Some of the women, by petting and flattery, did their best to spoil him; but Paul was too ambitious, too much absorbed in his dream of greatness and his dilettante literary and musical pursuits, too much yet of a boy to be greatly affected.

What he prized far more highly than feminine blandishments was the new comradeship with his own sex.

Instinctively he sought them, as a sick dog seeks grass, unconsciously feeling the need of them in his mental and moral development.

Besides, the attitude of the women reminded him of that of the women painters in his younger days.

He had no intention of playing the pet monkey again.