I had played with my temptation too long by this time to shrink from the
dangerous exaltation which I knew the occasion would cause, so when the
day came I went to the hotel in a fever of pleasure and pride.
The luncheon was nearly over, the speeches were about to begin, and the
ladies' gallery was buzzing like a hive of bees, when I took my seat in
it. Two bright young American women sitting next to me were almost as
excited as myself, and looking down at the men through a pair of
opera-glasses they were asking each other which was Martin, whereupon my
vanity, not to speak of my sense of possession, was so lifted up that I
pointed him out to them, and then borrowed their glasses to look at the
chairman.
He seemed to me to have that light of imagination in his eyes which was
always blazing in Martin's, and when he began to speak I thought I
caught the note of the same wild passion.
He said they were that day opening a new chapter in the wonderful book
of man's story, and though the dangers of the great deep might never be
entirely overcome, and the wind would continue to blow as it listed, yet
the perils of the one and the movements of the other were going to be
known to, and therefore checked by, the human family.
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