ork had been limited to the little patch of ground irrigated by the
developed springs of his home, Amy had offered no objections to his
enthusiasm. So far as it was possible for her, she had been interested,
almost encouraging. Even over his visions of greater things, which he
had laid before her unseeing eyes, she had smiled with acquiescence
which he mistook for appreciation. Only when the films began to grow
into material form, when the warp and woof must be gathered from others,
and the frame of the loom itself must be builded with another's aid, did
the real meaning of Elijah's dream suggest itself to Amy. Not that she
saw clearly, only intuitively, that in the carrying out of his plans he
would come in contact with others, that this contact would develop a
comparison of herself with others, that this comparison would be
unfavorable to her, and would end forever her ability to fill Elijah's
mental vision. Therefore, at the very first signs of expansion, she had
opposed the feeble barrier of her will. Elijah had no more recognized
the barrier than he had Amy's limitations which made the barrier
imperative to her. He had felt her opposition, and, without
understanding it, he had chafed against it. He had not compared her with
others, because up to this time he had not come in contact with those
who made a comparison imperative.

Now the comparison was coming to him, had indeed already come.
Appreciation, sympathy, energy, assistance were manifest to him in every
word and action of Helen Lonsdale. Her first suggestion of independent
action had startled, then brought to him a sudden, overpowering
realization of what she was, of what she might be to him in comparison
with Amy. His first emotion was fear lest she might leave him, and,
equipped with the knowledge which she had gained from her confidential
relation with the company, start out on an independent course of her
own. There was almost a feeling of resentment against Amy, as if she had
defrauded him, and this was a thing which Elijah should have put aside;
but he did not.

Helen was watching him. There was decided humor in her eyes, in the
motion of her lips.

"What are you mulling over?"

Elijah started as if waking from a dream. He spoke hastily, but none the
less decidedly.

"We must drive over together and see that land as soon as possible."

CHAPTER SEVEN

In spite of Elijah's earnest conviction that the land should be
inspected and a course