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the weather said colonel snow we ve come from the good citizens league we ve decided we want you to join says you don t care to but i think we can show you a new ht the league is going to combine with the chamber of commerce in a campaign for the open shop so it s time for you to put your name down in his embarrassment could not recall his reasons for not wishing to join the league if indeed he had ever definitely known them but he was passionately certain that he did not wish to join and at the thought of their forcing him he felt a stirring of anger against even these princes of commerce sorry colonel have to think it over a little he that means you re not going to join george something black and and ferocious spoke from now you look here i m damned if i m going to be into joining anything not even by you we re not anybody dr began but colonel snow thrust him aside with certainly we are we don t mind a little if it s necessary the g c l has been talking about you a good deal you re supposed to be a sensible clean responsible man you always have been but here lately for god knows what reason i hear from all sorts of sources that you re running around with a loose crowd and what s a whole lot worse you ve actually been and supporting some of the most dangerous elements in town like this fellow colonel that strikes me as my private business possibly but we want to have an understanding you ve stood in you and your father in law with some of the most substantial and forward looking interests in town like my friends of the street company and my papers have given you a lot of well you can t expect the decent citizens to go on you if you intend to side with precisely the people who are trying to us was frightened but he had an instinct that if he yielded in this he would yield in everything he protested you re colonel i believe in being and liberal but of course i m just as much the and and labor and so on as you are but fact is i belong to so many now that i can t do em justice and i want to think it over before i decide about coming into the g c l colonel snow condescended oh no i m not why the doctor here heard you out and one of the finest types of republican just this noon and you have entirely the wrong idea about thinking over joining we re not begging you to join the g c l we re permitting you to join i m not sure my boy but what if you put it off it ll be too late i m not sure we ll want you then better think quick better think quick the three formidable in their stared at him in a silence waited through he thought nothing at all he merely waited while in his echoing head i don t want to join i don t want to join i don t want to all right sorry for you said colonel snow and the three men abruptly turned their backs iv as went out to his car that evening he saw coming down the block he raised his hand in salutation but ignored it and crossed the street he was certain that had seen him he drove home in sharp discomfort his wife attacked at once dear was in this afternoon and she says that says the committee of this good citizens league especially asked you to join and you wouldn t don t you think it would be better you know all the people belong and the league stands know what the league stands for it stands for the of free speech and free thought and everything else i don t propose to be and rushed into joining anything and it isn t a question of whether it s a good league or a bad league or what the hell kind of a league it is it s just a question of my refusing to be told i got to but dear if you don t join people might you let em but i mean nice people rats i matter of fact this whole league is just a it s like all these other that start off with such a rush and let on they re going to change the whole works and pretty soon they peter out and everybody forgets all about em but if it s the now don t you think you no i don t oh please quit me about it i m sick of hearing about the confounded g c l i almost i d joined it when first came around and got it over and maybe i d ve come in to day if the committee hadn t tried to me but by god as long as i m a free born independent american now george you re talking exactly like the german furnace man oh i am am i then i won t talk at all he longed that evening to see to be strengthened by her sympathy when all the family were up stairs he got as far as to her apartment house but he was agitated about it and when the answered he mind i ll call later and hung up the if had not been certain about s avoiding him there could be little doubt about william washington next morning when was driving down to the office he overtook s car with the great banker sitting in solemnity behind his waved and cried looked at him deliberately	42
evening he tried but he could not express to her the facts of his rebellion and punishment and w ith paul and lost he had no one to whom he could talk good lord is the only real friend i have these days he sighed and he clung to the child played floor games with her all evening he considered going to see paul in prison but though he had a pale note from him every week he thought of paul as dead it was for whom he was longing i thought i was so smart and independent cutting out and i need her lord how i need her he raged simply can t understand all she sees in life is getting along by being just like other folks but she d tell me i was all right then he broke and one evening late he did run to he had not dared to hope for it but she was in and alone only she wasn t she was a courteous brow lifting ice woman who looked like she said yes george what is it in even and tones and he crept away whipped his first comfort was from ted and they danced in one evening when ted was home from the university and ted chuckled what s this i hear from she says her says you raised by old hot dog give em fits stir em up this old is asleep down on s lap kissed him her hair against his chin and t think you re lots than why is it that is such an old the man has a good heart and honestly he s awfully bright but he never will learn to step on the gas after all the training i ve given him don t you think we could do something with him dearest why that isn t a nice way to speak of your papa observed in the best heights manner but he was happy for the first time in weeks he pictured himself as the liberal strengthened by the loyalty of the young generation they went out to the ice box if your mother caught us at this we d certainly get our come and became maternal scrambled a number of eggs for them kissed on the ear and in the voice of a brooding it beats the devil why like me still go on nursing these men thus stimulated was reckless when he encountered of the y m c a and choir leader of the road church with one of his damp hands imprisoned s thick while he brother we haven t seen you at church very often lately i know you re busy with a multitude of details but you mustn t forget your dear friends at the old church home shook off the affectionate clasp liked to hold hands for a long and well i guess you fellows can run the show without me sorry got to beat it g day but afterward he if that white worm had the nerve to try to drag me back to the old church home then the holy must have been doing a lot of talking about me too he heard them whispering whispering dr john o drew even william washington the independence out of him and he walked the streets alone afraid of men s cynical eyes and the incessant hiss of whispering chapter he tried to explain to his wife as they prepared for bed how objectionable was but all her answer was he has such a beautiful voice so spiritual i don t think you ought to speak of him like that just because you can t appreciate music he saw her then as a stranger he stared at this plump and woman with the broad bare arms and wondered how she had ever come here in his chilly cot turning from aching side to side he pondered of he d been a fool to lose her he had to have somebody he could really talk to he d oh he d bust if he went on about things by himself and useless to expect her to understand well rats no use the issue shame for two married people to drift apart after all these years rotten shame but nothing could bring them together now as long as he refused to let bully him into taking orders and he was by not going to let anybody bully him into anything or him or him either he woke at three roused by a passing and struggled out of bed for a drink of water as he passed through the bedroom he heard his wife groan his resentment was he was in inquiring what s the trouble hon i ve got such a pain down here in my side oh it s just it tears at me bad shall i get you some don t think that would help i felt funny last evening and yesterday and then oh it passed away and i got to sleep and that woke me up her voice was laboring like a ship in a storm he was alarmed i better call the doctor no no it ll go away but maybe you might get me an ice bag he stalked to the for the ice bag down to the kitchen for ice he felt dramatic in this late night expedition but as he the of ice with the dagger like pick he was cool steady mature and the old friendliness was in his voice as he patted the ice bag into place on her there there that ll be better now he retired to bed but he did not sleep he heard her groan again instantly he was up soothing her still pretty bad honey yes it just me and i can t get to sleep her voice was faint he knew	42
her dread of doctors and he did not inform her but he down stairs to dr earl and waited shivering trying with eyes to read a magazine till he heard the doctor s car the doctor was and he came in as though it were sunny well george little trouble eh how is she now he said busily as with tremendous and rather cheerfulness he tossed his coat on a chair and warmed his hands at a he took charge of the house felt and unimportant as he followed the doctor up to the bedroom and it was the doctor who chuckled oh just little stomach ache when peeped through her door begging what is it what is it to mrs the doctor said with amiable after his examination kind of a bad old pain eh i ll give you something to make you sleep and i think you ll feel better in the morning i ll come in right after breakfast but to lying in wait in the lower hall the doctor sighed s i don t like the feeling there in her belly there s some and some she s never had her out has she um no use worrying i ll be here first thing in the morning and meantime she ll get some rest i ve given her a good night then was caught up in the black tempest instantly all the which had been him and the spiritual through which he had struggled became pallid and absurd before the ancient and overwhelming realities the standard and realities of sickness and menacing death the long night and the thousand steadfast of married life he crept back to her as she away in the languor of he sat on the edge of her bed holding her hand and for the first time in many weeks her hand abode in his he draped himself in his and a pink and white couch cover and sat in a wing chair the bedroom was in its half light which turned the curtains to lurking robbers the dressing table to a castle it of of linen of sleep he and woke and woke a hundred times he heard her move and sigh in slumber he wondered if there wasn t some brisk thing he could do for her and before he could quite form the thought he was asleep and aching the night was infinite when dawn came and the waiting seemed at an end he fell asleep and was vexed to have been caught off his guard to have been aroused by s entrance and her agitated oh what is it his wife was awake her face sallow and lifeless in the morning light but now he did not compare her with she was not merely a woman to be contrasted with other women but his own self and though he might her and her it was only as he might and himself without the expectation of changing or any real desire to change the eternal essence with he sounded again and firm he consoled who satisfactorily pointed the excitement of the hour by wailing he ordered early breakfast and wanted to look at the newspaper and felt somehow heroic and useful in not looking at it but there were still crawling and totally hours of waiting before dr returned don t see much change said i ll be back about eleven and if you don t mind i think i ll bring in some other world famous for consultation just to be on the safe side now george there s nothing you can do i ll have keep the ice bag filled might as well leave that on i guess and you you better beat it to the office instead of standing around her looking as if you were the patient the nerve of husbands lot more than the women they always have to horn in and get all the credit for feeling bad when their wives are now have another nice cup of coffee and under this derision became more matter of fact he drove to the office tried to dictate letters tried to and before the call was answered forgot to whom he was at a quarter after ten he returned home as he left the down town traffic and sped up the car his face was as grimly as the mask of tragedy his wife greeted him with surprise why did you come back dear i think i feel a little better i told to off to her office was it wicked of me to go and get sick he knew that she wanted and she got it they were curiously happy when he heard dr s car in front he looked out of the window he was frightened with was an impatient man with turbulent black hair and a dr a i the surgeon with anxiety tried to conceal it and hurried down to the door dr was casual don t want to worry you old man but i thought it might be a good to have dr examine her he toward as toward a master nodded in his cur test manner and strode up stairs the living room in agony except for his wife s there had never been a major operation in the family and to him was at once a miracle and an of fear but when and came down again he knew that everything was all right and he wanted to laugh for the two doctors were exactly like the bearded in a musical comedy both of them rubbing their hands and looking foolishly sagacious br spoke i m sorry old man but it s acute we ought to operate of course you must decide but there s no question as to what has to be done did not get all the force of it he well i suppose we could get her ready in a	42
couple o days probably ted ought to come down from the university just in case anything happened br growled if you don t want to set in we ll have to operate right away i must advise it strongly if you say go ahead i ll for the st mary s at once and we ll have her on the table in of an hour i i of course i suppose you know what but great god man i can t get her clothes ready and everything in two seconds you know and in her state so wrought up and weak just throw her hair brush and comb and tooth brush in a bag that s all she ll need for a day or two said br and went to the galloped desperately up stairs he sent the frightened out of the room he said gaily to his wife well old thing the thinks maybe we better have a little opera tion and get it over just take a few minutes not half as serious as a confinement and you ll be all right in a she his hand till the fingers ached she said patiently like a child i m afraid to go into the dark all alone maturity was wiped from her eyes they were pleading and terrified will you stay with me darling you don t have to go to the office now do you could you just go down to the hospital with me could you come see me this evening if everything s all right you won t have to go out this evening will you he was on his knees the bed while she feebly ruffled his hair he sobbed he kissed the lawn of her sleeve and swore old honey i love you more than anything in the world i ve kind of been worried by business and everything but that s all over now and i m back again are you really george i was thinking lying here maybe it would be a good thing if i just went i was wondering if anybody really needed me or wanted me i was wondering what v as the use of my living i ve been getting so stupid and ugly why you old fishing for compliments when i ought to be packing your bag me sure i m young and handsome and a regular village cut up and ke could not go on he sobbed again and in muttered they found each other as he packed his brain was curiously clear and swift he d have no more wild evenings he realized he admitted that he would regret them a little grimly he perceived that this had been his last despairing before the contentment of middle age w ell and he grinned it was one good party while it lasted and how much was the operation going to cost i ought to h ve fought that out with but no damn it i don t care how much it costs the was at the door even in his grief the who admired all was interested in the kindly skill with which the attendants slid mrs upon a and carried her down stairs the was a huge white thing mrs moaned it me it s just like a just like being put in a i want you to stay with me i ll be right up front with the driver promised no i want you to stay inside with me to the attendants can t he be inside sure ma am you bet there s a fine httle camp stool in there the older attendant said with professional pride he sat beside her in that cabin with its cot its stool its active little electric and its quite displaying a girl eating and the name of an but as he out his hand in hopeless cheerfulness it touched the and he why george i won t have you cursing and swearing and i know awful sorry but all fish hooks look how i burned my hand it hurts it hurts like the mischief why that damn is hot as it s hot as it s n the hinges of look you can see the mark so as they drove up to st mary s hospital with the nurses already laying out the instruments for an operation to save her life it was she who consoled him and kissed the place to make it well and though he tried to be and mature he yielded to her and was glad to be the whirled under the carriage entrance of the hospital and instantly he was reduced to a in the nightmare succession of cork halls endless doors open on old women sitting up in bed an the room a young contemptuous of husbands he was to kiss his wife he saw a thin dark nurse fit the over her mouth and nose he at a sweet and treacherous then he was driven out and on a high stool in a he sat dazed longing to see her once again to insist that he had always loved her had never for a second loved anybody else or looked at anybody else in the he was conscious only of a decayed object preserved in a bottle of it made him very sick but he could not take his eyes from it he was more aware of it than of waiting his mind floated in coming back always to that horrible bottle to escape it he opened the door to the right hoping to find a sane and business like office he realized that he was looking into the room in one glance he took in dr strange in white gown and head bending over the steel table with its and wheels then nurses holding and cotton and a thing just a lifeless chin	42
and a mound of white in the midst of which was a square of sallow flesh with a a little bloody at the edges from the a cluster of like clinging he shut the door with haste it may be that his frightened repentance of the night and morning had not eaten in but this of her who had been so human shook him utterly and as he crouched again on the high stool in the he swore faith to his wife to to business to the club to every faith of the of good fellows then a nurse was soothing all over perfect success she ll come out fine she ll be out from under the soon and you can see her he found her on a curious bed her face an yellow but her purple lips moving slightly then only did he really believe that she was alive she was muttering he bent and heard her sighing hard get real for he laughed he beamed on the nurse and proudly confided think of her talking about by i m going to go and order a hundred of it right from n she was out of the hospital in seventeen days he went to see her each afternoon and in their long talks they drifted back to intimacy once he hinted something of his relations to and the bunch and she was by the view that a wicked woman had her poor george if once he had doubted his neighbors and the supreme charm of the good fellows he was convinced now you didn t he noted see coming around with any flowers or dropping in to chat with the but mrs brought to the hospital her wine with real wine jones spent hours in picking out the kind of novels mrs liked nice love stories about new york and a pink bed jacket and his merry brown eyed of a wife selected the prettiest in all the stock of and all his friends ceased whispering about him suspecting him at the club they asked after her daily club members whose names he did not know stopped him to inquire how s your good lady getting on felt that he was swinging from bleak down into the rich warm air of a valley pleasant with cottages one noon suggested you planning to be at the hospital about six the wife and i thought we d drop in they did drop in was so humorous that mrs said he must stop making her laugh because honestly it was her as they passed down the hall demanded george old you were about something here a while back i don t know why and it s none of my business but you seem to be feeling all again and why don t you come join us in the good citizens league old man we have some times together and we need your advice then did almost tearful with joy at being instead of at being permitted to stop fighting at being able to desert without his opinion of himself cease utterly to be a domestic he patted s shoulder and next day he became a member of the good citizens league within two weeks no one in the league was more violent regarding the wickedness of the crimes of labor the perils of and the delights of morality and bank accounts than was george f chapter the good citizens league had spread through the country but nowhere was it so effective and well esteemed as in cities of the type of commercial cities of a few hundred thousand inhabitants most of which though not all lay inland against a background of and mines and of small towns which depended upon them for art social philosophy and to the league belonged most of the prosperous citizens of they were not all of the kind who called themselves r besides these hearty fellows these of prosperity there were the that is the men who were richer or had been rich for more generations the of banks and of the land owners the lawyers the fashionable doctors and the few young old men who worked not at all but reluctantly remaining in collected ware and first as though they were back in paris all of them agreed that the must be kept in their place and ail of them perceived that american did not imply any equality of wealth but did demand a wholesome of thought dress painting morals and in this they were like the ruling class of any other country particularly of great britain but they differed in being more vigorous and in actually trying to produce the accepted standards which all classes everywhere desire but usually despair of the longest struggle of the good citizens league was for the open shop which was secretly a struggle against all union labor accompanying it was an movement with evening classes in english and history and and daily articles in the newspapers so that newly arrived foreigners might learn that the true blue and one hundred per cent american way of settling labor troubles was for workmen to trust and love their the league was more than generous in other which agreed with its aims it helped the y m ca to raise a two hundred thousand dollar fund for a new building and even charles told the spectators at how great an influence for manly christianity the good old y had been in their own lives and the and mighty colonel snow owner of the advocate times was clasping the hand of of the y m ca it is true that afterward when you must come to one of our prayer meetings the ferocious colonel what the hell would i do that for i ve got a bar of my own but this did not appear in the public prints the league was of value to the american at a	42
time when certain of the lesser and newspapers were that organization of of the great war one evening a number of young men the burned its records beat the office staff and agreeably out of the window all of the newspapers save the advocate times and the evening advocate attributed this valuable but perhaps hasty direct action to the american then a flying from the good citizens league called on the unfair papers and explained that no ex soldier could possibly do such a thing and the saw the light and retained their when s lone conscientious came home from prison and was run out of town the newspapers referred to the as an mob in all the and triumphs of the good citizens league took part and completely won back to and the affection of his friends but he began to protest i ve done my share in cleaning up the city i want to tend to business think i ll just kind of up on this g c l stuff now he had returned to the church as he had returned to the club he had even endured the lavish greeting which gave him he was worried lest during his late discontent he had his salvation he was not quite sure there was a heaven to be attained but dr john drew said there was and was not going to take a chance one evening when he was walking past dr drew s he went in and foimd the in his study minute getting call said dr drew in business like tones then to the lo this and reverend drew speaking where the is the proof for next sunday s y ought to have it here well i can t help it if they re all sick i got to have it to night get an a d t boy and shoot it up here quick he turned without his well brother what c n i do for you i just wanted to ask tell you how it is here a while ago i guess i got kind of slack took a few drinks and so on what i wanted to ask is how is it if a fellow cuts that all out and comes back to his senses does it sort of well you might say does it score against him in the long run the reverend dr drew was suddenly interested and brother the other things too women no practically you might say practically not at all don t hesitate to tell me brother that s what i m here for been going on joy rides girls in cars the reverend eyes well i ll tell you i ve got a from the don t make a joke association coming to see me in a quarter of an hour and one from the anti birth control union at a quarter of ten he busily glanced at his watch but i can take five minutes off and pray with you kneel right down by your chair brother don t be ashamed to seek the guidance of god s and he longed to flee but dr drew had already down beside his desk chair and his voice had changed from to an familiarity with sin and with the almighty knelt while drew lord thou our brother here who has been led astray by manifold temptations o heavenly father make his heart to be pure as pure as a little child s oh let him know again the joy of a manly courage to from evil came into the study at the sight of the two men he patted on the shoulder and knelt beside him his arm about him while he dr drew s with of yes lord help our brother lord though he was trying to keep his eyes closed between his fingers and saw the glance at his watch as he concluded with a triumphant and let him never be afraid to come to us for counsel and tender care and let him know that the church can lead him as a little lamb dr drew sprang up rolled his eyes in the general direction of heaven his watch into his pocket and demanded has the come yet right outside answered with equal then to brother if it would help i d love to go into the next room and pray with you while dr drew is receiving the brothers from the don t make a joke association no no thanks can t take the time rushing toward the door thereafter he was often seen at the road church but it is recorded that he avoided shaking hands with the at the door in if his moral had been so weakened by rebellion that he was not quite in the more of the good citizens league nor quite of the church yet there was no doubt of the joy with which returned to the pleasures of his home and of the club the the and were eventually and hesitatingly married for the wedding was dressed as carefully as was he was crammed into the morning coat he wore to thrice a year and with a certain relief after and had driven away in a he returned to the house removed the morning coat sat with his aching feet up on the and reflected that his wife and he could have the living room to themselves now and not have to listen to and worrying in a manner about wages and the drama league but even this sinking into peace was less his return to being one of the best loved men in the club iv president began that club luncheon by standing quiet and staring at them so unhappily that they feared he was about to announce the death of a brother lie spoke slowly then and gravely boys i have something shocking to reveal to you something terrible	42
