and now you may behold him fairly settled at the task that fate had set before him,—that of being a gentleman like his father. no suggestions were offered—he managed it all in his own way. he took a suite of rooms, and furnished them so that they were a joy to the few eyes that ever beheld them, and were described by the society journals as one of the great educational influences of the city. also he joined some of the clubs, and took a box at the opera, and did everything else that was necessary to a young man of his station. it must be understood that robbie moved in the highest "circles," and was invited to dinner-parties and balls where only a choice two dozen could go. he had a reputation as a golfer and polo player, and was one of newport's most far-famed yachtsmen; but of course it was upon his automobile records[18] that his reputation really rested. he was daily to be seen speeding about the metropolis in his favorite machine, the green ghost, and now and then he sent his valet to court to pay his fines. on the one unfortunate occasion when he killed a little boy, the parents of the child were made happy forever by robbie's princely munificence.

also robbie was making a reputation as a clubman and bon vivant. he knew a great deal about the world by that time; in fact, he knew everything there was to know about it; he had watched men, and understood them thoroughly, and all their ways. i would not have it imagined that he was a cynic, having already stated that he was the best-hearted fellow in the world; but he had a certain dry manner which was not to be imitated, and when he told an anecdote all the world stopped to listen. robbie's stories were on all sorts of themes; but of course telling the truth about a man does not include telling his stories, even in the most realistic of biographies.

[19]i would not have any one get the idea that my hero was bad; on the contrary, he was a member of a church whose orthodoxy and respectability were beyond cavil, and every sunday morning he escorted some exquisitely gowned young lady of his set to listen to the famous eloquence of the rector, the reverend doctor lettuce spray. also whenever the church gave a fair for the benefit of the fiji islanders, robbie bought up all the shares left over in the raffles, and allowed the young ladies to pin bouquets in his button-hole. in addition he actually taught sunday-school for six whole weeks, at a time when he was desperately enamoured of a certain young lady who did likewise; bearing bravely all the chaffing on the subject, he put away les ?uvres de t. gautier from his table and primed up every saturday night and taught little boys how the good lord made the fleece of gideon to stay dry, and caused the soldiers to fall down to drink out of the stream, and did other unusual things calculated to impress little boys. nothing came[20] of this sunday-school adventure, however, for van rensselaer père was of the opinion that the young lady was nothing like the match robbie ought to make; and so the young man's affections returned to an elegantly furnished flat on the west side, where there was a liberal stock of champagne and fine cigars, and two young ladies of robbie's acquaintance. three or four evenings every week you might have seen his automobile, and the automobiles of several friends, drawn up before the door of this apartment-house, and might have heard evidence to the fact that robbie was happy, as so good-hearted a young fellow deserved to be.