he completed roadway, the Roadmaker
suddenly remembered his own slight years and the inconceivable
fraction of time he had laboured for so wide a result, and there swept
up to him across the level way a new knowledge of his relationship to
all the past--that he was but the servant of those who had preceded
him and had but brought into the light of day a simple secret matured
long ago in the patient earth.

It is in this spirit of true humility and in the recognition of their
actual place in the world that all Great Discoverers find their
highest joy. It is the joy of service that is theirs, the loftiest
ambition that can fire the heart of man, making him accept with
thankfulness his part as a tool to the great artifices and filling him
with love and reverence for the work he has been used to complete. As
Christopher stood bareheaded in the rain that windy March morning, his
heart swept clear for the time of all personal pride or
self-gratification, he offered himself in unconscious surrender again
to the Power that had used him, craving only to be used, divining
clearly that achievement is but the starting post to new endeavour.

At last he turned away, locked up the hut and went down towards the
house, and at the entrance of the little plantation between park and
garden he met Patricia.

They exchanged no greeting but a smile, and as he stood on the slope
above her, looking at her, he was aware of a great sense of peace and
rest, and on a sudden, her understanding leapt to meet his.

"It is done--you have finished it?" she cried, and her hands went out
to him.

"Yes," he said, quietly, freeing himself from the strange inward
pressure by the touch of that outward union. "This piece of work is
done, Patricia. The thing is there--my Road stuff. It's all right. It
will stand whatever it is asked to stand. It is ready to use if
anyone will use it."

"Oh, I'm glad--so glad!" she cried. "Christopher, it is just the best
thing in the world to know you have succeeded."

Her complete sympathy and generous joy seemed to open his mind to the
outward expression of the speaker, which of late, since the breaking
of her engagement with Geoffry, he had tried hard not to observe.

It seemed to him her face had lost a little of its childish roundness,
that there was something accentuated about her that was nameless and
yet expected. Also for the first time in his life he was conscious
that her presence by his side was helpful.