Chapter 3 two

In 1919, I set off for the Far East and passed through Chicago; for reasons unrelated to this book, I lived there for two or three weeks.Not long ago, I published a successful novel, so I was considered a news person at the time. When I arrived in Chicago, reporters would visit me.The next morning, the phone rang and I went to answer it. "I'm Elliott? Talk about Borden." "Eliot, I thought you were in Paris." "No, I'll come back to see my sister. We asked you to come and play today. Come and have lunch with us." "great." He gave me the time and address.

I've known Elliott: been talking about Borden for fifteen years.He was about sixty years old at that time, tall and handsome, with fine features and curly hair, dark and slightly gray, which just set off his dignified appearance.He always dresses well, usually from Summerfield, but he always buys clothes, shoes and hats in London.There is an apartment on the trendy rue Saint-Guillaume on the south bank of the Seine in Paris.People who don't like him say that he is an antique guest, but this is slander, and he hates it very much.He has vision and knowledge, and he does not deny that when he first settled in Paris in the past years, he once helped collectors who wanted to buy paintings; When he sold a fine piece, he happened to know that a certain director of the American Museum was looking for excellent works of such a great painter, so he was naturally happy to win over both parties.There are many old houses in France, and some in England. Sometimes, due to circumstances, I have to give up a cupboard signed by Bill [Note] or a desk made by Chippendale [Note], but I don’t want to make it public. And a well-mannered person who can handle things without showing any trace is exactly what one could wish for.People who heard this naturally thought that Elliott would get some benefits from these transactions, but they were all well-educated people, and no one wanted to mention it.The mean people insisted that everything in his apartment was for sale, and that every time he bought rich Americans to lunch with a famous wine, one or two of his valuable paintings were always missing, or it was a fine workmanship. The built-in cabinets were replaced with painted ones.When someone asked him why a certain item was missing, he would say in a flattering way that he didn't think it was of the highest quality, so he exchanged it for a better one.Then he said, it's boring to see one thing at a time.

"Nons autres americans," he said in French, "we Americans like to change things up." This is both our shortcoming and our strength. " Some American ladies in Paris, who claim to know all about him, say that his family was originally very poor, and that the only reason he can live so richly is because he is very shrewd.I don't know how much money he has, but the ducal landlord does charge him a rent on the apartment.The furnishings in the apartment are so expensive: the walls are hung with the works of great French painters, such as Watteau[Note], Fragonard[Note], Claude Lorrain[Note], etc. and so on; the parquet flaunts rugs from Savonnerier and Aubusson; It was in the boudoir of Mrs. Pompadour[Note].Anyway, he didn't have to try to make money, and he could live in the style he thought a high-class person should be.As for how he achieved this in the past, if you are a sensible person, it is best not to mention it, unless you intend to cut off contact with him.Now that he doesn't have to worry about material things, he single-mindedly pursues the greatest desire in his life, in other words, social communication.When he first came to Europe, he was a young man with a letter of introduction to meet famous people, and later he had business relationships with those down-and-out people in England and France, which established his previous social status.I originally belonged to my old home in Virginia, and my maternal line can be traced back to an ancestor who signed the Declaration of Independence. This family background made him very respectable when he took a letter to meet those American wives with titles.He is very popular, personable, good at dancing, not bad at shooting guns, good at tennis, he is indispensable in any banquet.Flowers and high-priced large boxes of chocolates can be bought and given away at will; although it is rare to treat guests, it is unique and interesting to invite guests.It was fun for rich ladies to be taken to exotic restaurants in Soho or small hotels in the Latin Quarter.Serve people, come anytime and anywhere; if you ask him to do something, no matter how annoying, he will not be unhappy to do it for you.When I met older women, I always tried my best to win their favor, so I soon became very thirsty in many wealthy families.He is so easy to talk to, if someone misses an appointment and you ask him to come to make up for it, he will come without any worries, and let him sit next to a very annoying old woman, and the custodian will even talk and laugh for you.

In two or three years, in London and Paris, he made all the friends that a young American could make; Turn country house. The ladies who had introduced him into society earlier were amazed at his wide acquaintance.The feelings are divided into two aspects: on the one hand, they are happy that the young man they promoted has achieved such great success;Although he was still very polite and helpful to them, these people always felt uncomfortable, thinking that he used them as a social stepping stone. They worried that he was a snob, and of course he was a snob, and he was a big snob, and he was so snobby that he didn't care what anyone else said.Whichever family treat he wants to be included in the invitation list, or which famous but difficult old widow, he wants to win some relationships, so he can do anything: hit nails, eat sarcasm, go down. Take pictures of places that lose face.In this regard, he can be said to be unyielding.As long as his eyes fall on something, he is like a botanist seeking an exotic orchid. Floods, earthquakes, miasma fever, hostile natives, he will risk everything, and he will not stop until he gets it.The Great War of 1914 offered him his last chance; as soon as the war broke out he joined an ambulance team, serving successively in Flanders[Note] and in the Arleans theater; A red medal and a place at the Paris Red Cross.At that time, he already had a lot of money, and he donated generously to charitable causes that people wanted to support.For any extravagant benevolence, he will use his liberal knowledge and ability to do things to help everything.He was a member of two of the noblest clubs in Paris.The most eminent women of France always spoke of him as "that good Eliot."He finally made his fortune.