s thankful Susan was with her. To-night it was impossible for her to
feel calm. No one could have communicated calm to her. But Susan did
give her something which was a help to her. Always, when with Susan, she
was able to feel, however vaguely, something of the universal,
something of the largeness which men feel when they look at the stars,
or hear the wind across vast spaces, or see a great deed done. As the
act ran its course her mind became fixed upon the close, upon the call
for Claude. Armand Gillier was blotted out from her mind. The cry that
went up would be for Claude. Would it be a cry from the heart of this
crowd? She remembered, she even heard distinctly in her mind, the cry
the Covent Garden crowd had sent up for Jacques Sennier on the first
night of _Le Paradis Terrestre_. There had been in it a marvellous sound
which had stirred her to the depths. It was that sound which had made
her speak to Claude, which had determined her marriage with Claude.

If a similar sound burst from the lips and the hearts of the crowd at
the end of this act, it would determine Claude's fate as an artist, her
fate with his.

Her hand twitched more convulsively under Susan's as she thought of,
waited for, the sound.

The locust scene was a triumph for Crayford, Mr. Mulworth, and Jimber.
The scene which succeeded it was a triumph for Alston Lake. Whatever
else this night might bring forth one thing was certain; Alston had
"made good." He had "won out" and justified Crayford's belief in him.
Even his father, reluctantly sitting in the stalls after a hard day in
Wall Street, was obliged to be proud of his boy.

"Dear old Alston!" Charmian found herself whispering. "He's a success.
Alston's a success--a success!"

She kept on forming the last word, and willing with all her might.

"Success! Success--it is coming; it is ours! In a moment we shall know
it, we shall have it! Success! Success!"

With her soul and--it seemed to her--with her whole body, tense in the
pretty green gown so carefully chosen for the great night, she willed,
she called upon, she demanded success. And then she prayed for success.
She shut her eyes, prayed hard, went on praying, marshalling all she and
Claude had done before the Unseen Power, as reason for the blessing she
entreated. And while she prayed, her hand ceased from twitching in Susan
Fleet's.

Long though the third act was, at last it drew near its end. And then
Charmian began to be afraid,