hing wider and deeper than an ocean will
divide us. Something so wide that our hands will never reach across."

"You can talk about it very calmly," she said, without looking at him.

"I have been disciplining myself," he answered.

She rested her face upon her hand, and looked into the fire.

"I suppose," she said, "this means that you have refused Mr.
Letheringham's offer."

"I have refused it," he answered.

"I am sorry," she said simply.

She rose from her chair with a sudden start, began to draw on her cloak,
and then let it fall altogether from her shoulders.

"Why do you do this?" she asked earnestly. "Is it that you are so
ambitious? You used not to be so--in the old days."

He laughed bitterly.

"You too, then," he said, "can remember. Ambitious! Well, why not? To
be Premier of England, to stand for the people, to carry through to its
logical consummation a bloodless revolution, surely this is worth while.
Is there anything in the world better worth having than power?"

"Yes," she answered, looking him full in the eyes.

"What is it then? Let me know before it is too late."

"Love!"

He threw his arms about her. For a moment she was powerless in his
grasp.

"So be it then," he cried fiercely. "Give me the one, and I will deny
the other. Only no half measures! I will drink to the bottom of the cup
or not at all."

She shook herself free from him, breathless, consumed with an anger to
which she dared not give voice. For a moment or two she was speechless.
Her bosom rose and fell, a bright streak of colour flared in her cheeks.
Brott stood away from her, white and stern.

"You--are clumsy!" she said. "You frighten me!"

Her words carried no conviction. He looked at her with a new suspicion.

"You talk like a child," he answered roughly, "or else your whole
conduct is a fraud. For months I have been your slave. I have abandoned
my principles, given you my time, followed at your heels like a tame
dog. And for what? You will not marry me, you will not commit yourself
to anything. You are a past mistress in the art of binding fools to your
chariot wheels. You know that I love you--that there breathes on this
earth no other woman for me but you. I have told you this in all save
words a hundred times. And now--now it is my turn. I have been played
with long enough. You are here unbidden--unexpected. You can consider
that door locked. Now tell me why you came."

Lucille had recovered herself. She