Why shouldn't he admit the truth to the one who had rung the bell of his
secret ambition long ago by recognizing in him the ability to reach his
goal? He marvelled at her grasp of the situation.

"It wasn't so very hard to say, was it?" she asked happily, in response
to his smile. Then, her gift of putting herself in another's place,
while she strove to look at things with his purpose and vision, in full
play, she went on in a different tone, as much to herself as to him:
"You have labored to make yourself master of a mighty organization. You
did not care for the non-essentials. You wanted the reality of shaping
results."

"Yes, the results, the power!" he exclaimed.

"Fifteen hundred regiments!" she continued thoughtfully, looking at a
given point rather than at him. "Every regiment a blade which you would
bring to an even sharpness! Every regiment a unit of a harmonious whole,
knowing how to screen itself from fire and give fire as long as bidden,
in answer to your will if war comes! That is what you live and plan for,
isn't it?"

"Yes, exactly! Yes, you have it!" he said. His shoulders stiffened as he
thrilled at seeing a picture of himself, as he wanted to see himself,
done in bold strokes. It assured him that not only had his own mind
grown beyond what were to him the narrow associations of his old La Tir
days, but that hers had grown, too. "And you--what have you been doing
all these years?" he asked.

"Living the life of a woman on a country estate," she replied. "Since