tend to contradict something which he has believed to
be beyond all doubt. To many men the loss of a noble illusion feels
like a loss of strength in themselves, perhaps because such men can
never keep an ideal before them without making an unconscious effort
against the material tendency of their natures.

The change in Logotheti during the next three weeks was profound; and
it was humiliating because it deprived him all at once of a sort of
power over himself which had grown up with his love for Margaret and
depended on that for its nourishment and life; a power which had
perhaps not been an original force at all, but only a chivalrous
willingness to do her will instead of his own. He looked on and did not
betray his presence, and she, on her side, began to wonder at his
prolonged obedience. More than once she felt a sudden conviction that
he must be near, and he saw how she peered into the gloom of the empty
house as if looking for some one she expected. It was only natural, and
no theory of telepathy was needed to explain it. She had so often seen
him there in reality! But he would not show himself now, for he was
determined that she should send for him; if she did not, he could wait
for her _debut_; and little by little, as he kept to his determination
and only saw her from a distance in the frame of the stage, the woman
who had dominated him in a moment when he was beside himself with
passion, became once more an animated work of art which he
unconsciously compared with his Aphrodite and his ancient picture, and
which he coveted as a possession.

It did not at first occur to him that Margaret had really changed since
he had met her, and not exactly in the way he might have wished.
Instead of showing any inclination to give up the stage, as he had
hoped that she might, she seemed more and more in love with her future
career.

When he had first met her he had made the acquaintance of a strikingly
good-looking English girl, born and brought up a lady, full of talent
and enthusiasm for her art, but as yet absolutely ignorant of
professional artistic life and still in a state of mind in which some
sides of it were sure to be disagreeable to her, if not absolutely
repulsive.

Hidden in his box, and watching her as well as listening to her, he
gradually realised the change, and he remembered many facts which
should have prepared him for it. He recollected, for instance, her
perfect coolness and self-possession with