100
THE EUROPEANS.
It pleased Gertrude even more to think that he
was an amateur than to think that he was an artist;
the former word, to her fancy, had an even subtler
connotation. She knew, however, that it was a word
to use more soberly. Mr. Wentworth used it freely;
for though he had not been exactly familiar with it,
he found it convenient as a help toward classi-
fying Felix, who, as a young man extremely clever
and active and apparently respectable and yet not
engaged in any recognized business, was an impor-
tunate anomaly. Of course the Baroness and her
brother—she was always spoken of—were a wel-
come topic of conversation between Mr. Wentworth
and his daughters and their occasional visitors.
"And the young man, your nephew, what is his
profession?" asked an old gentleman—Mr. Broderip,
of Salem—who had been Mr. Wentworth's class-mate
at Harvard College in the year 1809 and who came
into his office in Devonshire Street. (Mr. Went-
worth, in his later years, used to go but three times
a week to his office, where he had a large amount
of highly confidential trust-business to transact.)
"Well, he's an amateur," said Felix's uncle, with
folded hands, and with a certain satisfaction in
being able to say it. And Mr. Broderip had gone
back to  Salem with  a  feeling   that this was pro-