Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-02-15


Paris suited his cynical temper at eight-and-
twenty; city through which the whole civil
lied world passed and repassed; the vestibule
of Europe, the playground of America; q city
the life drama could have ample opportunity
to study the varieties Of mankind, nationalities
professions, wealth and penury
Mr.. Florestan had a fourth floor In the
Champs Elysees, an apartment which he spoke
of loosely as his bower. Nomnally the fourth,
it was practically the fifth floor, and the bal
cony commanded bird's-eye view Of the city.
vast panorama Of white walls and gray and
red roofs, through which wound the serpentine
folds of the dark blue river
Although the rooms were SO near the roof
they were spacious and lofty and we're fur
nished with some taste. Florestan's own be-
longlngs, books. pictures, photographs, bronZes
and curlos, giving an air of comfort and indi-
vlduality to the conventional Louis Seize suite
OF tapestrled easy chairs and sofas. ebony
tables and cabinets The rooms comprised an
ante room, where three large palms and a
Turkish divan suggested Oriental luxury. and
which served as a waiting room for tradesmen
and troublesome visitors of all kinds, library,
where he dlned on the very rare occasions
when he dined at home, a small smoking room
adjoining, and a spacious bed room. with dress
ing and bath room attached.
Here Gilbert Florestan lived his own life. re-
ceiyed the few intimate friends he cared about
and shut out all the great category of bores.
In the polite world of Paris he was known as a
wel!-born Enghshman whose commanding
presence and handsome face were distinctly
ornamental IN any salon, and he welcomed
accordingly with Partisan effusion, which he
knew meant very little. In the demi-monde
he was known young man who had out
lived his illusions. and in that half world he
was a more important figure than in the salons
of the great. 1t must be owned that he had
preference for Bohemian society, with all its
accidents and varieties its brilliant regulations
of today. its sudden disappearances of tomor-
row, its frank revelations its absence of all re-
serve.
He painted cleverly, in sketchy STYLE after
the manner of the impressonists. and he was
very fond of art. Music and the drama had
also an inexhaustible charm for him and he
loved those Out-Of-the-way hooks and corners
of the art world where dwell the men and
women whose talents have won but scanty ap-
probation from the great public and who have
never been spoiled or Phillistinized by large
monetary rewards.
Directly an artist gets rich there Is a divine
fire goes out of him." said Florestan. ..All the
spontaneity and the daring which made him
great is paralyzed by the greed of gain. He
no longer obeys the irst impulses OF his genius
the real inspiration, but he sits down to con-
slider what will pay best; the thing good or
bad, true or false, which will bring him in the
most solid cash. He strives no longer TO real
lze his ideal. He studies the market and paints
or writes or cOmpOseS for that, and so dies
ders and flies to the traders studio, for once
bitten with the desire to make money the artist
sinks to the level of the trader. He is no bet
ter than the middleman with his shop on the
boulevard and his talent for reclame."
There is plenty of unrewarded talent in the
great city OF Paris; and amongst painters and
composers who had never reached the mOnoto-
nous table land of prosperity. amongst journal
lists. poets and vaudevillistS. Gilbert Florestan
found little world which was Bohemian with
out being vicious. but which occasionally opened
its doors 10 certain stars of the demi-monde
who would hardly have been received in the
great houses of the Faubourg st. German or
the FaubOurG St. HOnore.
1t was at a musical evening on a third floor
IN the Rue des Saints Peres that FIOrestan met
two women In whom he felt keeniy interested
at first sight. They were mother and daughter
The mother was distinguished looking and had
once been handsome; the daughter was emf
nently beautiful They were Spaniards ma
tlves OF Grenada. The elder lady described
herself as the widow of a general officer. Felix
QuIJdda, VINO died when her only child, Do
lores. was an infant. She had migrated to
Paris soon after her husbands heath and had
lived there ever since. Mother and daughter
were both dressed in black, with an elegant
simplicity which did not forbid the use of a
great deal of valuable lace and Florestan noted
that the elder lady wore diamond solitaire ear
rings. and the younger a collet necklace which
would not have mlsDeseeIned the throat OF a
duchess.
Nowhere, however. could diamonds have
shown to greater advantage than Oil the ivory
whlteness of Mile. Dolores di Quijld swan
like neck. Nowhere had FlOrestan seen love
her complexion or finer eyes: but that which
attracted him most in the Spanish girls face
was her resemblance to the woman he had
loved, the woman who had deceived him and
well-nlgh broken his heart He was interested
IN her at first sight. and he begged to be intro
duced to her and her mother
Ihey received him with cordiality. perhaps
because he was the handSomest and most aris-
notwithstanding man in an assembly where art
was strongly represented by long hair and
weli-worn dress-cOats on the part of the men
and by eccentric toilets and picturesque heads
on the part OF the women. Madame Duturuue
the glver of the party was tine wife of a must
cal man who had written Il successful opera
twenty years before, succeeded by several I'M
successful ones. and who now made a some
what scanty living by giving pianofOrte lessons
and publishing occasional compositions which
he fondly believed to be as good as Chopin's
best work, but which were rarely PLAYED by
anybody except his own pupils
Clever people, musical or otherwise, liked
good-natured little Madame Duturdue' s parties
and as she did not inquire too closely into the
anteceGents OF any well hammered and pretty
woman who sought her acquaintance people
were met III her salon who were not without
histories and whose whole existence WAS in
sOmewlse mysterious and only to be guessed at
The Spanish beauty ard ner mother were ac-
cldental acquaintance, met at Bouiogne-sur-
Mer the previous summer.