"It is easy to see that you have been abroad for some years and are just returned among us, or you would hardly ask such a question. Leo von Heydeck's picture, at our art exhibition last spring, a full-length of his wife, established his reputation as an artist, and he is besides one of the wealthiest men in our city. His wife, who was a Fräulein Schommer, was a great heiress. But he is an eccentric fellow in spite of his wealth. His habits are as simple as if he were obliged to work with his brush for his living, and he persists in his eccentricities, although his father the old colonel, whom you saw just now seated beside Frau von Heydeck, is highly indignant with him for doing so. Leo von Heydeck is not an amateur artist; art is his profession. He sells his pictures, which command very high prices, and supports himself entirely upon the proceeds of his profession, never making any use of his wife's income. You never even see him in her brilliant equipage. If you like, and do not mind paying a high price, you can order your portrait of him." "Very odd! And what does his wife say to these whims?" "Oh, she adores him! I verily believe she would like to throw her wealth to the winds and struggle along with him as the wife of a poor artist. It is owing entirely to her that old Colonel von Heydeck, Leo's father, who has always held in sovereign contempt all daubers who support themselves by the work of their hands, and who was furious at his son's ways, is nevertheless reconciled to him. The old fellow could not withstand the charms of his lovely daughter-in-law, who is ready to gratify his every whim. He is fairly in love with her himself, and has given up his love of retirement, taking up his abode in her charming villa, and living in perfect concord with her and her old uncle, Balthasar Schommer. He drives with her daily, and she has so thoroughly tamed the old bear that he consents to visit his son's studio frequently, and even begins to be proud of his work." "They must be very remarkable people. I am more curious than ever to know them, and I rely upon your promise to present me to Frau von Heydeck." "I will do what I can, but as I told you, the Heydecks are very exclusive." "They do not entertain, then?" "A small circle, frequently. There is no house in the city where I have had pleasanter evenings than at theirs, although they never give large parties. Leo is a queer fellow; he hates grand entertainments, and is happy only in the society of his intimates, artists, and men of science. In these tastes he is upheld by his friend and cousin, the wealthy Herr Delmar, and by another friend and former comrade, a Herr von Herwarth, with all of whom he and his wife are upon terms of the greatest intimacy." "Who is this Delmar? Bourgeois, I suppose; some relative of the lovely Frau von Heydeck?"