He
is a man open to every influence, and not always governed by the best
influences. I saw a good deal of him when I was last in Paris, and I saw
him most in the fastest society, amongst people who petted him for the
sake of his genius and vivacity, but who would turn their backs upon him
to-morrow if he were no longer able to amuse them; the set into which an
artist is so apt to fall when his home influences are not strong enough to
keep him steady, and when he has that lurking disposition to Bohemianism
which has been the bane of your brother's life. I speak entirely without
reserve, you see."
"I am grateful to you for doing so. Poor Austin! if he had only chosen more
wisely! But his wife is fond of him, you say?"
"Too fond of him, perhaps; for she is very much given to torment him
with jealous outbreaks; and he is not a man to take that sort of thing
pleasantly. She does not go into society with him: indeed, I doubt if
half-a-dozen out of the people whom he lives amongst know that he has a
wife. I found his social position considerably improved; thanks to your
remittances, no doubt. He was still in the Rue du Chevalier Bayard--as, of
course, you know--but had moved a stage lower down, and had furnished a
painting-room in the stereotyped style--Flemish carved buffets, dingy
tapestry from a passage behind the Rue Richelieu, and a sprinkling of
bric-a-brac from the Quai Voltaire.
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