of the westward flight, he thought
Miss Carteret would fill the requirements passing well.

But this was a divagation, and he pulled himself back to the askings
of the moment, agreeing with her again without reference to his
private convictions.

"For one, I should have said," he amended. "We mean to have it that
way, though an unprejudiced onlooker might be foolish enough to say
that there is a pretty good present prospect of two."

But Miss Carteret was in a contradictory mood. Moreover, she was a
woman, and the way to a woman's confidence does not lie through the
neutral country of easy compliance.

"If you won't take the other side, I will," she said. "There will be
two."

Jastrow acquiesced a second time.

"I shouldn't wonder. Our competitor's road seems to be only a question
of time--a very short time, judging from the number of men turning out
in the track gang down yonder."