Laura and her mother withdrew early, leaving David and the lawyer
together, when Mr. Stretton immediately launched into talk of David's
prospects and resources. In spite of himself, the gloom of the dinner
hour slipped from him, and soon he was taking the liveliest interest in
what might be possible for him here and now.

Although not one to be easily turned from a chosen path by outside
influence, David yet had that almost fatal gift of the imaginative mind
of seeing things from many sides, until at times they took on a
kaleidoscopic reversibility. Now this unlooked-for development of his
life opened to him a vista--new--and yet old, old as England herself.

While digging deep into the causes of his former discontent, he had come
to strike his spade upon the rock foundations whereon all this
complicated superstructure of English society and national life was
builded. He saw that every nobleman inherited with his title and his
lands a responsibility for the welfare of the whole people, from the
poorest laborer in the ditch or the coal mine, to the head wearing the
crown; and that it was the blindness of individuals like himself or his
uncle before him, their misuse or unscrupulous indifference to and abuse
of power, which had brought about those conditions under which the
masses were writhing, and against which they were crying out. He saw
that it was only by the earnest efforts of the few who did
understand--the few who were not indifferent--that the stability of
English government was still her glory.

At last he rose and lifted his arms high above his head, then dropped
them to his side. "I see." He held up his head and looked off as he had
done when he stood on the prow of the steamship, with the salt breeze
tossing his hair. "A little of this came to me as I crossed the ocean,
when I saw the green slopes of England again. I knew I loved her, and
the old feeling of impotence that hounded me in the past, when I could
do nothing but rebel, slipped from me. I felt what it might be to have
power--to become effective instead of being obliged to chafe under the
yoke of an imposed submission to things which are wrong--things which
those who are in power might set right if they would. I believe, for a
moment, Mr. Stretton, I felt it all."

He paused and bowed his head. All at once in the midst of his
exaltation, he saw Cassandra standing white and still, as he had seen
her on the hilltop before their little cabin, loo