could see that something was the matter.

Kennedy wasted no time in coming to the point of his visit. We had
scarcely seated ourselves beside her desk when he leaned over and
said in a low voice, "Miss Ashton, I think I can trust you. I have
called to see you about a matter of vital importance to Mr.
Carton."

She did not betray even by a fleeting look on her proud face what
the true state of her feelings was.

"I don't know whether you know, but an attempt is being made to
slander Mr. Carton," went on Kennedy.

Still she said nothing, though it was evident that she was
thinking much.

"I suppose in a large force like this that it is not impossible
that your political enemies may have a spy or two," observed
Kennedy, glancing about at the score or more clerks busily engaged
in getting out the "literature."

"I have sometimes thought that myself," she murmured, "but of
course I don't know. There isn't anything for them to discover in
THIS office, though."

Kennedy looked up quickly at the significant stress on the word
"this." She saw that Kennedy was watching. Margaret Ashton might
have made a good actress, that is, in something in which her
personal feelings were not involved, as they were in this case.