Mummery

ood for some moments to drink in the keen air. The sky was full of clouds, gray, white, and cinna

here nothing and nobody could ever be of the smallest importance in its hugeness.... This was its charm, that an individual could in it feel the indifference of humanity exactly as on a hill the indifference of Nature can be felt. A

found Charles in excited converse with the scenic artist, Mr Smith

easide. Sir Henry's sure to want his waves "o

ld paint it. If you won't, I'll do it myself.... Ah! C

turned

atural colours of a sea-side place. I've painted scenery for thirty years, and I ought to k

hanted island

e for myself and I know what the colouring is.... I can't believe that S

hat on the ground

uted. 'Go away and paint it

ir Henry took it, and we've had our name on the programme, and we've got a reputation to lose.

Mr Smithson's hand, and with an ex

al theatre. Will you please see that I

painting scenery before you were born. I was three years old in my father's workshop when I p

He was immaculately dressed in frock-coat and top hat, gray Cashmere trousers, and white waistcoat to attend w

Mr Charl

her gave

r, Miss

ng out her hand very high in the air. Cla

the cave scene,' said Clara. 'He can't quite see

' said Sir Henry, and Lady But

e matter,

like this before. There's

said Clara sweetly, and Sir Henry caught at

ion we can settle it at rehearsal. Go ah

no measuremen

we can do and

Smithson clapped on his b

ueezed it tight, looked out through the door at his magnificent wife, and heaved an

y. A-ah! Good-day, Mann. The

lara for a moment, the

k them down, and turned to find Charles, having smoothed o

or, and expect me to cut my scenery to fit their theatre.... I wish you'd come back, chicken. I'm in a dreadful muddle. I've been working till I can't see, and I've been reading The Tempest till my mind is as salt as a dried haddock....

ble for him, but she was no longer part and parcel of him.

lanned, and then we will go out and talk, and decide what we will do during the holidays. I have promi

ound his lips, and she saw to her distres

w. We should have gone to Sicily as I wanted. One can live in such places. Here every

d Clara, knowing that he was

ied, rather s

have let her humiliate him by extricating him from his argument with Smithson, upon w

gned. Eloquence with Charles was rather an athletic performance. He took a tape m

strange gesticulations he described the towering rocks, the wind-twisted trees, the tangle of lemons, the blue light illuminating the magician's grotto, the golden light that should hang about the rocky island jutting up from the sea. All this h

ly was the real Charles. The light of the sun upon him was inappropriate. It mocked him and inexorably revealed the fact that he was no longer young. The scenery door was closed and the discordance ceased, but more clearly t

er played was Ferdinand stag

imaginary lo

mean task

me as 'tis

ich I serve qui

abours pleasur

entle than her f

ed of harshness

of these logs a

njunction: my

es me work; and s

r like e

g that Clara, like Miranda, wept to see him.... He threw off his

tre. We've conquered the stage, and soon all those seats out there will be full of eager people s

' sai

his foot

fe, here where we make beauty. The rest is for city clerks and stockbrokers who can't trust them

about it. Go on with

ay.... Will you let me

promised V

ith him so much. People will say

ts didn't care w

t, Clara.

You're not safe. You can't take

unate thing has happened. Clott has vanished with all

you fool,

ting cheques

ow

e'd tell t

he had to protect Charles, but if she was with him she exposed him t

onger so utterly absorbed in him that she could only see life through his eyes

ch did

prosecute him, or he'll tell. He kno

re i

mmittee business. He had the impudence to say that he had resigned, and ha

herself in her heart s

that it is a magic which operates only among a very few, and that the many who are moved only by cunning are always taking a

anything. Besides I would never send any one to prison, whatever t

who hangs about the theatre and borr

es. He looked just a tired, seedy fellow, more than a li

ay to buy a revolver, but I bought a photograph frame instead, because the man was so pleasant that I couldn't bear the idea of his h

the stage. There had been muddles

r a delighted thrill, and once again her life was flooded with magic, so that this new trouble, like her old, seemed very remote, and she could understand Charles's pretending that he must end his life even to the point

she said. 'I'll see th

and stop this nonsens

about it. I don't want to risk tha

oing to pl

o out into the auditorium and te

ising her newly-acquired art, turned to an imaginary Fe

o no

! no woman's

lass, mine own;

call men, than y

ther: how feat

s of; but, b

my dower,-I w

n in the wor

ing, powerful and strong to bear the burden upon the mind behind it. Very sweet and gentle was the expression in his eyes, in most pathetic contrast to the rugged hardness which a passionate

dress circle.... 'Admirable....

a violent effort to shake free of

er heart, 'I shall love him an

she

ust

n, and until she had succeeded she would not yield, nor would she s

ack in a state

t all the colour and beauty and enchantment of my island. You move simply, inevitably, so that every gesture is rhythmical, and like a musical accompanim

,' she said. '

tt, and damn the committee. Together we shall be irresistible-as we have been. You didn't tell me you were p

ht for her. Human beings as such were nothing to him, but for an artist,

s and kissed them

be so full of flowers that you can hardly move through them. As for Verschoyle, he shall pay. It

and hurt her, and in her s

woman. But I

y and to her newly gathered force of character. After all, the magic of the stage was only illusion, a trick that, if it

just an accide

aid Charles, in

ha

it a

can

e that you have to find out how you did it. Art i

N

side and her teeth chattered. He was beside himself with passion, ruthless, impersonal in his fury to catch and hold this treasure of

own it was not for nothing that I fi

u speak to m

d quivering in an outraged fury, an

as though they were just that and then you complain if they round on you.... I

is assault and his arms

knocked out with my astonishment and delight.... Really, reall

that what had enraged him was the knowledge, which he could never admit, that she was no longer a child living happily in his imagination but a human being and an artist who had entered upon a royal possession of her

pens I will see that you are not harmed.... If you like, you can dine with Verschoyle and me to-night. You ca

erschoy

s a good man. If people must have too much money, he is the right man to have

ara speaking, but with more assurance, a more certain k