Leading singers are very rarely attracted by each other. Perhaps that
is because they receive such a vast amount of adulation which pleases
them better, and of course there have been famous instances of the
contrary, such as Mario and Grisi. As a rule singers do not meet much
except at the theatre; it is only during rehearsals that they have a
chance of talking, and then, as everybody knows, they show the worst
side of themselves and are often in a very bad temper indeed.
Margaret had not reached that stage yet, for she had met with no
disappointments and could not complain of her manager, and moreover she
was not at all above learning what she could from her fellow-artists.
She was therefore popular with them in spite of the fact that she was a
lady born. They overlooked that, because she could sing, and the tenor
only remembered it when he tried to patronise her a little. He had
often sung with Melba, and she did this or that, and he had sung with
Bonanni and knew exactly how she sang the difficult passages, and he
reeled off the precepts and practice of half-a-dozen other lyric
sopranos, giving Margaret to understand that he was willing and able to
teach her a good deal. But she only smiled kindly, and did precisely
what Madame De Rosa told her to do, seeing that the little Neapolitan
had taught most of them what they knew. It was clear that Margaret
could not be patronised, and the other members of the company liked her
the better for it, because the tenor patronised them all and gave them
to understand that they were rather small fry compared with a man who
could hold the high C and walk off the stage with it.
From the darkness of his lower box Logotheti looked on and approved of
Margaret's behaviour. At the same time he abstracted himself from her
life and saw how she lived with respect to other men and women, and a
great change began to take place in his feelings, one of those changes
which are sometimes salutary because they may hinder an act of folly,
but which humiliate a man in his own eyes, in proportion as they are
unexpected, and tend to contradict something which he has believed to
be beyond all doubt. To many men the loss of a noble illusion feels
like a loss of strength in themselves, perhaps because such men can
never keep an ideal before them without making an unconscious effort
against the material tendency of their natures.
The change in Logotheti during the next three weeks was profound; and
it was humiliating because it deprived him all at once of a sort of
power over himself which had grown up with his love for Margaret and
depended on that for its nourishment and life; a power which had
perhaps not been an original force at all, but only a chivalrous
willingness to do her will instead of his own. He looked on and did not
betray his presence, and she, on her side, began to wonder at his
prolonged obedience. More than once she felt a sudden conviction that
he must be near, and he saw how she peered into the gloom of the empty
house as if looking for some one she expected. It was only natural, and
no theory of telepathy was needed to explain it. She had so often seen
him there in reality! But he would not show himself now, for he was
determined that she should send for him; if she did not, he could wait
for her début; and little by little, as he kept to his determination
and only saw her from a distance in the frame of the stage, the woman
who had dominated him in a moment when he was beside himself with
passion, became once more an animated work of art which he
unconsciously compared with his Aphrodite and his ancient picture, and
which he coveted as a possession.