Louis Zangwill

“ For some particular restaurant or other is a habit which everybody contracts; it is, indeed, the first vice one picks up in Paris. And it's a habit that can't be broken. Day after day you revolt—if you're a man, you swear—against the cuisine. Things are becoming intolerable. Time was when everything was perfect, when the menu was varied, and always included your favourite dishes; when one could eat the salad without too close an inspection of the under-side of the leaves, and when the wine at eighty centimes a litre didn't turn blue or taste like ink. ”

“ The lightly-parted lips intensified the babyishness, so that she ceased to be the independent, self-willed girl, fitting in rather [99] with that other conception he had lingered on as the ideal she might develop into as his wife—a woman clinging to her husband and glad of his strength.
He was sure he saw her now as she really was. The conditions of her life were alone to blame for forcing on her the necessity of a career. Woman's true sphere was the home. An outside existence subjected to hardening influences a delicate soul whose very nature was to thirst for tender nurture and love. ”

“ At the same time Paul was assuming that the bonneted and cloaked mature-looking lady was no other than Mrs. Brooke herself, and he wondered why she should receive callers when so obviously dressed for going out. Miss Brooke rose to greet him with a pleasant smile of welcome. In a simple dress with wide sleeves that fitted tight round the wrists, her short [43] front hair, evenly divided, falling over her temples in rippling masses, she seemed less phantasmal and fairylike, less remote from this world—a being more humanly sweet and that one might dare to woo. ”

“ Your life shall be perfectly free—your career your own."
"You are good, Paul, and I have played [148] with you precisely as a cat plays with a mouse. You will have observed I have a good deal of the cat in me. Believe me, I am in earnest when I say I am quite unworthy of your love——"
"No, Lisa," he began.
"Listen, Paul. I want you to understand how much I love my lost darling. If he were to leave his wife and child, now and come to me and say he loved me, I would go with him to the end of the earth. No, no, Paul. My hope is only in my work. I know I shall realise my ambition. ”

“ She was evidently serious, and Paul was glad to have struck such a mood, which promised possibilities of intimate conversation.
"You have taken up art seriously?" he asked.
"One must do something to fill one's life," she replied, with unmistakable earnestness; and set Paul musing about the inability of fortune to compensate for a want of purpose in life, as he had, indeed, felt long ago. ”

“ His father, who had divided his time between collecting beautiful beetles, representing a rural constituency, enacting the good Samaritan, and, as Paul had told Miss Brooke, thundering and writing letters to the press against foreign missions, had cherished an ambitious career for his son. He himself, he felt, was a mere pawn on the parliamentary chessboard, and he dreamt of a really great political future for Paul, who, moreover, he hoped, would leave his mark on the social life of the generation by promoting the increase of public fine-art collections. ”

“ I am quite satisfied that my work in life shall bring me no return."
"I wish I were as fine as that," said Miss Brooke.
"I am afraid I am far from being fine," [27] said Paul, modestly. "I am simply content with my fortune. As you said before, one must do something to fill one's life. I am only too grateful for the prospect of being able to employ my energies. So you see I am really selfish at bottom."
"We each appear to have a due sense of the clay in us, so let us agree we are neither of us precisely the saints we appear. ”

“ Kipling has given us. Here the human sympathy is broader and deeper, the patriotism heartier and fuller, the intellectual and spiritual insight keener, the command of the literary vehicle more complete and sure, than in any previous verse-work by the author. The volume pulses with power—power often rough and reckless in expression, but invariably conveying the effect intended. ”

“ They came to a standstill and faced each other to say "good-bye."
"I scarcely feel like working this afternoon," observed Miss Brooke. "My laziness really overpowers my ambition. Did you not say something before, Mr. Middleton, about your being tempted to cut the Beaux Arts? Do be nice and yield to that temptation. I want to give way to mine so badly, but being a woman I daren't do anything unless somebody else is doing it at the same time."
Paul's fibres of resistance did not relax gradually; they collapsed all at once. ”

