Page:The Redemption of Anthony (1911).djvu/14

 "How you lugged me up, didn't you?—step by step! Why, I don't think I ever knew a lady until I knew you."

"Nonsense!"

"Don't belittle any of it. You shamed me into being a decent creature, and what I am I owe to you. I've worked like a slave these three years just to prove to you that you weren't mistaken—that there was something to save, perhaps—and now, as far as the world goes, I'm a successful man."

"Why do you say, 'as far as the world goes'? Don't you consider yourself successful?"

"No, there's no such thing. I write books and they sell, and so some little men who call themselves critics say I'm the hope of the future, and such rot. Does that make me a big man? Does it make me a happy man? Does it make my life rounded, complete?"

He walked to and fro, out of the light into the shadow and back again, Mrs. Martin watching him.