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It was Mr Ricardo's habit as soon as the second week of August

came round to travel to Aix-les-Bains, in Savoy, where for five or

six weeks he lived pleasantly He pretended to take the waters in

the , he went for a ride in his motor-car in the afternoon,

he dined at the Cercle in the evening, and spent an hour or two

afterwards in the baccarat-rooms at the Villa des Fleurs An

enviable, smooth life without a doubt, and it is certain that his

acquaintances envied hihed

at hierated

person

He was to be construed in the co in

his life was a trifle overdone, froement of

his neckties to the fee Mr Ricardo was approaching the fifties; in condition he

was a er--a state greatly to his liking, for he avoided at

once the irksoe and the reproaches justly

levelled at the bachelor; finally, he was rich, having a Lane, which he had invested in profitable

securities

Ten years of ease, however, had not altogether obliterated in hied froed with the air of a financier taking a holiday; and when he

visited, as he frequently did, the studio of a painter, a stranger

would have hesitated to decide whether he had been drawn thither