[Cosmopolis by Paul Bourget]@TWC D-Link bookCosmopolis CHAPTER II 16/47
Others had consisted of the simple coquetry of friendship, as was the case with Mademoiselle Steno.
The young man had never employed more vanity than enthusiasm.
Every woman, mistress or friend, had been to him, nine times out of ten, a curiosity, then a model.
But, as he held that the model could not be recognized by any exterior sign, he did not think that he was wrong in making use of his prestige as a writer, for what he called his "culture." He was capable of justice, the defense which he made of Fanny Hafner to Montfanon proved it; of admiration, his respect for the noble qualities of that same Montfanon testify to it; of compassion, for without it he would not have apprehended at once with so much sympathy the result which the return of Count Gorka would have on the destiny of innocent Alba Steno. On reaching the staircase of the Palais Castagna, instead of hastening, as was natural, to find out at least what meant the return to Rome of the lover whom Madame Steno deceived, he collected his startled sensibilities before meeting Alba, and, pausing, he scribbled in a note-book which he drew from his pocket, with a pencil always within reach of his fingers, in a firm hand, precise and clear, this note savoring somewhat of sentimentalism: "25 April, '90.
Palais Castagna .-- Marvellous staircase constructed by Balthazar Peruzzi; so broad and long, with double rows of stairs, like those of Santa Colomba, near Siena.
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