“Then what ails you? Man, to hear that from such lips as she’s got’s music enough for a year. You want the whole regimental band to be playin’ all the time. If she loves you, that’s enough now to give you nerve to fight all earth and hell combined.” Tom urged this with an enthusiasm that admitted no reply. Flora had climbed in his lap, and was going through his pockets to find some candy. “You didn’t bring me a bit this time!” she cried reproachfully. “Honey, I forgot it,” he apologised. “I don’t believe you love me any more, Charlie,” she declared placing her hands on his cheeks and looking steadily into his eyes. “Am I your sweetheart yet?” she asked. “Of course, dearie, and about the only one I can depend on!” “La, Charlie, your eyes are red!” she cried in surprise. “Do you cry?” “Sometimes, when my heart gets too full.” “Then, I ’ll kiss the red away!” she said as she softly kissed his eyes. “That’s good, Flora. It will make them better.’ “Now, Pappy,” she said triumphantly, “you say I’m getting too big to cry, and I ain’t but eleven years old, and Charlie’s big as you and he cries.” Tom took her in his arms and smoothed his hand over her fair hair with a tenderness that had in its trembling touch all the mystery of both mother and father love in which his brooding soul had wrapped her. Gaston returned home with lighter step. He met, as he crossed the square, the Preacher who was waiting for him. “Come here and sit down a minute. I’ve heard of your trouble. You have my sympathy. But you ’ll come out all right. The oak that’s bent by the storm makes a fibre fit for a ship’s rib. You can’t make steel without white heat. God’s just trying your temper, boy, to see if there’s anything in you. When he has tried you in the fire, and the pure gold shines, he will call you to higher things.” Gaston nodded his assent to this saying, “And yet, Doctor, none of us like the touch of fire or the smell of the smoke of our clothes.” “You are right. But it’s good for the soul. You are learning now that we must face things that we don’t like in this world. I am older than you. I will tell you something that you can’t really know until you have lived through this. Love seems to you at this time the only thing in the world. But it is not. My deepest sympathy is with Sallie. She’s already pure gold. To such a woman love is the centre of gravity of all life. This is not true of a strong normal man. The centre of gravity of a strong man’s life as a whole is not in love and the emotions, but in justice and intellect and their expression in the wider social relations.” “And that means that I must brace up for this political fight?” “Exactly so. And it’s the best thing you can do for your love. Become a power and you can coerce even a man of the General’s character.” “You are right, Doctor. I had my mind about fixed on that course.”