Brand flushed red.

“I wish you had told me,” he said; “I would rather have given you five thousand.  You know he cannot afford it.”

“The greater the merit of the sacrifice,” said his companion calmly.

This proposal was so audacious that George Brand was still a little bewildered; but the fact was that, while listening very respectfully to Mr. Lind, he had been thinking more about Natalie; and it was the most natural thing in the world that some thought of her should now intervene.

“Another thing, Mr. Lind,” said he, though he was rather embarrassed.  “Even if I were to make such a sacrifice, as far as I am concerned; if I were to run the risk for myself alone, that might all be very well; but supposing I were to marry, do you think I should like my wife to run such a risk—­do you think I should be justified in allowing her?  And surely you ought not to ask me.  It is your own daughter—­”

“Excuse me, Mr. Brand,” said the other, blandly but firmly.  “We will restrict ourselves to business at the present moment, if you will be so kind.  I wrote to you all that occurred to me when I had to consider your very flattering proposal with regard to my daughter; I may now add that, if any thought of her interfered with your decision in this matter, I should still further regret that you had ever met.”

“You do not take the view a father would naturally take about the future of his own daughter,” said Brand, bluntly.

Lind was not in the least moved by this taunt.

“I should allow neither the interests of my daughter nor my own interests to interfere with my sense of duty,” said he.  “Do you know me so little?  Do you know her so little?  Ah, then you have much to learn of her!”

Lind looked at him for a second or two, and added, with a slight smile,

“If you decide to say no, be sure I will not say a word of it to her.  No; I will still leave the child her hero in her imagination.  For when I said to her, ’Natalie, an Englishman will do a good deal for the good of the people—­he will give you his sympathy, his advice, his time, his labor—­but he will not put his hand in his pocket;’ then she said, ’Ah, but you do not understand Mr. Brand yet, papa; he is with us; he is not one to go back.’”

“But this abandonment of one’s property is so disproportionate in different cases—­”

“The greater the sacrifice, the greater the merit,” returned the other:  then he immediately added, “But do not imagine I am seeking to persuade you.  I place before you the condition on which you may go forward and attain the highest rank, ultimately perhaps the greatest power, in this organization.  Ah, you do not understand what that is as yet.  If you knew, you would not hesitate very long, I think.”

“But—­but suppose I have no great ambition,” Brand remonstrated.  “Suppose I am quite content to go on doing what I can in my present sphere?”