And this essential and primal truth Evelyn revealed to him and the very spirit and sense of maidenhood, the centre and receptacle of life, the mysterious secret of things, the awful moment when the whisper of the will to live is heard in matter, the will which there is no denying, the surrender of matter, the awaking of consciousness in things. And united to the eternal idea of generation, he perceived the congenital idea which in remotest time seems to have sprung from it—that life is sin and must be atoned for by prayer. Evelyn’s interpretation revealed his deepest ideas to himself, and at last he seemed to stand at the heart of life.
Suddenly his rapture was broken through; the singer had stopped the orchestra.
“You have cut some of the music, I see,” she said, addressing the conducto
