Free The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis Page A

pride and without modesty.’
    â€˜That’ll be grand,’ said the Ghost without enthusiasm.
    â€˜Well, come,’ said the Spirit: and for a few paces he supported the hobbling shadow forward to the East.
    â€˜Of course,’ said the Ghost, as if speaking to itself, ‘there’ll always be interesting people to meet…’
    â€˜Everyone will be interesting.’
    â€˜Oh—ah—yes, to be sure. I was thinking of people in our own line. Shall I meet Claude? Or Cézanne? Or—.’
    â€˜Sooner or later—if they’re here.’
    â€˜But don’t you know?’
    â€˜Well, of course not. I’ve only been here a few years. All the chances are against my having run across them…there are a good many of us, you know.’
    â€˜But surely in the case of distinguished people, you’d hear?’
    â€˜But they aren’t distinguished—no more than anyone else. Don’t you understand? The Glory flows into everyone, and back from everyone: like light and mirrors. But the light’s the thing.’
    â€˜Do you mean there are no famous men?’
    â€˜They are all famous. They are all known, remembered, recognised by the only Mind that can give a perfect judgement.’
    â€˜Oh, of course, in that sense…’ said the Ghost.
    â€˜Don’t stop,’ said the Spirit, making to lead him still forward.
    â€˜One must be content with one’s reputation among posterity, then,’ said the Ghost.
    â€˜My friend,’ said the Spirit. ‘Don’t you know?’
    â€˜Know what?’
    â€˜That you and I are already completely forgotten on the Earth?’
    â€˜Eh? What’s that?’ exclaimed the Ghost, disengaging its arm. ‘Do you mean those damned Neo-Regionalists have won after all?’
    â€˜Lord love you, yes!’ said the Spirit, once more shaking and shining with laughter. ‘You couldn’t get five pounds for any picture of mine or even of yours in Europe or America to-day. We’re dead out of fashion.’
    â€˜I must be off at once,’ said the Ghost. ‘Let me go! Damn it all, one has one’s duty to the future of Art. I must go back to my friends. I must write an article. There must be a manifesto. We must start a periodical. We must have publicity. Let me go. This is beyond a joke!’
    And without listening to the Spirit’s reply, the spectre vanished.

10
    This conversation also we overheard.
    â€˜That is quite, quite out of the question,’ said a female Ghost to one of the bright Women, ‘I should not dream of staying if I’m expected to meet Robert. I am ready to forgive him, of course. But anything more is quite impossible. How he comes to be here…but that is your affair.’
    â€˜But if you have forgiven him,’ said the other, ‘surely—.’
    â€˜I forgive him as a Christian,’ said the Ghost. ‘But there are some things one can never forget.’
    â€˜But I don’t understand…’ began the She-Spirit.
    â€˜Exactly,’ said the Ghost with a little laugh. ‘You never did. You always thought Robert could do no wrong. I know. Please don’t interrupt for one moment. You haven’t the faintest conception of what I went through with your dear Robert. The ingratitude! It was I who made a man of him! Sacrificed my whole life to him! Andwhat was my reward? Absolute, utter selfishness. No, but listen. He was pottering along on about six hundred a year when I married him. And mark my words, Hilda, he’d have been in that position to the day of his death if it hadn’t been for me. It was I who had to drive him every step of the way. He hadn’t a spark of ambition. It was like trying to lift a sack of coal. I had to positively nag him to take on that extra work in the other department, though it was really the beginning of everything for him. The laziness of men! He said, if you please,