The old man had come to a realization at last! This, at all events, was a comfort to her.
“Only in part,” she replied, trying to speak cheerfully. “The character-building was going on just as you said.”
“It was,” Cerini said, forcefully—“to a greater extent, I believe, than any one of us knew. My only excuse is that I was possessed with a preconceived idea—the very thing which I so much object to in others.”
“I don’t think I quite understand,” Helen replied. “Do you mean that, after all his efforts, my husband is right in his conviction that his work has been a failure?”
“It is not of your husband that I am thinking now,” the librarian answered; “it is of myself—and you.”
“Of me?” Helen was genuinely surprised. “But I have never entered into the consideration at all, where the work at the library was concerned.”
“You should have done so; that is just the point.”
“I wanted to,” Helen cried; “but you told me that I was quite incapable of doing so.”
“I know I did,” replied the librarian, bowing his head; “and that is where I made my great mistake.”