He knew something
of many things, had a wonderful assortment of talents
--could sing, could play piano or violin, could compose,
could act, could do mystifying card tricks, could order
women's clothes as discriminatingly as he could order
his own--all these things a little, but nothing much
except making a success of musical comedy and comic
opera. He had an ambition, carefully restrained in a
closet of his mind, where it could not issue forth and
interfere with his business. This ambition was to be a
giver of grand opera on a superb scale. He regarded
himself as a mere money-maker--was not ashamed of
this, but neither was he proud of it. His ambition then
represented a dream of a rise to something more than
business man, to friend and encourager and wet nurse
to art.
Mildred Gower had happened to set his imagination
to working. The discovery that she was one of those
whose personalities rouse high expectations only to mock
them had been a severe blow to his confidence in his own
judgment.
Pages:
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493