At the Villa Rose

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 morning 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 him. At the same time however they laughed at him and alas with some justice; for he was an exaggerated person. He was to be construed in the comparative. Everything in his life was a trifle overdone from the fastidious arrangement of his neckties to the feminine nicety of his little dinner-parties. In age Mr. Ricardo was approaching the fifties; in condition he was a widower-a state greatly to his liking for he avoided at once the irksomeness of marriage and the reproaches justly levelled at the bachelor; finally he was rich having amassed a fortune in Mincing Lane which he had invested in profitable securities.