Clotilde reminded him that a portion of money would be brought to the store by her. ‘We don’t count it,’ said he. ‘Not rich, certainly. And you will not expect me to make money by my pen. Above all things I detest the writing for money. Fiction and verse appeal to a besotted public, that judges of the merit of the work by the standard of its taste: avaunt! And journalism for money is Egyptian bondage. No slavery is comparable to the chains of hired journalism. My pen is my fountain--the key of me; and I give my self, I do not sell. I write when I have matter in me and in the direction it presses for, otherwise not one word!’ ‘I would never ask you to sell yourself,’ said Clotilde. ‘I would rather be in want of common comforts.’ He squeezed her wrist. They were again in front of the black-draped blighted tree. It was the sole tree of the host clad thus in scurf bearing a semblance of livid metal. They looked at it as having seen it before, and passed on. ‘But the wife of Sigismund Alvan will not be poor in renown!’ he resumed, radiating his full bloom on her. ‘My highest ambition is to be Sigismund Alvan’s wife!’ she exclaimed. To hear her was as good as wine, and his heart came out on a genial chuckle. ‘Ay, the choice you have made is not, by heaven, so bad. Sigismund Alvan’s wife shall take the foremost place of all. Look at me.’ He lifted his head to the highest on his shoulders, widening his eagle eyes. He was now thoroughly restored and in his own upper element, expansive after the humiliating contraction of his man’s vanity under the glances of a girl. ‘Do you take me for one who could be content with the part of second? I will work and do battle unceasingly, but I will have too the prize of battle to clasp it, savour it richly. I was not fashioned to be the lean meek martyr of a cause, not I. I carry too decisive a weight in the balance to victory. I have a taste for fruits, my fairest! And Republics, my bright Lutetia, can give you splendid honours.’ He helped her to realize this with the assuring splendour of his eyes. ‘“Bride of the Elect of the People!” is not that as glorious a title, think you, as queen of an hereditary sovereign mumbling of God’s grace on his worm-eaten throne? I win that seat by service, by the dedication of this brain to the people’s interests. They have been ground to the dust, and I lift them, as I did a persecuted lady in my boyhood. I am the soldier of justice against the army of the unjust. But I claim my reward. If I live to fight, I live also to enjoy. I will have my station. I win it not only because I serve, but because also I have seen, have seen ahead, seen where all is dark, read the unwritten--because I am soldier and prophet. The brain of man is Jove’s eagle and his lightning on earth--the title to majesty henceforth. Ah! my fairest; entering the city beside me, and the people shouting around, she would not think her choice a bad one?’