become radiant with the enthusiastic delight of genius when the path it
would select opens before it as if by a flash from heaven, whatever of
jealous irritation, whatever of selfish pain he might before have felt;
was gone, merged in a sentiment of unutterable sadness and compassion.
Practical man as he was, he knew so well all the dangers, all the snares,
all the sorrows, all the scandals menacing name and fame, that in the
world of Paris must beset the fatherless girl who, not less in authorship
than on the stage, leaves the safeguard of private life forever behind
her, who becomes a prey to the tongues of the public. At Paris, how
slender is the line that divides the authoress from the _Bohemienne_!
He sank into his chair silently, and passed his hand over his eyes,
as if to shut out a vision of the future.

Isaura in her excitement did not notice the effect on her English
visitor. She could not have divined such an effect as possible. On the
contrary, even subordinate to her joy at the thought that she had not
mistaken the instincts which led her to a nobler vocation than that of
the singer, that the cage-bar was opened, and space bathed in sunshine
was inviting the new-felt wings,--subordinate even to that joy was a joy
more wholly, more simply woman's. "If," thought she, in this joy, "if
this be true, my proud ambition is realized; all disparities of worth and
fortune are annulled between me and him to whom I would bring no shame of
mesalliance!" Poor dreamer, poor child!

"You will let me see what you have written," said Rameau, somewhat
imperiously, in the sharp voice habitual to him, and which pierced
Graham's ear like a splinter of glass.

"No, not now; when finished."