se greater destiny was being decided by
those gangs of workmen below me, and the thousands of workmen behind me,
busy night and day in bridging the gap between east and west. Traffic
from north and south"--he turned towards the American--"that meant, for
_your_ Northwest, fusion with _our_ Northwest; traffic from east to
west--that meant England, and the English Sisterhood of States! And
that, for the moment, I didn't see."

"Shall I quote you something I found in an Edmonton paper the other
day?" said Anderson, raising his head from where he lay, looking down
into the grass. And with his smiling, intent gaze fixed on the
American, he recited:

Land of the sweeping eagle, your goal is not our goal!
For the ages have taught that the North and the South breed
difference of soul.
We toiled for years in the snow and the night, because we
believed in the spring,
And the mother who cheered us first, shall be first at the
banquetting!
The grey old mother, the dear old mother, who taught us the
note we sing!

The American laughed.

"A bit raw, like some of your prairie towns; but it hits the nail. I
dare say we have missed our bargain. What matter! Our own chunk is as
big as we can chew."

There was a moment's silence. Elizabeth's eyes were shining; even Philip
sat open-mouthed and dumb, staring at Anderson.

In the background Delaine waited, grudgingly expectant, for the turn of
Elizabeth's head, and the spark of consciousness passing between the two
faces which he had learnt to watch. It came--a flash of some high
sympathy--involuntary, lasting but a moment. Then Mariette threw out:

"And in the end, what are you going to make of it? A replica of Europe,
or America?--a money-grubbing civilisation with no faith but the
dollar? If so, we shall have had the great chance of history--and
lost it!"

"We shan't lose it," said Anderson, "unless the gods mock us."

"Why not?" said Mariette sombrely. "Nations have gone mad before now."

"Ah!--prophesy, prophesy!" said the Chief Justice sadly. "All very well
for you young men, but for us, who are passing away! Here we are at the
birth. Shall we never, in any state of being, know the end? I have never
felt so bitterly as I do now the limitations of our knowledge and
our life."

No one answered him. But Elizabeth looking up saw the aspect of
Mariette--the aspect of a thinker and a mystic--slowly relax. Its
harsh