about one of our own members several including looked disconcerted a knight of the grip a trusted friend of mine recently made a trip up state and in a certain town where a certain spent his boyhood he found out something which can no longer be concealed in fact he discovered the inward nature of a man whom we have accepted as a real and as one of us gentlemen i cannot trust my voice to say it so i have written it down he uncovered a large and on it in huge was the legend george oh you folly the cheered they laughed they wept they threw rolls at they cried speech speech oh you folly president continued that gentlemen is the awful thing has been concealing all these years when we thought he was just plain george f now i want you to tell us taking it in turn what you ve always supposed the f stood for they suggested and face and and and and and by the of their knew that he had been taken back to their hearts and happily he rose boys i ve got to admit it i ve never worn a wrist watch or parted my name in the middle but i will confess to my only justification is that my old though otherwise he was perfectly sane and packed an awful when it came to the city at named me after the family old dr i boys in my next what d you call it i ll see to it that i get named something really practical something that sounds swell and yet is good and something in fact like that grand old name so familiar to every household that bold and almost overpowering name jim he knew by the cheer that he was secure again and popular he knew that he would no more his security and pop by from the of good fellows henry dashed into the office george i big news says the bunch are dissatisfied with the way and wing handled their last deal and they re willing to with us was pleased in the that the last of his rebellion was healed yet as he drove home he was annoyed by such background thoughts as had never weakened him in his days of he discovered that he actually did not consider the group quite honest well he d carry out one more deal for them but as soon as it was practicable maybe as soon as old henry died he d break away from all association with them he was forty eight in twelve years he d be sixty he wanted to leave a clean business to his course there was a lot of money in for the people and a fellow had to look at things in a practical way only he he wanted to tell the group what he thought of them oh he couldn t do it not now if he offended them this second time they would crush him he was conscious that his line of progress seemed confused he wondered what he would do with his future he was still young was he through with all he felt that he had been into the very net from which he had with such fury escaped and jest of all been made to rejoice in the they ve licked me licked me to a finish he the house was peaceful that evening and he enjoyed a game of with his wife he indignantly told the that he was content to do things in the good way the day after he went to see the of the street company and they made plans or the secret purchase of lots along the road but as he drove to his office he struggled i m going to run things and figure out things to suit myself when i retire vi ted had come down from the university for the week end though he no longer spoke of mechanical and though he was about his opinion of his he seemed no more reconciled to college and his chief interest was his set on saturday evening he took to a dance at woods had a glimpse of her in the seat of the car brilliant in a scarlet cloak over a frock of silk they two had not returned when ihe went to bed at half past eleven at a indefinite time of late night was awakened by the ring of the and gloomily crawled down stairs was speaking george isn t back yet is ted no at least his door is open they ought to be home said the dance would be over at midnight what s the name of those people where they re going why tell the truth i don t know it s some of ted s out in woods don t see what we can do wait i ll up and ask if she knows their name turned on the light in ted s room it was a brown boyish room disordered worn books a high photographs of basket ball and ted war decidedly not tj ere mrs awakened observed that she certainly did not know the name of ted s host that it was late that was but little better than a born fool and that she was sleepy but she remained awake and worrying while on the sleeping porch struggled back into sleep the incessant soft rain of her remarks it was after dawn when he was aroused by her shaking him and calling george george in something like horror what is it come here quick and see be quiet she led him down the hall to the door of ted s room and pushed it gently open on the worn brown rug he saw a t f rose colored on the chair a girl s silver and on the pillows	42
s and regarded the moving pictures gloomily they helped him after a domestic drama came a western scene the goat of the which depicted with much humor and tumult the revolt of a cook a mr was really seeing not cow and sage brush but him mr is lonely self the office manager s and against the ticket man s now he was ready for the nearly overpowering delight of travel pictures he slightly as a presented he was a of travel pictures for all his life he had been planning a great journey though he had done island and an excursion to bound brook neither of these was his grand tour it was yet to be taken in mr apparently fastened to new york like a domestic minded lay the possibilities of heroic he knew it he too like the man who had taken the pictures would among dusky natives in with on the roofs and temples and and well places the scent of oriental was in his nostrils as he out of the without a look at the and headed for home for his third floor front on west sixteenth street he wanted to through his of for a description of but of course when one s landlady has both the and a case of patient suffering one stops in the dining room to inquire how she is mrs was a fat landlady when she sat down there was a straight line from her chin to her knees she was usually sitting down when she moved she groaned and her apparel she groaned and from bed to breakfast and ate five cakes two s of an egg some and three cups of coffee slowly and she and groaned from breakfast to her rocking chair and sat about wondering why providence had inflicted upon her a weak mr also wondered why but mrs was too to be much cheered by the sympathy of a yankee who couldn t appreciate the subtle sorrows of a of s allied to all the first families of virginia our mr mr did nothing more than sit still in the furniture crowded room which of dead food and pride in a race that had never existed he sat still because the chair was broken it had been broken now for four years for the hundred and twenty ninth time in those years mrs said in her rich corruption of southern negro dialect which can only be indicated here ah been meaning to get that chair mended mist he looked gratified and gazed upon the of lee the older daughter who was in a factory and of was usually called and many times a day was she called by mrs a tamed child was with which mrs had been to have removed and which she would continue to have benevolent s about till it should be too late and she should discover that providence never would let go to school yes mist ah told she was to see the man about getting that chair fixed but she does nothing ah tell her in the kitchen was the noise of aged eight still washing though not cleaning the incredible pile of dinner dishes with a trail of hesitating remarks on the sadness of and windy evenings mr forth from the august presence of mrs and mounted to paradise his third floor front it was an respectable room the patched no two pieces of furniture from the same family half tones from the magazines pinned on the wall but on the old marble lived his friends books from other friends the room had rarely known it was hard enough for mr to get acquainted with people an and mrs did not expect her to entertain so mr mr is lonely had given up asking even carpenter the assistant at the company to call that left him the books which he now with small eager finger tips he picked out a p o circular and hastily left for the april skies glowed with benevolence this saturday morning the tower was singing bright ivory tipped with gold uplifted and intensely glad of the morning the buildings in square were the honest red brick fronts radiant the new marble witty the in the middle of fifth avenue were all talking at once but cleverly the polished brass of threw off smiles at least so mr fancied as he up fifth avenue the skirts of his small blue double coat he was going blocks out of his way to the office ready to defy time and eternity yes and even the office manager he had awakened with defiance as his and throughout breakfast at the lunch sunshine had over the dirty floor he up to the company s brick building on twenty eighth street near sixth avenue in the office he chuckled at his ink well and the on his orderly desk though he sat under the weary unnatural of a light he dashed into his work and was too keen about this business of living merrily to be much by the bustle of the lady s superior good morning even up to ten thirty he was still down papers on his desk just let any one try to stop his course his readiness for snapping fingers at the job just let them try it that was all he wanted then he was shot out of his chair and four feet along the corridor in response to the surly r r r r of the mr r the manager our mr desired to see him he along the corridor and slid through the manager s doorway into the long sun bright room with and seven glittered on the desk alone including a large shakespeare style glass ink well containing and a small iron style one containing ink mr like a noon roused in the the manager dropped his fist on the desk glared smoothed his	42
of waistcoat and growled his red quivering look here what s the matter with you the order for may day was filled twice they write me they ordered twice sir by smiled mr in an agony of politeness they ordered hell twice the same order yes sir their was they say they ve looked it up anyway they won t pay twice i know em we ll have to crawl down graceful and all because you i want to know why you ain t more careful the announcement that mr twice his head and once tossed it would not half his wrath at last it was here the time for revolt when he was going to be defiant he had been careful old was only barking but why should he be at with his voice and his heart so that he felt sick he declared i m sir about that order i looked it up their was drunk it was done and now would he be discharged the manager was speaking probably you looked it up eh send me in the two order records well but anyway i want you to be more careful after this you re pretty now get out expect me to make pay twice for the same order cause of your carelessness mr is lonely mr found himself outside in the dark corridor the manager hadn t seemed much impressed by his revolt the manager wasn t he called a and dictated gentlemen our mr has again that again miss again looked up your order for may day as we wrote before order certainly was by our mr is thoroughly and we have his records of these two orders we shall therefore have to push collection on both after all mr was thinking the manager might be merely concealing his hand perhaps he had understood the defiance that him till after lunch but at three when his head was again with work and he had forgotten whether there was still april an he began to dread what the manager might do to him suppose he lost his job the job i he worked late hoping that the manager would learn of it as he wavered home drunk with weariness his fear of losing the job was almost equal to his desire to resign from the job he had worked so late that when he awoke on sunday morning he was still in a whirl of figures as he went out to his breakfast of coffee and wheat at the lunch the lines between the blocks of the walk radiant in a white of sunshine recalled the cross lines of order lists with the narrow blocks at the standing for column even the of the lunch s imitation steel ceiling running in parallel lines down at him that he was a man whose path was a ruler he went clear up to the branch post after breakfast to get the sunday mail but the mail was a our mr he was awaiting a wonderful fully illustrated guide to the land of the midnight sun a suggestion of possible and improbable whereas he got only a letter from his oldest acquaintance cousin john of new york the boy who comes to play of mr s back yard days in without opening the letter mr tucked it into his inside coat pocket threw away his and turned to sunday he down twenty third street to the north river took money and of course one up for future great over him the april clouds were whose gaiety made him shrug with excitement and take a with a as as a central park lamb there was no hint of lists in the clouds at least and with them mr s soul swept along while his half fee best shoes were past only once did he condescend to being really on street at the ninth avenue comer under the elevated he sighted two blocks down to the general s brick and found in a pointed doorway suggestions of alien beauty but his real object was to on a west and south railroad in luxury and go sailing out into the foam and perilous seas of north river he passed through the smoking cabin he didn t smoke the habit used up travel money once seated on the upper deck he knew that at last he was outward bound on a true there was no great motion but mr was inclined to let off easily in this feature of his voyage at least there were life in the white overhead and everywhere the world to his certain witnessing was turned to to setting forth in great ships as if it were again in the brisk morning of history when the joy of adventure possessed the he wasn t excited over the they passed he was so experienced in all of travel save the as to mr is lonely have gained a calm interested knowledge he knew the three away and explained to a her fine points speaking earnestly of and sticks and knots not excited but where couldn t he go if he were pulling out for on the i what were even the building block towers of the and singer buildings and the times s cream stick compared with some old shrine in a cathedral close that was with centuries all this he felt and to himself though not in words he had never heard of though for many years he had been a citizen of that sure he declared to himself he was on the now he was sliding up the muddy see the w s travel notes for the source of his visions he was oflf to st george s square for an organ recital see the english then an express for london and the was entering her slip mr trotted toward the bow to thrill over the of the boat s nose against	42
the lofty ring piles and the of the brown waves heaped before her as she into place he was carried by the herd on into the he did not the individual people in his exultation as he heard the great of the station s the vast roof roared as the iron stamped hoofs of scorn at the little stay at home that is a washed out hint of how the poets might describe mr s passion what he said was he strolled by the lists of hung on the track gates the plains the sunset over washington and the magic thither the iron horses would be galloping their smoke whipped back by the out with strong hoofs their sixty miles an hour very well in time he also would mount our mr upon the iron and charge upon and the just as soon as he got ready then he headed for street for long island city finally the navy yard along his way were the of the tramp where he might ship as steward in the all promising sometime he had never done anything so reckless as actually to ask a for the chance to go a sailing but he had once gone into a mission society s free shipping on west street where a elder had at him are you a sailor no can t do anything for you my friend are you saved he wasn t going to risk another horror like that yet when the golden morning of sometime dawned he certainly was going to go off to as he walked through long island city he contrived conversations with the sailors he passed it would have surprised a un s mate to that he was really a gun and that as a matter of fact he was now telling of the spanish main to the man who slid by him mr envied the on the training ship and carelessly went to sea as the president s guest in the admiral s and was frightened by the stare of a shop girl and arrived home before dusk to mrs s approval dusk made in his third floor front pleasantly in those slight neat legs after his walk mr sat in the by the window patting his tan and the day s wandering when the gas was lighted he over pictures in a magazine for a happy hour then yawned to himself well l l guess it s time to crawl into the he and smoothed his ready made suit on the rocking chair back sitting on the edge of his bed quaint in his cotton night gown like a rare little bird of dull lo mr is lonely he his head um m m m how tired he was he went to open the window then his tamed heart leaped into a and he forgot fronts and through the window came the chorus of fog horns on north river boom m mt that must be a giant up through the fog it was a a she d be roaring just like that if she were off the if he were only off the that was a n n another the tumultuous chorus repeated to him all the adventures of the day he dropped upon the bed again and stared at his clothes out of the inside coat pocket stuck the un opened letter from cousin john he read a paragraph of it he sprang from the bed and danced a in his like a drunken the letter announced that the farm at left to mr by his father had been sold its on a river bluff had made it valuable to the association there was now to his credit in the national bank nine hundred and forty dollars he was wealthy then he had enough to stalk up and down the earth for many but economical months till he should learn the trade of wandering and its mysterious trick of living without a job or a salary he crushed his pillow with head and sobbed excitedly with a terrible stomach sinking and a chill shaking then he laughed and wanted to but didn t rush into the adjacent hall room and tell the total stranger there of this world changing news he listened in the hall to learn whether the were up but heard nothing returned and up and down on a map of the world it s happened i could travel all the time i guess i won t be very much afraid of and ii our mr stuff things like that if i don t get to bed i ll be late at the office in the morning i mr lay awake till three o clock monday morning he felt rather ashamed of having done so eccentric a thing but he got to the office on time he was worried with the cares of wealth with having to decide when to leave for his world wanderings but he was also very much aware that office are disagreeable if one isn t on time all morning he did nothing more reckless than balance his new fortune his against on a waste half sheet of paper the noon hour was not the job s but his for of the lands of romance that lie hard by twenty eighth street and sixth avenue but he had to go out to lunch with carpenter the assistant that he might tell the news as for lie needed frequently to have a who knew personally the ways of the office manager mr mr and chose that is to say chose a table at s eating house mr timidly hinted i ve got some big news to tell you but interrupted say did you hear old light into me this morning i won t stand for it say did you hear him the old what was the trouble trouble nothing was the trouble except	42
with old i made one little break in my accounts why if old had to keep track of seventy accounts and watch every single last movement of a fool girl that can t even run the adding machine why he d get green around the he d never do anything but make mistakes well i guess the old must have had a bum breakfast this morning wanted some exercise to it me i was the exercise i was the goat he calls me in and he calls me and me well just tell you i calls his mr is lonely carpenter stopped his rapid delivered th quick head shakes like those of to raise his to his mouth in this slow gesture the memory of his wrongs again overpowered him he flung his right hand back on the table scattering ashes jerked back his head with the irritated patience of a nervous martyr then waved both hands about while he with his handsome smooth face more flushed than usual sure you can just bet your bottom dollar i let him see from the way i looked at him that i wasn t going to stand for no more monkey business you bet i did til fix him i will you just watch me hey got any bring me a will why that cross eyed double fat old ril him in the so hard some day i will you just watch my smoke if it wasn t for that wife of mine i ought to desert her and i will some day and mr was for a second i know how it is but you ll get over it honest you will say i ve got some news some land that my left me has sold for nearly a thousand by the way this lunch is on me let me pay for it promised to let him pay quite readily and said great great congratulate you don t know anybody i d rather ve had this happen to you re a meek little lamb but you ve got lots of in you old oh say by the way could you let me have fifty cents till saturday thanks i ll pay it back sure by you re the only man around the office that what a double duck lined old old is the old aw i wish you wouldn t jump on so hard he s always treated me square square he s square just like a our mr you know it too now that youve got enough so s you don t need to be scared about the job you ll realize it and you ll want to him same s i do say the impulse of a great idea made him shake his fist say why don t you him they bank on you at the company dam sight more than you realize tell you why you do about half the stock keeper s work sides your own tell you what you do you go to old and tell him you want a raise to twenty five and want it right now yes by thirty you re worth that or pretty dam near it but course old never give it to you he ll threaten to fire you if you say a thing more about it you can tell him to go ahead and then where u he be guess that call his bluff some yes but then if feels he can t pay me that much you know he s responsible to the tie can t do ever he wants to why he ll just have to fire me after i ve talked to him like that whether he wants to or not and that d leave us that d leave them without a clerk right in the busy season why sure that s what we want to do if you go it d leave em without just about two men bother em like the deuce it d bother mr x y most of all thank the lord he wouldn t know where he was at trying to break in a man right in the busy season here s your chance come on kid don t pass it up oh i can t do that you wouldn t want me to try to hurt the company after being there for see it must be seven years well maybe you to get your little nose rubbed on the i i suppose you d like to stay on at nineteen per for the rest of your life aw don t get sore please don t i d like to get off all right like to go and stuff like that mr is lonely like to wander round but i can t cut out right in the but can t you see you poor nut you won t be leaving em they ll either pay you what they ought to or lose you oh i don t know about that was making up for some uncertainty as to his own logic by beaming and mr was afraid of being no no he rising well all right if you like to be s goat oh you re all right i suppose you had ought to stay if you feel you got to well so long i ve got to beat it over and buy a pair of before i go back mr crept out of s behind him very melancholy even admitted that he had ought to stay then and what chance was there of persuading the dread mr r that he wished to be looked upon as one where then any chance of globe trotting perhaps for months he would remain in slavery and he had hoped just that morning one dreadful quarter hour with mr and he might be free he grinned to himself as he admitted that	42
this was like seeing europe after merely swimming the atlantic well he had nine minutes more by his two dollar watch nine minutes of he gazed across at a greek with signs in real greek letters like ruins at well at a chinese chop den with a red and yellow carved and at an upper window a who might easily be carrying a or whatever them knives are as he observed for the time he had taken this journey a before whose upright of scarlet coals whole ducks were happily to a shiny brown in a s window were skins is our mr huts of awful brave the northern sea guards in just as he d seen them at an academy of music play and a bear meaning to him the northern lights the long and the at night and the i there were that though he only half knew it and that all whispered to him of where in the hot hush he saw the and what was it in that poem that thing was it about anyway them smells and the sunshine and the palms and the bells he had to hurry back to the office he stopped only to pat the head of a s delivery horse that looked wistfully at him from the poor old what you thinking about want to be a horse and wander le s beat it together you can t eh poor old at three thirty the time when it seems to office persons that the day s work never will end even by a miracle mr was about his duty to the firm he was more so after an interview with the manager who spent a few minutes which he happened to have free in roaring i want to know why at mr was no particular why that he wanted to know he was merely getting scientific out of a phrase which mr had taken from a business magazine that theories for at five twenty the manager summoned him him on nothing in particular and suggested that he stay late with carpenter and the stock keeper to a line of desk which they were closing out as mr returned to his desk he stopped at a i mr is lonely window on the corridor and the bright late afternoon the of lofty buildings the sunset shone through the glass upper floors he wanted to be out there in the streets with the crowds old didn t consider him why should he consider the firm he walks with miss as he left the company building after work xi ing late at taking and down toward street mr felt the worst of it all was that he could not go to the for moving pictures not after having been cut by the ticket then there before him was the glaring sign of the tempting him a bill with great train robbery to night made his heart like stair climbing and he dashed at the ticket with a extended he felt queer about the as the girl slid out a why did she seem to be watching him so closely as he dropped the ticket in the he tried to glance away from the brass button man for one nineteenth of a second he kept his head turned it turned back of itself he stared full at the man half bowed and received a hearty nod and a fine he sang to himself a monotonous song of great joy when he stumbled over the feet of a large german in getting to a seat he as though he were accustomed to laugh easily with many friends the train robbery was well he kept repeating to himself how the men did simply and behind the bushes i mr shrank as one of them out of the picture at him how gallantly the train dashed toward the robbers to the spirit stirring roll of the drum the rush i he walks with miss from the bushes followed the battle with concealed in the express car mr was standing and shooting coolly with the slender hawk faced man in with him he leaped to horse and followed the robbers through the forest he stayed through the whole twice to see the train robbery again as he started to go out he found the ticket changing his long light blue robe of state for a highly commonplace sack coat without brass buttons in his astonishment at seeing how a could be transformed into an every day man mr stopped and having stopped spoke that was quite a quite a picture that train robbery wasn t it i guess now whereas the devil and his wife flew away to with my hat them is always it picture why i didn t see it no more n say you pink eye say you footed did you my hat ain t he the cut up i ain t both them the though being and hiding my hat in the box office picture i don t get no chance to see any of em funny ain t it me barking for em like i was the grandmother of the that invented em and not knowing whether the train robbery now who stole my going home shoes why i don t know whether the train did any or not he mr on the back and the clerk s heart bounded in he was surprised into declaring say i bowed to you the other night and you well honestly you acted like you never saw me well well now and that s what happens to me for being the of and a she girl and a tom cat sure i couldn t ve seen you me i was probably that busy with cares i was probably thinking who was our mr it et the pie on me was it or or	42
