“The sharp lines of class distinction now drawn in the country are the cause of most of the unhappiness that attend matrimony.  It is the opinion of others, not the needs of self, that engender discontent.

“I must win a position in the world which will demand the respect of all men; then I shall offer Ethel, in place of the ill-gotten millions of her father’s fortune, the name and love of an honest and respected man.  And I will be honest and respected, even as President.

“What a commentary on human frailty the records of our latter day Chief Magistrates present.  Each has been of humble origin.  He has risen by virtue of fearless championship of the cause of the masses.  Once in the office of the Presidency, all uprightness and independence has left him and he has worshiped at the feet of the Idol of Gold.

“To win the Presidency will be to inaugurate an era of real National prosperity, in which the labor of the people will be insured just remuneration.  To win Ethel will be to abolish the distinction of class.”

At the very hour Harvey Trueman is pondering over the grave conditions that keep him from making Ethel his wife, she is thinking of the mockery of her riches, which furnish her with every attribute to happiness but one—­that eclipses all others—­the heart’s desire.

From the days that she had first known Harvey as the brilliant counsellor, she has felt that inextinguishable love which thrives on hope, and which will not diminish, even when hope is banished.  Harvey and she had been friends.  His brains had won him admittance to the social class in which she moved.  When their attachment had grown to love, and he had asked her father’s consent to their marriage, Gorman Purdy, the man of millions, had not hesitated to sanction the union.

What a joy had filled her heart when Harvey told her of his love!  What happiness could have equalled hers when she received the news from Harvey that her father was willing that they should marry?

What has caused their separation?

This is the question that remains as yet unanswered in her mind.

“Is it possible that there can be such a divergence in the views of two men on a question of right and wrong,” she asks herself, “that they will sacrifice the happiness of the one woman they profess to love, rather than agree upon a compromise, or one or the other change his views?”

“My father loves me; he lavishes his wealth upon me; I am his only child, his only comfort.  He remains a widower so as to give me an undivided love.  Yet he will not consent to my speaking of wedding Harvey Trueman.  He tells me that Harvey is an enemy of mankind; a man who is seeking to disrupt civilization; that every word he utters is intended to inflame the minds of the people; to incite them to anarchy.

“And Harvey, can his words be false when his actions are so generous?  What prompted him to give the miner’s widow a thousand dollars?  Was it a desire to do an act of charity, or was it as my father tells me, the act of a demagogue?