“ No woman painter has yet existed of absolutely the first rank; one and all have been influenced, more or less, by a man. I wanted to be the first woman whose work should be absolutely great, absolutely original. I wanted the honour for America, for I am proud of being an American woman. But you were on the spot, and I had only to move my little finger to get you. You were an eternal [139] temptation. Don't you think I knew you were jealous of Charlie? He has been in love with me ever since I first came here ”

“ Some day you will marry a better woman than I am. And if," she continued, with a smile, "you care to write and let me know, be sure I shall congratulate you right heartily. Now tell me I have your sympathy, and then let us say good-bye."
"I love you, Lisa. Is that not sufficient [149] proof of my sympathy? I shall leave Paris to-night."
"Come, Paul, kiss me! For the first time and last!" ”

“ The millionaire's daughter, the keynote of whose character had struck him as a charming, simple frankness, and in pursuit of whom he had set out, had proved to be a more complex specimen of womanhood than he could have imagined to exist, the very essence of that femininity of which he had always had an instinctive distrust. ”

“ The pink, round flesh of the upper arm showed firm and cool through the web of the sleeve that met the long white glove at the elbow. The bodice followed closely the modelling of the bust, and the skirt swept downwards, ending in a mass of foam-like fluff amid which nestled the tips of two neat shoes. ”

“ It gives such a fillip to your ambitions to see crowds round your friends' pictures, and to read about them in the papers; it makes you realise your own powers, and sets you wondering why you hadn't dared to send something in. When you are tired of lamenting your folly you begin to admire your modesty, and of course you remember [75] that modesty is the mark of true genius. ”

“ He is famous now, but the first picture he ever sold went to buy my turquoise necklace to match the comb I had from my mother. His example was a noble one—the first picture I am offered money for shall go to poppa instead. But he would never take the gift back, and now I value it as his. It has always given me great joy to wear it—in fact, that is my one great joy apart from my work."
"You still love him! You have loved him all through!" cried Paul.
Her face softened. "You see I have quite an extraordinary vein of sentiment in me. ”

“ Thus it was that his astonished mother and a favourite uncle—Celia's guardian—who both had a good deal to say about Paris and its temptations, expended their speech to no purpose.
Paul entered into his student life with zest, working hard and conscientiously in a very methodical fashion. He allowed himself, [63] however, plenty of time for enjoying the city; going to the theatres, and peeping into all the show places, and hunting up curios at old shops, and lounging and playing billiards at the cafés, and drinking beer al fresco on the boulevards. ”

“ The association of Miss Brooke with money-earning seemed an ugly blot on the universe.
There seemed, too, a tenderer, more intimate quality in her voice, and a sort of clinging in her touch as she went down the stairway with her hand on his arm. That forbidding barrier of which he had always been conscious had vanished! [100]
"It's the McCook's last 'At-Home,'" she explained, as the voiture began to move. "They are such nice people—I'm sure you'll like them. Dora's an old college chum of mine, and she's asked me to stay with her to-night. ”

“ As for Miss Brooke, at no moment did she seem aware of the slightest unconventionality in the situation.
"Katharine is so sweet," she began thoughtfully. "You can't imagine how pleased I was when she wrote she was coming. Charlie is piloting her about a little. He is so good-natured."
"Charlie is, I presume, Mr. Pemberton."
"Why, of course. And he'll be of so much use to her in Paris. He has a studio there. But I hope she won't fall in love [52] with him," she added laughingly. "Katharine is so romantic; she is always in love with some man or other." ”

“ Miss Brooke laughed again heartily, but Paul only felt the gloomier.
"Tell me some more, please. You put [110] me into quite a cheerful humour. What was your next love affair?"
She had resumed her old militant badinage.
"There is nothing more in my biography that is likely to entertain you," he answered evasively.
"Is it so bad as that, Paul? I think you might tell me all the same. I'm not easily shocked."
"You mistake me. I have told you all," he replied, driven to the lie direct.
"Come, come, Mr. Paul. In a woman one might expect such a want of candour. ”