d thank you mist if you could conveniently let me know before you go running off and leaving me with empty rooms with the landlord after the rent and me turning away people that d pay more for the room because ah wanted to keep it for you and people always coming to see you and making me answer the door and even the house worm was making small sounds that turning lee snapped just in time oh cut it out ma will you she had been staring at the worm for he had suddenly become interesting and and incidentally an heir i don t see why mr ain t giving us all the notice we can expect he said he t be going for a long time oh i mrs so own flesh and blood is going to turn against me i she rose her appearance of majesty was somewhat lessened by the of stays but her instinct for was always good she said nothing as she left them and she up stairs with a train of sighs mr looked as though sudden illness had overpowered him but laughed and remarked you don t want to let ma get on her high horse mr she s a bluff with much of the lower less stiff part of her garments she sailed to the cloudy mirror over the magazine filled and her cap of false curls with many of her large firm hands which flashed with diamonds though he had heard the our mr word he did not know that half her hair was false he stared at it though in disgrace he felt the honor of knowing so ample and rustling a woman as miss lee say i wish i could ve let her know i was going earlier miss i didn t know it myself but it does seem like a mean trick i s pose i ought to pay her something extra why child you won t do anything of the sort ma hasn t got a bit of kick coming you ve always been awful nice far as i can see she smiled i went for a walk to night i wish all those men wouldn t stare at a girl so i m sure i don t see why they should stare at me mr nodded but that didn t seem to be the right comment so he shook his head then looked embarrassed i went by that you were telling me about mr some time i believe i ll go dine there again she paused he said only yes it is a nice place remarking to herself that there was no question about it after all he was a little fool continued the siege do you dine there often oh yes it is a nice place could a lady go there why yes i i should think so he finished oh i do get so awfully tired of the greasy stuff ma and dish up they think a big that tastes like dish water is a dinner and if they do have anything i like they keep on having the same thing every day till i it in the sink i wish i could go to a once in a while for a change but of course i s it would be proper for a lady to go alone even there what do you think oh dear i she sat brooding sadly he walks with miss he had an inspiration perhaps miss could be persuaded to go out to dinner with him some time he begged i wish you d let me take you up there some evening miss now didn t i tell you to call me miss i suppose you just don t want to be friends with me nobody does she again oh i didn t mean to hurt your feelings honest i didn t i ve always thought you d think i was fresh if i called you miss and so i why i guess i could go up to the with you perhaps when would you like to go you know i ve always got lots of dates but i um diet s see i think i could go to morrow evening let s do it shall i call for you miss yes you may if you ll be a good boy good night she departed with an air of intimacy mr to the and admitted to the brass button man that he was feeling pretty good s evening he had never supposed that a handsome creature like miss could ever endure such a slow fellow as himself for about one minute he considered with a chill the question of whether she was agreeable because of his new wealth but the who was making the suggestion for had he not heard her mention with great scorn a second cousin who had married an old yankee for his money that just settled he assured himself and at a passing messenger boy for having thus hinted but hastily as the showed signs of loud displeasure the is peculiar for it has foreign food at low prices and is below street yet it has not become consequently it has no bad music and no crowd of persons from whose our mr women risk salvation for an evening by smoking here prosperous oriental merchants of mild natures and faces drink semi liquid coffee and discuss and in fact the place seemed so that facing mr was bored and the was foreign without being society it suggested rats tails and birds nests she was quite sure she would gladly have with or but what social was there to be gained at the factory by remarking that she always did like i mr did not see that she was glancing about for he was listening to a young man at the next table who was remarking to his d a pale	42
lay awake to think of s hair and hand clasp of polished and gentlemen who summoned and who had he tossed the about in his struggle to get the word who had a punch he would do that great of his in the land of big business the five thousand princes of new york to protect themselves against the four million ungrateful slaves had devised the sacred of dress coats large houses and as the outward and visible signs of the virtue of making money to into respectability and teach them the social value of getting a dollar away from that injurious some one else that our mr should dream for dreaming s sake was our mr he might do things because he wanted to not because they were fashionable whereupon police forces and the clergy would wall street and fifth avenue would go thundering down hence for him were provided those y m c a night classes administered by solemn earnest men of thirty for solemn youths of twenty nine those sermons on content articles on building up the store by live stories about playing the game and correspondence school that shrieked mount the ladder to thorough knowledge the path to power and to the fuller pay envelope to all these mr had been indifferent for they showed no imagination but when he saw big business by a humorous then the job appeared to him as adventure and he was in peril of his imagination the eight o clock sun which usually found a wildly mr discovered him dreaming that he was the manager of the company but that was a complete misunderstanding of the case the manager of the company was mr r and he called mr in to him with that fact when the new started his career in big business by arriving at the office one hour late what made it worse considered mr was that this had a higher average of than any one else in the office which proved that he knew better worst of all the family eggs had not been scrambled right at breakfast they had been mr the and set his face toward the door with a prepared mr seemed weary and not so as usual look here you were just about two hours late he walks with miss this morning what do you think this office is a club or a reading room for ever occur to you we d like to have you favor us with a call now and then so s we can learn how you re getting along at or whatever you re doing these days there was a baby shoe office pin cushion on the manager s desk mr eyed this and said nothing the manager hear what i said d think i m talking to give my throat exercise mr was stubborn i couldn t help it couldn t help and you call that an explanation i know just exactly what you re thinking you re thinking that because i ve let you have a lot of chances to really work into the business lately you re necessary to us and not simply an expense oh no mr honest i didn t think well hang it man you want to think what do you suppose we pay you a salary for and just let me you right here and now that if you can t condescend to spare us some of your valuable time now and then we can good and plenty get along without you an old tale oft told and never believed but it interested mr just now i m real glad you can get along without me i ve just inherited a big of money i think i ll resign right now whether he or mr r was the more aghast at hearing him this no one knows the manager was so worried at the thought of breaking in a new man that his eye glasses slipped off his poor nose he begged in sudden tones of old friendship why you can t be thinking of leaving us i why we expect to make a big man of you i was joking about firing you you ought to know that after the talk we had at s the other night you can t be our mr thinking of leaving there s no end of possibilities here sorry said the dogged soldier of dreams why that hurt and astonished victim of ingratitude mr leave the middle of june that s plenty of notice mr at five that evening mr dashed up to the brass button man at his station before the crying say i you come from ireland don t you now what would you think me oh no i m a from no honest straight tell me i ve got a chance to travel what d think of that ain t it great i and i m going right away what i wanted to ask you was what s the best place in ireland to see o course i was bom there from his pocket a pencil and a worn envelope mr added the new point of interest to a list from bay to he up town looking at the stars he shouted as he saw the of a big up at the end of street he stopped to chuckle over a of the at the window of a greek s stand stars steamer temples all these were his he owned them now he was free lee sat waiting for him in the till ten thirty while he was with at the grand central then she went to bed and though he knew it not that prince of wealthy mr had entirely lost the heart and hand of miss of the f f v he stood before the manager s god like desk on june sadly good by mr leaving to day i wish	42
he walks with miss i i wish i could tell you you know about how much i appreciate the manager moved a wire basket of copies of letters from the left side of his desk to the right staring at them thoughtfully his in a pile before his ink well glanced at the point of an pencil with a manner of startled examination tapped his desk with his then raised his eyes he studied mr smiled put on the look he used when inviting him out for a drink mr was essentially an honest fellow by the job a victim with the imagination clean gone out of him so that he took follow up letters and the of office boys as the only serious things in the world he was strong alive not at all a bad chap merely efficient well i suppose there s no use of rubbing it in course you know what i think about the whole thing it strikes me you re a fool to leave a good job but after all that s your business not ours we like you and when you get tired of being just a bum why come back we ll always try to have a job open for you meanwhile i hope you ll have a mighty good time old man where you going when d start out why first i m going to just kind of wander round generally lots of things i d like to do i think i ll get away real soon now thank you awfully mr for keeping a place open for me course i ly won t need it but i sure do appreciate it say i don t believe you re so crazy about leaving us after all now that the cards are all out straight now are you yes sir it does make me feel a little blue been here so long but it be awful good to get out at sea i know i d like to go myself i suppose you fellows think i wouldn t care to go around like you do and never have to worry about how the firm s going to break even but well our mr good by old man and don t forget us drop me a line now and then and let me know how you re getting along oh say if you happen to see any that look good let us hear about them but drop me a line anyway we ll always be glad to hear from you well good by and good luck sure and drop me a line in the comer which had been his home for eight years mr could not devise any new and yet more improved arrangement of the wire baskets and and desk so he cleaned a pen blew some gray dust from under his iron ink well standard and decided that his desk was in order reflecting hem been there a long time now he could never come back to it no matter how much he wanted to how good the manager had been to him he hadn t appreciated how was he started down the corridor on a round of to the boys too bad he hadn t never got better acquainted with them but it was too late now anyway they were such fine jolly sports they d never miss a stupid like him just then he met them in the corridor all of them except headed by the and carpenter who was bearing a box of handkerchiefs with a large green and crimson paper nor upon this suspicious occasion we have the pleasure of showing by this small token of our esteem our of your efforts in the investigation of r of the trust and say old man joking aside we re mighty sorry you re going and well we d like to give you something to show we re mighty sorry you re going we thought of a box of cigars but you don t smoke much anyway these han k chiefs help to show three cheers for fellows afterward by his desk alone holding the box of hand he walks with miss with the red and green mr began to cry he was lying at eight thirty on a morning of late june two weeks after leaving the company deliberately hunting over his pillow for cool spots very hot and restless in the legs and depressed in the soul he would have got up had there been anything to get up for there was nothing yet he felt uneasily guilty for two weeks he had been afraid of losing by neglect the job he had already voluntarily given up so there are men whom the fear of death has driven to suicide nearly every morning he had driven himself from bed and had finished before he was quite satisfied that he didn t have to get to the office on time as he wandered about during the day he remarked with tm scared as teacher s pet playing for the first time like what we used to do in all proper persons were at work of a week day afternoon what then was he doing walking along the street when all morality demanded his sitting at a desk at the company being a little more careful to win the divine favor of r he was sure that if he were already out on the great he would be able to push the on himself and get up his nerve but he did not know where to go he had planned so many these years that now he couldn t keep any one of them finally decided on for more than an hour it rather stretched his short arms to embrace at once a gay old dream of seeing and the stem duty of hunting dangerous beasts in the bush the expense him	42
too he had through many years so persistently saved money for the great that he money for that itself indeed he planned to spend not more than of the i so he had now accumulated on his first venture our mr during which he hoped to learn the trade of wandering he was always influenced by a sentence he had read somewhere about one of those globe you meet carrying a monkey in then in and a at the he would learn some trade that would teach him the use of tools also daring and the of haunts islands and stations with curious names he pictured himself shipping as third engineer at the islands or engaged for taking moving pictures of an flight in he had to get away from he had to be out on the iron seas where the battle ships and went by like a marching military band but he couldn t get started once beyond sandy hook he would immediately know all about engines and fighting it would help he was certain to be but no matter how wistfully no matter how late at night he forced himself to among english on west street he couldn t get himself except by persons wishing ten cents for a place to sleep when he had through breakfast that particular morning he sat about once he had pictured sitting about reading travel books as a perfect occupation but it concealed no exciting little surprises when he could be a sunday on any plain monday never made his bed till noon and the gray and brown patched seemed to trail all about the disordered room in a paragraph he rose threw one hundred ways to see on the tumbled bed and ran away from our mr but our mr pursued him along the where the sun glared on water he had seen the twelve times that fortnight in fact he even cried that he had seen too blame much of the blame he walks with miss early in the afternoon he went to a moving picture show but the first sight of the white giant figures against the gray background was wearily unreal and when the inevitable large eyed black indian maiden met the cow he about in his seat was irritated by the nervous click of the machine and the hot of the room and ran away just at the exciting moment when the indian chief dashed into camp and summoned his to the war path perhaps he could hide from thought at home as he came into his room he stood at gaze like a of good family beholding a asleep in its pink basket for on his bed was mrs her curves stretching behind her large flat feet whose were toward him she was her stays regularly as she breathed except when she moved slightly and groaned he down stairs and went along the dusty brick side streets wondering where in all new york he could go he read a an excursion to the to start that evening for an moment he resolved to go but oh there was a lot of them rich society folks up there he bought a morning american and sitting in union square gravely studied the humorous drawings he casually noticed the help wanted they suggested an uninteresting idea that somehow he might find it economical to go venturing as a waiter or farm hand and so he came to the gate of paradise men wanted free passage on cattle boats to liverpool feeding cattle low fee easy work fast boats apply and atlantic employment street he cried i guess providence has picked out my first for me ill he starts for the land of elsewhere the and atlantic employment is a long dirty room with the plaster cracked like the outlines on a map hung with and the laws of new york regarding employment which are regarded as humorous by the proprietor m a short slender person with a nervous black beard lively and a knowledge of all the of nine languages mr edged into this heap of with interested wonder m rubbed his smooth wicked hands together and bowed a number of times leaning across the counter mr murmured say i read your ad about wanting i want to make a trip to europe how yes yes yes yes i you up right away ten dollars s s s well what does that me to i you i you up ha i know it you are a gentleman you want a nice trip on europe sure i you right up i send you off on a nice easy where you won t have to work much hardly any right away it goes ten dollars s s s but when does the boat start where does it start from mr was a bit confused he had never met a man who so politely and so rapidly next tuesday i send you right off mr exchanged ten dollars for a card land of elsewhere informing atlantic avenue boston that mr was to be ship ist boat right away and charge my fee paid brightly declaring i you a fine ship m added on the margin of the card in copper plate best ship easy work he come early next tuesday morning and bowed out mr like a the row of waiting servant girls as though they were a hedge swayed by the wind while mr self hurried to get past them he was too excited to worry over the patient and quiet suffering with which mrs heard the announcement that he was going that laughed at him for a while in the kitchen audibly observed that nobody but a yankee would travel in a pig pen merely increased his joy in moving his to a tuesday morning clad in a jacket shoes an old felt hat a shirt and carrying a suit case packed to bursting with clothes	42
and with one hundred and fifty dollars in express company concealed he dashed down to s hole though it was only eight thirty he was afraid he was going to be late till p m he sat waiting then was sent to the joy line wharf with a ticket to boston and a letter to s shipping give bearer as per one trip england boat charge my n y standing on the deck of the joy line boat with his suit case beside him he to himself with the refrain free free out to sea free free that s m he had persuaded himself that there was practically no danger of the boat s sinking or catching fire anyway he just wasn t going to be scared as the steamer up east river our mr he watched the late afternoon sun the and make soft the stretches of fields of course he thrilled he had no state room but was entitled to a place in a twelve berth room in the hold here large farmers without their shoes were talking all at once so he returned to the deck and the rest of the night while the other passengers he sat modestly on a canvas stool over a sea fabric of frosty blue that was shot through with golden threads when they passed or ships at dawn he was weary eyed but he viewed the light with approval at last boston the front part of the shipping office on atlantic avenue was a glass room with chairs piles of old pictures of older and to be as in the midst of these remains a red headed yankee of forty smoking a sat back in a kitchen chair reading the boston american mr delivered m letter and stood waiting holding his suit case ready to out and go aboard a cattle boat immediately the shipping agent glanced through the letter then snapped crazy always sends em too early you ought to come to me first what j y h go to that jew first for here he goes and sends you a day late or couple days too early f got here last night i could ve sent you off this morning on a dominion line boat all i got now is a boat that starts from saturday le s see this is wednesday thursday friday you ll have to wait three days now you want me to fix you up don t you i might not be able to get you off till a week from now but you d like to get off on a good boat saturday instead wouldn t you h yes i would i the land of elsewhere well i ll try to fix it you can see for yourself boats ain t leaving every minute just to please and it s the busy season of boys wanting to cross and wanting to get back to england and jews beating it to to at the i guess and tell you them jews is all right they re willing to pay for a man s time and trouble in getting em fixed up and so with dignity mr william stated of course ril be glad to make it worth your while i thought you was a gentleman hey al au an boy with few teeth dusty and grown out of his trousers appeared clear off a chair for the gentleman stick that on top my desk sit down mr you see it s like this i ll tell you in confidence you understand this letter from ain t worth the paper it s written on he ain t got any right to be sending out men for cattle boats me i m running that i deal direct with all the boston and lines if you don t believe it just go out in the back room and ask any of the out there yes i see mr observed as though he were ill and an old about the floor mr is it my boy by name and true by nature this last was said quite without conviction it was evidently a joke which had come down from earlier years mr ignored it and declared as stoutly as he could you see mr i d be willing to pay you i ll tell you just how it is mr i ain t one of these employment i m an american i like to look out for americans even if you didn t come to me first i ll watch out for your interests same s if they was mine now do you want to get fixed up with a nice fast boat that leaves next saturday just a couple of days wait our mr h yes i jo mr well my list is really full men waiting too but if it d be worth five dollars to you to here s the five dollars the shipping agent was disgusted he had estimated from mr s cheap jacket and shoes that he would be able to squeeze out only three or four dollars and here he might have made ten more in sorrow than in anger of course you understand i may have a lot of trouble working you in on the next boat you coming as late as this course five dollars is less n what i usually get he contemptuously tossed the bill on his desk if you want me to slip a little something extra to the agents mr was too head to be timid let s see that did i give you only five dollars receiving the bill he folded it with much tucked it into the pocket of his shirt and remarked now you said you d fix me up for five dollars besides that letter from is a form with your name printed on it so i know you do business with him right	42
black bow water in cries and however the horn did at least show that they were awake up there on the bridge to steer him through the fog and weren t they experienced hadn t they made this trip ever so many times and never got killed wouldn t they take all sorts of pains on their own account as well as on his but just the same would he really ever get to england alive and if he did would he have to go on holding his breath in terror for nine more days would the fo c always keep heaving up up up like this then down down down as though it were going to sink how do like de fog horn the tough spit the question up at him from a comer of his mouth hope we don t run into no ships he winked at tim the who took the cue and mourned afraid we re going to ain t you the mate was telling me he was scared we would t ing you know hey wait till have to beat it down stairs and tie up a bull in a storm u last quick on de game oh shut up snapped s friend but was and not him other dangers which he was happily sure were threatening them shivered to hear that the d worse he under s loud questions about his loss in some cattle pen of the scarlet jacket which he had proudly and gaily so great little bill in new york for his work on the ship and the card players assured him that his suit case which he had to the ship s carpenter would probably be stolen by satan satan shuddered still more for satan the gaunt hook rail faced head smiling when angry when calm was a lean human whip lash he dilated upon satan s wrath at for not coming across with ten dollars for a bribe as he had done he lied of course and his words have not been given literally they were not beautiful words die straw would always lie awake to enjoy a good brisk story but he liked s admiration of him so with his bull like head out of his berth he hey you it s time to pound your ear cut it out called down sternly i ain t no student and i don t mind but i wish you wouldn t talk like a hey did bring your dictionary to tim two feet distant from him to say ain t you afraid one of them long like t will turn around and bite you right on the wrist dry up snapped a aw cut it out you groaned another shut up added the straw both of you raging to bed or i ll beat your block clean off i mean it see hear me yes heard him doubtless the first officer on the bridge heard too and perhaps the inhabitants of but took his time in scratching the back of his neck and stretching before he crawled into his berth for half an hour he talked softly to tim for si our mr s benefit stating his belief that satan the head had once thrown overboard a jew much like and was likely thus to serve too tim pictured the result when after the of the steamer which would undoubtedly occur if this long sickening motion kept up had o take to a boat with satan the fingers of curled into shape for some one when was asleep he worried off into thin slumber then there was satan the head him out of his berth stirring his cramped joints to another dawn of two hours of work and two of waiting before the daily eight o clock insult called breakfast he on his shoes at mr s really being there at his sitting in cramped stoop on the side of a berth in a dark filthy place that went up and down like a freight subject to the orders of persons whom he did not in the least like through the damp gray sea air he staggered along the to the and trembled down the iron ladder to s crew decks first watering the by walking backward with of water he carried till he could see and think of nothing in the world save the water butt the in front of it and the dipping out there through centuries that would never end how those did drink s favorite bull which he called the took ten and still persisted in with dripping gray mouth beyond the trying to reach more as was carrying a to the beyond the s horn caught and tore his the boat the whirled out of his hand he grasped an iron and kicked the in the jaw till the steer backed ofi a character cheered for such were a rule of the game s great little bill good work remarked tim the you go to hell snapped and tim looked much more respectful but lost this credit before they had finished feeding out the hay for he grew too dizzy to resent tim s remarks straining to pitch into the pens while the boat rolled along the wet down by the of coal where the heat seemed a close wound choking and the darkness was made only a little pale by light coming through dust port holes he and and till he was exhausted the floating bits of hay dust were a thousand hands with poisoned nails scratching at the roof of his mouth his skin all over he constantly discovered new and aching muscles but he on until he finished the work fifteen minutes after tim had given out he crawled up to the main deck and huddled in the shelter of a pile of hay where was declaring to tim and the rest that satan couldn t	42
