The American

ound the picture entertaining; it had an illusion for him; it satisfied his conception, which was ambitious, of what a splendid banquet should be. In the left-hand corner of the pict

oiselle Nioche had asked too much; he bore her no grudge for doing so, and he was determined to pay the young man exactly the proper sum. At this moment, however, his attention was attracted by a gentleman who had come from another part of the room and whose manner was that of a stranger to the gallery, although he was equipped with neither guide-book nor opera-glass. He carried a white sun-umbrella, lined with blue silk, and he strolled in front of the Paul Veronese, vaguely looking at it, but much too near to see anything but the grain of the canvas. Opposite to Christopher Newman he paused and turned, and then our friend, who had been observing him, had a chance to v

; "don't say, now, you don't know m

ullest capacity, and he also broke into a laugh. "Why, Newman-I'll be blowed! W

n't!" sai

r, no doubt. When

e day

't you le

idea you w

n here thes

ight or nine

hat sort. We we

, during the war. Yo

ot I! But

ieve I

e out al

arms-and with satisfaction. A

have you bee

nteen

st t

very m

everlasti

a moment, and then with a tran

Paris to sp

they carry those paras

re great things. They und

o you bu

re, eve

d of you. You can show me the ropes.

lation. "Well, I guess there are not many men

tes ago. I have just bought a picture. Yo

tram, looking vaguely round at th

an a

m, nodding at the Titians and Vandyk

Newman. "I don't wa

e stones. Go into the Palais Royal, there; you see 'Imitation' on half the windows. The law obliges them to stick it on, you know; but you can

have go

nice woman; you must know her. Sh

rly fixed-house an

house and a coup

an, stretching his arms a lit

Mr. Tristram, giving him a

our pard

won't, then

mean when I have seen

s, my boy. You want to b

wn master all my life

Paris. How

rty-

l age, as th

oes tha

dn't send away his plate t

t made arrangements t

lessons. You'll pick i

peak French as w

"It's a splendid language. You can s

, with an earnest desire for information

at's just the

res. Mr. Tristram at last declared that he was overcome with fatigue and should be happy to sit down. Newman recommended in the highest terms

And then, suddenly, Mr. Tristram hesitated and looked

ure I don't know. You know t

er was he

in six

e once when we first came to Pari

you know Pa

stram, with assurance. "Come; let's go o

smoke," s

ink,

lleries of sculpture, and out into the enormous court. Newman looked about him as he went, but he made no comments, and it was only when t

o; you can't do anything else. It's an awful country; you can't get a decent cigar. I don't know why I went in there, to-day; I was strolling along, rather hard up for amusement. I sort of noticed the Louvre as I passed, and I thought I would go in and see what was going on. But

adrangle. The place was filled with people, the fountains were spouting, a band was playing, clusters of chairs were gathered beneath all the lime-trees, and buxom, white-capped nurses, seated along the benc

rved to them, "now just give an account of yourself. What are your ideas, what are your plans,

nd Hotel,"

s plump visage. "That wo

an. "Why, it's the fine

ing small and quiet and elegant, where your bel

have touched the bell," said Newman "and as for my

ways tipping them. Th

d then stood loafing in a beggarly manner. I offered him a cha

er

if it bores me. I sat in the court of the Grand Hotel last night until two o'cl

do as you choose-a man in your shoes

made e

ho can say that?

ove my mind, and, if the fancy takes me, to marry a wife." Newman spoke slowly, with a certain dryness of accent and wit

all that takes money, especially the wife; unless indeed she giv

legs. He listened to the music, he looked about him at the bustling crowd, at the p

es to measure his friend's generous longitude and rest upon his co

several

ou're a smar

to earn that night's supper. He had not earned it but he had earned the next night's, and afterwards, whenever he had had none, it was because he had gone without it to use the money for something else, a keener pleasure or a finer profit. He had turned his hand, with his brain in it, to many things; he had been enterprising, in an eminent sense of the term; he had been adventurous and even reckless, and he had known bitter failure as well as brilliant success; but he was a born experimentalist, and he had always found something to enjoy in the pressure of necessity, even when it was as irritating as the haircloth shirt of the medi?val monk. At one time failure seemed inexorably his portion; ill-luck became his bed-fellow, and whatever he touched he turned, not to gold, but to ashes. His most vivid conception of a supernatural element in the world's affairs had come to him once when this pertinacity of misfortune was at its climax; there seemed to him something stronger in life than his own will. But the mysterious something could only be the devil, and he was accordingly seized with an intense personal enmity to this impertinent force. He had known what it was to have utterly exhausted his credit, to be unable to raise a dollar, and to find himself at nightfall in a strange city, without a penny to mitigate its strangeness. It was under these circumstances that he made his entrance into San Francisco, the scene, subse

mart. My remarkable talents seem of no use. I feel as simple as a little

d Tristram, jovially; "I'll take you

ther think I am a poor loafer. I have come abroad

's easily

have the best will in the world about it, but my genius doesn't lie in that

e I am original; like all those

nt to take it easily. I feel deliciously lazy, and I should like to spend six months as I am now, si

s intellectual. I ain't, a bit. But we can find something better for you

t cl

Americans there; all the best of the

going to lock me up in a club and stick me down at

ere glad enough to play poker in St. Lou

out of it I can. I want to see all the gre

obliged. You set me dow

his hand. Without moving he looked a while at his companion with his dry, guarded, half-ins

y word, I won't. She doesn't want any help t

ne, or anything. I'm not proud, I assure you I'm not proud.

it. I can show you some clever people, too. Do you know General

their acquaintance; I wa

s friend askance, and then, "What are you up to, an

low the fellow would feel, and he really deserved no quarter. I jumped into a hack and went about my business, and it was in this hack-this immortal, historical hack-that the curious thing I speak of occurred. It was a hack like any other, only a trifle dirtier, with a greasy line along the top of the drab cushions, as if it had been used for a great many Irish funerals. It is possible I took a nap; I had been traveling all night, and though I was excited with my errand, I felt the want of sleep. At all events I woke up suddenly, from a sleep or from a kind of a reverie, with the most extraordinary feeling in the world-a mortal disgust for the thing

e you sat in your hack, watching the play, as you call it, th

of was Wall Street. I told the man to drive down to the Brooklyn ferry and to cross over. When we were over, I told him to drive me out into the country. As I had told him originally to drive for dear life down town, I suppose he thought me insane. Perhaps I was, but in that case I am insane still. I spent the morning looking at the first green leaves on Long Island. I was sick of business; I wanted to throw it all up and b

; "it isn't a safe vehicle to have about. And you have

peration will be reversed. The pendulum will swing back again. I shall be sitting in a gondola or on a dromedary, and all of a sudden

a poor devil like me can't help you to spend such very magnificen

and then, with his easy smile,

ried Tristram. "It sho

e best can't be had for mere money, but I rather think money will do

not bas

art, nature, everything! I want to see the tallest mountains, and the bluest lakes, and the fines

is in the Bois du Boulogne, and not particularly blue. But there is everything else: p

n Paris at this season, ju

summer go up

is Tro

wport. Half th

where near

Newport is to th

Amsterdam, and the Rhine, and a lot of places. Ven

sing, "I see I shall have t