me."

In spite of her fierce determination to give no response to his appeal
her fingers instinctively tightened on the hand which had seized hers.
His own pressed with new courage and he went on.

"Bivens may think he owns that big black hulk lying out there belching
smoke from her huge funnels. But he only pays the bills to keep her
going. It takes fifty men to run her. I have a little sloop with a
cabin for two. She cost me fifteen hundred dollars and I own her,
because I dreamed every rib in her body, every rivet, every line of her
graceful form. I created her and gave her a soul. I feel the beat of
her proud little heart in the storm and the soft touch of her sleepy
wings in the calm. She is part of the rhythm of my life.

"It is not money that gives value or ownership to things. You can only
own that which expresses you. For that reason you cannot own the
palaces of which you dream. Their service will require a hundred
thieving hirelings whose very names you cannot know. This house is mine
because I have built it as a work of love and art and expressed myself
in it with infinite tenderness and infinite pains. It is not a palace
in size, but it is a palace, glorious and wonderful, in a deeper
spiritual sense, because it is a poem. Every spar of wood in it is
perfect of its kind. Every stone in it is a gem because it is the right
thing in the right place. There isn't a shoddy bit of material or a
slipshod piece of work from the green tile in its roof to the stone
boulders on which it rests. It will last our lives and generations to
follow. The very mortar between the bricks and the cement between the
stones are perfect because they were mixed with tears of joy that
bubbled from my heart as I stood here, watched and sang my love for
you----"

The lover paused a moment, overcome with his emotion, and he knew by
the quick rising and falling of the girl's breast that a battle was
raging.

Quick to see his advantage he drew her gently inside.

"See, Nan, there are no cheap imitations in here, no vulgar ornaments
which mean nothing. There has been no copying of models. These rooms I
planned with your spirit, dearest, hovering over me, and each one has
its little surprise--a nook, a turn, a window opening unexpectedly on
its entrancing view. The ornaments on its walls will grow as we
grow--pictures we shall find and always love, and tapestries your own
dear hands shall paint. This home will be a real one because it