be thrilled even if allowed to peer through the windows, and already, after a few weeks of Paris, he had spent a night in the virtually intimate midst of a group of people whose names stood for the apex of accomplishment in avocations which held for him the highest allurement.
And the experience was disconcerting. In the innocence of his heart he had supposed that cleverness was the open sesame to the society of "intellectuals." But from his first glimpse of their world he judged that the open sesame was something quite other. Indeed cleverness, per se, was even a grave liability, for cleverness, at least Anglo-Saxon cleverness, was very apt to be allied to priggishness, which was the cardinal demerit in their eyes. Rather, the qualifications for membership in the ranks of exclusive bohemians seemed to be keen intuition allied to a tolerance that would stretch to the condonation of any conceivable sort of moral aberration. To be a member in the best standing you should contribute original views or subtle criticism or a marked talent for listening. An ounce of instinctive knowledge counted for more than a pound of academic information. A college education, for instance, unless carefully lived down, was damning. If you were exceptionally handsome of person, that alone might gain you admission, provided your body was reasonably negotiable. In general a strong taste for the ribald was an advantage, especially if it expressed itself in a pretty talent for making light
