“it shows how much in love we are that we don’t mind this luncheon,” said tay, who made a face, nevertheless. they had decided to remain away from the hotel all day, and were fortifying themselves at the inn on the lake. the meal was the usual one of watery veal, fried potatoes, and pastry. “i remember eating ‘kalb’ when i was in germany before until i choked. can any one explain why there are more calves in germany than anywhere else on the face of the globe? you don’t see so many cows. the offspring must arrive in litters like pigs.”
“and the german, true to his creed, is furious if you flout his commonest staple.” julia smiled, but, in truth, her mind was deeply perturbed, and she spoke mechanically. there had been no more love-making, for guests and peasants had met them at every turn of the woods. her hindu master had once told her that profound as were the suggestions he had given her, and systematic as was the control she had been taught to acquire over herself, either might suffer interruption unless she lived in india for many years longer. a violent awakening of the primal emotions, the assault of a mind and nature, temporarily, at least, stronger than her own, and that devil that lives in the subconsciousness would sit on his hind legs and chuckle.
during the hours that had succeeded those moments of unquestioning surrender on the lake, her thirty-four years with their highest accomplishment had crept back, and she had ceased forever to feel eighteen. the immediate future rose before her like a black wall pricked out with menacing fingers. there was no question as to where her duty lay for the moment, as to what she must accomplish before she could think of happiness. all the steel in her nature had reasserted itself, her brain was cold and keen. she would put an end to the present state of affairs this very day. but how? how?
she continued pleasantly.
“perhaps it would have been better to go back to the hotel.”
“not much. the hotel is associated with three evenings of fruitless man?uvrings to get you alone in one of those corners. besides, lady dark may have recovered. i’ll take no chances. you are to be mine alone for an entire day.”
“we could stay a few days longer.”
“no, on the whole, i want to wind up london as quickly as possible. so must you. i shall send you on a steamer ahead to make sure of you.”
julia laughed. “how like a man. we could hardly be happier than we are now. why not let well enough alone, for a bit?”
“well, you see, i am a man, and therefore differ from you as to what constitutes real happiness. i want to get the cursed reno matter over as quickly as possible. besides, i am due at home. the business might wait, but there’s a big piece of political work to pull off, and i must do my share in prying my poor rotten state out of the slough.”
julia’s mind took a leap. “i believe you are really ambitious,” she said, with bright sympathetic eyes. “politicians don’t work for nothing. do you know you never have told me a word of your ultimate intentions?”
“i’ve been too busy talking about you. i was only too glad to side-track my own affairs for a time. we were all so strung up during the graft prosecution that we jumped at anything that would give us a chance to forget it, and recuperate our energies.”
“well, you have had a change! do tell me how you have planned out your life. do you look forward to being president of the united states?”
“not as much as when i was fifteen.”
“oh, you will always joke! can’t you fancy what your future is to me? you are capable of great things, and i don’t for a moment believe that you care for nothing but money making, varied by an occasional rush at reform. do be serious.”
“my dear, i never felt more serious than i do at this moment. god knows i’m only too grateful for your interest. it struck me as ominous that you never asked me.”
“i didn’t dare,” murmured julia. “a man’s career is a so much more brilliant thing than a woman’s ever can be, for he has two distinct sides. we women are bound by our physical limitations to one side. we must make new traditions—and new bodies to transmit?—”
“hold on! let us avoid that subject as long as possible.”
“but tell me.”
“well, here is the way i am fixed: i am for reform, my father is not. i am a full partner in the firm, but i can’t use the firm’s money for an object to which my father is bitterly opposed. but i have been making money on the outside, investing and reinvesting, and, in two years at most, i shall have an independent fortune, irrespective of my father’s large estate. then i intend to go in for politics, doing all i can meanwhile to educate the people in the precepts of the true democracy and to keep the reform party on top. i intend to hold conspicuous office in california, then go to congress. you can call this ambition, if you like; no doubt ambition is mixed up with all deep sense of personal usefulness. it takes a good-sized ego to permit you to fancy yourself able to reform long-existing conditions; and egoism and ambition are good working partners. i shall work for my own state first, and then for the country at large. that is the way for americans to begin, or, at all events, the way we do begin, our country being what it is. state pride is almost as strong as national. moreover, a man must prove himself in his own state before he can get a chance to command the attention of the nation. if a man happens to belong to a notoriously corrupt state like california, and manages to shine by contrast, his opportunities are so much the greater! but the nation is the thing. every union man during the civil war fought for his flag, not for his section. but our country is now a republic only in name. we are piling up problems our founders could not anticipate, and if they go on unchecked, they will land us either in an autocracy, or in the worst form of tyranny known to history,—mob rule. it is the business of a few of us to avert a french revolution. just at present we are between two camps, monopoly and labor-unionism, and have almost forgotten that we are citizens of a free country. our skins have been safe so far, owing to the lack of brains and initiative in the masses; also, because they are far from starvation. but let that condition arise—before the money power has been made to open its eyes, or has been controlled by legislation—then horrors beside which the french revolution will be mere picturesque material for novelists. a few thinking men with money enough to give them weight with the solid moneyed class at the top—where the reform must begin—as well as to place them above suspicion, and who have cultivated common-sense and patriotism instead of greed, must do the business. let’s get out of this.”
