She became
possessed of a love for the stage even before Gerard Fynes came upon the
scene. The beginning of it all was the rumour that her mother was now an
actress; yet the root-cause was far down in a temperament responsive to
all artistic things.
The coming of the Man from Outside acted on the confined elements of her
nature like the shutter of a camera. It let in a world of light upon
unexplored places, it set free elements of being which had not before
been active. She had been instantly drawn to Gerard Fynes. He had the
distance from her own life which provoked interest, and in that distance
was the mother whom perhaps it was her duty to forget, yet for whom she
had a longing which grew greater as the years went on.
Gerard Fynes could talk well, and his vivid pictures of his short
play-acting career absorbed her; and all the time she was vigilant for
some name, for the description of some actress which would seem to be a
clue to the lost spirit of her life. This clue never came, but before she
gave up hope of it, the man had got nearer to her than any man had ever
done.
After meeting him she awoke to the fact that there was a difference
between men, that it was not the same thing to be young as to be old;
that the reason why she could kiss the old Judge and the little Clerk of
the Court, and not kiss, say, the young manager of the great lumber firm
who came every year for a fortnight's fishing at St.
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