ver since he had been a boy of eighteen,
constituted the breath of his nostrils, the one spring from which he
drew his love of life and his desire to live. Immaculate in his dress,
adequately cultivated and intellectual in his speech, and carefully
punctilious in the adoption of such amateur pursuits as would be likely
to give him the stamp of artistic connoisseurship, he had until now
employed his ample income principally in furnishing his extensive
wardrobe, in collecting old books and prints, and in giving his chambers
that appearance of _outre_ refinement, which was calculated to force his
friends to certain inevitable conclusions concerning both his means and
the extent of his aesthetic development.

In the circumstances, therefore, it was difficult for him to regard the
addition to his income, which Sir Joseph had suddenly thought fit to
make, as anything more than a fresh means of indulging his various whims
to an even greater degree than he had indulged them heretofore,--those
whims which had by now become almost driving passions to the exclusion
of all else;--and he was certainly not in the least disposed to take
Sir Joseph at his word, and to embark upon that undertaking which he
knew would put an abrupt end to all the careless dalliance in which his
clothes, his fastidious speech, and his parade of artistic
discrimination played so effective a part.

Such were the thoughts that occupied his mind as he made his way from
Lombard Street to his rooms in Essex Court; and by the time he had
dressed for dinner and was waiting for a cab in the Strand, a look of
fixed determination had settled on his face which was indicative of the
firm resolve he had made.

In any case Sir Joseph could not expect him to marry immediately. For a
while yet, therefore, he would continue to enjoy the life so full of
secret triumphs which he had succeeded in leading ever since he had
entered the house of Bullion & Bullion, and from this day with the
additional pleasures that his increased income would allow. Had he not
been told by Mrs. Delarayne herself that a man should not marry until
flappers had ceased to turn round to get a second look at him in the
street? And was there not something profoundly wise in this advice,
although it had been pronounced in one of the old lady's most flippant
moods? A smile of complacent well-being spread slowly over his features
as he recalled this remark, and the last endorsement was mentally
affixed