never get nothing on him broke into s with the question say is it straight what they say that you re the that owns the line and that s why you know so much more than the rest of us poor the needle quick applause and laughter felt personally grateful to for this but he went up to the aft top deck where he could lie alone on a pile of he made himself observe the sea which as and jack london had promised him in their stories surrounded him every where shining free but he glanced at it only once to the north was a bound for home home that was rubbing it in i while at work whether he was sick or not he could forget things s our mr but the fleeting on with bright ease made the cattle boat seem about as romantic as mrs s kitchen sink why he wondered why had he been a him a wanderer no he was a hired man on a farm well he d get this confounded job before he was through with it but then back to god s country i the eleven days out pleasantly rocked through the irish sea with the moon revealing the coast of one bill lay on the after deck to the heavens it was so warm that they did not need to sleep below and half a dozen of the had brought their up on deck beside bill lay the man who had given him that name tim the who had become weakly alarmed and admiring as learned to rise feeling like a boy in early time and to find shouting in sending a of hay fifteen good feet who lay near by had also adopted the name bill most of the trip had discussed and tim instead of the fact that things is curious mr had been jealous at first but when he learned from the theory that even a was a victim of he went out for knowing him quite to he had been bill since the fifth day when he had kept a hay from slipping back into the hold on the s head satan and still called him but he was not thinking about them just now with tim to his observations on tim fell asleep bill lay quiet and let memory color the sky above him he recalled the gardens of water which had in foam for him strange ships and and the schools of black s great little bill for him had through violet waves most of all he brought back the yesterday s long excitement and delight of seeing the irish coast hills his first foreign land whose faint sky had seemed with the lore of ireland a country that had ever been to him the haunt not of potatoes and but of he had wanted they were not common on the of west sixteenth street but now he had seen them in he was falling asleep under the dancing dome of the sky a happy mr when he was aroused as a furious bill the was near by singing hoarsely was a and er name was you shut up commanded bill say be careful the awakened tim implored of him who says to shut up hey who was it satan from the where he was still smoking the head muttered what s the odds the little man won t say it again stood by bill s who said shut up sounded bill out of bed with what he regarded as a vicious fighting for he was too sleepy to be afraid i did what you going to do about it more mildly as a fear of his own courage began to form i want to sleep oh you want to sleep little wants to sleep does he come here the tough at bill s shirt collar across the bill stuck out his arm wildly and struck half by accident roaring him and he went down with kneeling on his stomach and him and honest the straw sprang to drag off while satan the with the first our mr interest they had ever seen in his eyes let em fight fair rounds you re a right bill right commended with satan s praise firm but fearful in his rubber surprised and shocked to find himself here doing this bill at the the moon touched sadly the lightly coast and the rippling wake but bill of dream moon and faced his fellow they stuck out his foot gently sprang in furiously none o them rough tricks right o added he was left powerless he puffed and grew dizzy as bill danced delicately about him for he could do nothing without back street he did bloody the nose of bill and hi ribs but many and much told and he was ready to laugh foolishly and make peace when at the end of the sixth round he felt bill s neat little fist in a straight and entirely accidental to the point of his jaw sent his opponent spinning with a back which awoke all the cruelty of the terrible bill silently bill plunged in with a like a savage using every grain of his strength i let us turn from the lamentable luck of he had now got the idea that his supposed victim could really fight dismayed shocked disgusted he stumbled and sought to flee and was sent flat this time it was the great little bill who had to be dragged ofi held him kicking and his mild like a cat s till the next round when was knocked out by a clumsy of fists he lay on the deck with bill standing over him and demanding what s my name a a great little bill i t ink it s bill now all right old bill old groaned he was permitted to oblivion bill	42
went below in tbe dark passage by the he fell to weeping but the water that stopped his nose saved him from he climbed to the top deck and now he could again see his brother pilgrim the moon the and were talking excitedly of the fight tim rushed up to great bill old man i you done just what a done if he d me i told you was a out said satan tim fled came up looked at bill him on the shoulder and went off to his the other away but and satan were discussing the fight on the hard black pile of bill talked to them warmed to them and became mr he announced his to wander every shining road of europe nice work sure you ll make a little globe sure ought to be able to get the kind of for four bits a day nice work satan from to time with smooth irony sure go ahead like to hear your plans broke in cut that out you re a satan all right quit your the little man he s all right and he done fine on the job last three four days lying on his bill stared at the of the against the brilliant sky the lines made him think of the ruled order of the company he mused i d like to know if is handling my work the way we they like it i d like to see the our mr old office again and carpenter just for a couple of minutes i wish they could have seen me put it all over to night that s what fm going to do to the blooming englishmen if they don t like me the s s panted softly beside the landing stage at liverpool s city resting in the sunshine after her voyage while the cattle were they had encountered fog banks at the mouth of the river mr had watched the shores of england england ride at him through the fog and had panted over the lines of english among the it was like a dream yet the shore had such safe solid colors real red and green and yellow when contrasted with the fog wet deck glancing with mist lights now he was seeing his first foreign city and to curious beside him he could say nothing save with church tower and dome behind dome liverpool lay across the up through the liverpool streets that ran down to the river as though through peep holes straight back into the middle ages his vision plunged and it wandered through each street while he free free in ro that s the were called to help the remaining hay they made a game of it even satan smiled even the elders were lightly as they made fierce gestures at the patient hay tim the danced a foolish upon the deck and the bon bon banks of lo o o o the crowd come on bill your turn up with that or we ll bill on you bill standing very dignified i m colonel i own all these cattle the s great little bill see do what i say tim walk on your ear the laid his head on the deck and waved his legs in accordance with directions from colonel late the hay was off the and headed across the to the dock in liverpool while the played about the deck and laughing they made last at the water dragged out their luggage and descended to the as the passed bill and shouting affectionate good in english or courteous bill commented to on the fact that the solid stone floor of the great shed seemed to have enough sea motion to make a sick it was nearly his last utterance as bill he became mr absolute mr on the street as he saw a real english a real english and the sign house tea id england now for some real cried no more and willow leaf tea stretching out their legs under a table with sally and served by a who said thank you with a rising they gazed at the line of running all around the room over the long seat and smiled with the triumphant content which comes to him whose hunger for dreams and hunger for meat are together he finds much quaint english flavor r ig all right england sure is queen of the sea busy town liverpool but say there is a quaint english flavor to these shops look at that red lion inn overhead they call the elevated real flavor all right english as can be i sure like to wander around these little shops street crowd that s where you get the real quaint flavor thus to the glowing mr as they turned into st george s square the s tea sir thomas wasn t he a friend of the king anyway he was some kind of a lord and he owned big society racing in the square mr remarked greek temple fine agreed that s st george s hall where they have big organ explained mr and there s the art gallery across the square and here s the lime street station he had studied his as club women study the let s go over and look at the trains funny little boxes ain t they them cars quaint things what is it they call em carriages first second third class just like in books that s funny eh mr insisted on paying for both their high english flavor at the cheap timidly but earnestly was troubled as they sat on a park bench smoking those most dainty bits mr begged what s the matter old man oh nothing just thinking smiled he added presently well old bill got to make the break can t go on living on you this way aw thunder you ain t living	42
on me besides i want you to honest i do we can have a whole lot better time together yes but i can t do it nice of you can t do it though got to go on my own like the fellow says aw come on look here it s my money ain t it i got a right to spend it the way i want to haven t i aw come on we ll bum along together and then when the money is gone we ll get some kind of job together honest i want you to don t believe you d care for the kind of i ll have to get sure i would aw come on i you re too level headed to like to bum around like a fool you d dam soon get tired of it what if i did look here i ve been learning something on this trip i ve always wanted to just do one thing see foreign places well i want to do that just as much as ever but there s something that s a whole lot more important somehow i ain t ever had many friends some ways you re about the best friend i ve ever had you ain t neither too or too and this friendship business it means such an awful lot it s like what i was reading about something by or thunder i can t remember his name but anyway it s one of those poet that writes for the back page of the journal something about a joyous adventure that s what being friends is course you i our mr understand i wouldn t want to say this to most people but you ll understand how i mean it s this friendship business is just like those old you know they d start out on a fine morning you know shining all that stuff it wouldn t make any what they met as long as they was fighting together rainy nights with folks through the rain to get at em and all sorts of things ready for anything long as they just stuck together that s the way this friendship business is i b just like it said in the journal sure is it s chance to tell folks what you think and really get some fun out of seeing places together and i ain t ever done it much course i don t mean to say i ve been living off on any blooming desert island all my life but just the same i ve always been kind of alone not knowing many folks you know how it is in a new york house so now aw don t slip up on me honestly i don t care what kind of work we do as long as we can stick together i don t care a hang if we don t get anything better to do than floors patted his arm and did not answer for a while then i know how you mean and it s good of you to like beating it around with me but you sure got the exaggerated of me and you d get sick of the holes i m likely to land in there was a certain pride which seemed dreadfully to shut mr out as added why man i m going to do all of europe from the to oh st you made good on the all right but you do like things oh i d we might stay friends if we up now and met tn new york again but not if you get into all sorts of bum places w why look here english flavor with me however fu think it over let s not talk about it till to morrow oh please do think it over old man won t you and to night you ll let me take you to a won t you yes hesitated a music hall not mere mr could hardly keep his feet on the pavement as they to it and got seats he would have thought it absurd to pay eighteen cents for a ticket but pence they were out at nine thirty happily tired mr suggested that they go to a hotel at his expense for he had read in that hotels were respectable also cheap no no frowned tell you what you do bill you go to a hotel and i ll beat it down to a on duke street street remember how i ran on the street he told me you could get a cot down there for aw come on to a hotel please do it d just hurt me to think of you sleeping in one of them holes i wouldn t sleep a bit if say for the love of get wise get wise son i m not going to on you and that s all there is to it bill strode into their company for a minute and the terrible bill well you don t need to get so sore about it i don t go around asking folks can i give em a meal ticket all the time let me tell you and when i do oh rats say i didn t mean to get but you old man you can t shake me this easy i old top i m we ll go dutch to a or even walk the streets all right sir all right i ll take you up on that we ll sleep in an some place they walked to the outskirts of liverpool our mr the desirable dark alley awed by the solid and of the large private estates through n streets where dim trees leaned over high walls whose long silent stretches were broken only by mysterious little doors they but always by lodge	42
gates they came to a stone church with a porch easily reached from the street a large and airy stone porch just suited declared to a couple of like us if a in why we ll just slide under them seats then the can go his head mr had never so far defied society as to steal a place for sleeping he felt very uneasy like a man left naked on the street by robbers as he rolled up his coat for a pillow and removed his shoes in a place that was perfectly open to the street the paved floor was cold to his bare feet and as he tried to go to sleep it kept getting colder and colder to his back reaching out his hand he rubbed the cracks between stones he up at the ceiling of the porch he couldn t bear to look out through the door for it framed the s house with forth windows suggesting soft beds and laughter and comfortable books all the while his chilled back was aching in new places he sprang up put on his shoes and paced the churchyard it seemed a great waste of advantages not to study the tower of this foreign church but he thought much more about his aching shoulder blades came from the porch but grinning didn t like it much eh bill afraid you wouldn t must say i didn t either though well come on let s beat it around and see if we can t find a better place in a vacant lot they discovered a pile of hay mr hardly at the hearty slap gave his back and he pronounced some that as they into the lot they had laid loving hands upon the hay remarking well i guess when english flavor heard from a low stable at the veiy back of the bt i ay you what are you doing there a who had been twisting two out of the shadow of the stable and prepared to do battle i say old man can t we sleep in your hay just to night argued we re americans came over on a cattle boat we ain t got only enough money to last us for food while mr begged aw please let us oh you re americans are you you seem decent enough i ve got a brother in the states he used to own this stable with me in st he is you know s some kind of a either of you been in sure lied i ve hunted bear there oh i say bear now my brother s never written in oh that was way up in the northern part in the big woods i ve had some narrow escapes then who had never been west of sang somewhat in this wise the of the hunting he had never done alone among the pines dead o winter only one shell in his rifle cold of winter snow deep snow snow shoes along lar packing to the lumber camp way up near the border cold terrible cold stars looked like little bits of steel mr thought he remembered the story he had read it in a magazine was continuing snow stretched out among the pines he was wearing a and shoe saw a bear along he had had a but only one shell thrust the of his rifle right into the bear s mouth scared for a minute almost fell his hardest thing he ever did to pull that s our mr fired bear sort of jumped at him then rolled over great place those big what s a shoe pack the englishman kind of a great place those woods hope your brother gets the chance to get up there v i say i wonder did you ever meet him is his name no but say by there was a fellow up in the big woods that came from st ci st cloud yes that was it he was telling us about the town i remember he said your brother had great chances there the englishman accepted a bad cigar from mr suddenly you can sleep in the stable if like but you must blooming well stop smoking so in the dark hay mr stretched out his legs with an good night to he slept nine hours when he awoke at the sound of a chain in the stable below was gone this note was pinned to his sleeve dear old man i still feel sure that you will not enjoy the is not much fun for most people i don t think even if they say it is i do not want to live on you i always did hate to on people so i am going to beat it oflf alone but i hope i will see you in n y we will enjoy many a good laugh together over our trip if you will the p r r you can find out when i get back so on as i do not know what your address will be please look me up i hope you will have a good trip yours truly harry p mr lay listening to the rattling of the chain harness below for a long time when he crawled languidly down from the hay he in a manner which was decidedly surly even for bill at a middle english flavor aged english stranger who was stooping over a cow s in a stall facing the ladder you doing here asked the englishman raising his head and regarding mr as a does a in the bowl mr was bored this seemed a very poor sort of man a with a dirty neck cloth vile of black and a waistcoat cut foolishly high the owner said i could sleep here he snapped ow e did did e e t been giving you any of the too	42
as e it was sturdy old bill who oh shut up bill didn t feel like standing much just then he d punch this fellow as he d as soon as not or even sooner ow it s shut up is it i ve a mind to set the on you but i m i ll just it you on the bloody bill stepped the ladder and at him he was sorry that the was smaller than the came over in an absent minded manner made swift and circles with his left hand and hit bill on the bloody nose which immediately became a bleeding nose bill felt dizzy and sitting on a grain sack listened to the s i m sorry i t got time to ave the law on you but i could spare time to it you again bill shook the blood from his nose and staggered at the who seized his collar set him down outside the stable with a and walked away whistling come oh come to our sunday school ev v v v v v ry sunday mom ing mourned mr william and i thought i was getting this business down pat i wonder if was so hard to vi he is an orphan sadly clinging to the plan of the walking trip he was to have made with mr crossed by to quite unhappily for he wanted to be discussing with the of the he looked for the half the way over as he walked through bound for he pricked himself on to note red brick almost shocking in their lack of high front along the country road he reflected wouldn t enjoy farm yard all paved with a little roof on it kitchen stove stuck in a kind of fireplace foreign as the deuce but was off some place in a darkness where there weren t things to enjoy mr had lost him forever once he heard himself wishing that even tim the or good old were along a scene so that it seemed proper to enjoy it alone he did find in a real garden party with what appeared to be a real out of a story in the passing but he passed out of that hot glow into a cold that led him to and a dull hotel which might as well have been in or he somewhat timidly enjoyed the early part of the next day following a guide about the walls gaping at the mill on the and asking the guide two intelligent questions about roman remains he through the streets peering up dark he is an orphan set in heavy that spoke of historic and imagined that he was for a time mr s fancies contented him he smiled as he addressed glossy red and green to lee and cousin john and mr writing on each a of having a splendid trip this is a very interesting old town wish you were here he found a showing the hotel where he was staying or at least two of its chimneys and marking it with a heavy cross and the announcement this is my hotel where i am staying he sent it to carpenter he was at his nearest to greatness at cathedral he chuckled aloud as he passed the remains of a of days in the close where knights had tied their just like he d read about in a story about the times he was really there he glanced about and assured himself of it he wasn t in the office he was in an english cathedral close but shortly thereafter he was in an english hotel sitting still almost weeping with the longing to see he walked abroad feeling like an intruder on the lively night crowd in a tap room he drank a glass of english porter and tried to make himself believe that he was acquainted with the others in the room to which theory they gave but little support all this while his loneliness him of that loneliness one could make many books how it sat down with him how he crouched in his chair by it till he violently rose and fled with loneliness for companion in his flight he was lonely he sighed that he was lonely as fits lonely the word him he was a bit mad as are all the isolated men who sit in distant lands longing for the voices of friendship next morning he hastened to take the train for oxford to get away from his loneliness which beside our mr him in the he tried to convey to a north his interest in the way the seats faced each other the man said oh aye and returned to his newspaper feeling that he was so that it was a matter of honor for him to keep his eyes away mr stared out of the door till they reached oxford there is a calm beauty to new college gardens there is mr observed something simply about all these old crossed by students in short gowns but he always returned to his exile s room where he now began to hear the new voice of nameless fear fear of all this alien world that didn t care whether he loved it or not he sat thinking of the cattle boat as a home which he had loved but which he would never see again he had to use force on himself to keep from hurrying back to liverpool while there was to return on the same boat no i he was going to it out somehow and get the hang of all this business then he said oh dam it all i feel rotten i wish i was those sir are the windows of the apartment once occupied by walter said the american after whom he was trailing mr viewed them attentively and with shame remembered that he didn t	42
know who walter was but oh yes now he remembered walter was the that d murdered his whole family so aloud well i guess oxford s sorry ever come here all right my dear sir mr was the most genius of the nineteenth century dr the american severely mr had met d near the had upon polite request more politely lent him a he is an orphan match and seized the chance to confide in somebody had a bald head neat eye glasses a fair family income a good fellowship at the faculty and a chilly in his class room at university he wrote poetry which he filed away under the letter p in his dr took mr about to teach him what not to enjoy he pointed at s rooms as at a angel s feather but mr admitted that he had never heard of whose name he confused with o s which dr deemed an error then s window the doctor shrugged oh well what could you expect of the swinging his he stalked to the and vouchsafed that sir is the had in his pocket when he was drowned though he heard with sincere regret the news that his new idol was drowned mr found that left him cold it seemed to be printed in a foreign language but perhaps it was merely a very old book standing before a case in which was an exquisite book in a queer language bearing the legend that from this volume had translated the dr waved his hand and looked for thanks pretty book said mr and did you note who used it yes he glanced at the mr say i think i read some of that it was something about a i don t remember exactly dr walked bitterly to the other end of the room about eight in the evening mr s landlady knocked with there s a gentleman below to see you sir our mr mr he galloped down stairs panting to himself that had at last found him he peered out and was over by a car with dr waiting in fur coat and in the car lamp light that loomed in the evening fog just like a hero in a novel reflected mr get on your things said the i m going to give you the time of your life mr went up and put on his cap he was excited yet frightened and at being dragged into all this business which he had resolutely been putting away the past two hours as he stole into the car dr seemed comparatively human remarking i feel bored this evening i thought i would give you a how would you like to go to the red at one of the few untouched old that would be nice said mr ally his impressed dr who promptly told one of the best of his well known yet stories ha remarked mr he had been saying to himself by i ain t going to even try to be a society with him no more vm just going to be me and if he don t like it he can go to the so he was gentle and sympathetic and talked west sixteenth street to the s lofty amusement the tap room of the red was lighted by candles and a fireplace that is a simple thing to say but it was not a simple thing for mr to see as he observed the trembling shadows on the floor he and excitedly murmured he is an orphan the shadows slipped in over the dust gray floor and as bravely among the as though they were in such a tale as men told in believing days in drank ale from and in a comer was an ear with his black head propped on an pack stamping in chilly from the ride mr laughed aloud with a comfortable feeling on the side toward the fire he stuck his slight legs straight out before the old time settle looked devil may care made delightful on the floor with his toe and clapped a pot on his knee with a small after about two and a quarter he broke out say that there don t he look like he was a you know through the hedges around the to steal the earl s daughter yes you re a then i take it yes i guess i am kind of like to read and stuff he stared at but say say i wonder why somehow i haven t enjoyed oxford and the rest of the places like i ought to see i d always thought i d be simply about the and stuff but i m afraid the r re too for me i hate to own up but sometimes i wonder if i can get away with this the magnificent had mixed ale and punch he was instructive do you know i ve been wondering just what you get out of all this you really have a very fine imagination of a sort you know but of course you re lacking in certain as i see it your would be to travel with a pleasant wife the two of you hand in hand so to speak looking at the more obvious public buildings and avenues and there must be a certain of the class which really has the ability for to admire and for to see dr finished his second and with a our mr wave of his hand presented to mr the world and all the thereof for to see though not of course to admire but what are you to do now about oxford well i m afraid you re taken into a bit late to be trained for that sort of thing do about oxford why go back master the world you understand by the way have you seen my	42
