The Beautiful Lady | Page 7

I cannot
tell you. Perhaps I should not have known her; but that night I was sure
that I should.
Yes, as sure of that as I was sure that she was beautiful!

Chapter Three
Early the whole of the next day, endeavoring to look preoccupied, I
haunted the lobbies and vicinity of the most expensive hotels, unable to
do any other thing, but ashamed of myself that I had not returned to my
former task of seeking employment, although still reassured by
possession of two louis and some silver, I dined well at a one-franc
coachman's restaurant, where my elegance created not the slightest
surprise, and I felt that I might live in this way indefinitely.
However, dreams often conclude abruptly, and two louis always do, as
I found, several days later, when, after paying the rent for my
unspeakable lodging and lending twenty francs to a poor, bad painter,
whom I knew and whose wife was ill, I found myself with the choice of
obtaining funds on my finery or not eating, either of which I was very
loath to do. It is not essential for me to tell any person that when you
seek a position it is better that you appear not too greatly in need of it;
and my former garments had prejudiced many against me, I fear,
because they had been patched by a friendly concierge. Pantaloons
suffer as terribly as do antiques from too obvious restorations; and
while I was only grateful to the good woman's needle (except upon one
occasion when she forgot to remove it), my costume had reached, at
last, great sympathies for the shade of Praxiteles, feeling the same
melancholy over original intentions so far misrepresented by renewals.
Therefore I determined to preserve my fineries to the uttermost; and it
was fortunate that I did so; because, after dining, for three nights upon
nothing but looking out of my window, the fourth morning brought me
a letter from my English friend. I had written to him, asking if he knew
of any people who wished to pay a salary to a young man who knew
how to do nothing. I place his reply in direct annexation:
"Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, May 14.

"My dear Ansolini,--Why haven't you made some of your relatives do
something? I understand that they do not like you; neither do my own,
but after our crupper at Monte Carlo what could mine do, except
provide? If a few pounds (precious few, I fear!) be of any service to
you, let me know. In the mean time, if you are serious about a position,
I may, preposterously enough, set you in the way of it. There is an old
thundering Yankee here, whom I met in the States, and who believed
me a god because I am the nephew of my awful uncle, for whose career
he has ever had, it appears, a life-long admiration, sir! Now, by chance,
meeting this person in the street, it developed that he had need of a man,
precisely such a one as you are not: a sober, tutorish, middle-aged,
dissenting parson, to trot about the Continent tied to a dancing bear. It
is the old gentleman's cub, who is a species of Caliban in fine linen, and
who has taken a few too many liberties in the land of the free. In fact, I
believe he is much a youth of my own kind with similar admiration for
baccarat and good cellars. His father must return at once, and has
decided (the cub's native heath and friends being too wild) to leave him
in charge of a proper guide, philosopher, courier, chaplain, and friend,
if such can be found, the same required to travel with the cub and keep
him out of mischief. I thought of your letter directly, and I have given
you the most tremendous recommendation--part of it quite true, I
suspect, though I am not a judge of learning. I explained, however, that
you are a master of languages, of elegant though subdued deportment,
and I extolled at length your saintly habits. Altogether, I fear there may
have been too much of the virtuoso in my interpretation of you; few
would have recognized from it the gentleman who closed a table at
Monte Carlo and afterwards was closed himself in the handsome and
spectacular fashion I remember with both delight and regret. Briefly, I
lied like a master. He almost had me in the matter of your age; it was
important that you should be middle-aged. I swore that you were at
least thirty-eight, but, owing to exemplary habits, looked very much
younger. The cub himself is twenty-four.
"Hence, if you are really serious and determined not to appeal to your
people, call at once upon Mr. Lambert