He had an admirable appetite for pleasure; a man-about-town's life suited him.He went his genial, unreflecting, costly way in Vienna, Paris, London.He loved exclusively those towns, and boasted that he was as much at home in one as in another.He combined exuberant vitality with fastidiousness of palate, and devoted both to the acquisition of a special taste in women, weeds, and wines; above all he was blessed with a remarkable digestion.He was thirty when he met Mrs.Devorell; and she married him because he was so very different from anybody she had ever seen.People more dissimilar were never mated.To Paul--accustomed to stage doors--freshness, serene tranquillity, and obvious purity were the baits; he had run through more than half his fortune, too, and the fact that she had money was possibly not overlooked.Be that as it may, he was fond of her; his heart was soft, he developed a domestic side.
Greta was born to them after a year of marriage.The instinct of the "freeman" was, however, not dead in Paul; he became a gambler.He lost the remainder of his fortune without being greatly disturbed.
When he began to lose his wife's fortune too things naturally became more difficult.Not too much remained when Nicholas Treffry stepped in, and caused his sister to settle what was left on her daughters, after providing a life-interest for herself and Paul.Losing his supplies, the good man had given up his cards.But the instinct of the "freeman" was still living in his breast; he took to drink.He was never grossly drunk, and rarely very sober.His wife sorrowed over this new passion; her health, already much enfeebled, soon broke down.The doctors sent her to the Tyrol.She seemed to benefit by this, and settled down at Botzen.The following year, when Greta was just ten, she died.It was a shock to Paul.He gave up excessive drinking; became a constant smoker, and lent full rein to his natural domesticity.He was fond of both the girls, but did not at all understand them; Greta, his own daughter, was his favourite.Villa Rubein remained their home; it was cheap and roomy.Money, since Paul became housekeeper to himself, was scarce.
About this time Mrs.Decie, his wife's sister, whose husband had died in the East, returned to England; Paul invited her to come and live with them.She had her own rooms, her own servant; the arrangement suited Paul--it was economically sound, and there was some one always there to take care of the girls.In truth he began to feel the instinct of the "freeman" rising again within him; it was pleasant to run over to Vienna now and then; to play piquet at a Club in Gries, of which he was the shining light; in a word, to go "on the tiles" a little.One could not always mourn--even if a woman were an angel;moreover, his digestion was as good as ever.
The fourth quarter of this Villa was occupied by Nicholas Treffry, whose annual sojourn out of England perpetually surprised himself.
Between him and his young niece, Christian, there existed, however, a rare sympathy; one of those affections between the young and old, which, mysteriously born like everything in life, seems the only end and aim to both, till another feeling comes into the younger heart.
Since a long and dangerous illness, he had been ordered to avoid the English winter, and at the commencement of each spring he would appear at Botzen, driving his own horses by easy stages from the Italian Riviera, where he spent the coldest months.He always stayed till June before going back to his London Club, and during all that time he let no day pass without growling at foreigners, their habits, food, drink, and raiment, with a kind of big dog's growling that did nobody any harm.The illness had broken him very much; he was seventy, but looked more.He had a servant, a Luganese, named Dominique, devoted to him.Nicholas Treffry had found him overworked in an hotel, and had engaged him with the caution: "Look--here, Dominique! I swear!" To which Dominique, dark of feature, saturnine and ironical, had only replied: "Tres biens, M'sieur!"III
Harz and his host sat in leather chairs; Herr Paul's square back was wedged into a cushion, his round legs crossed.Both were smoking, and they eyed each other furtively, as men of different stamp do when first thrown together.The young artist found his host extremely new and disconcerting; in his presence he felt both shy and awkward.
Herr Paul, on the other hand, very much at ease, was thinking indolently:
'Good-looking young fellow--comes of the people, I expect, not at all the manner of the world; wonder what he talks about.'
Presently noticing that Harz was looking at a photograph, he said:
"Ah! yes! that was a woman! They are not to be found in these days.
She could dance, the little Coralie! Did you ever see such arms?
Confess that she is beautiful, hein?"
"She has individuality," said Harz."A fine type!"Herr Paul blew out a cloud of smoke.
"Yes," he murmured, "she was fine all over!" He had dropped his eyeglasses, and his full brown eyes, with little crow's-feet at the corners, wandered from his visitor to his cigar.
'He'd be like a Satyr if he wasn't too clean,' thought Harz.'Put vine leaves in his hair, paint him asleep, with his hands crossed, so!'
"When I am told a person has individuality," Herr Paul was saying in a rich and husky voice, "I generally expect boots that bulge, an umbrella of improper colour; I expect a creature of 'bad form' as they say in England; who will shave some days and some days will not shave; who sometimes smells of India-rubber, and sometimes does not smell, which is discouraging!""You do not approve of individuality?" said Harz shortly.
"Not if it means doing, and thinking, as those who know better do not do, or think.""And who are those who know better?"