Part 119 (1/2)

”Isn't the fear of the crowd still haunting you? Isn't uneasy ambition still tugging at you?”

Charmian took her foot away from Caroline's side and sat very still for a moment.

”I do want Claude to succeed, yes, I do, Madre. I believe every woman wants her man to succeed. But I shall never interfere again--never. I've had my lesson. I've seen the truth, both of myself and of Claude. But I shall always wish Claude to succeed, not in my way, but in his own. And I think he will. Yes, I believe he will. Weren't we--he and I--both extremists? I think perhaps we were. I may have been vulgar--oh, that word!--in my desire for fame, in my wish to get out of the crowd. But wasn't Claude just a little bit morbid in his fear of life, in his shrinking from publicity? I think, perhaps, he was. And I know now he thinks so. Claude is changed, Madre. All he went through in New York has changed him. He's a much bigger man than he was when we left England.

You must see that!”

”I do see it.”

”From now onward he'll do the work he is fitted to do, only that. But I think he means to let people hear it. He said to me only last night: 'Now they all know the false man, I have the wish to show them the man who is real.'”

”The man who had the crucifix standing before his piano,” said Mrs.

Mansfield, in a low voice. ”The man who heard a great voice out of the temple speaking to the seven angels.”

She paused.

”Did he ever play you that?” she asked Charmian.

”One night in America, when our dear friend, Alfred Van Brinen, was with us. But he played it for Mr. Van Brinen.”

”And--since then?”