PART 7. Gay with Streamers

"His neighbours knew nothing of him. In virtue of the human inferiority's opinion,

the insolent and silent life like his was an infringement of customs and a kind of magic

that helped get rid of their slavery,

therefore, they regarded this reticence as malevolence,

restrained by the fame of his enormous richness.

This duplex magic of gold and silence

was he all over."

(Henri de Regnier)