y and hardly-treated boyhood, the visions, the rebellions, the
longings with which he must have walked the hot and rank tobacco-fields;
given the upward struggle of his youth, so determined and so successful;
given the courage, the hardihood, the wide outlook of a man who has
neither inherited nor been granted, but has himself hewn out and built
up his holding in life; given genius and sense of power, will,
perseverance, and the fatal knowledge that all events and all currents
habitually bend to his hand,--given all this and opportunity"--He
raised his head and met her eyes. "It is not strange and it is not
monstrous that Mr. Rand should have involved himself, to a greater or
less degree, in this attempt upon the West. God is my witness, I would
not have you think it strange and monstrous! Ambition is, perhaps, the
most human of all qualities. Many and many an ambitious man has been
loved, loved passionately, loved deservedly!--many a conqueror, many a
one of those who failed to conquer and who were called by an ugly name!
Love does not love the ambition, it loves that which is love-worthy
below the iron grating and the tracery of false gold! As the world goes,
Lewis Rand and I are enemies; but I could swear to you to-night that I
see, that I have always seen, a greatness in him! I believe it to be
distorted and darkened, but the quality of it is greatness. Were I
he"--He paused for a moment, then continued, with dignity. "Were I he, I
would say to the lady who, for love, had given me her hand in
wedlock,--'Love me still. My land is one of storm and darkness, of rude
wastes and frowning strongholds whence sometimes issue robber bands. But
it is not a petty land, and side by side with all that is wrong runs not
a little that is heroic and right! Love me still and help me there, even
though--even though I am forsworn to you!"

"I would not have you think," she said clearly,--"I would not have you
even lightly dream, that his country is not my country! I love him!"

"I know that you do."

"There is no place so dark that I would not wait for him there as for
the dawn. There is no flood I would not cross to him; there is no deep
pit in which I would not seek him, were he fallen there! He has done
wrong, and I am unhappy for it. But never think, never dream, that,
though I see the dark and broken ground, I would leave that country, or
am less than wholly loyal to its King!"

"I have neither thought nor dreamed it."

"Whe