Le coeur de ma mie
Est petit, tout petit petit,
J'en ai l'ame ravie….
It was Minks, drawing the keen air noisily into his lungs in great draughts, who recalled him to himself.
'I could find my way here without a guide, Mr. Campden,' he was saying diffidently, burning to tell how the Story had moved him. 'It's all so vivid, I can almost see the Net. I feel in it,' and he waved one hand towards the sky.
The other thanked him modestly. 'That's your power of visualising then,' he added. 'My idea was, of course, that every mind in the world is related with every other mind, and that there's no escape—we are all prisoners. The responsibility is vast.'
'Perfectly. I've always believed it. Ah! if only one could live it!'
Rogers heard this clearly. But it seemed that another heard it with him. Some one very close beside him shared the hearing. He had recovered from his temporary shock. Only the wonder remained. Life was sheer dazzling glory. The talk continued as they hurried along the road together. Rogers became aware then that his cousin was giving information—meant for himself.
'… A most charming little lady, indeed. She comes from over there,' and he pointed to where the Pleiades were climbing the sky towards the East, 'in Austria somewhere. She owns a big estate among the mountains. She wrote to me—I've had such encouraging letters, you know, from all sorts of folk—and when I replied, she telegraphed to ask if she might come and see me. She seems fond of telegraphing, rather.' And he laughed as though he were speaking of an ordinary acquaintance.
'Charming little lady!' The phrase was like the flick of a lash.
Rogers had known it applied to such commonplace women.
'A most intelligent face,' he heard Minks saying, 'quite beautiful, I thought—the beauty of mind and soul.'
'… Mother and the children took to her at once,' his cousin's voice went on. 'She and her maid have got rooms over at the Beguins. And, do you know, a most singular coincidence,' he added with some excitement, 'she tells me that ever since childhood she's had an idea like this— like the story, I mean—an idea of her own she always wanted to write but couldn't——-'