lone
knew whether pride helped her, perhaps had helped to prompt her, to
reticence, to concealment. She had been Claude Heath's great friend. The
jealousies of women are strong. She knew herself free from jealousy. But
another woman, even her own daughter, might misunderstand. It was bitter
to think so, but she did think so. And her lips were sealed. Beneath the
more human fears in her crouched a fear that seemed apart, almost
curiously isolated and very definite, the fear for Claude Heath's
strange talent.

On the night of the house-warming, as they sat together hearing the
laughter, the buzz of talk, from those near them; as, a moment later,
they heard those sounds diminish upon the narrow staircase, when
everybody but themselves trooped down gaily to "play with a little food
unceremoniously," as Charmian expressed it, Mrs. Mansfield found herself
thinking of her first visit to the big studio in Mullion House, and of
those Kings of the East whom the man beside her had made to live in her
warm imagination.

"What is it?" Claude said, when the human sounds in the house came up
from under their feet.

"From to-morrow!" she answered, looking at him with her strong, intense
eyes.

"From to-morrow--yes, Madre?"

She put her thin and firm hand on his.

"Life begins again, the life of work put off for a time. To-morrow you
take it up once more."

"Yes--yes!"

He glanced about the pretty room, listened to the noise of the gaieties
below them. Distinctly he heard Max Elliot's genial laugh.

"Of course," he said. "I must start again on something. The question is,
what on?"

"Surely you have something in hand?"

"I had. But--well, I've left it for so long that I don't know whether I
could get back into the mood which enabled me to start it. I don't
believe I could somehow. I think it would be best to begin on something
quite fresh."

"You know that. Do you think you will like the new workroom?"

"Charmian has made it very pretty and cozy," he answered.

His imaginative eyes looked suddenly distressed, almost persecuted, and
he raised his eyebrows.

"She is very clever at creating prettiness around her," he continued,
after an instant of silence, during which Mrs. Mansfield looked down.
"It is quite wonderful. And how energetic she is!"

"Yes, Charmian can be very energetic when she likes. Adelaide Shiffney
never turned up to-night."

"She telegraphed this morning that she had to go over unexpectedly to
Pa