appear to be interested in him, except as a rebel to
authority and needing chastisement.

The child of the woods, as he thought of her, stirred all his
tenderness, his sympathy, and the soft ties of long intimacy and
understanding bound him.

But this girl, with beauty and brains, on his own level of independence
of thought, stirred new desires and ambitions in him. She was helpmate
and counsellor. He wondered if newer times and conditions did not demand
stronger qualities than mere womanhood in the wife who was to accompany
a man into the vicissitudes of public life. Not that he felt that he was
more than an humble instrument of the real power. But he fell to
considering the subject from the general viewpoint. His own experiences
had awakened new ideas that he pondered, having a very provocative
suggestion at his side.

Still more humbly he asked her: "If you have been thinking the matter
over, Miss Presson, what advice do you give me?"

"I advise you to have a serious talk with your grandfather. He has had
much experience. Use your own judgment, too, but be ready to hear the
evidence. You have not shown that willingness, yet, so far as I can
determine. I haven't any advice of my own to offer. I'll not presume.
Only this: be as honest as you can, but don't be so impractically honest
that you chop down all your bridges behind you and neglect to gather
timber for the bridges ahead of you."

Even in the gloom she understood that he was puzzled.

"Really, you know, I haven't written any handbook on practical politics,
Mr. Thornton," she said, her humor coming to the rescue. "I have talked
to you as though I had. But I've only talked to you with a woman's
intuition in such matters--and you remember, too, I've seen much of
legislative life. You can be good in politics--but, oh, don't be
impractical! I want you to succeed."

"You do?"

"I most certainly do." She said it heartily.

No other word passed between them until they arrived in front of the
hotel.

He reached up, after he had alighted, and grasped her hand. She had
impulsively put out her own to meet his.

"I'll try to be--" he began, and then hesitated. He had been pondering.
But his thoughts were still so confused that he could not think of the
word that expressed exactly what he desired to make himself.

"Be human," she said, smiling down on him. "You won't find yourself of
much use in the world unless you cultivate the faculty of personal
contact,