perceived before. Among
them he saw the fine side of ambition. He respected Alston's
determination to win out, to justify his conduct in his father's eyes,
and pay back to Mr. Crayford with interest all he had received from that
astute, yet not unimaginative, man. He loved the lad for his eagerness.
When Alston came to Renwick Place a wind from the true Bohemia seemed to
blow through the studio, and the day seemed young and golden.

Yet Alston, quite ignorantly, did harm to Claude. For he helped to win
Claude away from his genuine, his inner self, to draw him into the path
which he had always instinctively avoided until his marriage with
Charmian.

Although unspoiled, Alston Lake had not been unaffected by Paris, which
had done little harm to his morals, but which had decidedly influenced
his artistic sensibility. The brilliant city had not smirched his soul,
but it had helped to form his taste. That was very modern, and very
un-British. Alston had a sort of innocent love for the strange and the
complex in music. He shrank from anything banal, and disliked the
obvious, though his contact with French people had saved him from love
of the cloudy. As he intended to make his career upon the stage, and as
he was too young, and far too enthusiastic, not to be a bit of an
egoist, he was naturally disposed to think that all real musical
development was likely to take place in the direction of opera.

"Opera's going to be the big proposition!" was his art cry. There was no
doubt of Jacob Crayford's influence upon him.

He was the first person who turned Claude's mind seriously toward opera,
and therefore eventually toward a villa in Algeria.

Having launched the song with success, Alston Lake naturally wished to
hear more of Claude's music. Claude played to him a great deal of it. He
was interested in it, admired it. But--and here his wholly unconscious
egoism came into play--he did not quite "believe in it." And his lack of
belief probably emanated from the fact that Claude's settings of words
from the Bible were not well suited to his own temperament, talent, or
training. Being very frank, and already devoted to Claude, he said
straight out what he thought. Charmian loved him almost for expressing
her secret belief. She now said what she thought. Claude, the reserved
and silent recluse of a few months ago, was induced by these two to come
out into the open and take part in the wordy battles which rage about
art. The inst