"I've found her—Frances—but I hardly dare to tell her. I'm only—well, I'm only an N.C.O., with a precarious future. My Commission is almost a certainty but even that won't add much to my pay, which will be a pittance to the end of time. Even after that, if I do ever amount to anything, it will still be a pittance. Today, in the eyes of the big world and of those this girl associates with, I'm nobody; and if I got to the very top, I'd still be nobody, to some of them. She has millionaires and famous men in bucketsful to choose from—and she's so wonderful that they're fighting to be chosen. So how could I hope she'd look at me? Out where I come from, of course, it's different, Frances. A man's a man not because of what he has but what he is. And that's right. It's not money that counts, in this world, really. It's the big things—the things—well, the things worth fighting for. I think I'm fighting for a big thing. And I—do you know, Frances, I think this girl will see things with my eyes? So I'm going to tell her that I love her and—leave the rest with her. Do you think I'm right?"
His heart—all his hopes, dreams, ideals, his simple, noble creed and code—were lying before her now, for her inspection. In that moment, she saw him a giant, remembered what he had said, 'With that girl to work for—nothing in the world could hold me back!' and felt herself dominated with his strength and courage.
"Frances," he repeated, quietly—close to her, now, and both her hands in his—"do you think I'm right?"
Her heart was hammering.
"Yes," she whispered.
"Do you know who the girl is?"—Closer still and breathless. "It's you—Frances—you!"
For answer, she lifted up her face to his. Then she was in his arms and nothing else mattered....
She was the first to break that rapturous spell, with words that stabbed him like knives or caressed him like soft hands.
"You've been—so honest with me, Hector," she said, a little tremulously, "that I'm going to be the same with you."
He bowed his head.