“Good!”
“It’s worth trial. I’ll do it.”
“Then I shall be the first to congratulate the future Governor.”
“Anice!”—the old-time boyish impetuosity she so well remembered flashing into one of its rare recurrences—“if I win this fight—if I am elected Governor—I shall have something worth while at last to offer you. If I come to you the day I am elected——”
“I shall congratulate you only as I would any other friend.”
His lips tightened as at a blow. For a moment neither spoke. It was Clive who broke the silence.
“I have said it awkwardly,” he began. “If it had been less to me I might have found more eloquence. I love you. I think I have always loved you. You know that. A woman always knows. I love you. I loved you in the old days, when I was too poor to have the right to speak. What little I am—what little I may have achieved—is for you. I have not made much of myself. But that I’ve made anything at all is due to you. In everything I have done, your eyes and your smile have been before me. At heart, I’ve laid every success at your feet. At heart I’ve asked your faith and your pardon for each of my failures. And, whether you care or not, it will always be the same. That one dear ambition will spur me on to make the very best of myself. My victories shall be your victories whether you wish it or not. Perhaps that seems to you presumptuous or foolish?”
“No.”
There was no perceptible emotion in the half-whispered word. From it Clive could glean nothing. Presently he went on:
“I think whenever you see a man trying to make the most of all that is in him, and wearing out his very soul in this breakneck American race for livelihood, you’ll find there is some woman behind it all. It is for her, not for his own selfish ambition, that he is fighting. Sometimes she crowns his victory. Sometimes he wins only the thorn-crown. But the glory of the work and the winning are hers. Not his. Now you know why I entered this Governorship fight, and why I am willing to keep it up. Oh, sweetheart, I love you so. You must understand, now, why I longed to come to you in my hour of triumph and——”