prejudices. Remember that we
are walking along a very narrow way. We have climbed only a few steps
of the hill. He is more than half-way to the top. Things are different
with him. Don't judge; only wait."

She rang the bell of the house a little timidly. The door was opened
without any delay by a man servant in sombre, every-day clothes.

"We wish to see Mr. Maraton," Julia announced. "He is not up yet, of
course, but might we come in and wait?"

"Mr. Maraton is in his study, madam," the man answered.

He disappeared and beckoned them, a moment or so later, to follow him.
They were shown into a much smaller apartment at the rear of the house.
Maraton was sitting before a desk covered with papers, with a breakfast
tray by his side. He looked up at their entrance, but his face was
inexpressive. He did not even smile. The sunlight died out of Julia's
face, and her heart sank.

"I am sorry," she began haltingly. "I ought not to have come again, I
know. But it is my brother. Night and day he has thought of nothing
else but your coming."

Aaron seemed to have forgotten his timidity. He crossed the room and
stood before Maraton's desk. His face seemed to have caught some of the
freshness of the early morning. He was no longer the sallow, pinched
starveling. He was like a young prophet whose eyes are burning with
enthusiasm.

"You have come to help us," he asserted. "You are Maraton!"

"I have come to help you," Maraton replied. "I have come to do what I
can. It isn't an easy task in this country, you know, to do anything,
but I think in the end we shall succeed. If you are Julia Thurnbrein's
brother, you should know something of the work."

"I am only one of the multitude," Aaron sighed. "I haven't the brains
to organise. I talk sometimes but I get too excited. There are
others--many others--who speak more convincingly, but no one feels more
than I feel, no one prays for the better times more fervently than I. It
isn't for myself--it isn't for ourselves, even; it's for the children,
it's for the next generation."

Maraton held out his hand suddenly.

"My young friend," he said, "you have spoken the words I like to hear.
Some of my helpers I have found, at times, selfish. They are satisfied
with the small things that lie close at hand, some material benefit
which really is of no account at all. That isn't the work for us to
engage in. Sit down. Sit down, Miss Julia. You have breakfasted?"

"Before we left," Juli