IV

My hero had gone abroad with a congenial friend a little older than

himself, and the two stayed considerably over their time and enjoyed

themselves immensely. They were plentifully provided with money, and

Robbie had been told that he might do anything he liked, except get

married. Therefore they wandered through all the cities of Europe, and

saw all the beautiful things of the past, and all the gay things of the

present. They stopped at the best hotels, and everywhere they went men

bowed before them, and fled to do their bidding. Also there were many

beautiful women who did their best to make Robbie happy. Robert was

always a favorite with the girls, being a generous-hearted boy; he

always paid for what he got, and paid the very highest prices in the

market. He hired a pretty little yacht and took his friend and some

congenial ladies for a beautiful trip upon the Mediterranean; and the

sky was blue and the air warm, and Robbie stretched himself upon the

deck, and basked in the sunlight and imbibed the soft fragrance of

cigars and perfumes, and opened his heart and was happy as never in his

life before.

After which the two travellers turned homeward again. There was some

thought of Robbie's going to college; in fact, he hired chambers and

started, at some expense. But it was only for a year, for Robbie had

seen too much of the world to go back into a college chrysalis, and when

it was evident that he could not get through his exams, he quit and came

back to New York to stay.

V

And now you may behold him fairly settled at the task that fate had set

before him,--that of being a gentleman like his father. No suggestions

were offered--he managed it all in his own way. He took a suite of

rooms, and furnished them so that they were a joy to the few eyes that

ever beheld them, and were described by the society journals as one of

the great educational influences of the city. Also he joined some of the

clubs, and took a box at the opera, and did everything else that was

necessary to a young man of his station. It must be understood that

Robbie moved in the highest "circles," and was invited to dinner-parties

and balls where only a choice two dozen could go. He had a reputation as

a golfer and polo player, and was one of Newport's most far-famed

yachtsmen; but of course it was upon his automobile records that his

reputation really rested. He was daily to be seen speeding about the

metropolis in his favorite machine, _The Green Ghost_, and now and then

he sent his valet to court to pay his fines. On the one unfortunate

occasion when he killed a little boy, the parents of the child were made

happy forever by Robbie's princely munificence.

Also Robbie was making a reputation as a clubman and _bon vivant_. He

knew a great deal about the world by that time; in fact, he knew

everything there was to know about it; he had watched men, and

understood them thoroughly, and all their ways. I would not have it

imagined that he was a cynic, having already stated that he was the

best-hearted fellow in the world; but he had a certain dry manner which

was not to be imitated, and when he told an anecdote all the world

stopped to listen. Robbie's stories were on all sorts of themes; but of

course telling the truth about a man does not include telling his

stories, even in the most realistic of biographies.

I would not have any one get the idea that my hero was bad; on the

contrary, he was a member of a church whose orthodoxy and respectability

were beyond cavil, and every Sunday morning he escorted some exquisitely

gowned young lady of his set to listen to the famous eloquence of the

rector, the Reverend Doctor Lettuce Spray. Also whenever the church gave

a fair for the benefit of the Fiji Islanders, Robbie bought up all the

shares left over in the raffles, and allowed the young ladies to pin

bouquets in his button-hole. In addition he actually taught

Sunday-school for six whole weeks, at a time when he was desperately

enamoured of a certain young lady who did likewise; bearing bravely all

the chaffing on the subject, he put away _Les OEuvres de T. Gautier_

from his table and primed up every Saturday night and taught little boys

how the good Lord made the fleece of Gideon to stay dry, and caused the

soldiers to fall down to drink out of the stream, and did other unusual

things calculated to impress little boys. Nothing came of this

Sunday-school adventure, however, for van Rensselaer _pere_ was of the

opinion that the young lady was nothing like the match Robbie ought to

make; and so the young man's affections returned to an elegantly

furnished flat on the West Side, where there was a liberal stock of

champagne and fine cigars, and two young ladies of Robbie's

acquaintance. Three or four evenings every week you might have seen his

automobile, and the automobiles of several friends, drawn up before the

door of this apartment-house, and might have heard evidence to the fact

that Robbie was happy, as so good-hearted a young fellow deserved to

be.