re types and was constantly
drawing something which represented grim care. Aside from the dancers in
the music halls, the toughs, in what later became known as the Apache
district, the summer picnicking parties at Versailles and St. Cloud, the
boat crowds on the Seine, he drew factory throngs, watchmen and railroad
crossings, market people, market in the dark, street sweepers, newspaper
vendors, flower merchants, always with a memorable street scene in the
background. Some of the most interesting bits of Paris, its towers,
bridges, river views, facades, appeared in backgrounds to the grim or
picturesque or pathetic character studies. It was his hope that he could
interest America in these things--that his next exhibition would not
only illustrate his versatility and persistence of talent, but show an
improvement in his art, a surer sense of color values, a greater
analytical power in the matter of character, a surer selective taste in
the matter of composition and arrangement. He did not realize that all
this might be useless--that he was, aside from his art, living a life
which might rob talent of its finest flavor, discolor the aspect of the
world for himself, take scope from imagination and hamper effort with
nervous irritation, and make accomplishment impossible. He had no
knowledge of the effect of one's sexual life upon one's work, nor what
such a life when badly arranged can do to a perfect art--how it can
distort the sense of color, weaken that balanced judgment of character
which is so essential to a normal interpretation of life, make all
striving hopeless, take from art its most joyous conception, make life
itself seem unimportant and death a relief.

CHAPTER IX

The summer passed, and with it the freshness and novelty of Paris,
though Eugene never really wearied of it. The peculiarities of a
different national life, the variations between this and his own country
in national ideals, an obviously much more complaisant and human
attitude toward morals, a matter-of-fact acceptance of the ills,
weaknesses and class differences, to say nothing of the general physical
appearance, the dress, habitations and amusements of the people,
astonished as much as they entertained him. He was never weary of
studying the differences between American and European architecture,
noting the pacific manner in which the Frenchman appeared to take life,
listening to Angela's unwearied comments on the cleanliness, economy,