seductive
prevision of material joys that had risen before him at the studio at
that moment of physical weakness was being literally realised, almost
comically so. There on the immense mahogany sideboard stood bottles and
decanters galore, and now up came the middle of salmon with a piquant
sauce accompanying it! God! how delicious it tasted, after all these
months of bread and cheese! Wine gave him inspiration, and food the
strength to live up to the role they were allotting to him. He was
good-looking and knew it; his voice, his bearing, his choice of words,
were alike distinguished; his experiences were of worlds that were to
them far-seeming and romantic. He was the sort of hero they had read
about in novels--a handsome guardsman nonchalantly looking in at a Park
Lane dance at midnight, or a brilliant attache to an embassy in touch
with wonderful horizons.

Meanwhile the supply of dainty food continued; a leg of lamb, spinach,
fat, luscious asparagus, a melon from a Southern clime, a chicken, and
the juiciest of French lettuces. The hock was of the most delicate, the
champagne subtle and sparkling. Even so he felt himself sparkling in the
eyes of the others. He was the lion to whom all this homage was his
rightful due, holding them fascinated with his wide knowledge of men and
cities, of social life in European capitals. He drew upon his wanderings
in by-ways known only of artists; fascinated them with sketches of the
art life of Rome and Paris. Reminiscences bubbled up of his student
days, and with them were mingled deft touches of Eton and Oxford, and
charming cameos of county life; this last developing insensibly into
discussions of Anglo-Saxon character, its comparison with the Latin,
relative estimations of intelligence, industry, ambition. Mr. Robinson
here had many shrewd observations to offer, for they had now wandered
into the domain of affairs. Wyndham was genuinely interested in his
host's experiences, in his accounts of unusual men of business from
strange, even barbarous parts of the world, with whom he had had
personal relations. They even touched upon financial operations; and
Wyndham felt perfectly at ease amid complications in which millions were
bandied about like tennis-balls, and the credit of banks and States was
pawned as simply and swiftly as he might pawn his own watch. At last,
over the dessert, there was a perceptible slackening. Wyndham, who so
far had taken care not to let his eye rest on