y had hired the apartment
from a painter (one of their newest discoveries), and they put up
philosophically with the absence of modern conveniences in order to
secure the inestimable advantage of "atmosphere." In this privileged
air they gathered about them their usual mixed company of quiet
studious people and noisy exponents of new theories, themselves totally
unconscious of the disparity between their different guests, and
beamingly convinced that at last they were seated at the source of
wisdom.

In old days Lansing would have got half an hour's amusement, followed
by a long evening of boredom, from the sight of Mrs. Hicks, vast and
jewelled, seated between a quiet-looking professor of archaeology and a
large-browed composer, or the high priest of a new dance-step, while
Mr. Hicks, beaming above his vast white waistcoat, saw to it that the
champagne flowed more abundantly than the talk, and the bright young
secretaries industriously "kept up" with the dizzy cross-current of
prophecy and erudition. But a change had come over Lansing. Hitherto
it was in contrast to his own friends that the Hickses had seemed most
insufferable; now it was as an escape from these same friends that they
had become not only sympathetic but even interesting. It was something,
after all, to be with people who did not regard Venice simply as
affording exceptional opportunities for bathing and adultery, but who
were reverently if confusedly aware that they were in the presence of
something unique and ineffable, and determined to make the utmost of
their privilege.

"After all," he said to himself one evening, as his eyes wandered, with
somewhat of a convalescent's simple joy, from one to another of their
large confiding faces, "after all, they've got a religion...." The
phrase struck him, in the moment of using it, as indicating a new
element in his own state of mind, and as being, in fact, the key to his
new feeling about the Hickses. Their muddled ardour for great things
was related to his own new view of the universe: the people who felt,
however dimly, the wonder and weight of life must ever after be nearer
to him than those to whom it was estimated solely by one's balance at
the bank. He supposed, on reflexion, that that was what he meant when he
thought of the Hickses as having "a religion"....

A few days later, his well-being was unexpectedly disturbed by the
arrival of Fred Gillow. Lansing had always felt a tolerant liking for
Gi