Such minds as that of Miss Delafield were quite outside the field of De
Chauxville's influence, while that Frenchman had considerable power over
highly strung and imaginative natures.
Catrina Lanovitch had begun by tolerating him--had proceeded to make the
serious blunder of permitting him to be impertinently familiar, and was
now exaggerating in her own mind the hold that he had over her. She did
not actually dislike him. So few people had taken the trouble or found
the expediency of endeavoring to sympathize with her or understand her
nature, that she was unconsciously drawn toward this man whom she now
feared.
In exaggerating the power he exercised over herself she somewhat
naturally exaggerated also his importance in the world and in the lives
of those around him. She had imagined him all-powerful; and the first
person to whom she mentioned his name dismissed the subject
indifferently. Her own entire sincerity had enabled her to detect the
insincerity of her ally. She had purposely made mention of the weak spot
which she had discovered, in order that her observation might be
corroborated. And this Maggie had failed to do.
With the slightest encouragement, Catrina would have told her companion
all that had passed. The sympathy between women is so strong that there
is usually only one man who is safe from discussion.
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