e. For instance, the whole judgment of the world is by comparison. A
great picture which brings fame to a man eclipses the work and lessens
the reputation of another. A successful book takes not a place of its
own, but the place of another man's work who must needs suffer for your
success. Life is a battle truly enough, but it is always civil war, the
striving of humanity against itself. That is why what looks so great to
you from behind the hedge may seem a very hollow thing when you have won
the power to call it your own."

She looked at me as though wondering how far I were in earnest.

"I think," she said, smiling, "that you are trying to confuse me. Of
course, I have not thought much about such things, but when I am a
little older, if there was anything I could do I should simply try to do
it in the best possible way, and I should feel that I was doing what was
right. There is room for a great many people in the world, Arnold--a
great many novelists and a great many artists and a great many thinkers!
Some of us must be content with lesser places. I for one!..."

I walked home with Allan, and I spoke to him seriously.

"There is a duty before us," I said, "which up to now we have shirked.
The time has come when we must undertake it in earnest."

"You mean?"

"We must abandon our negative attitude. Isobel comes, I am very sure,
from no ordinary people. We must find out her place in life and restore
her to it. She is a child no longer. It is not fitting that she should
stay with us."

Mabane, too, was for a moment sad and silent. His face fell into stern
lines, but when he answered me his tone was steady and resolute enough.

"You are right, Arnold," he answered. "We had better go back to London
and begin at once."

It was perhaps a little ominous that I should find waiting for me on our
return a telegram from Grooten:

"I must see you to-night. Shall call at your rooms twelve o'clock."

CHAPTER IX

Isobel interrupted the discussion with an imperative little tap upon the
table.

"Please listen, all of you!" she exclaimed. "I have something to say,
and an invitation for you all."

We had been dining at a little Italian restaurant on our way home, and
over our coffee had been considering how to spend the rest of the
evening. Arthur had declared for a music hall; Mabane and I were
indifferent. Isobel up to now had said nothing.

"All my life," she said slowly, "I have been wanting to see Feurger