me he had been allowed to
do so, and had achieved a moderate success. But a young artist may
achieve a moderate success with a pecuniary result that shall be
almost less than moderate. After a while the sculptor in Rome had
told his son that if he intended to remain in London he ought to do
so on the independent proceeds of his own profession. Isadore, if
he would return to Rome, would be made welcome to join his affairs
to those of his father. In other words, he was to be turned adrift
if he remained in London, and petted with every luxury if he would
consent to follow his art in Italy. But in Rome the father lived
after a fashion which was distasteful to the son. Old Mr. Hamel had
repudiated all conventions. Conventions are apt to go very quickly,
one after another, when the first has been thrown aside. The man who
ceases to dress for dinner soon finds it to be a trouble to wash his
hands. A house is a bore. Calling is a bore. Church is a great bore.
A family is a bore. A wife is an unendurable bore. All laws are
bores, except those by which inferiors can be constrained to do their
work. Mr. Hamel had got rid of a great many bores, and had a strong
opinion that bores prevailed more mightily in London than in Rome.
Isadore was not a bore to him. He was always willing to have Isadore
near to him. But if Isadore chose to enter the conventional mode of
life he must do it at his own expense. It may be said at once that
Isadore's present view of life was very much influenced by Lucy
Dormer, and by a feeling that she certainly was conventional. A small
house, very prettily furnished, somewhat near the Fulham Road, or
perhaps verging a little towards South Kensington, with two maids,
and perhaps an additional one as nurse in the process of some months,
with a pleasant English breakfast and a pleasant English teapot in
the evening, afforded certainly a very conventional aspect of life.
But, at the present moment, it was his aspect, and therefore he could
not go upon all fours with his father. In this state of things there
had, during the last twelvemonth, been more than one journey made
to Rome and back. Ayala had seen him at Rome, and Lady Tringle,
remembering that the man had been intimate with her brother, was
afraid of him. They had made inquiry about him, and had fully
resolved that he should not be allowed into the house if he came
after Ayala. He had no mother,--to speak of; and he had little
brothers and sisters, who a