watch and familiar suit case seemed the only things he could trust in all the menacing world as he sat there so vividly conscious of his fear and loneliness that he dared not move his cramped legs the could not last for a time he was able to laugh at himself and he made pleasant pictures carpenter telling him a story at s smoking on the top deck lee flattering him during an evening walk most of all he pictured the brown eyed sweetheart he was going to meet somewhere sometime he thought with shame of his futile air with the then forgot her as he seemed almost to touch the comforting hand of the brown eyed girl friends that s what i want you that was the work he was going to do make acquaintances a girl who would understand him with whom he could trot about seeing department store windows and shows it was then probably up in the chair of faded that he created the two phrases which became his for happiness he desired some our mr body to go home to evenings still more some one to work with and work for it seemed to him that he had out his whole life he sat back satisfied and caught the sound of in his room by the of his watch oh he cried he leaped up and raised the window it was but through the slow splash came the night rattle of hostile london staring down he studied the desolate circle of light a street lamp cast on the wet pavement a cat gray as dish water its fur worn off in spots lean and horrible through the circle of light like the spirit of like london s sneer at solitary americans in square rooms mr through the light a man and a girl so little aware of him that they stopped for an umbrella then disappeared and the street was like a forgotten tomb a swung by the sharp and cheerless the rain nothing else mr down the window he smoothed the sides of his suit case and reckoned the number of miles it had with him he spun his watch about on the table and listened to its rapid mocking speech friends friends friends friends sobbing he began to laying down each garment as though he were going to the when the room was dark the great shadowy forms of fear thronged about his narrow dingy bed once during the night he woke some sound was threatening him it was london coming to get him and torture him the light in his room was dusty gray lifeless he saw his door half and for some moments lay motionless watching and heads thrust themselves through the opening and withdraw with sinister till he sprang up and opened the door wide he is an orphan but he did not even stop to glance down the hall for the crowd of that had gathered there some hidden scorn of weakness made him sneer aloud don t be a baby even if you are lonely his voice was er than usual and he went to bed to sleep throwing himself down with a coarse wholesome scorn of his he awoke after dawn and for a moment curled in happy of satisfaction over a good sleep then he remembered that he was in the cold and prison of england and lay there panting with desire to get away to get back to america where he would be safe he wanted to leap out of bed dash for the liverpool train and take passage for america on the first boat but perhaps the officials in charge of the and the and of course a fellow would go to save money would want to know his religion and the color of his hair as bad as trying to ship they might up for a couple of days there were and customs and things of which he had heard perhaps for two or even three days more he would have to stay in this prison land this was the morning of august two weeks after his arrival in london and twenty two days after reaching england the land of romance vii he meets a temperament mr was at mrs s tea house which mrs kept in a genteel fashion in a three doors from us house on place after his night of fear and tragic he resented the general paper aspect of mrs s establishment he as he at the fringed under the silly pink and white tea cup on the green and white tray brought him by a fat in a apron which must have been made for a christmas fairy who was not fat he at the pictures of and and and little on mrs s pink and white wall he wished it were possible which of course it was not to go back to the st house where he could talk to the honest flat footed and cross his feet under his chair for here he was yes studied by the tea room two and daughters of an american a slender pale haired english girl student of with large top barred eye glasses over her protesting eyes and a of people living along place who looked as though they wanted to know if your opinions on the national gallery and were sound his of the of mrs s he meets a temperament was to a feeling of with the other as he with the rest to stare at a girl just entering the talk in the room halted startled mr gasped with his head solemnly revolving his eyes followed the young woman about his table to a table opposite a i what red hair was his private comment a slender girl of twenty eight or twenty nine clad in a one piece gown of sage green its lines unbroken by either belt	42
or collar fitting her as though it had been on and showing the long beautiful sweep of her fragile and long breast her collar of the material of the dress was so high that it touched her delicate jaw and it was set off only by a fine silver chain with a la of silver and carved her red hair red as a parted and drawn severely back made a sweep about the fair dead white skin of her bored sensitive face bored blue gray eyes with pathetic of faintly violet wrinkles beneath them and a scarce noticeable web of wrinkles at the side thin long cheeks a delicate nose and a straight strong mouth of thin but red lips such was the new patron of mrs she stared about the tea room like an officer raw at the stare of the thin girl student ordered breakfast in a low voice then languidly considered her toast and once she glanced about the room her heavy brows were drawn close for a second making a deep of over her nose and two little like the impressions of a box comer in her forehead over her brows mr s gaze ran down the line of her bosom again and he wondered at her hands which touched the heavy bread and butter knife as though it were a fine point pen long hands colored like ivory the joint wrinkles into her skin orange on the second finger the nails i our mr he stared at them to himself he commented i i never did see such finger nails in my life instead of such smoothly rounded nails as displayed the new young lady had nails narrow and sharp pointed the ends like little of stiff white writing paper as she she mr for a second he was too obviously caught staring to be able to drop his eyes she studied him all out with almost as much interest as a policeman gives to a passing car yawned delicately and forgot him though you should penetrate or talk to the daughter of a never shall you feel a more devouring chill than enveloped mr as the new young lady glanced away from him paid her check rose from her table and departed she rounded his table not out of its way as would have done but bending from the thus was it revealed to mr that he was almost too to put it into words he had noticed that there was something kind of funny in regard to her waist he had had an impression of remarkably smooth waist curves and an sweep of back now he saw that it was unheard of not at all like lee or ladies in the for the girl wasn t wearing i when she had passed him he again studied her back swiftly and no sir no question about it it couldn t be denied by any one now that the girl was a for charitable though our mr was he had to admit that there was no sign of the ridge and little rounded of r and he had a closer view of the texture of her sage green crash gown r he said to himself of all the cloth for a dress i she s too bright red hair she sure is the prize kind of good looking get a brick t he meets a temperament he hated to rule so clever seeming a woman quite out of court but he remembered her glance at him and his soft little heart became very hard how are our steel when mr walked out of mrs s excellent establishment and heavily the quiet street with a cat s meat man along the pavement as rushed on him and he wondered what in the world he could do he mused i bet that red headed lady would be to know a day of out from his room to do london which declined to be done he went back to the gardens and made friends with a tiger which though it came from an english colony was the thing he had seen for a week it did but it let him talk to it for a long while he stood before the bars peering in and whenever no one else was about he murmured poor they won t let you go you got a worse n poor old he didn t at all mind the disorder and smell of the cage he had no fear of the tiger s sleek power but he was somewhat afraid of the sound of his own voice he had spoken aloud so little lately a man came an englishman in a high waistcoat and stood before the cage mr away robbed of his new friend the tiger the person in all london kicking at pebbles in the path as half dusk made the quiet street even more detached he sat on the steps of his house on place keeping himself from the one definite thing he wanted to do the thing he keenly imagined a happy mr doing dashing over to the station to find out how soon and where he could get a train for liverpool and a boat for america our mr a girl was approaching the house he viewed her carelessly then intently it was the lady of mrs s tea house the young woman of the tight crash gown and flame colored hair she was coming up the steps of his house he made room for her with feverish courtesy she lived in the same house he instantly without a bit of encouragement from the way in which she the door to made up a whole novel about her she was a french who lived in a lar and she was staying in seeing the sights she was a noble she was above him a window opened he glanced up the was leaning out the	42
street why her windows were next to his he was living next room to an unusual person as unusual as dr he hurried up stairs with a but vague plan to meet her maybe she really was a french or all evening sitting by the window he was comforted as he heard her move about her room he had a friend he had started that great work of making friends well not started but started starting then he got confused but the idea was a flame to warm the spaces of the london street at his breakfast he waited long she did not come another day but why paint another day that was but a of flat dull slate yet another breakfast and the lady of mystery came before he knew he was doing it he had bowed to her a slight uneasy bend of his neck she peered at him and sat down with her back to him he got much good healthy human satisfaction in her violently from the french he had given her and remembering that of course she was just a fool ly a he scorned and so settled her also he told he meets a temperament her by that her new gown was than ever a pale green thing with large white buttons as he was coming in that evening he passed her in the hall she was clad in what he called a and what she called an of black embroidered with dull gold and stars showing a v of exquisite flesh at her throat a of lace loose at the opening of the her radiant hair tangled over her forehead shone with a thousand various from the gas light over her head as she moved back against the wall and stood waiting for him to pass she smiled very doubtfully the smile he felt of a great lady from he his head lowered his eyes and noticed that along the shelf of her held against her waist she bore many silver toilet articles and such a huge heavy fringed bath as he had never seen before he lay awake to picture her brilliant throat and shining hair he himself for the lack of dignity in thinking of that when she wouldn t even return a fellow s bow but her hair was the star of his dreams in his room in the afternoon mr heard slight active sounds from her next room he hurried down to the stoop she stood behind him on the door step glaring up and down the street as bored and as ready to spring as the mr heard himself saying to the girl please miss do you mind telling me i m an american i m a stranger in london i want to go to a good play or something and what would i what would be good i don t know she said with much everything s rather rotten this season i fancy her voice ran up and down the scale her a s were very broad oh oh y you are english then s our mr u h i just had a fool idea maybe you might be french perhaps i am y know fm not english she said what made you think i was french tell me fm interested oh i guess i was just well it was almost how you had a castle in france just a kind of a fool game oh don t be ashamed of imagination she demanded stamping her foot while her voice fluttered low and beautifully controlled through half a dozen notes tell me the rest of your story about me she was sitting on the rail above him now as he spoke she her chin with the palm of her delicate hand and observed him curiously oh nothing much more you were a please not just were please sir t i be a now oh yes of course you he cried delight timidity and your father was sick with mysterious and all the shook their heads and said we what it is and so you down to the treasure chamber you see your your father i should say he was a old frenchman just in the story you know he didn t think you could do anything yourself about him being mysteriously sick so one night you oh was it dark very very dark and silent and my footsteps rang on the hollow and i the gold and went forth into the night yes yes that s it but why did i it fm just coming to that he said sternly oh please sir i m awful sorry i interrupted he meets a temperament it was like this you wanted to come over here and study medicine so s you could cure your father but please sir said the girl with immense gravity t i let him die and not find out what s him so i can marry the v firmly you got to say i didn t expect to tell you all this make b i m afraid you ll think it s awful fresh of me oh i loved it really i did because you liked to make it up about poor my name is i m sorry to say i m not her two were quite a you know tell me you live in this same house don t please tell me that you re not an interesting person please i i i guess i don t quite get you why stupid an interesting person is a writer or an artist or an editor or a girl who s been in jail or for or any one else who depends on an accident to be tolerable j no i m afraid not i m	42
just a kind of clerk i good good my dear sir whom i ve never seen before have i by the way please don t think i usually pick up stray gentlemen and talk to them about my pure white soul but you you know made stories about me i was saying if you could only know how i and hate and despise interesting people just now i ve seen so much of them they talk and talk and talk they re just like s what is it see us rise in a flung half way up to the jealous moon don t you wish you could know all about art and as we do v that s what they say then she her fingers in the air like white shrugged her shoulders rose from our mr the rail and sat down beside him on the steps quite matter of he could feel his temple beat with excitement she turned her pale sensitive vivid face slowly toward him when did you see me to make up the story at mrs s h yes how is it you aren t out sight seeing or is it possible that you aren t a a why i he hunted uneasily for the right answer not exactly i tried a coming over on a cattle boat that s good much better she sat silent while with enormous and self betraying pains to avoid detection he studied her firm thin brilliantly red lips at last he tried please tell me something about london some of you english oh i i can t get acquainted easily my dear child i m not english i m quite as american as yourself i was bom in i never saw england till two years ago on my way to paris i m an art student that s why my accent is so english i can t to be just ordinary british y know her laugh had an october of bitterness in it well i ll say what do you know about he said weakly tell me about yourself since apparently we re now acquainted unless you want to go to that music hall oh no no no i was just crazy to have somebody to talk to somebody nice i was just about i was so lonely all in a burst he finished hesitatingly i guess the english are hard to get acquainted with lonely eh she mused abrupt and kind as he meets a temperament a man for all her woman s voice you don t know any of the people here in the no m say i guess we got rooms next to each other how romantic r she s my name william i work for i used to work for the and art novelty g in new york oh i see nice little ash with love from the station and pin cushions f yes and fat dogs with black eyes oh no o o please not black pale sympathetic blue eyes nice honest blue eyes black awful black say i ain t talking too am i you mean the s changed since oh yes of course you ve succeeded in talking quite nice and oh say i didn t mean to when you been so nice and all to me don t demanded savagely haven t they taught you that yes m he she sat silent again apparently not at all satisfied with the architecture of the opposite side of place he edged into speech honest i did think you was english you came from oh say i wonder if you ve ever heard of dr he s some kind of school teacher i think he teaches in college you know him she dropped into interested familiarity i met him at oxford really my brother was at i think i ve heard him speak of oh yes he said that was a if you know what i mean rather oh how shall i express it oh shall we our mr put it about things people have just told him to be about glowed mr to the luxury of feeling that he knew the unusual miss he sacrificed dr and eye glasses and and all without mercy yes he was awfully funny i didn t care much for him of course you know he s a great man however was as bland as though she had meant that all along which left mr nowhere at all when it came to deciding what she meant without warning she rose from the steps flung at him g night and was off down the street sitting alone all excited happiness mr muttered ain t she a she s striking some hours later he said aloud tossing about in bed i wonder if i was too fresh i hope i wasn t i ought to be careful he was so worried about it that he got up and smoked a remembered that he was breaking still another rule by smoking too much then got angry and snapped at his suit case well what do i care if i am smoking too much and i ll be as fresh as i want to he threw a newspaper at the suit case and much relieved went to bed to dream that he was a rabbit making amusing at which he laughed in half dream till he realized that he was being awakened by the sound of long sobs from the room of afternoon mr in his room miss was back from tea but there was not a sound to be heard from her room though he listened with mouth open bent forward in his chair his hands clutching the wooden seat his finger tips rubbing nervously back and forth over the he meets a temperament rough under of the wood he wanted to help her	42
of the interesting people i spoke of but you see you have been much more amusing good night you re lonely in london aren t you we ll have to go some day yes i am lonely he exploded then meekly h thank you i sh d be awful pleased to have you seen the tower miss no never have you no you see i thought it d be kind of a gloomy thing to see all alone is that why you haven t never been there too my dear man i see i shall have to you shall i i ve been taken in hand by so many people it would be a pleasure to pass on the implied shall i please do one simply doesn t go and see the tower because that s what do don t you understand my dear pardon he my dear again the tower is the sort of thing school see and then go back and lecture on in school assembly room and the g a r hall i ll take you to the gallery then very abruptly g night and she was gone he stared after her smooth back thinking i i wonder if she got sore at something i said i don t think i was fresh this time but she beat it so quick them lips of hers i never knew there was such red lips and he meets a temperament an artist pictures i read a lot german musical comedy wonder if that s that widow thing that gray dress of hers makes me think of fog cur ous in her room her nose in a mirror powdered and sat down to write on thick paper dear fm in a fierce boarding house except for a little man of or with imagination a virgin soul i ll try to keep from planting radical thoughts in the virgin soul but fm tempted oh dear i m lonely as the devil would it be too to say i wish you were here i put out my hand in the darkness yours wasn t there my dear my dear how desolate oh you understand it only too well with your grin your superior eye glasses your ignorance of poor eager america i suppose i am just a barbarous it s just as said at the you a of the but i you can cook paint you cannot he wins i can t sell a single thing to the art here or get one single order one horrid eye earnest youth who sees people at a magazine he vouchsafed that they didn t use any i and his hair was nearly a red as my wretched so i came home howled burned before your picture i did though you don t deserve it oh damn it am i getting sentimental you ll read this at over your grin at your poor i n viii he mr and and th of thought in his room next evening after an hour had proved two things thus a the only thing he wanted to do was to go back to america at once because england was a country where every one native or american was so and so vastly wise that he could never understand them b the one thing in the world that he wanted to do was to be right here for the most miraculous event of which he had ever heard was meeting miss first one then the other these thoughts back and forth like the swinging tides he got away from them only long enough to rejoice that somehow he didn t know how he was going to be her most intimate friend because they were both americans in a strange land and because they both could make believe then he was proving that would and would not be the perfect comrade among women when some one knocked at his door his cramped body shot up from its and he darted to the door stood there tapping her foot on the sill with haste in her manner abruptly she said so sorry to bother you i just wondered if you could let me have a match fm all out h yes here s a whole box please take em i got plenty more which was absolutely he thank you s good o you she said hurriedly g night she turned away but he followed her into the hall urging have you been to another show i hope you draw a better one next n the one about the with the nephew thank you she glanced back in the half dark hall from her door some fifteen feet from his he was scratching at the wall paper with a finger hopeful for a talk won t you come in she said hesitatingly oh thank you but i guess i hadn t better suddenly she flashed out the of smiles her blue gray eyes with cheery friendship g me in come in child as he hesitatingly entered she needn t both be so lonely all the time after all need we even if you like poor you don t do you seemingly she didn t expect an answer to her question for she was busy lighting a russian it was the first time in his life that he had seen a woman smoke with embarrassed politeness he glanced away from her as she threw back her head and deeply he the room in the farther comer two trunks stood open one had the tray removed and out of the lower part hung a confusion of things from which he turned away uncomfortable eyes he recognized the black and gold which was tumbled on the bed with a of lace and soft wrinkles in the lawn a green book with a paper bearing the title three plays for a	42
red and an open box of on the plain kitchen ware table was spread a cloth of green like a dull old leaf in color on it lay a gold mounted fountain pen huge and pointed a of papers and torn a bottle of our mr and a silver framed portrait of a lean smiling man with a single eye glass mr did not really see all these details but he had an impression of luxury and high artistic success he considered the the largest bottle of perfume he d ever seen and remarked that there was some s picture on the table he had but a moment to for she was saying so you were lonely when knocked why how oh i could see it we all get lonely don t we i do of course just now i m getting and on interesting people i think i ll go back to paris there even the interesting people are why they re interesting you see i am an american why i d don t exactly get what you mean how do you mean about interesting people my dear child of course you don t get me she went to the mirror and patted her hair then curled on the bed with an won t you sit down and smoked blowing the blue toward the ceiling as she continued of course you don t get it you re a nice sensible clerk who ve had enough real work to do to keep you from being afraid that other people will think you re commonplace you don t have to yourself into working enough to earn a living by talking about temperament why these interesting people you find em in london and new york and san just the same they re convinced they re the wisest people on earth there s a few artists and a bum or two always and some social workers the particular bunch that it me to hate just now and that i apparently can t do without they gather around who makes a kind of out of her rooms on great james street off s road they might just as well be in new york but they re even they don t he get sick of the game of being on intellectual heights as soon as new do tu have to take you there it s a cheery sensation you know to find a man who has some imagination but who has been by interesting people and take him to hear them they sit around and growl and rush the i hope you know rushing and rejoice that they re free spirits being free of course they re not allowed to go and play with nice people for when a person is free you know he is never free to be anything but free that may seem but they understand it at s of course there s different sorts of and each all the others mostly each consists of one person but sometimes there s two a and an audience or even three for instance you may be a and a but if some one is a and has a good figure why then that s what i mean by interesting people i them so of course being one of them i go from one bunch to another and upon my honor every single time i think that the new bunch is interesting then she smoked in gloomy silence while mr remarked after some mental labor i guess they re like the cattle they are the more romantic they look and then when you get to know them the chief trouble with them is that they re yes that s it they re why they re oh poor dear there there there it sha have so much discussion shall it i think you re a very nice person and i ll tell you what we ll do we ll have a small fire shall we in the fireplace yes she pulled the old fashioned bell cord and the north country landlady came tall thin faced looking as though she had been dressed up in garments in and left to stand our mr in an parlor ever since she silent at the presence of mr in s but sent a to make the fire mr felt guilty till the coming of the a perfect christmas story book a small and merry lump of who sang out chilly t night t it and made a fire that was soon singing chilly t night like the sat on the floor before the fire wise her quick delicate fingers excitedly on her knees come sit by me you with your sense of the romantic ought to appreciate sitting by the fire you know it s always done he down by her clasping his knees and tr ring to appear the dignified american business man in his country house she smiled at him intimately and tell me about the last time you sat with a girl by the fire tell poor the dark secret was she the perfect among pink faces never sat before any fireplace with any one except when i was about nine one en at a party in little town up york state really poor r she reached out her hand and took his he was conscious of the warm of her fingers playing a soft on the back of his hand while she said but you have been in love in love i never have dear child youve missed so much of the tea and cakes of life haven t you and you have an interest in life do you know when i think of the interesting people i ve met why do i leave you	42
