merged in
the reproach of failure; he had simply been unable to influence her. She
was the consummation of many minor failures. And what was to happen to
her now? What was to happen to all the people with whose lives he had
lately been involved? Must he withdraw entirely and confess defeat? No
doubt a cynic would argue that Lily was hopeless, and indeed he knew
that from any point of view where marriage was concerned she was
hopeless. He must leave her where he had found her, in that pretty
paradise of evil which now she well adorned. If her destiny was to whirl
downward through the labyrinths of the underworld, he could do no more.
That himself had issued with the false dreams through the ivory gate was
her fault, and she must pay the penalty of her misdirection. He would
revisit Leppard Street, and from the innermost circle where he had
beheld Mrs. Smith he would seek a way out through the gate of true
dreams. He would be glad to see if the amount of security he had been
able to guarantee to Barnes had helped him at all. He had money and he
could leave money behind in Leppard Street, money that might preserve
the people in the house where he had lived. Was this a quixotic notion,
to leave one set of people free from the necessity to hand themselves
over to evil? Michael's spirits began to rise as he looked forward to
what he could still effect in Leppard Street. And for Lily what could he
still do? He would visit Sylvia and consult with her. She was strong,
and if she had chosen harlotry, she was still strong. She was not lazy
nor languid. Lazy, laughing, languid Lily! Lily did not laugh much; she
was too lazy even for that. How beautiful she had been! Her beauty
stabbed him with the poignancy of what was past. How beautiful she had
been! When Maurice went to tell her of the final ending of it all, she
would pout and shrug her shoulders. That was all she would do; and she
would be faintly resentful at having been disturbed in her lazy life.
Perhaps Maurice would fall in love with her, and it would be ironical
and just that she should fall violently in love with Maurice and be cast
off by him. Maurice would never suffer; as soon as a woman showed a sign
of upsetting his theories about feminine behavior he would be done with
her. He would jilt her as easily as he jilted one Muse for another. Why
was he being so hard on Maurice?

"I believe that down in my heart I still don't really like him," Michael
said to himself. "R