at I have worked for, that my reward is at hand? And it
isn't. If I am Prime Minister in three months' time, there will still
be something left of the feeling of weariness I carry with me to-day."

It was a new phase of the man who unconsciously had grown so dominant in
her life. She felt the pull at her heartstrings. Her eyes were soft
with unshed tears as her arm stole through his.

"Please go on," she whispered.

"There is the ego," he confessed, his voice shaking. "Why it has come
to me just at this period of life--but there it is. I have neglected
human society, human intercourse, sport, pleasures, the joys of a man
who was born to be a man. I am philosopher enough not to ask myself
whether it has been worth while, but I do ask myself--what of the next
ten years?"

"Who am I to give you counsel?" she asked, trembling.

"The only person who can."

"Then I advise you to go on. This is just a mood. There are muddy
places through which one must pass, even in the paths that lead to the
mountain tops, muddy and ugly and depressing places. As one climbs, one
loses the memory of them."

"But I climb always alone," he answered, with a sudden fierceness. "I
walk alone in life. I have been strong enough to do it and I am strong
enough no longer.--Jane," he went on, his voice a little unsteady, his
hands almost clutching hers, "it is only since I have known you that I
have realised from what source upon this earth a man may draw his
inspiration, his courage, the strength to face the moving of mountains,
day by day. My heart has been as dry as a seed plot. You have brought
new things to me, the soft, humanising stimulus of a new hope, a new
joy. If I am to fight on to the end, I must have you and your love."

She was trembling and half afraid, but her hands yielded their pressure
to his. Her lips and her eyes, the little quivering of her body, all
spoke of yielding.

"I have done foolish things in my life," he went on, drawing her nearer
to him. "When I was young, I felt that I had the strength of a
superman, and that all I needed in life was food for the brain. I
placed woman in her wrong place. I sold myself and my chance of
happiness that I might gain more power, a wider influence. It was a sin
against life. It was a greater crime against myself. Now that the
thunder is muttering and the time is coming for the last test, I see the
truth as I have never seen it before. Nature has taken me by the
hand--shows it me.-