ow of another."

"Better dwell in the shadow forever," cried Jacqueline, with passion,
"than to reign with faithlessness in the sun!"

"I am not faithless--"

"So Benedict Arnold thought! Oh, Lewis!"

"You speak," said Rand slowly, "too much like the Churchills and the
Carys."

In the silence that followed, Jacqueline rose and stood over against
him, the scarf trailing from her hand and the amethysts rising and
falling with her laboured breathing. He glanced at her and then went
on: "Burr leaves Richmond to-morrow. He does not go West till summer,
and all his schemes may come to naught. What he does or does not do will
depend on many things, chiefly on whether or not we go to war with
Spain. I am not going West with him--not yet. I have let him talk. I
have brought him and Adam Gaudylock together; I have put a little money
in this land purchase of his upon the Washita, and I have given him some
advice. That is all there is of rebellion, treason, and sedition,--all
the cock-a-hoop story! Ludwell Cary may keep his own breath to cool his
own porridge. And you, Jacqueline, you who married me, you have not a
soul to be frighted with big words! You and I shall walk side by side."

"Shall we?" she said. "That will depend. I'll not walk with you over the
dead--dead faith, dead hope, dead honour!"

"I shall not ask you to," he answered. "You are not yourself. You are
using words without thought. It is the cold, the lateness, and this
dying fire--Ludwell Cary's arrogance as well. Dead faith, hope,
honour!--is this your trust, your faith?"

"Lewis, Lewis!"

He rose, crossed the shadowy space between them, and took her hands.
"Don't fear--don't fear! We two will always love. Jacqueline, there is
that within me that will not rest, that cries for power, and that
overrides obstacles! See what I have overridden since the days beneath
the apple tree! I am not idly dreaming. Conditions such as exist to-day
will not arise again. Upon this continent it is the time of times for
the bold--the wisely bold. This that beckons is no mirage in the West;
it is palpable fact. Say that I follow Burr--follow! overtake and pass
him! He has a tarnished name and fifty years,--a supple rapier but a
shrunken arm. He's daring; but I can be that and more. He plans; I can
achieve. I am no dreamer and no braggart when I say that in the West I
can play the Corsican. What can I do here? Become, perhaps, Governor of
Virginia; wait until Mr. Jefferson