The Europeans | Page 6

believe it. I adore you, dear sister! I am
delighted to be here, and I am charmed with the prospect."
"I don't know what had taken possession of me. I had lost my head,"
Eugenia went on.
The young man, on his side, went on plying his pencil. "It is evidently a
most curious and interesting country. Here we are, and I mean to enjoy
it."
His companion turned away with an impatient step, but presently came
back. "High spirits are doubtless an excellent thing," she said; "but you
give one too much of them, and I can't see that they have done you any
good."
The young man stared, with lifted eyebrows, smiling; he tapped his
handsome nose with his pencil. "They have made me happy!"
"That was the least they could do; they have made you nothing else.
You have gone through life thanking fortune for such very small favors
that she has never put herself to any trouble for you."
"She must have put herself to a little, I think, to present me with so
admirable a sister."
"Be serious, Felix. You forget that I am your elder."
"With a sister, then, so elderly!" rejoined Felix, laughing. "I hoped we
had left seriousness in Europe."
"I fancy you will find it here. Remember that you are nearly thirty years
old, and that you are nothing but an obscure Bohemian-- a penniless
correspondent of an illustrated newspaper."
"Obscure as much as you please, but not so much of a Bohemian as you
think. And not at all penniless! I have a hundred pounds in my pocket. I
have an engagement to make fifty sketches, and I mean to paint the

portraits of all our cousins, and of all their cousins, at a hundred dollars
a head."
"You are not ambitious," said Eugenia.
"You are, dear Baroness," the young man replied.
The Baroness was silent a moment, looking out at the sleet-darkened
grave-yard and the bumping horse-cars. "Yes, I am ambitious," she said
at last. "And my ambition has brought me to this dreadful place!" She
glanced about her-- the room had a certain vulgur nudity; the bed and
the window were curtainless-- and she gave a little passionate sigh.
"Poor old ambition!" she exclaimed. Then she flung herself down upon
a sofa which stood near against the wall, and covered her face with her
hands.
Her brother went on with his drawing, rapidly and skillfully; after some
moments he sat down beside her and showed her his sketch. "Now,
don't you think that 's pretty good for an obscure Bohemian?" he asked.
"I have knocked off another fifty francs."
Eugenia glanced at the little picture as he laid it on her lap. "Yes, it is
very clever," she said. And in a moment she added, "Do you suppose
our cousins do that?"
"Do what?"
"Get into those things, and look like that."
Felix meditated awhile. "I really can't say. It will be interesting to
discover."
"Oh, the rich people can't!" said the Baroness.
"Are you very sure they are rich?" asked Felix, lightly.
His sister slowly turned in her place, looking at him. "Heavenly
powers!" she murmured. "You have a way of bringing out things!"

"It will certainly be much pleasanter if they are rich," Felix declared.
"Do you suppose if I had not known they were rich I would ever have
come?"
The young man met his sister's somewhat peremptory eye with his
bright, contented glance. "Yes, it certainly will be pleasanter," he
repeated.
"That is all I expect of them," said the Baroness. "I don't count upon
their being clever or friendly--at first--or elegant or interesting. But I
assure you I insist upon their being rich."
Felix leaned his head upon the back of the sofa and looked awhile at
the oblong patch of sky to which the window served as frame. The
snow was ceasing; it seemed to him that the sky had begun to brighten.
"I count upon their being rich," he said at last, "and powerful, and
clever, and friendly, and elegant, and interesting, and generally
delightful! Tu vas voir." And he bent forward and kissed his sister.
"Look there!" he went on. "As a portent, even while I speak, the sky is
turning the color of gold; the day is going to be splendid."
And indeed, within five minutes the weather had changed. The sun
broke out through the snow-clouds and jumped into the Baroness's
room. "Bonte divine," exclaimed this lady, "what a climate!"
"We will go out and see the world," said Felix.
And after a while they went out. The air had grown warm as well as
brilliant; the sunshine had dried the pavements. They walked about the
streets at hazard, looking at the people and the houses, the shops and
the