dish enthusiasm for luxury and show which sprang,
perhaps, from the fact that in her youth she had not enjoyed the social
opportunities which she needed and longed for. He felt sorry for her.
At the same time he was inclined to feel that perhaps now another type
of woman would be better for him socially. If he had a harder type,
one with keener artistic perceptions and a penchant for just the right
social touch or note, how much better he would do! He came home
bringing a Perugino, brilliant examples of Luini, Previtali, and
Pinturrichio (this last a portrait of Caesar Borgia), which he picked
up in Italy, to say nothing of two red African vases of great size that
he found in Cairo, a tall gilt Louis Fifteenth standard of carved wood
that he discovered in Rome, two ornate candelabra from Venice for his
walls, and a pair of Italian torcheras from Naples to decorate the
corners of his library. It was thus by degrees that his art collection
was growing.

At the same time it should be said, in the matter of women and the sex
question, his judgment and views had begun to change tremendously. When
he had first met Aileen he had many keen intuitions regarding life and
sex, and above all clear faith that he had a right to do as he pleased.
Since he had been out of prison and once more on his upward way there
had been many a stray glance cast in his direction; he had so often had
it clearly forced upon him that he was fascinating to women. Although
he had only so recently acquired Aileen legally, yet she was years old
to him as a mistress, and the first engrossing--it had been almost
all-engrossing--enthusiasm was over. He loved her not only for her
beauty, but for her faithful enthusiasm; but the power of others to
provoke in him a momentary interest, and passion even, was something
which he did not pretend to understand, explain, or moralize about. So
it was and so he was. He did not want to hurt Aileen's feelings by
letting her know that his impulses thus wantonly strayed to others, but
so it was.

Not long after he had returned from the European trip he stopped one
afternoon in the one exclusive drygoods store in State Street to
purchase a tie. As he was entering a woman crossed the aisle before
him, from one counter to another--a type of woman which he was coming
to admire, but only from a rather distant point of view, seeing them
going here and there in the world. She was a dashing type, essentially
smart and tr