Don Marcelo who used to look uneasily upon any new friendship, fearing a
demand for a loan, gave himself up with enthusiasm to intimacy with this
"grand man." The personage admired riches and recognized, besides,
a certain genius in this millionaire from the other side of the sea
accustomed to speaking of limitless pastures and immense herds.
Their intercourse was more than the mere friendliness of a country
neighborhood, and continued on after their return to Paris. Finally Rene
visited the home on the avenida Victor Hugo as though it were his own.

The only disappointments in Desnoyers' new life came from his children.
Chichi irritated him because of the independence of her tastes. She did
not like antiques, no matter how substantial and magnificent they might
be, much preferring the frivolities of the latest fashion. She accepted
all her father's gifts with great indifference. Before an exquisite
blonde piece of lace, centuries old, picked up at auction, she made
a wry face, saying, "I would much rather have had a new dress costing
three hundred francs." She and her brother were solidly opposed to
everything old.

Now that his daughter was already a woman, he had confided her
absolutely to the care of Dona Luisa. But the former "Peoncito" was not
showing much respect for the advice and commands of the good natured
Creole. She had taken up roller-skating with enthusiasm, regarding it as
the most elegant of diversions. She would go every afternoon to the Ice
Palace, Dona Luisa chaperoning her, although to do this she was obliged
to give up accompanying her husband to his sales. Oh, the hours of
deadly weariness before that frozen oval ring, watching the white circle
of balancing human monkeys gliding by on runners to the sound of an
organ! . . . Her daughter would pass and repass before her tired eyes,