'I find you have not yet converted Mrs Quaid to all your views, Mr Petrovitch,' she said. 'I fear you have not been making good use of your time.'
Petrovitch did not answer; he looked at her and smiled, but it was a smile that conveyed the idea that, even to have succeeded in converting Mrs Quaid, would not have been making the best use of his time.
'I might almost have said our views,' Clare went on, determined not to let slip the opportunity of asking his advice on the great question of her life, 'for I have been thinking a great deal of all you said last time I met you here.'
'I knew you would,' he said simply.
'And I have been reading a little too. I have borrowed some books of Count Litvinoff—one or two of his own. You know Count Litvinoff? You have read his books, of course?'
'Yes, I know them,' he said. 'The writer is happy if he has shown your eyes the truth—more happy, I fear, than you will be in seeing it.'
'Oh, I don't know that it has made me unhappy, quite. I am perplexed and bewildered; but, however that may be, I don't owe it to Count Litvinoff, but to you; and that is why I am going to ask you to help me to see my way a little more clearly. I did ask Count Litvinoff what he thought—but—at any rate, I want to know what you think I ought to do.'
'I do not know that in your position you can do much except spread the light by telling the truth to every one who will receive it.'
'But I think I can do more. Do you know, I am very rich? I have—oh, ever so much a year, and it is all my own now, to do just what I like with.'