e and daring in the army of
young electrical engineers, all set, as he was, on crowding one another
out of the rapidly narrowing road to preferment and the few great golden
prizes of the profession.

This evening he was more than usually fervent. Judge Emery thought he
detected in him traces of the same excitement that flamed from Lydia's
cheeks. "I tell you, Judge, I was wrong when I spoke of the 'army' of
electricity. In the army advancement comes only from somebody's death,
and with us it's simply a question of who's got the most to give. He
gets the most back--and that's all there is to it. The company's bound
to have the man it can get the most work out of. If you can do two
ordinary men's work, you get two men's pay. See? There's no limit to the
application of that principle. Why, our field organizer on the Pacific
Coast is only a little older than I, and, by Jove! the work they say
he'll turn off is something marvelous! You wouldn't believe it. But you
can train yourself to it, like everything else. To be able to
concentrate--not to lose a detail--to put every ounce of your force into
it--that's the thing."

He brought one hand down inside the other, and sat for a moment in
silence as tense with stirring possibilities to the others as to
himself. The Judge felt moved to a most unusual sensation, as if he were
a loosened bowstring beside this twanging, taut intensity. He felt
slightly dismayed to have his unspoken principles carried to this _n_th
power. He had given the best of himself, all his thoughts, illusions,
hopes, endeavors, to his ideal of success, but his ambition had never
been concentrated enough to serve as a lens through which the rays of
his efforts might focus themselves into the single beam of devastating
heat on which Paul counted so certainly to burn away the obstacles
between himself and success. Various protesting comments rose to his
lips, which he kept back, disconcerted to find how much they resembled
certain remarks of Dr. Melton's.

The young man stirred, looked at Lydia, and smiled brilliantly. "I
mustn't keep this little sick-nurse up any later, I suppose," he said;
but for a moment he made no movement to go. He and Lydia exchanged a
gaze as long and silent as if they had been alone. It occurred to the
Judge that they both looked dazzled. When Paul rose he drew a long
breath and shook his head half humorously at his host. "You and I will
have to look to our guns, during the next seas