He took one stride forward as into the heart of a whirlwind; and they met on the top of that windy hill as if they had come from the ends of the earth. “This is an epic,” he said, “which is rather an action than a word. I have lived with words too long.” “What do you mean?” “I mean you have turned me into a man of action,” he replied. “So long as you were in the past, nothing was better than the past. So long as you were only a dream, nothing was better than dreaming. But now I am going to do something that no man has ever done before.” He turned towards the valley and flung out his hand with a gesture, almost as if the hand had held a sword. “I am going to break the Prophecy,” he cried in a loud voice. “I am going to defy the omens of my doom and make fun of my evil star. Those who called me a failure shall own I have succeeded where all humanity has failed. The real hero is not he who is bold enough to fulfil the predictions, but he who is bold enough to falsify them. And you shall see one falsified to-night.” “What in the world are you going to do?” she asked. He laughed suddenly. “The first thing to do,” he cried, swinging round with a new air of resolution and even cheerfulness, “the very first thing to do is to Vote For Hunter. Or, at any rate, help to get him into Parliament.” “But why in the world,” she asked wondering, “should you want so much to get Dr. Hunter into Parliament?” “Well, one must do something,” he said with an appearance of easy good sense, “to celebrate the occasion. We must do something; and after all he must go somewhere, poor devil. You will say, why not throw him into the river? It would relieve the feelings and make a splash. But I’m going to make something much bigger than a splash. Besides, I don’t want him in my nice river. I’d much rather pick him up and throw him all the way to Westminster. Much more sensible and suitable. Obviously there ought to be a brass band and a torchlight procession somewhere to-night; and why shouldn’t he have a bit of the fun?” He stopped suddenly as if surprised at his own words: for indeed his own phrase had fallen, for him, with the significance of a falling star. “Of course!” he muttered. “A torchlight procession! I’ve been feeling that what I wanted was trumpets and what I really want is torches. Yes, I believe it could be done! Yes, the hour is come! By stars and blazes, I will give him a torchlight procession!”