Page:The Sea Lady.djvu/188

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

THE SEA LADY



fatuus—the afterglow of a mirage. Vanity of vanities——"

"It's real enough to her."

"As real as she can make it, you know. But she isn't real herself. She begins badly."

"And he, you know——"

"He doesn't believe in it."

"I'm not so sure."

"I am—now."

"He's a complicated being."

"He will ravel out," said the Sea Lady.

"I think you misjudge him about that work of his, anyhow," said Melville. "He's a man rather divided against himself." He added abruptly, "We all are." He recovered himself from the generality. "It's vague, I admit, a sort of vague wish to do something decent, you know, that he has——"

"A sort of vague wish," she conceded; "but——"

164