to be spoiled by some shop girl in a hat she d drag you to moving picture shows oh you didn t tell me that you went to moving pictures did you he no he lied fervently then feeling guilty i used to but no more it s go to the nice moving pictures if it wants to i it shall take me too we ll forget there are any or broken for a while won t we we ll let the cover us with leaves you mean like the in the woods but say i m afraid you ain t just a babe in the woods you re the first person with brains i ever met maybe dr and the never would play games i don t believe the very first one really thank you her warm pressure on his hand his heart was making the leaps and timidly with a feeling of historic daring he ventured to explore with his thumb tip the fine lines of the side of her hand it actually was he sitting here with a princess and he actually did feel the softness of her hand he assured himself suddenly she gave his hand a parting pressure and sprang up come we ll have and then i ll send you away and to morrow we ll go see the gallery while was sending the for cakes and a pint of light wine mr sat in a chair just sat in it he wanted to show that he could be dignified and not take advantage of miss s kindness by round having read much he had an idea that was some kind of lunch in the afternoon but of course if miss used the word for evening supper then he had been wrong the writing table with the green cover over before the fire its papers on the bed and placed a bunch of roses on one end moving the small blue two inches to the right then two inches forward the wine she poured into a wine was distinctly a problem to him he was excited over his sudden rise into a society where one took wine as g loi our mr a matter of course mrs wouldn t take it as a matter of course he rejoiced that he wasn t like mrs he worked so hard at not being narrow minded like mrs that he started when he was called out of his day dream by a mocking voice but you might look at the cakes just once anyway they are very nice cakes yes i know the wine is wine of it say miss i did get you this time oh don t tell me that my is over already sure now i m going to be a cruel lighted i are you going to be a sorry i don t quite get you on that that s too bad isn t it i think i d rather like to meet a h say i know about that jack london s i m afraid i ain t one still on the say i wish you could of seen it when the gang were tying up the before starting dark close place decks with the and all packed tight together and the so we just kind of staggered around and we d get hold of a head rope and and then let go and the d yell pull or i ll brain you and then the fo c men packed in like she was leaning over the table making a with the from a cake and listening intently he stopped politely feeling that he was talking too much but go on please do she commanded and he told simply seeing it more and more of satan and the of the who had beckoned to him from the irish coast hills and the of she interrupted only once murmuring my dear it s a good thing you re articulate anyway which didn t seem to have any bearing on hay i he she sent him away with a light it s been a good party hasn t it i if you are a call for me to morrow at three we ll go to the gallery she touched his hand in the of yes good night miss he a morning of planning his conduct so that in accompanying to the gallery he might be the faithful shadow and beautiful of d as a result when he stood before the large of mr at the he was so heavy and correctly so ready not to enjoy the stories in the pictures of that suddenly demanded oh my dear child i have taken a great deal on my hands you ve got to learn to play you don t know how to play come i shall teach you i don t know why i should either but come she explained as they left the gallery first the art of riding on the oh it is an art you know you must appreciate the flower girls and the r young you must learn to watch for the blossoms on the and roll on the grass in the you re much too respectable to roll on the grass aren t you i ll try ever so hard to teach you not to be and we ll go to tea how many kinds of tea are there oh and english breakfast and oh chinese b and he added excitedly as they took a seat in front the are a beginning at least she reflected but how many kinds of tea are there oh say i hadn t ought to course call me or anything else only you mustn t call my what do i know about tea all of us who play are more or less and we are ever so polite in pretending not to know the others	42
are there s lots of kinds of tea in the new our mr york i saw once do you know china town being a new i don t suppose you do oh yes and i used to wander round there well down at the seven chop and american cooking there s tea at five dollars a cup that they is grown on cloud covered mountain tops i suppose when the tops aren t cloud covered they only charge three dollars a cup but there s really only two kinds of those you go to to meet the man you love and ought to hate and those you give to spite the women you hate but ought to isn t that lovely and complicated that s playing with words my aged parent calls it talking too much and not saying anything note that last not saying anything it s one of the rules in playing that mustn t be broken he understood that better than most of the things she said why he exclaimed it s kind of talking sideways why yes of course talking sideways don t you see now gallant gentleman as he was he let her think she had invented the phrase she said many other things things such vast learning that he made gigantic to read like thunder her great lesson was the art of taking tea he found that they weren t really going to their clothes by rolling on park grass instead she led him to a tea room behind a shop on court road a low room with white chairs colored set in the wall and green ware with irregular of white roses a with wild rose cheeks and a busy step brought orange and for her and russian tea and a of cream for him with a pile of he but said isn t this like in but you must learn the of english most of all if you get to be very good at it the will let you take tea at the they are such and the one that brings the gold butter measuring rod to test your skill why he always wears knee breeches of silver gray so you can see how careful you have to be and eat them without your nose for if you butter your nose they ll think you re a greek professor and you wouldn t like that would you honey he learned how to pat the butter into the comfortable brown of the that looked so cold and without but seemed to have lost interest and he didn t in the least follow her when she observed doubtless it was the best butter but where where dear are the and hare especially the sweet rabbit that his ears and loved the where where are the and hare and where is the best butter gone presently come on let s beat it down to for dinner or now you shall lead me show me where you d go for dinner and you shall take me to a music hall and make me enjoy it now you teach me to play i i m afraid i don t know a single thing to teach you yes but see here we are two lonely western in a strange land we ll play together for a little while we re not used to other s sort of play but that will break up the monotony of life all the more i don t know how long we ll play or shall we oh yes now show me how you play los our mr i don t believe i ever did much really well you shall take me to your kind of a i don t believe you d care much for penny little meat um little ones with covers um why course i would and ha p ny tea lead me to it o brave knight i and to a he found that this devoted attendant of had never seen the beautiful who upon protesting with small clubs or the side s assistant who breaks up piles and piles of plates and as to the top hat that turns into an and produces much melody she was at after supper he talked of and south beach of carpenter and they sat at midnight on the steps of the house in place i do know you now she mused it s curious how any two in a strange enough woods get acquainted you are a lonely child aren t you her voice was mother soft we will play just a little i wish i had some games to teach but you know so much and i m a perfect beauty too aren t i she said gravely yes you are stoutly you would be loyal and i need some one s admiration mostly paris and london hold their sides laughing at poor he caught her hand oh don t they must you i d like to kill anybody that didn t thanks she gave his hand a return pressure and hastily withdrew her own you ll be good to some io he sweet pink face and i ll go on being discontented oh isn t life the proposition we seem different you and i but maybe it s mostly surface down deep we re alike in being desperately unhappy because we never know what we re unhappy about well he wanted to put his head down on her knees and rest there but he sat still and presently their cold hands together after a silence in which they were talking of themselves he burst out but i don t see how paris could help you i ll bet you re one of the best artists they ever saw the way you made up a picture in your mind about that sorry can t	42
calling cards and their jewels with their hell lighted talk of the follies of and art and horse racing o my brothers it was all but a cloak for looking upon one another to lust after one another rotten is this empire and shall fall when our soldiers seek instead of kneeling in prayer like the iron men of card playing talk of and art mr felt very guilty smoking and drinking wine but his moral reflections brought the picture of the more clearly before him the warmth of her perfect fingers the curve of her backward bent throat as she talked in her melodious voice of all the beautiful things made by the wise hands of great men he dashed out of the no matter what happened good or bad he had to see her while he was climbing to the upper deck of a he was trying to invent an excuse for seeing her of course one couldn t go and call on ladies in their rooms without some special excuse they would think that was awful fresh he left the at the sign of a shop and purchased a and a nineteenth century had told him these were the chief english high brow magazines ill our mr he carried them to his rubbed his thumb in the on the gas and the magazine then cut the leaves and ruffled the to make the magazines look dog with much reading not because he wanted to appear to have read them but because he felt that would not permit him to buy things just for her all this business with details so him that he wondered if he really cared to see her at all besides it was so late after half past eight rats hang it all i wish i was dead i don t know what i do want to do he groaned and cast himself upon his bed he was sure of nothing but the fact that he was unhappy he considered suicide in a dignified manner but not for long enough to get much frightened about it he did not know that he was the toy of forces which working on him through the strangeness of passionate womanhood could have made him a great or a petty hero as easily as they did make him sorry for himself that he wasn t very much of a or an of a hero is a detail an accident from his or thirty six years of or hero filling scandal columns or histories he would have been the same william he was thinking of as he lay on his bed in a few minutes he dashed to his and brushed his hair so nervously that he had to try three times for a straight while brushing his eyebrows and he solemnly contemplated himself in the mirror i look like a damn rabbit he scorned and marched half way to s room he went back to change his tie to a navy blue bow which made him appear younger he was feeling rather at everything including as he finally knocked and heard her yes come in there was in her room a wonderful being in a the wing chair one leg over the chair arm a young yoimg man with broken brown teeth always seen in his perpetual grin but a nose a high forehead and yellow hair the being wore large round spectacles a soft shirt with a gold collar pin and delicately gray garments was curled on the bed in a leaf green silk with a great gold mounted pinned at her breast mr tried not to be shocked at the she had been frowning as he came in and a long thin green book of verses but she glowed at mr as though he were her most friend murmuring mouse dear fm so glad you could come m mr stood there awkwardly he hadn t expected to find another visitor he seemed to have heard her call him mouse yes but what did mouse mean it wasn t his name at all this was all very but how awful glad she was to see him i mouse dear this is one of our best little poets mr from america too mr ty mr pleased meet you said both men in the same tone of annoyance mr implored i i thought you might like to look at these magazines just dropped in to give them to you he was ready to go thank you so good of you please sit down and i were only fighting he s going pretty soon we knew each other at art school in now he knows all the in london mr said the best little poet i hope you ll back up my says th i have told you just about enough times that i do not intend to stand for any i should think that even you would be able to the standard of wit that in first year art class at our mr mr showed quite all of his ragged teeth in a noisy joyous grin and went on miss says that the best european thought personally gathered in the best shows that the is getting the eye from all the real what is your opinion mr turned to for protection she promptly announced mr absolutely with me by the way he s doing a big book on the of after his and oh come off anti cried kicking out each word with the assistance of his swinging left foot much relieved that the storm had passed over him mr sat on the front edge of a cane seated chair with the magazines between his hands and his hands pressed between his forward cocked knees always in the hundreds of times he went over the scene in that room afterward he remembered how cool and smooth the magazine covers felt to the	42
palms of his hands for he associated the with the apprehension he then had that might give him up to the grin of who would laugh him out of the room and out of s world he hated the poetic youth and would gladly have broken all of s teeth short off yet the dread of having to try the feat himself made him admire the manner in which tossed about long sounding words like a bush playing with scarlet he talked of and the of sex energy and and the poetry of yawned openly on the bed kicking a pillow but she was surprised into energetic discussion now and then till called her again when she sat up and remarked to mr oh don t go yet you can tell me about the article when the goes dear said he was only going to stay till ten mr hadn t had any intention of going so he merely smiled and his head to the room in general and stammered y yes while he tried to remember what he had told her about some article article perhaps it was a company novelty article great idea perhaps she wanted to design a motto for them he decidedly hoped that he could fix it up for her he d sure do his best he d be glad to write over to mr about it anyway she seemed willing to have him stick here yet when dear had departed leaving the room still loud with the of his grin seemed to have forgotten that mr was alive she was at a book on the bed as though it had said things to her so he sat quiet and crushed the magazine covers more closely till the silence choked him and he dared mr is an awful well educated man he s a she snapped she softened her voice as she continued he was in the art school in when i was there and he on that it was good of you to stay and help me get rid of him i m getting i m sorry i m so dull to night i suppose i ll get sent off to bed right now if i can t be more entertaining it was sweet of you to come in mouse you don t mind my calling you mouse do you i won t if you do mind he awkwardly walked over and laid the magazines on the bed why it s all right what was it about some novelty some article if there s anything i could do anything article j why yes that you wanted to see me about oh i oh that was just to get rid of his familiarity the penalty for my having been a hungry for friendship once and now our mr good n oh mouse he says my eyes even with this green on come here dear tell me what color my eyes are she moved with a quick swing to the side of her bed thrusting out her two arms she laid ivory hands on his shoulder he stood forgetting every one of the rules by which he had edged a shy polite way through life he fearfully reached out his hands toward her shoulders in turn but his arms were shorter than hers and his hands rested on the sensitive warmth of her upper arms he peered at those dear gray blue eyes of hers but he could not calm himself enough to tell whether they were china blue or tell me she demanded aren t they green yes he you re sweet she said leaning out from the side of her bed she kissed him she sprang up and hastened to the window laughing nervously and i shouldn t have done i shouldn t forgive like a child was so bad so bad now you must go as she turned back to him her eyes had the peace of an old friend s because he had wished to be kind to people because he had been pitiful toward mr was able to understand that she was trying to be a kindly big sister to him and he said good night and smiled in a lively way and walked out he got out the smile by his nerves for which he paid in agony as he knelt by his bed acknowledging that would never love him and that therefore he was not to love would be a fool to love never would love her and seeing again her white arms softly by her green sleeves no sight of no scent of her hair no sound of her always changing voice for two days twice seeing a ii the of light under her door as he came up the darkened he knocked but there was no answer and he marched into his room with the dignity of fury numbers of times he quite gave her up decided he wanted never to see her again but after one of the of these while he was stamping down court road he saw in a window a walking stick that he was sure she would like his carrying and it cost only two and six hastily before he changed his mind he rushed in and down his money it was a very beautiful stick indeed and of a modesty to commend itself to just a plain straight stick with a cap of metal curiously like silver he was conscious that the whole world was at him demanding what re you carrying a cane for but he the misunderstood was willing to wait for the reward of this in s approval the third night as he stood at the window watching two children playing in the dusk there was a knock it was she stood at his door smart and in a black suit with a small that hid the of her red hair	42
come she said abruptly i want you to take me to flat i ve been reading all the there is i want to talk can you come h of course hurry he seized his small foolishly round hat and he tucked his new walking stick under his arm without displaying it too proudly waiting for her comment she led the way down stairs and across the quiet streets and squares of to great james street she did not even see the stick she said scarce a word beyond i m sick of s bunch i never want to dine in with an and a sex instinct again de la but one has to play with somebody our mr then he was so cheered that he tapped the boldly with his stick and delicately touched her arm as they crossed the street for she added we ll just run in and see them for a little while and then you can take me out and buy me a wine and poor mouse it shall have its residence consisted of four small rooms when opened the door after tapping the was occupied by seven people all interrupting one another and drinking ale seven people and a fog of smoke and a of papers and books and hats a swamp of dishes appeared on a large table in the room just beyond divided off from the living room by a curtain to which were pinned buttons and this last he remembered afterward thinking over the room for the glittering points of light relieved his eyes from the intolerable glances of the people as he was hastily introduced to them he was afraid that he would be dragged into a discussion and sat looking away from them to the and to the walls on which were showing mighty fists with and flaming or men on the of workmen which they seemed to enjoy more than the workmen by and by he ventured to the group the american poet was there but the of them all was thirty four as small and active and excitedly energetic as an ant tr ring to get around a match she had much of the ant s and too her pale hair was always falling from under her of worn black velvet with the dingy under side of the velvet showing curled up at the edges a lock would in front of her eyes and she would impatiently it back with a of her thin rough hands never stopping in her machine gun of words yes yes yes yes she would pour out don t you ii v the see we must do something i you the conditions are intolerable simply intolerable we must do something the conditions were it seemed intolerable in the several branches of education of female water in the industry and and mostly she was right only her was so demanding so restless that it left mr gasping depended on for most of the yes that s so s though he seemed to be trying to steal glances at another woman a young woman a lazy smiling pretty girl of twenty who told mr studied greek at the museum no one knew why she studied it she seemed peacefully ignorant of everything but her lips and she at things with lazy graceful fingers and talked the little language to at which shrugged her shoulders and turned to the others there were a mr and mrs she a poet he a man with whiskers and a white neck cloth who was gloomily in the room were a young man who taught in mr s select school and an established church mission from who loved to be shocked it was mr who was really shocked however not by the noise and not by the smoking of the women not by the demand that we tear down the state no not by these was our mr of the company shocked but by his own fascinated interest in the frank talk of sex he had always had a quite supposition that it was wicked to talk of sex unless one made a joke of it then came the to the who confused mr for always there is a greater rebellion and though you m our mr sell your prayer book to buy and esteem your self to a point of madness you shall find one who calls you the came in together the and direct and jane the writer of prose and they sat silently on a couch rose nodded at mr and departed despite hospitable shrieks after them of oh stay i it s only a little ten do stay and have something to cat shut the door resolutely the hall was dark it was gratefully quiet she snatched up mr s hand and held it to her breast oh mouse dear fm so bored i i want some real things they talk and talk in there and every night they settle all the fate of all the nations always the same way i don t suppose there s ever been a bunch that knew more things you hated them didn t you why i don t think you ought to talk about them so severe he implored as they started down stairs i don t mean they re like you they don t like you do i mean but i was awful int rested in what that miss said about in school getting crushed into a i that s so ain t it never thought of it before and that mrs talked about so beautiful oh my dear you make my task so much harder i want you to be different can t you see your cattle boat experience is than any of the things those have done i know i m half baked myself oh i ve never done nothing but you re ready to oh i don t know i	42
want i wish the i met in san i wish he were here mouse maybe i can make a of you i ve got to create something oh those the people i if you just knew that fool mary is mad about that person and her husband him to is mad about who ll probably take out and marry him and he ll keep on hanging about the greek girl i don t i don t know but as he didn t know what he didn t know she merely patted his arm and said soothingly i won t your first specimens of any more they are trying to do something an then she added in an tone you re exactly as tall as i am mouse dear you ought to be taller they were entering the stretch of place after a silence as when she exclaimed mouse am so sick of ever i want to get out away an and do something anything just so s it s different even the country i d like why couldn t we let s go out on a to morrow a with and a pillow cushion and several kinds of cake i m afraid the has spoiled me for that let me think she drooped down on the steps of their house her head back her strong throat arched with the passion of she devoured the dim over the stale old roofs across the way stars she said out on the they would come down by you what is your adventure your for it let s see you take common roadside things seriously you d be dear and excited over a red lion inn are there more than one red li my dear mouse england is a of red lions and white lions and green why not why not not let s walk to it s a fool colony of artists and so on up in but they have got some beautiful cottages and the r re more than start right now take a train to our mr say and tramp all night take a couple of days or so to get there think of it i through dawn past english fields think of it yankee and not caring what anybody in the world thinks shall we wh h h h y he was sure she was mad all night he couldn t let her do this she sprang up she stared down at him in her hands clenched her voice was hostile as she demanded what don t you want to with w he was up beside her angry dignified a man look here you know i want to you re the i mean you re oh you ought to know can t you see how i feel about you why i d rather do this than anything i ever heard of in my life i just don t ant to do anything that would get people to talking about you who would know besides my dear man i don t regard it as exactly wicked to walk decently along a country road oh it isn t that oh please don t look at me like that like you hated me she at once on his arm sat down on the railing and drew him to a seat beside her of course mouse it s silly to be angry yes i do believe you want to take care of me but don t worry come shall we go but wouldn t you rather wait till to morrow no the whole thing s so mad that if i wait till then i ll never want to do it and you ve got to come so that i ll have some one to quarrel with i hate the of london especially the of the anti anti so that i have the finest mad mood come we ll go even this logical had not convinced him but he did not as they entered the hall and rang for the landlady his knees grew sick and old and the as he heard the landlady s voice loud now do they want it s eleven o clock aren t they ever done a ringing and a ringing the landlady the tired thin faced north whose god was respectability of lodgings listened in a frightened way to s superior statement mr and i have been invited to join an excursion out of town that leaves to night we ll pay our rent and leave our things here going off together my good woman we are going to here s two pound don t allow any one in my room and i may send for my things from out of town be ready to pack them in my trunks and send them to me do you understand yes miss but my good woman do you realize that your are insulting oh i didn t go to be insulting then that s all hurry now mouse on the stairs ascending she whispered with the excite ment not of a tired woman but of a and girl we re just take a tooth brush put on an suit any old thing and an old cap she darted into her room now mr had for any old thing as well as for afternoon and evening dress only the sturdy clothes he was wearing so he put on a cap and hoped she wouldn t notice she didn t she came knocking in fifteen minutes trim in a suit with low thick boots and a jolly blue o come on there s a train for in half an hour my time table confided to me i feel like singing x he goes a they rode out of london in a third class a and two people who were just people and defied you cheerfully explained to mr to make anything of them but just people	42
