he was secretly angry
with, hated the self to which he was giving the rein, because he, too,
during this period was living on excitement, because he longed
sometimes, with a cruel longing, to raise up a barrier between himself
and Charmian.

And perhaps there were other reasons that only a physician could have
explained, reasons connected with tired and irritated nerves, with a
brain upon which an unnatural strain had been put. The overworked man of
talent sometimes is confronted with strange figures making strange
demands upon him. Claude knew these figures now.

He had always been aware of fascination in Mrs. Shiffney. Now he let
himself go toward this fascination. He had always, too, felt what he had
called the minotaur-thing in her, the creature with teeth and claws
fastening upon pleasure. Now he was ready to be with the minotaur-thing.
For something within him, that was intimately connected with whatever he
had of genius, murmured incessantly, "To-morrow I die!" And he wanted,
at any cost, to dull the sound of that voice. Why should not he let his
monster fasten on pleasure too? The situation was full of a piquancy
which delighted Mrs. Shiffney. She was "on the other side," and was now
preparing to make love in the enemy's camp. Nothing pleased her more
than to mingle art with love, linking the intelligence of her brain with
the emotion, such as it was, of her thoroughly pagan heart. And the
feeling that she was a sort of traitress to her beloved Jacques and
Henriette was quite enchanting. One thing more gave a very feminine zest
to her pursuit--the thought of Charmian, who knew nothing about it, but
who, no doubt, would know some day. She rejoiced in intrigue, loved a
secret that would eventually be hinted at, if not actually told, and
revelled in proving her power on a man who, in his unknown days, had
resisted it, and who now that he was on the eve, perhaps, of a wide
fame, seemed ready to succumb to it. There were even moments when she
found herself wishing for the success of Claude's opera, despite her
active dislike of Charmian. It would really be such fun to take Claude
away from that silly Charmian creature in the very hour of a triumph.
Yet she did not wish to see Charmian even the neglected wife of a great
celebrity. Her feelings were rather complex. But she had always been at
home with complexity.

She managed to get rid of Susan Fleet, by persuading her to visit some
friends of Susan who lived in W