The painter, though not himself of patrician extraction, had been much in the best society.

He had been a petted favourite in great houses.

He had travelled.

He had seen the world.

He had the habits and instincts of good society.
Now, in what the French term the _beau monde_, there are little traits that reveal those who have entered it,--certain tricks of phrase, certain modes of expression,--even the pronunciation of familiar words, even the modulation of an accent.