Page:Hard-pan; a story of bonanza fortunes (IA hardpanbonanza00bonnrich).pdf/157

Rh now was one of determination. His self-indulgent, indolent nature had been goaded to a point where it could act more easily than it could endure.

Once having made up his mind, he was more at rest than he had been for weeks. He did not give much thought to the manner of attacking the subject, merely saying to himself that he was sure she could be induced to reveal all she knew by diplomacy. Of only one thing he felt convinced, and he felt this with the conviction that one has of the mandates of destiny—that the next time he saw her alone he would learn from her all there was to learn. Beyond this he shrank from looking.

While he had no desire to put off the interview that two months before would have seemed an impossibility, he was deliberative and unhurried. Thinking that the afternoon was the best time to find her by herself, he went to the house near South Park at four o'clock, a week after he had seen her at the opera. She was out, and on a second visit at a similar hour the result was the same. He had pushed his card under the door, and had hoped that she might have acknowledged the visits by a note; but she made no sign.

At the end of the second week he went again, in the evening, and found her, as usual, sitting with her father. She mentioned her disap-