"You might well doubt it," answered the other sternly. "But had there been humility in your heart--ay, or common remembrance!--that doubt would not have kept you back. When I saw at last that you would not come, I--" He paused, took from the table a book and turned its leaves, then closed and laid it down again. "I whistled you down the wind," he said. There was a silence, then, far away in the hot night, a dog howled. The hall clock struck the hour. Rand drew his breath sharply and turned in his chair. "And you brought me here to-night to tell me so?" "I will answer that presently. In these three years you have made yourself a great name in Virginia; and now your party--It is still your party?" "It is still my party." "Your party wishes to make you Governor. You have travelled fast and far since the days when you walked with your father! Yesterday I was astounded to hear that you had refused the nomination." "Why should you be 'astounded'?" "Because I hold you for a most ambitious man, and this is the plain, the apparent step in your fortunes. At what goal are you aiming?" "I did not want the governorship, sir." "Then you want a greater thing. What it is--what it is"--With a sudden movement he rested his elbow on the table and regarded Rand from under the shelter of his hand. "And so," he said at last, in an altered voice,--"and so you will not be Governor. Well, it is an honourable post. This is late August, and in November you return to Richmond--" "I go first across the mountains to examine a tract of land I have bought." "Indeed? When do you go?" "I have not altogether decided." "Will you take Mrs. Rand with you?" "I think so. Yes." "It is," said Mr. Jefferson, "a rough journey and a wild country for a lady." As he spoke he rose, and, going to a small table, poured for himself a little wine in a glass and drank it slowly, then, putting the glass gently down, passed to a long window and stood, as Rand had stood before him, looking out into the night. When he turned, the expression of his face had again changed. "It is growing late," he said. "In two days I return to Washington. The world will have grown older ere we meet again. Who knows? We may never meet again. This night we may be parting forever. You ask me if I brought you here to tell you that I acquiesced in this quarrel of your making, shook you from my thoughts, and bade you an eternal farewell. That is as may be. Even now--even now the nature of our parting is in your hands!"