"

"I know, child."

"Then--thank you, Captain Selwyn."

"No; I thank you for giving me this charge. It means that a man must
raise his own standard of living before he can accept such
responsibility. . . . You endow me with all that a man ought to be; and
my task is doubled; for it is not only Gerald but I myself who require
surveillance."

He looked up, smilingly serious: "Such women as you alone can fit your
brother and me for an endless guard duty over the white standard you
have planted on the outer walls of the world."

"You say things to me--sometimes--" she faltered, "that almost hurt with
the pleasure they give."

"Did that give you pleasure?"

"Y-yes; the surprise of it was almost too--too keen. I wish you would
not--but I am glad you did. . . . You see"--dropping into a great velvet
chair--"having been of no serious consequence to anybody for so many
years--to be told, suddenly, that I--that I count so vitally with men--a
man like you--"

She sank back, drew one small hand across her eyes, and rested a moment;
then leaning forward, she set her elbow on one knee and bracketed her
chin between forefinger and thumb.

"_You_ don't know," she said, smiling faintly, "but, oh, the exalted
dreams young girls indulge in! And one and all centre around some
power-inspired attitude of our own when a great crisis comes. And most
of all we dream of counting heavily; and more than all we clothe
ourselves in the celestial authority which dares to forgive. . . . Is it
not pathetically amusing--the mental process of a young girl?--and the
paramount theme of her dream is power!--such power as will permit the
renunciation of vengeance; such power as will justify the happiness of
forgiving? . . . And every dream of hers is a dream of power; and,
often, the happiness of forbearing to wield it. All dreams lead to it,
all mean it; for instance, half-awake, then faintly conscious in
slumber, I lie dreaming of power--always power; the triumph of
attainment, of desire for wisdom and knowledge satisfied. I dream of
friendships--wonderful intimacies exquisitely satisfying; I dream of
troubles, and my moral power to sweep them out of existence; I dream of
self-sacrifice, and of the spiritual power to endure it; I dream--I
dream--sometimes--of more material power--of splendours and imposing
estates, of a paradise all my own. And when I have been selfishly happy
long enough, I dream of a vast material power fitting me to wipe po