o the Far North and their
future. Never did two more honest souls put their hands in each other's,
and set forth upon the thorniest path to a goal which was their heart's
desire. Since they had become one, there had come into Sally's face that
illumination which belongs only to souls possessed of an idea greater than
themselves, outside themselves--saints, patriots; faces which have been
washed in the salt tears dropped for others' sorrows and lighted by the
fire of self-sacrifice. Sally Seabrook, the high-spirited, the radiant,
the sweetly wilful, the provoking, to concentrate herself upon this narrow
theme--to reconquer the lost paradise of one vexed mortal soul!

What did Jim's life mean? It was only one in the millions coming and
going, and every man must work out his own salvation. Why should she cramp
her soul to this one issue, when the same soul could spend itself upon the
greater motives and in the larger circle? A wide world of influence had
opened up before her; position, power, adulation, could all have been
hers, as John Appleton and Jim's father had said. She might have moved in
well-trodden ways, through gardens of pleasure, lived a life where all
would be made easy, where she would be shielded at every turn, and her
beauty would be flattered by luxury into a constant glow. She was not so
primitive, so unintellectual, as not to have thought of this, else her
decision would have had less importance; she would have been no more than
an infatuated, emotional woman with a touch of second-class drama in her
nature. She had thought of it all, and she had made her choice. The easier
course was the course for meaner souls, and she had not one vein of thin
blood nor a small idea in her whole nature. She had a heart and mind for
great issues. She believed that Jim had a great brain, and would and could
accomplish great things. She knew that he had in him the strain of
hereditary instinct--his mother's father had ended a brief life in a
drunken duel on the Mississippi, and Jim's boyhood had never had
discipline or direction, or any strenuous order. He might never acquire
order, and the power that order and habit and the daily iteration of
necessary thoughts and acts bring; but the prospect did not appal her. She
had taken the risk with her eyes wide open; had set her own life and
happiness in the hazard. But Jim must be saved, must be what his talents,
his genius, entitled him to be. And the long game must have the lo