"In St. Louis the other day," I went on, "I saw a man who has risen to power greater than I can ever hope to have. And he got it by marching erect in the open."
"Yet you have everything you used to want," she said dreamily.
"Yes—everything. Only to learn how worthless what I wanted was. And for this trash, this dirt, I have given—all I had that was of value."
"All?"
"All," I replied. "Your love and my own self-respect."
"Why do you think you've not been brave?" she asked after a while.
"Because I've won by playing on the weaknesses and fears of men which my own weaknesses and fears enabled me to understand."
"You have done wrong—deliberately?"
"Deliberately."
"But that good might come?"