“Yes, yes—­a profession!” cried Felix sympathetically.

“But, as I understand it, Madame Munster is a married woman.”

“Ah,” said Felix, smiling, “of course she can’t marry him.  But she will do what she can.”

Mr. Wentworth sat for some time with his eyes on the floor; at last he got up.  “I don’t think,” he said, “that I can undertake to recommend my son any such course.”  And without meeting Felix’s surprised glance he broke off his sitting, which was not resumed for a fortnight.

Felix was very fond of the little lake which occupied so many of Mr. Wentworth’s numerous acres, and of a remarkable pine grove which lay upon the further side of it, planted upon a steep embankment and haunted by the summer breeze.  The murmur of the air in the far off tree-tops had a strange distinctness; it was almost articulate.  One afternoon the young man came out of his painting-room and passed the open door of Eugenia’s little salon.  Within, in the cool dimness, he saw his sister, dressed in white, buried in her arm-chair, and holding to her face an immense bouquet.  Opposite to her sat Clifford Wentworth, twirling his hat.  He had evidently just presented the bouquet to the Baroness, whose fine eyes, as she glanced at him over the big roses and geraniums, wore a conversational smile.  Felix, standing on the threshold of the cottage, hesitated for a moment as to whether he should retrace his steps and enter the parlor.  Then he went his way and passed into Mr. Wentworth’s garden.  That civilizing process to which he had suggested that Clifford should be subjected appeared to have come on of itself.  Felix was very sure, at least, that Mr. Wentworth had not adopted his ingenious device for stimulating the young man’s aesthetic consciousness.  “Doubtless he supposes,” he said to himself, after the conversation that has been narrated, “that I desire, out of fraternal benevolence, to procure for Eugenia the amusement of a flirtation—­or, as he probably calls it, an intrigue—­with the too susceptible Clifford.  It must be admitted—­and I have noticed it before—­that nothing exceeds the license occasionally taken by the imagination of very rigid people.”  Felix, on his own side, had of course said nothing to Clifford; but he had observed to Eugenia that Mr. Wentworth was much mortified at his son’s low tastes.  “We ought to do something to help them, after all their kindness to us,” he had added.  “Encourage Clifford to come and see you, and inspire him with a taste for conversation.  That will supplant the other, which only comes from his puerility, from his not taking his position in the world—­that of a rich young man of ancient stock—­seriously enough.  Make him a little more serious.  Even if he makes love to you it is no great matter.”

“I am to offer myself as a superior form of intoxication—­a substitute for a brandy bottle, eh?” asked the Baroness.  “Truly, in this country one comes to strange uses.”