ris. Something to do with the Senniers probably. You know how devoted
she is to him. And now he is the rage in America, Charmian says. Every
day I expect to hear that Mrs. Shiffney had sailed for New York."

He laughed, but not quite naturally.

"What a change in his life that evening at Covent Garden made!" he
added.

"And what a change in yours!" was Mrs. Mansfield's thought.

"He found himself, as people call it, on that night, I suppose," she
said. "He is one of those men with a talent made for the great public.
And he knew it, perhaps, for the first time that night. He is launched
now on his destined career."

"You believe in destiny?"

She detected the sadness she had surprised in his eyes in his voice now.

"Perhaps in our making of it."

"Rather than in some great Power's imposing of it upon us?"

"Ah, it's so difficult to know! When I was a child we had a game we
loved. We went into a large room which was pitch dark. A person was
hidden in it who had a shilling. Whichever child found that person had
the shilling. There were terror and triumph in that game. It was
scarcely like a game, it roused our feelings so strongly."

"It is not everyone's destiny to find the holder of the shilling," said
Claude.

For a moment their eyes met. Claude suddenly reddened.

"Have I? Does she suspect? Does she know?" went through his mind. And
even Mrs. Mansfield felt embarrassed. For in that moment it was as if
they had spoken to each other with a terrible frankness despite the
silence of their lips.

"Shan't we go down?" said Claude. "Surely you want something to eat,
Madre?"

"No, really. And I like a quiet talk with my new son."

He said nothing, but she saw the strong affection in his face, lighting
it, and she knew Claude loved her almost as a son may love a perfect
mother. She wished that she dared to trust that love completely. But the
instinctive reserve of the highly civilized held her back. And she only
said:

"You must not let marriage interfere too much with your work, Claude. I
care very much for that. For years your work was everything to you. It
can't be that, it oughtn't to be that now. But I want your marriage with
Charmian to help, not to hinder you. Be true to your own instinct in
your art and surely all must go well."

"Yes, yes. To-morrow I must make a fresh start. I could never be an
idler. I must--I must try to use life as food for my art!"

He was speaking out his thought of the nig