He made a legion of enemies, but the clouds which rested on Lady Jane, Coup de Foudre and Smythe--their names here stand for many--rested on him. People said at last that he must have his reasons for defending these people. Weary, angry, he then suddenly withdrew from his protégés, whom by this he injured much more than he had benefited, and who now could, without opposition, proclaim their social bankruptcy.
Like many foolhardy heroes, at the last moment he was forced to beat a shameful retreat, when a perfectly respectable withdrawal would have been possible before.
But with however a wounded heart he might return from his campaign against public opinion, he always ventured into battle again.
After this philosophical interlude, we would perhaps do better to return to Scirocco, who is meanwhile breakfasting in the "Café Riche."
He was not hungry--he pondered. Lanzberg's fall did not in the least remind one of Smythe's, Coup de Foudre's, or Lady Jane's. In regard to these people, to a certain extent, prejudice had been justified, as if prejudice is not always to a certain extent justified!
Scirocco's pondering ended in the resolution to launch Lanzberg in Parisian society as one launches an unpopular débutante of the theatre.
The next day he called upon Linda, and the day after Count X---- paid his visit.
How high she held her head among her acquaintances of the reading-room and skating-rink: "X----, an old friend of my husband," etc., etc.
She took an apartment in the Avenue de l'Imperatrice, an apartment with a large cold salon which was distinguished by gilded mouldings and white walls, pink doors, conventional chairs, and sky-blue satin upholstering. Linda very soon understood that this dazzling elegance, which at first had blinded her inexperienced eyes, was intolerably "dentiste," as they say on the Boulevard.
She surrounded herself with old brocades, with modern bronzes, with Smyrna rugs--an irregular confusion of picturesque treasures whose unsuitableness justified the temporary look of the whole establishment.