ed by it--she
was, in fact, not aware of it at all. Yet it was just because she did
most deeply respond to it that her affair with Godfrey was lifted for
her beyond the trivial into those regions where passion really has
dignity. That interview of theirs on the cliff top would have been
poignant for both if it had taken place in a dingy back sitting-room;
but something must have been absent--that unforgettable thrill which
comes when beauty is joined to great emotion.

After a while, Caroline saw a woman leave the concert hall to cross the
promenade, which already gleamed darkly with rain-drops. As she went
through the turnstile she said: "I doubt we shall have a wet night."
Then followed a storm of applause from the hall. "There!" added the
woman, "I wish I could have stopped for the encore, but I had to get
away, though I was forced to squeeze past Miss Temple and her gentleman
on my way out. She does look bad, my word! Them that said it was all
a tale about her being ill, have only to look at her. Well, good
night."

Caroline waited a moment, then thrust her head forward and peered round
the black space between her and the hall; and as she did so, her
likeness to some watching wild creature became intensified. Then she
withdrew her head, rose from her seat and came out of the pay-box,
looking over her shoulder. With light, quick steps she went round the
glass walls of the hall until she reached a place through which she
could see the occupants of the front seats. Just as she came to a
stand, seeking for Laura with heart throbbing and every pulse alert,
the singer returned to give the encore.

The voice was long past its prime, but a window above had been opened
wide for ventilation and the song could be heard clearly enough. As
Caroline peered in vain through the glass dimmed by heat and human
breath, the sentimental words floated out over her head; and the heavy
organ-like accompaniment of the ground-swell made them more than ever
ephemeral. A few bars of music, sounding so thin and strange against
the booming of the sea, and then the next verse:

Now we are young,
Life's meaning all grows clear,
Does he but whisper low:
"My dear--my dear!"

She pressed her forehead close to the glass, trying to keep back the
tears, for she despised crying. Then the singer began again--the clear
articulation almost all she had left:

And if we part,
I shall not cease to hear
For ever in