"It is Claude who has decided the whole thing."
Charmian's voice held a new sound. Mrs. Mansfield looked closely at her daughter.
"You see, Madre, he and I—well, I think we have earned our retreat. We—we did stand up to the failure. We went to the first night of Jacques Sennier's new opera and helped, as everyone in an audience can help, to seal its triumph. I—I went round to Madame Sennier's box with Claude—Adelaide Shiffney and Armand Gillier were in it!—and congratulated her. Madre, we faced the music."
Her voice quivered slightly. Mrs. Mansfield impulsively took her child's hands and held them.
"We faced the music. Claude is strong. I never knew what he was before. Without that tremendous failure I never should have known him. He helped me. I didn't know one human being could help another as Claude helped me after the failure of the opera. Even Mr. Crayford admired him. He said to me the last day, when we were going to start for the ship: 'Well, little lady, you've married the biggest failure we've brought over here in my time, but you have married a man!' And I said—I said—"
"Yes, my only child?"
"'I believe that's all a woman wants.'"
"Is it?"
Mrs. Mansfield's dark, intense eyes searched Charmian's.
"Is it all that you want?"