Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 1 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/294

 doing it. I meet one, as I 've met more than one before, whom I fondly believe to be cast in a bigger mould than most of the vulgar human breed—to be large in character, great in talent, strong in will. In such a man as that, I say, one's weary imagination at last may rest; or may wander if it will, but with the sense of coming home again a greater adventure than any other. When I first knew you I gave no sign, but you had struck me. I observed you as women observe, and I fancied you had the sacred fire."

"Before heaven I believe I have!" Roderick broke out.

"Ah, but so very little of it! It flickers and trembles and sputters; it goes out, you tell me, for whole weeks together. From your own account it does n't much look as if you 'd take either yourself or any one else very far."

"I say those things sometimes myself," came in Roderick's voice, "but when I hear you say them they make me feel as if I could scale the skies."

"Ah, the man who 's strong with what I call strength," Christina replied, "would neither rise nor fall by anything I could say! I 'm a poor weak woman; I 've no strength myself, and I can give no strength. I 'm a miserable medley of vanity and folly. I 'm silly, I 'm ignorant, I 'm affected, I 'm false. I 'm the fruit of a horrible education sown on a worthless soil. I 'm all that, and yet I believe I have one merit. I should know a great character when I saw it, and I should delight in it with a generosity that would do something toward 260