“The people are stirring. All over the world the people are stirring. It wants but a word—but a word from you—to bring them all together. Even the middle sort of people are restless unhappy.
“They are not telling you the things that are happening. The people will not go back to their drudgery—they refuse to be disarmed. Ostrog has awakened something greater than he dreamt of—he has awakened hopes.”
His heart was beating fast. He tried to seem judicial, to weigh considerations.
“They only want their leader,” she said.
“And then?”
“You could do what you would;—the world is yours.”
He sat, no longer regarding her. Presently he spoke. “The old dreams, and the thing I have dreamt, liberty, happiness. Are they dreams? Could one man—one man—?” His voice sank and ceased.
“Not one man, but all men—give them only a leader to speak the desire of their hearts.”
He shook his head, and for a time there was silence.
He looked up suddenly, and their eyes met. “I have not your faith,” he said. “I have not your youth. I am here with power that mocks me. No—let me speak. I want to do—not right—I have not the strength for that—but something rather right than wrong. It will bring no millennium, but I am resolved now that I will rule. What you have said has awakened me.... You are right. Ostrog must know his place. And I will learn—.... One thing I promise you. This Labour slavery shall end.”