“I shall love your future, and shall watch it always,” she replied, coloring. “You will be a great man, and there will be a great place for you.”
“And what then?”
“Do not ask what then. You ask if men never change. Alas, they do, all too frequently! Do not deny the imperious way of nature. Only—remember me as long as you can, Meriwether Lewis.”
She spoke softly, and the color of her cheek, still rising, told of her self-reproof.
He turned suddenly at this, a wonderfully sweet smile now upon his face.
“As long as I can?”
“Yes. Let your own mind run on the ambitions of a proud man, a strong man. Ambition—power—place—these things will all be yours in the coming years. They belong to any man of ability such as yours, and I covet them for you. I shall pray always for your success; but success makes men forget.”
He still sat looking at her unmoved, with thoughts in his heart that he would not have cared to let her know. She went on still, half tremblingly:
“I want to see you happy after a time—with some good woman at your side—your children by you—in your own home. I want everything for you which ought to come to any man. And yet I know how hard it is to alter your resolve, once formed. Captain Lewis, you are a stubborn man, a hard man!”
He shook his head.