He caught Marian’s eyes, looking wonder and reproach.
“I don’t like to hear you say that,” she said, forgetting Mrs. Carnarvon. “Other men—yes, the little men who work for the cheap rewards. But not you, who work for the sake of work. This night’s experience has thrilled me. I understand your profession now. I see what it means to us all, to civilisation, what a splendid force for good, for enlightenment, for uplifting it is. I can see a great flood of light radiating from this building, pouring into the dark places, driving away ignorance. And the thunder of those presses seems to me to fill the world with some mighty command—what is it?—oh, yes—I can hear it distinctly. It is, ‘Let there be light!’”
Mrs. Carnarvon’s back was toward them and she was looking out at the harbour. Howard put his hands upon Marian’s shoulders and they looked each the other straight in the eyes.
“Lovers and comrades,” he said, “always. And how strong we are—together!”
XIX. — “I MUST BE RICH.”
“While I don’t feel dependent upon the owners of the News-Record, still I am not exactly independent of them either. And if I left them it would only be to become dependent in the same way upon somebody else. A man who makes his living by the advocacy of principles should be wholly free. If he isn’t, the principles are sure sooner or later to become incidental to the living, instead of the living being incidental to the principles.”
“But you see—perhaps I ought to have told you before—that is, there may be”—Marian was stammering and blushing.
“What’s the matter? Don’t frighten me by looking so—so criminal,” Howard laughed.