was not taking
an active part in the battle of art or of life. And this fact gave him a
certain strangeness, not free from romance, gave him a peculiar value in
Mrs. Mansfield's eyes. She secretly cherished the thought of his
individuality. She could not wish it changed. But she knew very well
that though such an individuality might attract her child, indeed, she
feared, had attracted Charmian, yet Charmian, if she had any influence
over it, would not be satisfied to let it alone, to leave it quietly to
its own natural development. Charmian would never let any plant that
belonged to her grow in darkness. She understood well enough the many
clever men who frequented the house, men with ambitions which they were
gratifying, men who were known, or who wished and intended to be known,
men, as a rule, who were fighting, or who had fought, hard battles. To
several of these men Charmian could have made an excellent wife.

But if she had set her affections on Heath she had made a sad mistake.
His peculiarity of temperament was in accord surely with nothing in
Charmian. That very fact, perhaps, had grasped her attention, had
excited her curiosity, even stirred sentiment within her. Having
perceived a gulf she had longed to bridge it, to set her feet on the
farther side. Mrs. Mansfield was glad that Charmian was away. Hitherto
she had cultivated the friendship with Heath without arriere pensee. Now
she was more conscious in it. Her great love of her only child made her
wish to study Heath.

The more she studied him the more she hoped that her guess about
Charmian had been wrong, and yet the more she studied him the better she
liked him. There was an intensity in him that captivated her intense
mind, an unworldliness that her soul approved. His lack of social
ambition, of all desire to be rich and prosperous, refreshed her. She
compared him secretly with other men of great talent. Some of them were
not greedy for money, but even they were greedy for fame, were almost
fearfully solicitous about their "position," if not their social
position then their position in the artistic world. Jealousies
accompanied them, and within them were jealousies. They had not only the
desire to build, but also the desire to pull down, to obliterate, to
make ruins and dust.

Among all the men whom she knew, Claude Heath was the only one who was
alone with his art, and who wished to remain alone with the thing he
loved. There was a purity in the situ