great figure. Henry was, in truth, magnificent,
not only in himself, but in what he represented. He seemed symbolic
of a great era of the past, and at the same time of a new age which
was advancing. Old Adam understood all his glory.

"He's mine!" said old Adam again, foolishly.

Then Adam leaned forward with startled, staring eyes. Henry had bowed
and smiled in answer to the cheers. Across the street his own house
was a mass of color--red, white, and blue over windows and doors, gay
dresses on the porch. On each side the pavement was crowded with a
shouting multitude. Surely no hero had ever had a more glorious passage
through the streets of his birthplace!

But old Adam saw that Henry's face blanched, that there appeared
suddenly upon it an expression of intolerable pain. For an instant
Henry's step faltered and grew uncertain.

Then old Adam began to behave like a wild man. He pushed himself
through the crowd, he flung himself upon the rope as though to tear
it down, he called out, "Wait! wait!" Frightened women, fearful of some
sinister purpose, tried to grasp and hold him. No man was immediately
at hand, or Adam would have been seized and taken away. As for the
feeble women--Adam shook them off and laughed at them.

"Let me go, you geese!" said he.

A mounted marshal saw him and rode down upon him; men started from under
the ropes to pursue him. But Adam eluded them or outdistanced them. He
strode across an open space with a surety which gave no hint of the
terrible beating of his heart, until he reached the side of Henry. Him
he greeted, breathlessly and with terrible eagerness.

"Henry," said he, gasping, "Henry, do you want me to walk along?"

Henry saw the alarmed crowds, he saw the marshal's hand stretched
to seize Adam, he saw most clearly of all the tearful eyes under the
beetling brows. Henry's voice shook, but he made himself clear.

"It's all right," said he to the marshal. "Let him be."

"I saw you were alone," said Adam. "I said, 'Henry needs me.' I know
what it is to be alone. I--"

But Adam did not finish his sentence. He found a hand on his, a blue
arm linked tightly in his gray arm, he felt himself moved along amid
thunderous roars of sound.

"Of course I need you!" said Henry. "I've needed you all along."

Then, old but young, their lives almost ended, but themselves immortal,
united, to be divided no more, amid an ever-thickening sound of cheers,
the two marched down the street.