"There is other work still to be done, beloved--harder work, man's work.
And I can't turn away and take my shoulder from the wheel. It needs no
great foresight to tell that there is trouble brewing on the Continent; a
very little thing would set the whole of Europe in a blaze. And when
that time arrives, if Ruvania is to come out of the struggle with her
independence unimpaired, it will only be by the utmost effort of all her
sons. Nadine cannot stand alone. What can a woman do unaided when the
nations are fighting for supremacy? The country will need a man at the
helm, and I must stand by Nadine."
"But why you? Why not another?"
"No other is under the same compulsion as I. As you know, my father put
his wife first and his country second. It is difficult to blame
him . . . she was very beautiful, my mother. But no man has the right to
turn away from his allotted task. And because my father did that, the
call to me to serve my country is doubly strong. I have to pay back that
of which he robbed her."
"And have I no claim? Max! Max! Doesn't your love count at all?"
The sad, grieving words wrung his heart.
"Why, yes," he said unsteadily. "That's the biggest thing in the
world--our love--isn't it? But this other is a debt of honour, and you
wouldn't want me to shirk that, would you, sweet? I must pay--even if it
costs me my happiness. . . .
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