Lord Findon was indeed curious about everything; interested in everything; and a dabbler in most artistic pursuits.
He liked the society of artists; and he was accustomed to spend some hundreds, or even thousands, a year out of his enormous income, in the purchase of modern pictures.

Possibly the sense of power over human lives which these acquisitions gave him pleased him even more than the acquisitions themselves.
He asked Fenwick a few easy questions, sitting rakishly on the edge of a tilted chair, his hat slipping back on his handsome, grizzled head.
Where did he come from--with whom had he studied--what were his plans?
Had he ever been abroad?
No.

Strange! The artists nowadays neglected travel.

'But you go! Beg your way, paint your way--but go! Go before the wife and the babies come! Matrimony is the deuce.

Don't you agree with me, Philip ?' He laid a familiar hand on the artist's arm.
'Take care!' said Cuningham, laughing.