V
He did not hear her. He sat staring, as though in the mirror of his own mind. At last he let his hand drop across the table. She dropped her own into his, timidly.
"Listen, Laura," he went on. "I'll tell you a little of what I mean."
"Yes, John, I'm sure you will."
"What's the distinguishing thing about life to-day, my dear—the thing that makes it different from that of the past?"
"Why, I don't know."
"A great many don't know. They don't stop to think! That's why so many pass by the open door of success and never get inside. Listen, Laura. Wait a minute—don't interrupt me. Speed is the thing to-day. Speed, speed, speed; and power! Don't you see it all around you, don't you feel it? Can't you almost smell it, touch it, taste it? It's on the street, in the house, in business, everywhere—we can't go fast enough. But we're going faster. We'll go twice as fast."
"How do you know? What do you mean? Who told you, John?"
"That's my business. That's my idea. That's my invention. That's how I'm going to get rich.
"Laura, I'm going to make it possible to gear up our national life, to double its present speed," he went on savagely.