"I know I can do that, for he's nothing but a clown. But what else can I
do?"
"I didn't mean that, Stephen. That is only getting even with your opponent
in brute fashion. You will only be putting yourself on an equality with
him. You want to get more than even, not by hitting back and returning
abuse for abuse. No, not that way, but by rising above him in manhood."
"How? In what way, Nellie?"
"Settle down to steady work. Redeem your home. Show Dick and the people of
Glendow that you are not a fool or a pauper, but a man. Oh, Stephen, we
want to be proud of you--and I do, too."
"Do you, Nellie, really?"
"Indeed I do, Stephen."
For an instant only their eyes met. For an instant there was silence. But
in that instant, that mere atom of time, there opened up to Stephen a new
meaning of life. A virile energy rent the old husk of indifference, and a
yearning, startling in its intensity, stabbed his heart, to "make good,"
to recover lost ground and to do something of which Nellie should be
proud.
It was love--the golden key which had at last opened to the young man the
mystic door of life's great responsibility.
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