You had felt the cry of
the Old World, the story that is in its battle-fields, its beauty and
romance, just as I had felt the call of this new and more wonderful
world. I understood--I knew what was in your heart; I knew what those
things meant to you;--but I had put them aside; I had chosen another life
for myself. And the poor life that you saved, that is yours if you will
take it. I have told your father and Baron von Marhof that I would not
take the fortune my father left me; I would not go back there to be
thanked or to get a ribbon to wear in my coat. But my name, the name I
bore as a boy and disgraced in my father's eyes,--his name that he made
famous throughout the world, the name I cast aside with my youth, the
name I flung away in anger,--they wish me to take that."
She withdrew her hand and rose and looked away toward the western hills.
"The greatest romance in the world is here, Shirley. I have dreamed it
all over,--in the Canadian woods, on the Montana ranch as I watched the
herd at night. My father spent his life keeping a king upon his throne;
but I believe there are higher things and finer things than steadying a
shaking throne or being a king.
Pages:
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386