, which Klesmer half hoped might suffice without
anything more unpleasant, roused some resistance in Gwendolen. With a slight
turn of her head away from him, and an air of pique, she said -
    »I thought that you, being an artist, would consider the life one of the
most honourable and delightful. And if I can do nothing better? - I suppose I
can put up with the same risks as other people do.«
    »Do nothing better?« said Klesmer, a little fired. »No, my dear Miss
Harleth, you could do nothing better - neither man nor woman could do anything
better - if you could do what was best or good of its kind. I am not decrying
the life of the true artist. I am exalting it. I say, it is out of the reach of
any but choice organisations - natures framed to love perfection and to labour
for it; ready, like all true lovers, to endure, to wait, to say, I am not yet
worthy, but she - Art, my mistress - is worthy, and I will live to merit her. An
honourable life? Yes. But the honour comes from the inward vocation and the
hard-won achievement: there is no honour in donning the life as a livery.«
    Some excitement of yesterday had revived in Klesmer and hurried him into
speech a little aloof from his immediate friendly purpose. He had wished as
delicately as possible to rouse in Gwendolen a sense of her unfitness for a
perilous, difficult course; but it was his wont to be angry with the pretensions
of incompetence, and he was in danger of getting chafed. Conscious of this he
paused suddenly. But Gwendolen's chief impression was that he had not yet denied
her the power of doing what would be good of its kind. Klesmer's fervour seemed
to be a sort of glamour such as he was prone to throw over things in general;
and what she desired to assure him of was that she was not afraid of some
preliminary hardships. The belief that to present herself in public on the stage
must produce an effect such as she had been used to feel certain of in private
life, was like a bit of her flesh - it was not to be peeled off readily, but
must come with blood and pain. She said, in a tone of some insistance -
    »I am quite prepared to bear hardships at first. Of course no one can become
celebrated all at once. And it is not necessary that every one should be
first-rate - either actresses or singers. If
