more or less infallible, noting a line here or an angle
there, was disposed to add ten years to the score. There was in the nose
and chin a certain decisiveness which in true youth is rarely developed.
This characteristic arrives only with manhood, manhood that has been tried
and perhaps buffeted and perchance a little disillusioned. To state that
one is young does not necessarily imply youth; for youth is something that
is truly green and tender, not rounded out, aimless, light-hearted and
desultory, charming and inconsequent. If man regrets his youth it is not
for the passing of these pleasing, though tangled attributes, but rather
because there exists between the two periods of progression a series of
irremediable mistakes. And the subject of this brief commentary could look
back on many a grievous one brought about by pride or carelessness rather
than by intent.

But what was one to do who had both money and leisure linked to an
irresistible desire to leave behind one place or thing in pursuit of
another, indeterminately? At one time he wanted to be an artist, but his
evenly balanced self-criticism had forced him to fling his daubs into the
ash-heap. They were good daubs in a way, but were laid on without fire;
such work as any respectable schoolmarm might have equaled if not
surpassed. Then he had gone in for engineering; but precise and intricate
mathematics required patience of a quality not at his command.

The inherent ambition was to make money; but recognizing the absurdity of
adding to his income, which even in his extravagance he could not spend,
he gave himself over into the hands of grasping railroad and steamship
companies, or their agencies, and became for a time the slave of guide and
dragoman and carrier. And then the wanderlust, descended to him from the
blood of his roving Dutch ancestors, which had lain dormant in the several
generations following, sprang into active life again. He became known in
every port of call. He became known also in the wildernesses. He had
climbed almost inaccessible mountains, in Europe, in Asia; he had fished
and hunted north, east, south and west; he had fitted out polar
expeditions; he had raided the pearl markets; he had made astonishing
gifts to women who had pleased his fancy, but whom he did not know or seek
to know; he had kept some of his intimate friends out of bankruptcy; he
had given the most extravagant dinners at one season and, unknown, had
supported a bre