at Worth's in Paris."

Frederick felt drawn up-stairs to Hahlstroem. The man's past as Stoss
described it was at that moment a matter of indifference to him. But
Stoss's remark about the asses some people are willing to make of
themselves sent a fleeting red to his face.

Arthur Stoss grew more and more communicative. He sat like an ape, a
resemblance impossible to avoid when a man uses his feet instead of his
hands. When he had finished his meal, he stuck a cigar in his mouth, like
any other gentleman. In him the likeness to an ape was accentuated by the
breadth and flatness of his nose and the formation of his heavy jaws. He
looked like a fair-skinned orang-outang. However, his high, broad
forehead gave him the mark of the human intellect. He had no beard, that
is, he had never in his life, probably, had to remove a hair from his
parchmenty, freckled, yellow skin. His cheek bones were prominent, and
his head unusually large. Though his general appearance made a most
energetic, by no means effeminate impression, there still was something
eunuch-like about it, the high pitch of his voice adding to this
impression. While casting about for an opportunity to escape the
monster's spell, Frederick was nevertheless deeply interested in him from
a medical and anthropological standpoint. The man, without doubt, was an
extremely instructive specimen of abnormality. His facies was that of an
intermediate sexual stage.

"People like Hahlstroem," he continued, "are actually not worthy of the
healthy limbs with which God endowed them. Of course, even if one has a
figure like a statue by Myron, it is awkward if there is too little up
here"--he tapped his forehead. "That is what is the trouble with
Hahlstroem. There is too little up here. Look at me. I don't say
everybody, but at least nine out of ten, in my position would have
succumbed as a child. Instead of that, I have a wife, I own a villa in
the Kahlenberg Mountains, I support three children of my step-brother and
an older sister of my wife, who was a singer and lost her voice. I am
absolutely independent. I remain on the stage because I want to bring
my wealth up to a certain point. If the _Roland_ were to sink to-day,
I could go down with perfect equanimity. I have done my work. I have
invested my money at a high rate of interest. My wife, my wife's sister,
and my step-brother's children are all provided for."

The actor's attendant appeared, to help his master to his cabi