ed in the apprenticeship of life,
and never reached at all by men not much above their fellows. He who
has it, has "bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his
bonnet in Germany, and his behavior everywhere," for he must know, as a
chart of quicksands, the pronounced models of other nations; but to be
a "picked man of countries," and to _have been_ a coxcomb and a man of
fashion, are, as a painter would say, but the setting of the palette
toward the making of the _chef-d'oeoeuvre_.

Business prospered, and the facilities of leisure increased, while
Ballister passed through these transitions of taste, and he found
intervals to travel, and time to read, and opportunity to indulge, as
far as he could with the eye only, his passion for knowledge in the
arts. To all that appertained to the refinement of himself, he applied
the fine feelers of a delicate and passionate construction, physical
and mental, and, as the reader will already have included, wasted on
culture comparatively unprofitable, faculties that would have been
better employed but for the meddling of Miss Fanny Bellairs.

* * * * *

Ballister's return from France was heralded by the arrival of statuary
and pictures, books, furniture, and numberless articles of tasteful and
costly luxury. The reception of these by the family at home threw
rather a new light on the probable changes in the long-absent brother,
for, from the signal success of the business he had managed, they had
very naturally supposed that it was the result only of unremitted and
plodding care. Vague rumors of changes in his personal appearance had
reached them, such as might be expected from conformity to foreign
fashions, but those who had seen Philip Ballister in France, and called
subsequently on the family in New York, were not people qualified to
judge of the man, either from their own powers of observation or from
any confidence he was likely to put forward while in their society. His
letters had been delightful, but they were confined to third-person
topics, descriptions of things likely to interest them, etc., and Fanny
had few addressed personally to herself, having thought it worth while,
for the experiment sake, or for some other reason, to see whether love
would subsist without it usual _pabulum_ of tender correspondence, and
a _veto_ on love-letters having served her for a parting injunction at
Phil's embarkation for Havre. Howeve