"That's my little compensation. A few visits to Bond Street might make me look ten years younger than I do, but if I paid them, do you know I think I should lose one or two friendships I value very much." Mrs. Mansfield paused. "Lose--friendships?" Charmian almost faltered. "Yes. Some of the best men value sincerity of appearance in a woman more than perhaps you would believe to be possible." "In friendship!" Charmian almost whispered. Again there was a pause. Mrs. Mansfield knew very well that a sentence from her at this moment would provoke in Charmian an outburst of sincerity. But she hesitated to speak that sentence. For a voice within her whispered, "Am I on Charmian's side?" After a moment she got up. "Bedtime," she said. "Yes, yes." Charmian kissed her mother lightly first on one eyelid then on the other. "Dearest, it is good to be back with you." "But you loved Algiers, I think." "Did I? I suppose I did." "I must get a book," said Mrs. Mansfield, going toward a bookcase. When she turned round with a volume of Browning in her hand Charmian had vanished. Mrs. Mansfield did not regret the silence that had saved her from Charmian's sincerity. In reply to it what could she have said to help her child toward happiness? For did not the fact that Charmian had made up her face because she loved Claude Heath show a gulf between her and him that could surely never be bridged? CHAPTER XI Heath was troubled and was angry with himself for being troubled. Looking back it seemed to him that he had taken a false step when he consented to that dinner with Max Elliot. Surely since that evening he had never been wholly at peace. And yet on that evening he had entered into his great friendship with Mrs. Mansfield. He could not wish that annulled. It added value to his life. But Mrs. Shiffney and Charmian in combination had come into his life with her. And they began to vex his spirit. He felt as if they represented a great body of opinion which was set against a deep conviction of his own. Their motto was, "The world for the artist." And what was his, or what had been his until now? "His world within the artist." He had fed upon himself, striving rather to avoid than to seek outside influences. After Charmian's return from Africa a persistent doubt assailed him. His strong instinct might be a blind guide. The opinion of the world, represented by the shrewd married woman and the intelligent girl, might have reason on its side.