"Did all the women this afternoon fulfil your ideal?"
"No!" very decidedly.
"There! You see, then, that I am the exception. Besides, I am not a man.
Men require to be differently judged, and we have perhaps other ideals."
"That also is possible," he assented, "and I know that, because the
English are such a great people, their ideals must be very high, perhaps
higher than mine. Since I am now to go among them, I wish to know what
they consider necessary in the character of a great man.".
"That is too hard a question," she said hurriedly. "I can not describe the
national ideal to you, because I am too ignorant and have never thought
about it. You must ask some one else."
They had come to the end of the path and stood before a square opening, on
the other side of which the two massive gopuras of the temple rose in
their monumental splendor two hundred feet above them. They were still
alone. None of the sightseers seemed to have found the sacred spot, and
for a moment she stood still, awed in spite of herself.
"I should be quite content with _your_ ideal," he said gently, breaking in
upon her admiration. "I feel that it will be the highest."
"You ask of me more than I can answer."
"I beg of you!" he pleaded earnestly. "I have my reasons."
Again she bit her lip. It was too absurd, too ridiculous! That she, of all
people, who had seen into the darkest, most sordid depths of the human
character, and long since learned to look upon goodness and virtue as
exploded myths, should be set to work to draw up an ideal which she did
not and could not believe in, seemed a mockery too pitiful for laughter.
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