Authors -- Fiction; Human-alien encounters -- Fiction; Martians -- Fiction; Paris (France) -- Fiction; Young men -- Fiction
Lady Caroline and Daphne and Barty between them added considerably
to the gayety of Düsseldorf that summer--especially when Royces and
Reeces and Duffs and such like people came there from Riffrath to
lunch, or tea, or dinner, or for walks or drives or rides to
Grafenberg or Neanderthal, or steamboatings to Neuss.
There were one or two other English families in Düsseldorf, living
there for economy's sake, but yet of the world--of the kind that got
to be friends with the Rohans; half-pay old soldiers and sailors and
their families, who introduced agreeable and handsome Uhlans and
hussars--from their Serene Highnesses the Princes Fritz and Hans von
Eselbraten--Himmelsblutwürst--Silberschinken, each passing rich on
£200 a year, down to poor Lieutenants von this or von that, with
nothing but their pay and their thirty-two quarterings.
Also a few counts and barons, and princes not serene, but with fine
German fortunes looming for them in the future, though none
amounting to £1000 a day, like little Lord Orrisroot's!
Soon there was hardly a military heart left whole in the town; Julia
had eaten them all up, except one or two that had been unconsciously
nibbled by little Daphne.
Barty did not join in these aristocratic revels; he had become a
pupil of Herr Duffenthaler, and worked hard in his master's studio
with two brothers of the brush--one English, the other American;
delightful men who remained his friends for life.
Indeed, he lived among the painters, who all got to love "der schöne
Barty Josselin" like a brother.
Now and then, of an evening, being much pressed by his aunt, he
would show himself at a small party in Schadow Strasse, and sing and
be funny, and attentive to the ladies, and render himself discreetly
useful and agreeable all round--and make that party go off. Lady
Caroline would have been far happier had he lived with them
altogether. But she felt herself responsible for her innocent and
wealthy little niece.
It was an article of faith with Lady Caroline that no normal and
properly constituted young woman could see much of Barty without
falling over head and ears in love with him--and this would never do
for Daphne. Besides, they were first-cousins. So she acquiesced in
the independence of his life apart from them. She was not
responsible for the divine Julia, who might fall in love with him
just as she pleased, and welcome! That was Lady Jane's lookout, and
Captain Graham-Reece's.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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