the man who had come from the abandoned farm went to his
machine with an unconcern which took no note of their interest. To his
brother he commented in a low and musical voice. "They aren't so
different from Slivers Martin. I bought those lambs for seven and sold
them for ten. But it's only the first transaction, Paul, that gives one
the real thrill."

When he reached his library he found Mary there. "I have been reading
the papers, Hamilton," she said quietly. "As near as I can make it all
out, 'it was a famous victory,' but why do the papers all call it a
raid?" Her brother looked at her and a flash of pride kindled fondly in
his eyes for the face which a shaft of the sun lighted into vivid
beauty.

"I told you once," he said, "that we should reign together. This is for
me a victorious day. I am glad that you are the woman to whom I come
fresh from the field I have won and the frontier I have pushed forward."
He turned away from her and stood for a moment at the window in a flood
of yellow radiance. The clarity of his eyes and luster of his dark hair
and the hue of his cheeks were all declarations of gladiatorial
perfection of condition. His brow was unclouded.

He began to speak, at first with a modulated voice that mounted with
his words to a fiery eloquence:

"Many marches follow, Mary ... toward vaster victories. To me a certain
memory lives clear in every detail. I see a small girl with her thin
little body shaking with sobs ... because her life seemed doomed to
drudgery and emptiness. I see my mother and my aunt and my father
suffering like beasts of burden under the goad and yoke of poverty. I
see a boy, ragged and rebellious, declaring war on the world and
swearing to wrest from it every good thing that those he loved might
ever covet--and for himself unparalleled power." He paused and spread
his hands apart with a gesture of dismissing the abstract. "I have
proven myself able to realize my dreams. I shall go on. My aspirations
of empire look far ahead: my horizons are limitless. There are few
people to whom I can express my ambitions. But you--" He came across and
took her hand. "You can understand. Tell me, Mary, is there anything in
the world you want? Because, by heaven, if there is it shall be yours."

The girl's eyes, as she met his gaze, were deeply grave.

"In all this dream of power, Hamilton," she said softly, "you have never
spoken of any sense of trust or stewardship, and what you call a
vic