rakishness of his appearance was set off by a youthful costume; he
had disreputable grey hair and a disreputable sore, red nose; but the
coat and the gesture, the outworks of the man, were still designed for
show. Dick came up to his table and inquired if he might look at what
the gentleman was doing. No one was so delighted as the Admiral.

"A bit of a thing," said he. "I just dash them off like that. I--I dash
them off," he added, with a gesture.

"Quite so," said Dick, who was appalled by the feebleness of the
production.

"Understand me," continued Van Tromp; "I am a man of the world. And
yet--once an artist always an artist. All of a sudden a thought takes me
in the street; I become its prey; it's like a pretty woman; no use to
struggle; I must--dash it off."

"I see," said Dick.

"Yes," pursued the painter; "it all comes easily, easily to me; it is
not my business; it's a pleasure. Life is my business--life--this great
city, Paris--Paris after dark--its lights, its gardens, its odd corners.
Aha!" he cried, "to be young again! The heart is young, but the heels
are leaden. A poor, mean business, to grow old! Nothing remains but the
_coup d'oeil_, the contemplative man's enjoyment, Mr. ----," and he
paused for the name.

"Naseby," returned Dick.

The other treated him at once to an exciting beverage, and expatiated on
the pleasure of meeting a compatriot in a foreign land; to hear him, you
would have thought they had encountered in Central Africa. Dick had
never found any one take a fancy to him so readily, nor show it in an
easier or less offensive manner. He seemed tickled with him as an
elderly fellow about town might be tickled by a pleasant and witty lad;
he indicated that he was no precisian, but in his wildest times had
never been such a blade as he thought Dick. Dick protested, but in vain.
This manner of carrying an intimacy at the bayonet's point was Van
Tromp's stock-in-trade. With an older man he insinuated himself; with
youth he imposed himself, and in the same breath imposed an ideal on his
victim, who saw that he must work up to it or lose the esteem of this
old and vicious patron. And what young man can bear to lose a character
for vice?

As last, as it grew towards dinner-time, "Do you know Paris?" asked Van
Tromp.

"Not so well as you, I am convinced," said Dick.

"And so am I," returned Van Tromp gaily. "Paris! My young friend--you
will allow me?--when you know Paris as I do, you will