The Beautiful Lady | Page 9

I
want. You're old enough and you've seen enough, and you know
enough to keep one fool boy in order for six months."
So frankly he spoke of his son, yet not without affection and
confidence. Before I left, he sent for the youth himself, Lambert R.
Poor, Jr.,--not at all a Caliban, but a most excellent-appearing, tall
gentleman, of astonishingly meek countenance. He gave me a sad, slow
look from his blue eyes at first; then with a brightening smile he gently
shook my hand, murmuring that he was very glad in the prospect of

knowing me better; after which the parent defined before him, with
singular elaboration, my duties. I was to correct all things in his
behaviour which I considered improper or absurd. I was to dictate the
line of travel, to have a restraining influence upon expenditures; in brief,
to control the young man as a governess does a child.
To all of his parent's instructions Poor Jr. returned a dutiful nod and
expressed perfect acquiescence. The following day the elder sailed
from Cherbourg, and I took up my quarters with the son.



Chapter Four
It is with the most extreme mortification that I record my ensuing
experiences, for I felt that I could not honourably accept my salary
without earning it by carrying out the parent Poor's wishes. That first
morning I endeavoured to direct my pupil's steps toward the Musee de
Cluny, with the purpose of inciting him to instructive study; but in the
mildest, yet most immovable manner, he proposed Longchamps and
the races as a substitute, to conclude with dinner at La Cascade and
supper at Maxim's or the Cafe' Blanche, in case we should meet
engaging company. I ventured the vainest efforts to reason with him,
making for myself a very uncomfortable breakfast, though without
effect upon him of any visibility. His air was uninterruptedly mild and
modest; he rarely lifted his eyes, but to my most earnest argument
replied only by ordering more eggs and saying in a chastened voice:
"Oh no; it is always best to begin school with a vacation. To
Longchamps--we!"
I should say at once that through this young man I soon became an
amateur of the remarkable North-American idioms, of humour and
incomparable brevities often more interesting than those evolved by the

thirteen or more dialects of my own Naples. Even at our first breakfast
I began to catch lucid glimpses of the intention in many of his almost
incomprehensible statements. I was able, even, to penetrate his
meaning when he said that although he was "strong for aged parent," he
himself had suffered much anguish from overwork of the "earnest
youth racquette" in his late travels, and now desired to "create
considerable trouble for Paris."
Naturally, I did not wish to begin by antagonizing my pupil -- an
estrangement at the commencement would only lead to his deceiving
me, or a continued quarrel, in which case I should be of no service to
my kind patron, so that after a strained interval I considered it best to
surrender.
We went to Longchamps.
That was my first mistake; the second was to yield to him concerning
the latter part of his programme; but opposition to Mr. Poor, Jr. had a
curious effect of inutility. He had not in the least the air of
obstinacy,--nothing could have been less like rudeness; he neither
frowned not smiled; no, he did not seem even to be insisting; on the
contrary, never have I beheld a milder countenance, nor heard a
pleasanter voice; yet the young man was so completely baffling in his
mysterious way that I considered him unique to my experience.
Thus, when I urged him not to place large wagers in the pesage, his
whispered reply was strange and simple--"Watch me!" This he
conclusively said as he deposited another thousand-franc note, which,
within a few moments, accrued to the French government.
Longchamps was but the beginning of a series of days and nights which
wore upon my constitution--not indeed with the intensity of
mortification which my former conspicuosity had engendered, yet my
sorrows were stringent. It is true that I had been, since the age of
seventeen, no stranger to the gaieties and dissipations afforded by the
capitals of Europe; I may say I had exhausted these, yet always with
some degree of quiet, including intervals of repose. I was tired of all the
great foolishnesses of youth, and had thought myself done with them.

Now I found myself plunged into more uproarious waters than I had
ever known I, who had hoped to begin a life of usefulness and peace,
was forced to dwell in the midst of a riot, pursuing my extraordinary
charge.
There is no need that I should describe those days and