So it was that the Utopians came to Thyrsis; those men of the future, worshippers of joy! They came to him, alive and in the flesh, beautiful and noble, gracious and free-hearted--as some day they will come, if so the earth endure; as they will stand upon that portico, and listen to that music, and gaze upon the valley of that American Rhine! And will they remember the long-dead dreamer, and how they walked with him there and spoke with him; how they put their arms about him, and gave him of their love and understanding? Will they remember what shuddering rapture their touch conveyed to him; how the tears ran down his cheeks, and he pledged his soul to yet more years of torment, so only their glory might come to be upon earth? Will they read the blazing words in which he pictured them, the trumpet-blast he sounded to the dead souls of his time? Thyrsis knew that this was the greatest hour of his life, and he fought like mad to hold it. But that might not be--the music ceased, and he heard the voices of his host and Miss Lewis. They came to the door; and then Thyrsis’ thoughts came back quickly to earth. For he saw that Barry Creston’s arm was about the woman, and she was leaning upon him; nor did they separate when they saw him, but stood there, smiling; so that at last Thyrsis had solved for him the problem of their relationship. It was not so that the Utopians loved, he thought, as he watched them; and found himself wondering if young Creston was as imperious with his women as he was with the slaves in his Western mines. The car came to the door, and they parted from their host and sped back to the city. “What do you think of him?” asked Miss Lewis--and went on in a burst of confidence to tell him that it was to this prince of the new dispensation that he owed the great chance of his life. For it was Barry Creston who had given the Broadway “show-girl” the start that had made her a popular _comédienne_; it was Barry Creston who had awakened in her an interest in the “drama of ideas”, and had set her to fermenting with new ambitions; and finally it was Barry Creston who in a moment of indulgence had promised the money which had set the managers and actors and musicians, the stage-carpenters and scene-painters and press-agents to work at the task of embodying “The Genius”! Section 10. It may have been a coincidence; but from that hour dated the process of Thyrsis’ disillusionment concerning the production of his play. Could it be, he asked himself, that such wealth as Barry Creston’s could buy true art? Could it be that forces set in motion by it could really express his vision? “Genius surrounded by Commercialism”, had been the formula of his play; and did not the formula describe his own position as well as Lloyd’s?