I am at
home."
Even then I didn't see what he was coming to. Like the rest I sat
slightly confused, wondering what it all meant. Then, suddenly, into his
voice there crept a tense something that made me sit more erect in my
seat.
"
My indomitable will-power?
My superb courage?
Mystupendous strength of character?
My undaunted persistence and
marvelous capacity for hard work?" he was saying. "Do you think it's to
that I owe what I am? Never! Come back with me to that little home of
forty years ago and I'll show you to what and to whom I do owe it. First
and foremost I owe it to a woman--no ordinary woman, I want you to
understand--but to the most wonderful woman in the world."
I knew then. So did my neighbor, the old man at my side. He jogged my
elbow frantically and whispered:--
"He's goin' to--he's goin' to! He's goin' to show her he
doescare and understand! He
did hear that girl. Crickey! But ain't he
the cute one to pay her back like that, for what she said?"
The little wife down front did not know--yet, however. I realized that,
the minute I looked at her and saw her drawn face and her frightened,
staring eyes fixed on her husband up there on the platform--her husband,
who was going to tell all these people about some wonderful woman whom
even she had never heard of before, but who had been the making of him,
it seemed.
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