"But you'll solve the problem! You can do anything!"
"I'm not so sure, Jenny. I've only begun to dig into the field books. Even if I do make a go of it in the end, chances are I'll have to work like—like blazes to get there. But that'll help me on this other fight—help choke down the craving when it comes. A whole lot turns on that dam. If I make good on it, I'm made myself. Tack up my ad. as consulting engineer, and I'll have all the work I want. Won't be ashamed to look your three millions in the face."
"My money! Can you still believe that counts with me? Money! It is what we are ourselves that counts. If you acquired all the money in the world, yes, and all the fame, but failed to master yourself, you'd not be the man I thought you—the man whom I—whom I said I loved."
"Jenny! Then it's gone—you no longer care?"
"You have no right to ask anything of me until you've—"
"I'm not, Jenny! Don't think it for a moment. I'm not asking anything now. I wanted to wait. It's only that I want you to know how I love you. I wouldn't dream of asking you to—to marry me now—no, not till I've won out, made good. Understand? All I want is for you to wait for me till I've made my name as an A-1 engineer and until I've downed that cursed craving for drink."
"You will, Tom—you must!"
"With you to back me, little woman! Yes, I guess I can make it this time, with you waiting for me!"
Genevieve met his smile and enthused gaze with a look of firm decision.
Her doubt and hesitancy had at last crystallized into a set purpose.
She replied in a tone that rang with a hardness new to him: "No. It
must be more than that."
"More?" he asked, surprised.