wouldn t they stare if they knew what we re up to she suggested mr his head in entire agreement he was trying without any slightest success to make himself believe that mr william our mr late of the company was starting out for a country tramp at midnight with an artist girl the night of the station a person of and pride stared at them as they alighted at and glanced around like strangers mr stared back and marched with from the station through the sleeping town past its ragged edges into the country they on a bit wearily mr was beginning to wonder if they d better go back to mist was dripping and blind and silent about them weaving its heavy gray with the night suddenly caught his arm at the gate to a farm yard and cried we re in england we re abroad abroad a paved with farm and ancient was lit faintly by a lantern hung from a post that was to a soft by centuries he goes a that couldn t be america he vm just it fm so dam glad we came here s real england no it s what i ve always wanted a country that s old and different houses and pretty soon it be dawn summer dawn with you with i it s the adventure yes come on let s walk fast or we ll get sleepy and then your romantic heroine will be a interesting people listen there s a sleepy dog barking a million miles away i feel like telling you about myself you don t know me or do you i just how you mean oh it shall have its romance but some time i ll tell you perhaps i will how i m not really a clever person at all but just a savage from outer darkness who to understand london and paris and and gets scared of them wait listen hear the mist from that tree are you nice and drowned kind of but i been worrying about you being soaked let me see why your sleeve is wet clear through this of mine keeps out the water better but i don t mind getting wet all i mind is being bored i d like to run up this hill without a thing on just feeling the good healthy real mist on my skin but i m afraid it isn t done mile after mile mostly she talked of the and of and in little laughing sentences that sprang like fire out of the of the mist dawn came from a they made out the roofs of a town and stopped to wonder at its silence as though through long ages past no happy footstep had echoed there the fog lifted the morning was new bom and clean and they fairly sang as they up to an old inn and demanded breakfast of an amazed rustic about the inn yard in a he did not our mr know that to a thrilling mr he or perhaps it was his was the hero in an english nor doubtless did the english crisp bacon and eggs which a sleepy prepared know that they were properties why they were english eggs served at dawn in an english inn a stone room with a hanging in a little cage of outside the window and there were no to bother them mr really used the word in his he had it from when he informed her of this fact she laughed you know mighty well mouse that you have a wish there were one yankee stranger here to see our glory i guess that s right but maybe fm just as bad for once their tones had not been those of teacher and pupil but of comrades they set out from the inn through the brightening morning like lively boys on a tramp the sun crept out with the warmth and the dust and s steps as they passed the comer of a farm where a was secluded in a of smiled and sighed i m pretty tired dear i m going to sleep in that straw i ve always wanted to sleep in a straw it s for in the best set you know and one can exciting eh she made a pillow of her jacket while he dug down to a dry place for her he found another den on the other side of the it was afternoon when he awoke he sprang up and rushed around the was still asleep curled in a small childish heap her tired face in repose against the brown yellow of her jacket her red hair had come down and shone about her shoulders she looked so frail that he was frightened surely too he goes a she d be very angry with him for letting her come on this he on a leaf from his address book carried for six years but containing only four addresses this note gone to get for be right back w w and softly crawling up the straw left the note by her head he hastened to a farm house the farm wife was inclined to be curious o curious farm wife you of the speech and the shuffling feet you were brave indeed to face bill the great with his for he was on a mission for and he cared not for the eyes of all england what though he was a faced man with an would be awakening hungry that was why he you into selling him a pan and a bundle of along with the tea and eggs and a bread loaf and a jar of the your husband s farm had been making these two hundred years and you should have had coffee for him not tea woman of when he returned to their inn the late afternoon glow	42
lay along the rich fields that down from their well concealed nook was still asleep but her cheek now lay wistfully on the of her thin arm he looked at the framed of her face its lines of thought and ambition by the swift changes of expression which defended her while she was awake he sobbed if he could only make her happy but he was afraid of her moods he built a fire by a beyond the boiled the eggs and the bread and made the tea with cream ready in a jar he remembered boyhood days in and old camp lore he returned to the and called oh is she shook her head closer into the straw then our mr sat up her hair about her shoulders she and called down good morning why it s afternoon i did you sleep well dear yes did you i hope you never better in my life fm so sleepy yet but i needed a quiet sleep and it s so peaceful here breakfast i roar for breakfast i where s the nearest house got breakfast all ready you re a she went to wash in the brook and came back with eyes dancing and hair trim and they laughed over breakfast glancing down the slope of golden fields only once did pass out of the land of their intimacy into some of analysis when she looked at him as he drank his tea aloud out of the pan and wondered is this really you here with me but you a i must say i don t understand what you re doing here at all nor a either i don t understand it but you be worried by bad let s see we went to grammar school together yes and we were in college don t you remember when i was captain you don t you got a bad memory at which she smiled properly and they were away for again i suppose now it go and rain said at dusk it was the first time she had spoken for a mile then after another quarter mile please don t mind my being silent i m sort of stiff and my feet hurt most you won t mind will you of course he did mind and of course he said he didn t he skirted the field of conversation by very west sixteenth street observations on a town through which they passed while she merely smiled wearily and at best remarked yes that s so whether it was so or not he goes a he was reflecting s terrible tired i ought to take care of her he stopped at the wood entrance of a inn and commanded come we ll have something to eat here to the astonishment of both of them she meekly obeyed with if you wish it cannot be said that mr proved himself a person of in choosing a hotel for their dinner didn t seem so much to mind the fact that the table cloth was coarse and the thick and that the elbow ran into a of greasy and salt but when she raised her head wearily to peer around the room she started glared at mr and accused are you by any chance aware of the fact that this place is crowded with there are two family from or i know they are oh they ain t such bad looking people protested mr just because he had induced her to stop for dinner the poor man thought his superiority had been recognized oh they re can t you see it oh you re hopeless why that big that big man with the spectacles looks like he might be a good civil engineer and i think that lady opposite him they re americans so re we i m not i thought why t l of course i was bom there but well just the same i think they re nice people now see here must i argue with you can i have no peace as i am those are speaking of quaint english flavor can you want anything more than that to damn them and they ve been by seeing every inn on the road maybe it s fun for our mr now argue with me i know what why do i have to explain everything they re hopeless mr felt a good wholesome desire to her but he said most politely you re awful tired don t you want to stay here to night or maybe some other hotel and i ll stay here no don t want to stay any place want to get away from myself she said exactly like a naughty child so they on again darkness was near they had plunged into a country which in the night seemed to be a stretch of desolate as they were silently up a hill the rain came it came with a roar a pitiless against which they fought them their faces blinding their eyes he caught her arm and dragged her ahead she would be furious with him because it rained of course but this was no time to think of that he had to get her to a dry place laughed oh isn t this great we re real now why doesn t that through aren t you wet to the skin she shouted and i don t care we re doing something poor dear is it worried i ll race you to the top of the hill the dark bulk of a building struck their sight at the top and they ran to it just now mr was ready to alive any who might try to turn them out he found the building to be a ruined stable the door off the hinges the desolate falling in he struck a match and holding it up	42
standing straight the master all unconscious for once in his life of the of mr he discovered that the above the horse was fairly he goes a come on up on the edge of the he ordered this is a perfectly good place for a murder she grinned as they sat swinging their legs he could fancy her grinning he was sure about it and well content have i been so very mouse don t you want to murder me try to find you a long pin i don t think so much i guess we can get along without it this time oh dear dear this is very dreadful you re so used to me now that you aren t even scared of me any more i guess i ll be scared of you all right as soon as i get you into a dry place but i ain t got time now sitting on a ain t this the place now i must beat it out and find a house there ought to be one near here and leave me here in the and not a chance the rain soon be over really i don t mind a bit i think it s rather fun her voice was natural again natural and and brave she laughed as she her wet shoulder and held his hand sitting quietly and bidding him listen to the soft forlorn sound of the rain on the but the rain was not soon over and their dangling position was very much like riding a rail i m so uncomfortable fretted see here please i think i d better go see if i can t find a house for you to get dry in i feel too wretched to go any place too wretched to move well then i ll make a fire here there ain t much danger the place will catch fire she began but he interrupted her oh let the dam place catch fire i m going to make a fire i tell you well you ought to have made me don t you realize that i took you along to take care of me our mr i don t want to move it just be another kind of discomfort that s all why couldn t you try and take a little bit of care of me anyway oh hon ey he in youthful bewilderment i did try to get you to stay at that in town and get some rest well you ought to have made me d along to take care of me now don t argue about it i can t stand argument all the time he thought instantly of lee with her mother but he said nothing he gathered the bits of and wood he could find in the litter on the stable floor and kindled a fire while she sat sullenly glaring at him her face wrinkled and tired in the wan when the blaze was going steadily a compact and safe little fire he spread his coat as a seat for her and called cheerily come on now honey here s a regular home and for you she slipped down from the edge and stood in front of him looking into his eyes which were level with her own you are good to me she half whispered and smoothed his cheek then slipped down on the coat and murmured come sit here by me and we ll both get warm all night the rain but no one came to drive them away from the fire and they side by side their hands close and their garments steaming fell asleep and her head drooped on his shoulder he straightened to bear its weight though his back with and there he sat through an hour of pain and happiness and confused meditation studying the curious background the dark roof of broken the age walls the floor his hand pressed lightly the of the wet he goes a of her shoulder his wet sleeve stuck to his arm and he wanted to pull it free his eyes stung but he sat tight while his mind ran round in circles considering that he loved and that he would not be entirely sorry when he was no longer the slave to her moods that this adventure was the strangest and most romantic also the most and useless in history toward dawn she stirred and slipping stiffly from his position he moved her so that her back which was still wet faced the fire he built up the fire again and sat brooding beside her and starting awake till morning then his head and he was dimly awake again to find her sitting up straight looking at him in amazement it simply can t be that s all did you curl me up nice and dry all over now it was very good of you you ve been a most person but i we ll take a train for the rest of our pilgrimage it hasn t been entirely successful i m afraid perhaps we d better for a moment he hated her with her smooth politeness after a night when she had been and human by turns he hated her hair and tired face then he could have wept so deeply did he desire to pull her head down on his shoulder and smooth the wrinkles of weariness out of her dear face the dearer because they had endured the weariness together but he said well let s try to get some breakfast first with their garments wrinkled from rain half asleep and rather cross they arrived at the but respectable colony of by the noon train xi he an orange tie the is so cheerful and artistic that it makes the ordinary person long for a dingy old fashioned room in which he can play and without being with patience by the wall and clever and	42
polished it is the common room which is uncommon for hotel parlor is all in and had gone up to her room to sleep bidding mr do likewise and avoid the wrong bunch at the for besides the wrong bunch of interesting people there were she explained a right bunch of working artists but he wanted to get some new clothes to replace his rain wrinkled ready he was tottering through the common room wondering whether he could find a clothing shop in when a shrill from a wing chair by the rough brick fireplace halted him oh h h h mr there sat mrs the poet lady of s rooms on great james street oh h h h mr you bad man do come sit down and tell me all about your wonderful with i just met dear in the upper hall poor dear she was so but her hair was like a sunset over mountain peaks you know as says a stormy sunset were her lips a stormy sunset on doomed ships he an orange tie only of course this was her hair and not her lips and she told me that you had all the way from london never heard of anything so romantic or no i won t say romantic i do agree with dear isn t she a magnificent woman so fearless and didn t you meeting her she is our modem of arc such a noble figure i do agree with her that romantic love is that we have entered the era of glorious companionship that regards as exactly as romantic as but but where was i i think your ring down from london was most exciting now do tell us all about it mr first i want you to meet miss and mr and dear and mr of course you know his poetry and then she drew a breath and back into the wing chair s depths during all this mr had stood frightened and and rain wrinkled before the gathering by the fireplace wondering how mrs could get her nose so blue and yet so despite her encouragement he gave no fuller account of the than why we just down till russian rolled her eyes at him and insisted you tale us about it now had a pretty neck colored like a cigar of mild flavor and a trick of smiling she was accustomed to having men obey her mr stammered why we just walked and we got caught in the rain say miss was a wonder she never peeped when she got soaked through she just laughed and beat it like everything and we saw a lot of quaint english places along the road got away from all them you know a perfectly strange person a heavy old man with horn spectacles and a soft shirt who had joined the group cleared his throat and interrupted i s our mr is it not a strange that in the most observant of all pursuits one should have to encounter the eternal from the greek chorus about the fire yes everywhere began mr he apparently had something to say but the chorus went on and just as in port said as in yes that s so mr r thrilled mrs the lady didn t you notice that they were perfectly of all movements that their observations never ruins i guess they wanted to make sure they were the right things ventured mr with secret terror yes that s so came so from the greek chorus that the personal pupil of d made his first it isn t so much what you like as what you don t like that shows if you re wise yes they and mr much pleased with himself smiled au prince upon his new friends mrs was getting into her stride for a few remarks upon the poetry of when mr who had been ing for some moments trying to get in his remark winked with sly at miss and observed i fancy romance isn t quite dead y know our friends here seem to have had quite a ro little journey then he winked again say what do you mean demanded bill fists clenched but very quiet oh i m not you and miss qui e the i he an orange tie reverse the person his head then bill with his fist at mr s nose spoke his mind say you white faced dirty minded i ain t much of a but i m going to you up so s you can t find your ears if you don t for those oh mr he didn t mean i didn t mean he was just i was just bill watching the of himself as hero was enjoying the drama you then why certainly mr let me explain h don t explain miss yes from mr explanations are so conventional old chap do you see them mr self conscious and ready to turn into a blind bill at the first the sitting about and all the princes and and poor things taking mr quite seriously because he had uncovered the great truth that the important thing in sight seeing is not to see sights he was most unhappy mr was and wanted to be away from there he darted as from a spring when he heard s voice from the edge of the group calling come here a sec she was standing with a chair back for support tired but smiling i can t get to sleep yet don t you want me to show you some of the buildings here if mrs can spare you this by way of remarking on the fact that the female poet was staring our mr g g g g g g said mrs which seemed to	42
imply perfect consent took him to the on a little slope overlooking the of scattered with low and rose gardens it is beautiful isn t it perhaps one could be happy here if one could kill all the people except the he mused oh it is he glowed standing there beside her happiness them looking across the bill was at the climax of his comedy of triumph admitted to a world of and and big windows standing in a beside as her friend mouse dear she said hesitatingly the reason why i wanted to have you come out here why i couldn t sleep i wanted to tell you how ashamed i am for having been being last night i m so sorry because you were very patient with me you were very good to me i don t want you to think of me just as a woman who didn t appreciate you you are very kind and when i hear that you re married to some nice girl i ll be as happy as can be oh he cried grasping her arm i don t want any girl in the world i mean oh i just want to be let go round with you when you ll let me no no dear you must have seen last night that s impossible please don t argue about it now i m too tired i just wanted to tell you i appreciated and when you get back to america you won t be any the worse for playing around with poor because she told you about different things from what you ve played with about children as individuals and painting in and all those things and and i don t want you to get too fond of me because we re different but we have had an adventure even if it was a little moist she paused then cheerily well i m going he an orange tie to beat it back and try to sleep again good by mouse dear no don t come back to the advanced play around and see the g by he watched her straight swaying figure swing across the lawn and up the steps of the half inn he watched her enter the door before he hastened to the shops which clustered about the railway station outside of the poetic preserves of the colony proper he noticed as he went that the men crossing the green were mostly clad in and so he purchased the first pair of un ankle concealing trousers he had owned since small boyhood and a jacket of rough with a gaudy on the belt also he actually dared an orange tie i he wanted something for at dinner a s he whispered under his breath with fond for the first time in his life he entered a s shop you know the poor of the city cannot afford flowers till they are dead and then for but one day he came out with a bunch of and remembered the days when he had envied the people he had seen in shops actually buying flowers when he was almost at the he wanted to go back and change the for flowers roses or but he got himself not to the linen and and silver of the were almost as coarse as those of a hotel for all the ceiling and the in the hunting up the of the inn a bustling young woman who was reading at an office like desk mr begged i wonder could i get some special cups and plates and stuff for high tea tonight i got a kind of party how many the issued the words as though he had put a penny in the our mr just two kind of a birthday party mr certainly of course there s a small extra charge i have a royal tea service practically royal at least and some special i think royal ma would be nice and some surely and could we get some special to eat what would you like why mr as we have commented he put his head on one side rubbed his chin with nice consideration and condescended what would you suggest for a party high tea why perhaps and and a and a sweet and we have a who does french eggs rather remarkably that would be simple but yes that would be very good gravely granted the patron of at six for two as he walked away he grinned within i i talked to that like i d known it all my life other s for s party he sought let s see suppose it really were her birthday wouldn t she like to have a letter from some important he of himself he d write her a make b letter from a duke which he did a stamp he over a desk in the common room and with infinite pains he the stamp in imitation of a and addressed the letter to lady mouse castle some one sat down at the desk opposite him and he carried the task up stairs to his room he rang for pen and ink as as though he had never sat at the wrong end of a after half an hour of trying to a duke writing a letter he produced this he an orange tie lady mouse castle dear madam we hear from our friend sir william that some folks are saying that to day is not your birthday want to stop your so if you should need somebody to make them believe to day is your birthday we have sent our secretary sir sir william will hide him behind his chair and if they bother you just call for sir and he will tell them permit us dear lady to wish you all the greetings of the season and in close	42
we beg to remain as ever yours sincerely duke de he was very tired when he lay down for a minute with a pillow tucked over his head he was almost asleep in ten seconds but he sprang up washed his eyes with cold water and began to dress he was shy of the and stockings but it was the orange tie gave him real alarm he dared it though and went downstairs to make sure they were setting the table with glory the party as he went through the common room he watched the three or four groups scattered through it they seemed to take his clothes as a matter of course he was glad he wanted so much to be a credit to returning from the dining room to the common room he passed a group standing in a window recess and looking away from him he overheard who is the remarkable new person with the orange tie and the on his jacket belt the one that just went through did you ever see anything so funny his collar didn t come within an inch and a half of fitting his neck he must be a poet i wonder if his verses are as built as his garments mr stopped another voice and the beautiful lack of development of his it s like the good old days when every s our mr assistant went bank i don t know him but i suppose he s some ha p ny or perhaps he has convictions about and on a o shades of not at all when they look as gentle as he they always hate the as a hates a cabinet minister he probably on the left ear of a south african every evening before exercise at the i say look over there there s a real going across the green you can tell he s a real artist because he s dressed like a and mr was walking away across the common room quite sure that every one was him with amusement and it was too late to change his clothes it was six already he stuck out his jaw and remembered that he had planned to hide the letter from the duke in s that it might be the greater surprise he sat down at their table he tucked the letter into the folds he moved the of nearer the of the table and the table nearer the open window giving on the green he himself for not being able to think of something else to change he forgot his clothes and was happy at six fifteen he summoned a boy and sent him up with a message that mr was waiting and high tea ready the boy came back muttering miss left this note for you sir the says mr opened the green and white letter excitedly perhaps too was dressing for the party he loved all s just then he read mouse dear i m than i can tell you but you know i warned you that bad was a creature of moods and just now my mood orders me to beat it for paris which i m doing he an orange tie on the train i won t say good by i hate good they re so stupid don t you think write me some time better make it care express co paris because i don t know yet just where i ll be and please don t look me up in paris because it s always better to end up an affair without explanations don t you think you have been wonderfully kind to me and i ll send you some good thought forms shall i i n he walked to the office of the blindly quietly he paid his bill and found that he had only fifty dollars left he could not get himself to eat the waiting high tea there was a seven fourteen train for london he took it he wrote out a cable to his new york bank for a hundred and fifty dollars to keep from thinking in the train he talked gravely and gently to an old man about the brave days of england when men threw he kept thinking over and over to the tune set by the rattling of the train friends i got to make friends now i know what they are funny some don t make friends mustn t forget got to make lots of em in new york learn how ta make em he arrived at his room on place about eleven and tried to think for the rest of the night of how deeply he was missing of the cattle boat now that now that he had no friend in all the hostile world in a london a b c mr was talking to an american who had a brisk manners a knight of pin and a mind for selling and cigars no more england for mine the american snapped good i m going to get out of this hole and get back to god s country just as soon as i can i want to find out what s doing at the store and i want to sit down to a plate of fm good and plenty sick of tea and why i wouldn t take this our mr fool country for a gift no sir me for god s country sleepy eye brown county you bet you don t like england much then mr carefully reasoned like it like this damp crowded hole where they can t talk english and have a fool say that s a great system that system they ve got over in france but here why they don t know whether city is in or or both right i as rain that s what a fellow said to me for all right ever hear such	42
