"Now, it's up to you. You're the only one that can keep him from doing that very thing. Don't you see, it isn't just you and me he's ruining. It isn't himself he's ruining. He's going to hurt the whole _country_. Jennie, there's a considerable responsibility on you to-night. Where he is wrong is in thinking that the weak can help the weak. It's the other way about--it's the strong that can help--Power!--that's what counts! It's for you to show him that. Jennie, girl--it's not so much myself. But think of your country." "Yes," she nodded, "that's precisely it!" "But he didn't affect you in the least, Jennie--he didn't get _you_ going with that kind of foolishness." "I never heard any one talk just as he did, before," said she slowly. "You see, I hadn't thought of these things myself, for I'm only a woman. He said that all this power, taken from the hills and the forests and the air and the rivers, belongs to _everybody_--to all the world--" "But he didn't impress _you_ with that nonsense, Jennie?" "He said things--I told him that I'd never thought of life just that way. And I haven't, Mr. Rawn. I told him, as I admit to you, that I hadn't thought of anybody much but myself--I just tried to climb. I think all women do." "It's right they should, it's the only way. Selfishness is the one great cause of the world's progress, my dear." "Well, I told him that his way of thinking was so new to me, that I needed time to think it over." "But you didn't believe a word he said--you never would!" VII "Mr. Rawn," said she, looking him full in the face, "we've both of us climbed pretty fast. I always put my family out of memory all I could. But somehow I seem to recollect that my father used to talk of things a good deal as Mr. Halsey does. I begin to realize what I told you a while ago--no matter how or where we climb, we pay for what we get, sometime, somewhere, somehow! "But listen," she leaned toward him with some sudden access of emotion. "I can do this much! I'll agree to bring in Charley Halsey, bound hand and foot! You can throw him and me, too, on the scrap heap when the time comes! It's a game. I'll play it. I'll take my chance." She half rose, thrilling, vibrant. "I knew you would, Jennie." "Yes, but you'll have to pay." "Have I ever said I wouldn't? Didn't I just get done telling him I'd make him rich the minute he said the word?" "It doesn't seem to be money he wants. I--don't--believe--that's what the pay would have to be." "What do you mean? You're getting too deep for me now. I'm only a plain man, my girl!" She smiled at him, still enigmatic, still cool and calm, still almost insolent, as she often was with him. "He's been talking all sorts of folly about getting things in tune--getting gravitation in tune with labor--all sorts of abstractions. Well, don't you see, if I got in tune with his notions, I might be able to influence him!"