Page:Aaron's Rod, Lawrence, New York 1922.djvu/254

 existed without apology and without justification. Men who would neither justify themselves nor apologize for themselves. Just men. The rarest thing left in our sweet Christendom.

Altogether Aaron was pleased with himself, for being in Florence. Those were early days after the war, when as yet very few foreigners had returned, and the place had the native sombreness and intensity. So that our friend did not mind being alone.

The third day, however, Francis called on him. There was a tap at the bedroom door, and the young man entered, all eyes of curiosity.

"Oh, there you are!" he cried, flinging his hand and twisting his waist and then laying his hand on his breast. "Such a long way up to you! But miles—! Well, how are you? Are you quite all right here? You are? I'm so glad—we've been so rushed, seeing people that we haven't had a minute. But not a minute! People! People! People! Isn't it amazing how many there are, and how many one knows, and gets to know! But amazing! Endless acquaintances!—Oh, and such quaint people here! so odd! So more than odd! Oh, extraordinary—!" Francis chuckled to himself over the extraordinariness. Then he seated himself gracefully at Aaron's table. "Oh, music! What? Corelli! So interesting! So very clever, these people, weren't they!—Corelli and the younger Scarlatti and all that crowd." Here he closed the score again. "But now—look! Do you want to know anybody here, or don't you? I've told them about you, and of course they're dying to meet you and hear you play. But I thought it best not to mention anything about—about your being hard-up, and all that. I said you were just here on a visit. You see with this kind of people I'm sure it's much the best not to let them start off by thinking you will need them at all—or that you might need them. Why give yourself away, anyhow? Just meet them and take them for what they're worth—and then you can see. If they like to give you an engagement to play at some show or other—well, you can decide when the time comes whether you will accept. Much better that these kind of people shouldn't get it into their heads at once that they can hire your