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3 of late ducks cut sharply and black between sedge and sky. "You will," he said. "You were right when you said that Life was not a novel. It is history, and it needs each one of us to make this history of the West. You have got to do your share. And you are not going to find it easy."

Jennifer's hands had fallen still and loosely in her lap. She never fidgeted.

"You make me feel as if I was on the edge of something," she said. "Of something big and terrible that you know about and I don't. Is that—Life? I couldn't do anything much, you know. I should certainly fail if I tried."

"Why—to fail is a bad thing," said Tempest slowly. "But to be afraid to dare failure is much worse. I guess you wouldn't be afraid to dare."

"But this is a man's life—for men. I can't do anything in it—anything that makes a difference."

"Don't you know that at the moment when a star splits apart each half instantly exerts its pull on every other atom near enough to it? Instantly, and—eternally. There is no getting away from that. There is no burking it. We all exert our pull—through every moment of our lives. You do. I do."

His voice rang strong and vital through the dusk, telling her that he recognised the power of his own pull and was glad of it. She shivered, looking out where the warm lights of Grey Wolf began to blink across the Lake.

"I think you frighten me when you talk like that," she said. "You make me want to be a little quiet soul, hidden away in a corner behind a cloud, and not mattering to anybody. I—I don't think I care to have an influence. Especially when I don't quite know what it is."

"I beg your pardon," said Tempest. He came over and knelt a knee on the window-seat in penitence. "I likely say what I feel too plainly at times. And that is dangerous in a man who serves others. But I can tell you just a little of what your influence may be. We haven't seen dull silk portières, and just those kind of pictures and little bits of old statuary up this way before. Other women keep their houses nice and clean. But this room—