into its own again.

In the meantime he was continuing his passional relations with Angela,
in spite of a growing judgment that they were in some way harmful to
him. But it was not easy to refrain, and each failure to do so made it
harder. It was a customary remark of his that "he must quit this," but
it was like the self-apologetic assurance of the drunkard that he must
reform.

Now that he had stepped out into the limelight of public
observation--now that artists and critics and writers somewhat knew of
him, and in their occasional way were wondering what he was doing, it
was necessary that he should bestir himself to especial effort in order
to satisfy the public as to the enduring quality of his art. He was
glad, once he realized that he was in for a siege of bad weather, that
his Paris drawings had been so nearly completed before the break came.
By the day he suffered the peculiar nervousness which seemed to mark the
opening of his real decline, he had completed twenty-two paintings,
which Angela begged him not to touch; and by sheer strength of will,
though he misdoubted gravely, he managed to complete five more. All of
these M. Charles came to see on occasion, and he approved of them
highly. He was not so sure that they would have the appeal of the
American pictures, for after all the city of Paris had been pretty well
done over and over in illustration and genre work. It was not so new as
New York; the things Eugene chose were not as unconventional. Still, he
could say truly they were exceptional. They might try an exhibition of
them later in Paris if they did not take here. He was very sorry to see
that Eugene was in poor health and urged him to take care of himself.

It seemed as if some malign planetary influence were affecting him.
Eugene knew of astrology and palmistry and one day, in a spirit of
curiosity and vague apprehensiveness, consulted a practitioner of the
former, receiving for his dollar the statement that he was destined to
great fame in either art or literature but that he was entering a period
of stress which would endure for a number of years. Eugene's spirits
sank perceptibly. The musty old gentleman who essayed his books of
astrological lore shook his head. He had a rather noble growth of white
hair and a white beard, but his coffee-stained vest was covered with
tobacco ash and his collar and cuffs were dirty.

"It looks pretty bad between your twenty-eighth and your thirty-second
years