at the Louvre gazing
rapt from various angles at that glorious piece of statuary the Venus
of Milo. His knowledge of history made his visit to the glittering
palace of Louis XIV at Versailles an undiluted pleasure. Fascinated by
the genius of Napoleon, he spent a long time at the Invalides gazing
down on the sarcophagus within which the conqueror of Europe sleeps
his last sleep.

Later in the year he and two other Dulwich boys arranged to spend
three weeks of the summer vacation in the house of a professor at
Rouen. They were to have left London on the second week in August.
This hopeful project was frustrated by the rude shock of war.

CHAPTER VIII

MUSIC

_Music is a kind of inarticulate, unfathomable speech, which leads us
to the edge of the Infinite, and lets us for moments gaze into that._

CARLYLE.

Paul began the study of music at an early age. He had natural aptitude
for it and an unerring ear. As a little boy he used to sing with much
expression in a sweet, clear voice. He received great assistance from
his mother in his musical studies. After he had turned fifteen, music
became one of his main interests. Indeed, if we except football, it
was his master passion, and, unlike football, it could be pursued
throughout the year. Whenever his scholastic studies and his athletic
activities permitted, he would spend his leisure at the piano. With
characteristic thoroughness he studied the lives as well as the works
of the great composers. During the Grand Opera season he was a
frequent visitor to Covent Garden Theatre and the performances of the
_Nibelungen Ring_ were for him a fountain of pure delight. He was also
a regular attendant with his mother at the Queen's Hall and Albert
Hall concerts. Ballad singing did not appeal to him in the same degree
as operatic and orchestral music. Thanks to instinctive gifts and
assiduous practice he became a scholarly and an accomplished musician.
A brilliant pianist, his playing was marked by power and passion, and
the colour and glow of an intense and sensitive personality. He could
memorise the most intricate composition, and would play for hours
without a note. Music was almost a religion with him: he found in it
solace, joy, inspiration.

Above all other musicians, he reverenced Beethoven and Wagner. For
Beethoven's music, with its spiritualised emotion and divine
harmonies, his admiration knew no bounds.