"Oh, the risk is nothing when a great ideal lies ahead. I for one would rather die following a noble vision than lie grovelling among the broken shards of life. It was that which led so many to sacrifice their all in the Great War. Lack of vision means repression, and often ruin; vision, expression."
"In what way? Go on, I am much interested."
"In what way?" Reynolds repeated, as he stopped and looked far away upon some towering mountain peaks which just then were visible through an opening among the trees. "Take the steam-engine for example. Repress the power, and what do you get? Destruction. But give that power expression, and how beneficial it becomes. So it is with man. There is a mighty power within him. Repress that power, keep it back, and you get nothing. But let that power be released, and it expresses itself in thousands of ways for the benefit of mankind."
"But what has that to do with vision?" Weston asked.
"A great deal. It is the vision, the lure of something beyond, which calls forth that power and compels it to undertake great things. All the wonderful achievements of the past are due to men of vision. They saw what others could not see, and in the face of opposition and discouragement they went steadily forward."
"And what did you expect to accomplish when you started for Glen West?"
At these words Reynolds gave a slight start, and glanced curiously at his companion.
"I hoped to win the fairest and noblest flower of womanhood that it has ever been my lot to know except one, and that was my mother."
"Other men have said the same thing, young man," and Weston smiled.
"They, like yourself, followed attractive faces, pleasing forms, and
luring voices, and when it was too late they found out their mistake.
You know the legend of the Sirens, I suppose?"
"That has been true, sir, in many cases. But mine is different. Some women have many outward attractions, but no souls. The first time I beheld your daughter I detected something in her that I never saw before in any woman, and that is saying a great deal. Since I have known her better, I have found that I was right, and that she is worthy of a man's noblest vision. A woman such as she is would elevate a man who has the least spark of nobleness."