The Pimpernel Schleys of the world know this masculine
propensity of seeking different things--opposites, even--in the wife and
the woman beyond the edge of the hearthstone, a propensity perhaps more
tragic to wives than any other that exists in husbands. And having
recognised this fact, Lady Holme knew that it would be worse than useless
for her to imitate Miss Schley's imitation of her. Then, travelling along
the road of thought swiftly as women in such a case always travel, she
reached another point. She began to consider the advice of Robin Pierce,
given before she had begun to feel with such intensity, to consider it as
a soldier might consider a plan of campaign drawn up by another.
Should she, instead of descending, of following the demure steps of the
American to the lower places, strive to ascend?
Could she ascend? Was Robin Pierce right? She thought for a long time
about his conception of her. The singing woman; would she be the most
powerful enemy that could confront Miss Schley? And, if she would be,
could the singing woman be made continuous in the speech and the actions
of the life without music? She remembered a man she had known who
stammered when he spoke, but never stammered when he sang. And she
thought she resembled this man. Robin Pierce had always believed that she
could speak without the stammer even as she sang without it. She had
never cared to. She had trusted absolutely in her beauty.
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