f resistance.

"How can it be sensual," she protested, "when it results in self-denial
and self-sacrifice?"

"Self-sacrifice," he replied, "may be merely sensualism in its intensest
form; it is peculiarly a woman's temptation; the scientific name for it
(since you throw science at my head) is 'negative egoism.' You yourself
are quite capable of it; for you cannot get rid of the results of your
training all in a day."

She did not flinch from his attack.

"What do you know of my training?" she asked.

"I know this: here are you the superior of any Bishop on the bench now
preparing to play injured martyr at the loss of his political
privileges; and what position of authority and influence has your Church
to offer you--you and the thousands like you whose practical humanity
alone has made its antiquated forms still possible? Yes, you are its
life-preservers, and they tuck you away into subordinate positions and
back slums where nobody hears of you. And you have been trained to think
that it is right!"

"The training was all my own," she said. "I tucked myself."

"Wastefully, under parental conditions--you yourself have owned it."

"There is always more work than one can do."

"There is much more work that you could do; but here, what is your
chance? Has it not struck you--if you had only the position given you,
what a power you might be, in that direction, I mean, of bringing the
two halves of society face to face, which you say is your main object?
If that position were offered you would you accept it as a thing sent to
you from God, or would you----?"

And then Max stopped abruptly, for he realized that in another moment he
would have been offering her the succession to the throne, and he felt
that the street was not exactly the right place for it. Not that he
minded making the offer anywhere; but she, self-sacrificingly, might
refuse; and a crowded street was not the place where he could tackle a
refusal of the throne to advantage. It was not like an ordinary
proposal; there were too many points to urge and objections to be met;
while a certain amount of preliminary incredulity was almost inevitable.
She might know that he loved her still; but it would take a considerable
amount of knowing that he also wished her to sit with him upon the
throne; nay, for that matter, to sit with him off it, if Court etiquette
and the fates so ordained. And if they did so ordain, where would that
great position be which he wa