to remember you?' she asked.

'Perhaps they will,' he answered slowly. 'Perhaps in a hundred years, in
some flourishing town where I discovered nothing but wilderness, they
will commission a second-rate sculptor to make a fancy statue of me. And
I shall stand in front of the Stock Exchange, a convenient perch for
birds, to look eternally upon the shabby deeds of human kind.'

He gave a short, abrupt laugh, and his words were followed by silence.
Julia gave Dick a glance which he took to be a signal that she wished to
be alone with Alec.

'Forgive me if I leave you for one minute,' he said.

He got up and left the room. The silence still continued, and Alec
seemed immersed in thought. At last Julia answered him.

'And is that really all? I can't help thinking that at the bottom of
your heart there is something that you've never told to a living soul.'

He looked at her, and their eyes met. He felt suddenly her extraordinary
sympathy and her passionate desire to help him. And as though the bonds
of the flesh were loosened, it seemed to him that their very souls faced
one another. The reserve which was his dearest habit fell away from him,
and he felt an urgent desire to say that which a curious delicacy had
prevented him from every betraying to callous ears.

'I daresay I shall never see you again, and perhaps it doesn't much
matter what I say to you. You'll think me very silly, but I'm afraid I'm
rather--patriotic. It's only we who live away from England who really
love it. I'm so proud of my country, and I wanted so much to do
something for it. Often in Africa I've thought of this dear England and
longed not to die till I had done my work.'

His voice shook a little, and he paused. It seemed to Julia that she saw
the man for the first time, and she wished passionately that Lucy could
hear those words of his which he spoke so shyly, and yet with such a
passionate earnestness.

'Behind all the soldiers and the statesmen whose fame is imperishable
there is a long line of men who've built up the empire piece by piece.
Their names are forgotten, and only students know their history, but
each one of them gave a province to his country. And I too have my place
among them. Year after year I toiled, night and day, and at last I was
able to hand over to the commissioner a broad tract of land, rich and
fertile. After my death England will forget my faults and my mistakes;
and I care nothing for the flouts and gibes with w