"He meant Freddy's opposing influence?"
"I suppose so. Freddy's character is stronger than mine, and we have opposite views."
"Are you going?" Meg's voice betrayed a new anxiety and sadness.
"I meant to." His eyes spoke of his new reluctance. "That was why I had no right to speak—I really wanted to go."
"This must make no difference—it must help you."
"But I shall want to be with you—it's hard to go."
"If you stayed, you would be restless, dissatisfied."
"I know." He laughed. "I want both to 'walk on my head,' Meg, and stand firmly on my two legs—my legs are for a home for you."
"And your head?"
"Oh," he said, "for anything that is upside down to what it is now, for the total destruction of obsolete and effete monuments, for exchanging new principles for those that are worn out with age, for showing that fundamental truths are not made by empire-builders, that the world is God's Kingdom, not man's, that God is the only monarch whose throne is not tottering."