“ To put the idea into your head that we meet again here in a year's time was to appeal to your romantic side. That is why I mentioned the Beaux Arts to you—your love for architecture made my game easy. I was now determined that nothing should stand in the way of my returning to Paris, that poppa somehow must raise the necessary money—even if he ran into debt. Happily he was able to send me back and to see his way clear to keep me going as long as I chose to stay."
Miss Brooke paused a moment and poured out Paul's coffee, which, however, he let stand untouched. ”

“ Everybody is thinking of leaving now, the heat will soon be getting unbearable. The Grand Prix has been run, the Battle of Flowers has been fought, and the Allée de Longchamps is deserted. All the smart people are in villégiature. How nice is the evening after the sultry day!"
They were passing through the Boulevard St. Germain. Miss Brooke was sitting just close enough to Paul for them to touch with the swaying of the carriage. ”

“ My own poverty had just been painfully brought home to me, for I had been forced to leave Paris for want of money at the very moment my ambition began to look reasonable. I was feeling particularly bitter about it as there was no certainty at all of my being able to come back here. Poppa's savings had all gone in starting me with a good stock of dresses and keeping me here two years. He had [136] hoped to be able to do more for me, but he could only send me my passage-money. Fifteen or even ten thousand pounds a year is a great temptation to a poor girl. ”

“ Miss Brooke went on to chatter about the vernissage.
"I see this morning's Herald puts us down as a low lot. Its reporter must be very exigeant. In spite of our presence he insists the models gave the ton to the assembly."
"Were there many models present?" asked Paul. "I don't remember seeing any."
"There were quite enough of them to be noticeable. Perhaps you thought they were all countesses."
"I did have some such idea," he admitted. "I didn't know models dressed like countesses."
"They do when their artists take them to vernissage. Which affords food for reflection." ”

“ He soon grew to love this room, to the decorations of which [88] she had added a huge Japanese umbrella, which hung from the ceiling, and two Japanese lights, and a piece of Oriental tapestry, besides her personal nicknacks. Paul's usual lounging-place, whilst Miss Brooke gave him his after-dinner coffee, was an old cretonne-covered ottoman, on which a broken spring made a curious hump, and over his head were suspended some book-shelves. Now and again he would find other callers, of both sexes, for Miss Brooke was "at home" once a week to all her friends. ”

“ You are just in nice time, Mr. Middleton, to get your cup of tea at its best." And Miss Brooke busied herself cutting up a big lemon into thin slices at a little table that was laid with a pretty Japanese tea-set.
"Lisa's tea is quite wonderful," chimed in Mrs. Potter. "I always spoil mine—I can [45] never quite tell when the water boils. That's my pet stupidity."
For a moment Paul watched the artistic copper kettle as it sang its pleasant song. Mrs. Potter already struck him as an obviously cheerful personality, and he felt absurdly grateful to her for mentioning Miss Brooke's first name. ”

“ She was considered to possess an extraordinary share of good looks and an uncommon degree of affability. Good judges assured one another she would make an excellent wife, and Mrs. Middleton had taken good care that the said judges should discuss the girl in the presence of her boy, who could scarcely contend against so subtle an undermining. Despite his vague knowledge of the wiles of match-making, he began to persuade himself that he really liked Celia, and he played more and more with the idea of marrying her. ”

“ But I'm glad to find that we are agreed at least in sentiment."
"And I do try and turn the instinct into useful channels. Americans, you know, never let force run to waste. Now, you will learn that waltz, won't you, Mr. Middleton? Promise me quickly, as some one is coming to take me to dance. There comes the top of his head."
"Dear me, has the next dance come round already!" ejaculated Paul. "You may consider me a sincere convert," he added quickly, "if—if you will spare me another dance." ”

“ One of the most cheerful novels we have chanced upon for many a day. It has much of the rapidity and vigor of a smartly written farce, with a pervading freshness a smartly written farce rarely possesses. ”

“ A girl like her could make her home in one room, and yet make you [65] welcome in it with as much ease and grace as any lady in a fine drawing-room.
Time passed, and still nobody, by any chance, referred to Miss Brooke. This was not surprising, for Paris was large, and American girl students were plentiful and scattered all over it. Moreover, a girl who had gone home months before was likely to be soon forgotten. Pemberton he had never met, but he had seen him just once from the top of a tramcar. ”