nonsense and tea for breakfast not for me no sir i m going to take the first steamer with a gigantic smoke f of disgust the man from sleepy eye stalked out the keys in his trousers pocket up his cigar and looking as though he i owned the mr him the singer tower from an steamer longed to see the tower i ll do it he rose and from that table in the of an a b c he fled to america he dashed up stairs while the made his change rang for a into his room his things into his suit case announced to it wildly that they going home and to the station he walked nervously up and down till the liverpool train departed suppose wanted to make up and came back to london was a thought that him he dashed into the and wrote to her on a post card showing the abbey called back to america will write address care of company twenty eighth street but he didn t mail the card once settled in a second class with the train in he seemed already much nearer america nd humming to the great annoyance of a lady with he planned his new great work the making of he an orange tie friends the discovery some day if should not of somebody to go home to there was no end to the societies and and stuff he was going to join directly he landed at liverpool he suddenly stopped at a post box and his card to that ended his debate of course after that he had to go back to america he sailed one month and seventeen days after leaving xii he america in his white painted berth mr lay with a scratch on his raised knees and a small mean pillow doubled under his head writing follow up letters to present to the and art novelty company interrupting his work at intervals to add to a list of the books which beginning about five minutes after he landed in new york he was going to master he puzzled over liked miss so much but would her works appeal to he had worked for many hours on a letter to in which he avoided mention of such matters as and he was grateful he told her for all you learned me and he had thought that was a beautiful place though he now saw what you meant about them interesting people and his new york address would be the company he tore up the several pages that repeated that oldest most melancholy cry of the lover which rang among the from ships from the of the cry which always sounded about mr as he walked the deck i want you so much i miss you so i am so lonely for you dear for no more clearly no more nobly did the golden or lean word that cry in their thoughts than did mr william our mr a third class steward with a and he america like tan eyes came down stairs each step like a nervous pencil tap on a table and peered over the side of mr s berth he loved mr who was a scholar by the reading of real bound books an english history and a second hand copy of haunts of historic english purchased in liverpool and who was willing to listen to the steward s story of how his woman mrs with the cat s meat man when the steward was away and when he was home cooked for him lights and liver that unquestionably were purchased from the same cat s meat man he now with a fond and watery gaze upon mr s pursuits and announced in a whisper they ve sighted land oh aye mr sat up so vigorously that he his head he his papers beneath the pillow with his right hand while the left was feeling for the side of the berth land he to cabin mates as he out the deck iron sided black ending in the iron approaches to the at one end and the iron about a at the other was like a grim clean machine shop aisle so so over that the side toward the sea seemed merely a long factory window but he loved it and except when he had remembered the books he had to read he had stayed on deck the bright of and the dark roll and glory of the sea now out there was a blue made by a magic pencil land his land where he was going to become the beloved comrade of all the friends whose he saw in the white caps flashing before him humming he down to the where small our mr beer and smaller tobacco were sold to buy another pound of striped for the offspring of the russian jews the children knew he was coming fat he chuckled touching their dark cheeks pretending to be frightened as they soft fists against the iron side of the ship or rolled in the their mothers knew him too and as he handed about the the chattering stately line of elders nodded their like the forest in a breeze saying words of blessing in a strange tongue he smiled back and made gestures and shouted land land with several variations in key to make it sound foreign but he withdrew for the sacred moment of seeing the land of promise he was newly discovering the long island shore the grass clad at fort the vast pile of new york sky standing in a mist like an enormous burned forest singer tower building he murmured as they proceeded toward their dock that s something like let s see yes sir by right up there between the met tower and the times good old company office one dollar to something like a sign that is	42
good old dollar to thunder with their dam shillings home there s where i used to moon on a wharf the old town looks good and all this was his to conquer for friendship s sake he went to a hotel while he had to go back to the of course he did not wish by meeting those old friends to spoil his first day no it was to stand at a window of his cheap hotel on seventh avenue watching the good old american crowd and jews he went to the and grasped the hand of the ticket the man how are you well how s r he america things going with the old show i been away couple of months fine and been away well it s good to get back to the old town summer hotel why you re the waiter at pat s ain t you next morning mr made himself go to the and art novelty company he wanted to get the due him for staying away so short a time over as soon as possible the office girl addressing seemed surprised when he stepped from the and blushed her usual shy gratitude to the men of the office for allowing her to exist and take away six dollars weekly then into the entry room ran one of the why lo wondered if that could be you back so soon thought you were going to europe just got back couldn t stand it away from you old you must have been learning to back real smart in the old country going to be with us again well see you again soon glad see you back he was not madly excited at seeing still the was part of the good old company the one place in the world on which he could absolutely depend the one place where they always wanted him he had been staring at the tables noting new the office girl speaking sweetly but as to an inquired who did you wish to see mr why mr he s busy but if you ll sit down i think you can see him in a few minutes mr felt like the prodigal son with no calf in sight at having to wait on the bench but he shook with faint excited of mirth at the thought of the delightful surprise mr r the our mr office manager was going to have he kept an eye out for carpenter if didn t come through the entry room he d go into the room and talk about your surprises mr will see you now said the office girl as he entered the manager s office mr made much of glancing up with busy amazement well well back so soon thought you were going to be gone quite a while couldn t keep away from the office mr with an uneasy smile have a good trip yes a how d you happen to get back so soon oh i wanted to say mr i really wanted to get back to the office again i m awfully glad to see it again glad see you well where did you go i got the card you sent me from with the picture of the old church on it why i went to liverpool and oxford and london and well and and places and and i through and all through on foot and them places just a moment well what is it why certainly i ve told you that already about five times yes i said that s what i had the made up for i wish you d be a little more careful d ye hear you went to london did you say did you notice any we could copy no i m afraid i didn t mr i m awfully sorry i hunted around but i couldn t find a thing we could use i mean i couldn t find anything that began to come up to our line them english are pretty slow didn t eh well what s your plans now why i kind of thought honestly mr iso t he america i d like to get back on my old job you remember it was to be fixed so afraid there s nothing doing just now not a thing course i can t tell what may happen and you want to keep in touch with us but we re pretty well filled up just now is getting along better than we thought he s learning not one word regarding s excellence did mr hear not get the job back he sat down and stammered i hadn t thought of that i d kind of on the company mr well you know i told you i thought you were an idiot to go i warned you he timidly agreed mourning yes that so i know you did but well sorry that s the way it goes in business though if you will go beating it around a rolling stone don t gather any moss well cheer up possibly there may be something doing in tr r r r r r r said the mr remarked into it yes it s me well who did you think it was the cat sure no well to morrow probably all right good by then he glanced at his watch and up at mr impatiently say mr you say there ll be when will there be likely to be an opening now how can i tell my boy we ll work you in if we can you ain t a bad clerk or at least you wouldn t be if you d be a little more careful by the way of course you understand that if we try to work you in it take lots of trouble and we ll	42
give him notice to quit end of august warm day sir be you a bill mostly it s bill that yes it is hot superior in manner but deeply dejected mr rang the down stairs bell long enough to wake got himself up the interminable stairs and kicked the door till s voice inside is he america it s me you re in can t fool me g way from there three other doors on the same landing were now partly open and blocked with the heads of inquisitive women the smell was thicker in the darkness mr felt then angry at this curiosity and again demanded in i say tell you it ain t you i know carpenter s pale face out his hair was stuck to his forehead by perspiration his eyes were red and vaguely staring his clothes were badly wrinkled he wore a shirt with a bosom of pink its and limp it s ol cm in cm in quick always hanging around they can t catch me you bet he closed the door arid swiftly down the long hall of the railroad flat evidently trying to walk straight the stifling main room at the end of the hall was terrible as s eyes flies everywhere the oak table which and his bride had once spent four happy hours in selecting was with half a dozen empty torn newspapers dirty plates and ee cups the cheap cover which a bride had once to with red and green roses was half pulled off and dragged on the floor amid the tobacco and bacon which covered the green and yellow carpet rug this much mr saw then he set himself to the hard task of listening to who was muttering back quick ain t you ol you come up to see me didn t you you re m friend ain t you eh i got an awful hang over ain t i you don t care do you ol our mr mr stared at him weakly but only for a minute perhaps it was his cattle boat experience which now made him deal directly with such as would have him three months before perhaps his attendance on a weary come now you got to buck up he what s the trouble how did you get going like wife left me i was drinking you think i m drunk don t you but i ain t she went off with her sister always hated me she took my money out of three hundred all money i had fifty dollars i ll fix her ru kill her took to the fired me don t care drink all i want keep young fellows from getting it say go down and get me pint just finished up pint got to have one die of thirst get i ll go and get you a drink just one drink if you ll promise to get cleaned up like i tell you afterward fl ri mr hastened out with a muttering i i got to save him returning he poured out one drink as though it were medicine for a patient and said soothingly now we ll take a cold bath and get cleaned up and up then we ll talk about a job aw don t want a bath say i feel better now let s go out and have a drink that where j put it mr went to the turned on the tap returned and who struggled and laughed and let his whole weight rest against mr s shoulder though could have beaten three mr he was run into the and into the tub he america instantly he began to splash throwing up water in singing the water poured over the side of the tub mr tried to hold him still but the wet sleek shoulders slipped through his hand like a wet vexed he turned off the water and the door in the bedroom he found an winter weight suit and one clean shirt in the living room he hung up his coat covering it with a newspaper pulled the from under the table and prepared to sweep the disorder was so great that he made one of the inevitable discoveries of every housekeeper and admitted to himself that he didn t know where to begin he a heavy pile of dishes from the to the kitchen shook and beat and folded the stuck the chairs the table and began to sweep at the door a shining wet naked figure stood hey i what d think you re doing cut it out just sweeping from mr and an from the cut it out i said whose house is this back in the bath tub say d think you can run me get out of this or ru throw you out got house way i want it bill the rushed at him him with the drove him back into the tub and waited he laughed it was all a good joke his friend and he were playing a little game also laughed and some more then he wept and said that the water was cold and that he was now deserted by his only friend oh shut up remarked bill and swept the floor stopped about to sneer li l angel ain t you you think you re awful good don t you come up here and bother is our mr when i ain t well salvation army you aw will bill kept on sweeping get out you there was enough in s voice to indicate that he was getting sober bill him under once more so thoroughly that his own were reduced to a state of he dragged out helped him dry himself and drove him to bed he went out and bought dish soap and of s size which was an inch larger than his own he finished sweeping and and washing the	42
dishes all of them he who had learned to comfort he really enjoyed it his sense of order made it a pleasure to see a plate yellow with dried egg and flash into shining whiteness or a room comer filled with dust and tobacco become again a nice square clean comer with the shining just like it was new an called with a bill for fifteen dollars mr heard his threats all through pretending to himself that this was his home whose honor was his honor he paid the man eight dollars on account and dismissed him he sat down to wait for reading a newspaper most of the time but rising to pursue stray flies furiously stumbling over chairs and making with a folded newspaper when awoke after three hours clear of mind but not at all clear as regards the roof of his mouth mr gave him a very little with considerable coffee toast and bacon the toast was not bad now he said cheerfully your bat s over ain t it old man p say you been dam decent to me old man lord i how you ve been sweeping up how was i was i pretty honest you were fierce you will sober won t you he america well it s no wonder i had a hang i was at the till four this mornings and then i had a couple of before breakfast and then i didn t have any breakfast but sa a a ay man i sure did have some last night there was a little that now you look here carpenter you listen to me you re sober now have you tried to find another job yes i did but i got down in the mouth didn t feel like i had a friend left well you h but i guess i have now old look here you know i don t want to pull oflf no charity society or talk like i was a preacher but i like you so dam much i want to see you sober up and get another job honestly i do are you broke nearly only got about ten dollars to my name i take a brace old man i know you ain t no preacher course if you came around with any thou i d have to go right out and get on general principles i ll try to get a job here s ten dollars please take it aw please right an to oblige what ve you got in sight in the job line well there s a chance at night in a little hotel where i was a bell hop long time ago the night clerk s going to get through but i don t know just when ly in a week or two well keep after it and please come down to see me the old place west sixteenth street what about the old girl with the what s her name she ain t stuck on me mrs oh hope she she can just kick all she wants to i m just going to have all the visitors i want to our mr a right say tell us something about your trip oh i had a great time lots of nice fellows on the cattle boat i went over on one you know fellow named awfully nice fellow say you ought to seen me being butler to the handing em hay but say the sea was fine all kinds of colors awful dirty on the cattle boat though hard work kind of hard oh not so very what did you see in england oh a lot of different places say i seen some great in liverpool with he s a fellow works for the here in town i got to look him up say i wish we had an agency for college sofa pillows and and stuff in oxford there s a whole bunch of there all right in the same town i met a there from some american college he hired an and took me down to a lar old inn weu like you read about floor yo x read get to london r i it s a big place say that westminster abbey s a great place i was in there a couple of times more dam of kings and stuff and i see a bishop with on but i got kind of lonely i thought of you a lot of times wished we could go out and get an ale together maybe pick up a couple of pretty girls oh you sport say didn t get over to gay did you well i guess i d better beat it now got to move in i m at a hotel you will come down and see me to night won t you so you thought of me eh sure old be down to night and fu get right after that job it is doubtful whether mr would ever have returned to the had he not promised to see i o he america there even while he was carrying his suit case down west sixteenth by degrees in the sunshine he felt like rushing up to s and telling him to come to the hotel instead lee taking the day off with a headache answered the bell and ejaculated well so it s you is it guess it is what are you back so soon why you ain t been gone more than a month and a half have you beware daughter of southern pride i the little yankee is regarding your full blown curves and empty eyes with rebellion though he says ever so meekly yes i guess it is about that miss well i just knew you couldn t stand it away from us i suppose you ll	42
want your room back ma here s mr back again mr mat oh h h h sounded s voice in disdain below mr couldn t stand it ain t that like a yankee a slap a wail then mrs s on the stairs from the she appeared collar smiling almost pleasantly for she disliked mr less than she did any other of her back already mist ah declare ah was saying to lee just day ah just knew you d be wishing you was back with us won t you come in he edged into the parlor with how is the mrs ah ain t feeling right smart my room occupied yet he was surveying the parlor rather heavily and his manner was not pleasing to the head of the house of who remarked it ain t taken just now mist but ah there was a a looking at it just yesterday and he said he d b permanent if he came ah declare mis i i our mr ah s ah like to have my just get up and go without giving me notice lee at her i mr retorted i did give you notice ah know but well ah reckon ah can let you have it but have to have four and a half a week instead of four prices is all going up so ah declare ah was just saying to lee t ah what we re all going to do if the dear lord don t look out for us and mist ah s ah like to have you coming in so late nights but ah reckon ah can accommodate you it s a good deal of a favor isn t it mrs mr was polite let look out for the sharp of the yankee yes but it was our hero our madman of the seven and seventy seas our friend of who leaped straight from the salt decks of his laboring steamer to the parlor and declared quietly but practically well then i guess i d better not take it at all so that s the way you re going to treat us i mrs you go off and leave us with an room and oh i you poor white you ma you shut up and go down stairs s s s sl go on mrs out lee spoke to mr ma ain t feeling a bit well this afternoon i m sorry she talked like that you will come back won t you she showed all her teeth in a genuine smile and in her anxiety reached his heart remember you promised you would weu i will but bill was fading an the but was the last glimpse of him and that overlooked as she i knew you would he america understand right up and look at the m and put on fresh sheets r one month one hot new york month passed before the imperial mr gave him back the job and then at seventeen dollars and fifty cents a week instead of his former nineteen dollars mr refused upon to go out with the manager for a drink and presented him with twenty suggestions for new and circular letters he the methods of the and two days later he was at work as though he had never in his life been farther from the company than xiii he is our mr dear i am back in new york feeling very well hope this finds you the same i have been wanting to write to you for quite a while now but there has not been much news of any kind so i have not written to you but now i am back working for the company i hope you are having a good time in paris it must be a very pretty city i have often wished to be there perhaps some day i shall go i several here have been reading quite a few books since i got back think now i shall get on better with my reading you told me so many things about books so on i do appreciate it in closing i am yours very sincerely william there was nothing else he could say but there were a number of things he could think as he crouched by the window overlooking west sixteenth street whose dull hue had not changed during the centuries while he had been england her smile he remembered and he cried oh i want to see her so much her gallant dash through the rain and again the cry at last he cursed himself why don t you do something that d count for her and not sit around for her like a fool he worked on his plan to bring the south into line the company s line again and again he sprang up from the writing table in his hot room when the presence of came and stood by his chair but he worked he is our mr the company had not been able to get from the south the business which the company deserved if right and justice were to prevail on the steamer from england mr had conceived the idea that a ink well with the and union flags draped in graceful cast iron would make an admirable present with which to draw the attention of the southern trade the ink well was to be followed by a series of letters sent on the slightest provocation on order or re order hoping the various of the were good and the season important all to a welcome to the on the southern route he drew up his letters he his ink well he got up the courage to talk with the office manager to forget love and the beloved men have ascended in and conquered african tribes to forget love a new busy much absorbed mr very much ours into mr	42
discovery though it had popular prices plain fifteen cents it had red and green lights mission style tables and music played by a and a mr never really heard the music but while it was he had a happier appreciation of the silk hat harry humorous pictures in the which he always propped up against an oil that never caused him inconvenience he had no convictions in regard to he would drop the paper to look out of the window at the improvement company s electric sign showing gardens of paradise on the plan and dream of well he hadn t the slightest idea what something distant and likely to become intimate once or i he is our mr twice he knew that he was the girl in soft brown whom he would go home to and who in a residence would play just such music for him and the friends who lived near by she would be as clever as but oh more so s you can go regular places with her often he got good ideas about letters south to be down on envelope backs from that music at last comes the historic match box incident on that october evening in he dined early at s the thirty cent table d was perfect the cream of com soup was he went so far as to remark to the simply the had two whole in his portion alone the fat man with the white waistcoat whom he had often noted as dining in this same comer of the smiled at him and said pleasant evening as he sat down opposite mr and smoothed the two sleek which decorated the front of his nearly bald head the music included a of airs from the merry widow which set his foot tapping all the while he was conscious that he d made the novelty and comer store come through with a dollar order on one of his letters the journal contained an essay on friendship which would have been and was a credit to he laid down the paper stirred his large cup of and stared at the mother of pearl buttons on the waistcoat of the fat man who was now down soup opposite him my land he was thinking friendship i ain t even begun to make all those friends i was going to haven t done a thing oh i will i nice night said the fat man it sure is brightly agreed mr lar indian summer weather yes isn t i feel like taking a walk on drive b i will our mr wish i had time but i get down to the store cigar store i m on nights three times a week seen you here most every time i eat early mr the rest of the time i eat at the silence but mr was fighting for things to say means of approach for the chance to become acquainted with a new person for all the friendly human ways he had desired in nights of loneliness wonder when they ll get the grand central done asked the fat man i s pose it take quite a few years said mr i s pose it will silence mr sat tr ring to think of something else to say lonely people in city simply do not get acquainted yet he did manage to observe great building that be in the manner silence then the fat man went on wonder what will do in his mill don t believe he can stand up was mr seemed to remember a he agreed vaguely pretty hard all right go out to the meet asked the fat man no but i d like to see it i there must be kind of kind of adventure in them things sure is first machine i saw though i was just getting off the train at park and there was an up in the air and it looked like one of them big mechanical these fellows sell on the street around up there i was kind of disappointed but what do you think it was that j a d in a i think it was and by he got he is our mr to around and racing and so s i thought rd loose my hat off i was so excited and say what do you think i see himself afterward standing near one of the the handsome young chap not over twenty eight or thirty built like a half and then i see and arch mr was breathing dipping and doing the what do you call it dutch roll or something like that my head off oh it must have been great to see em and so close too it sure was there seemed to be no other questions to settle mr slowly folded up his paper pursued his check under three plates and the card to its hiding place beyond the bottle and left the table with a good night at the desk of the a he put a cent in the machine which good drops out boxes of matches no box dropped this time though he worked the out of order asked the lady here s two boxes of matches guess youve earned them well well well sounded the voice of his friend the fat man who stood at the desk paying his bill pretty easy two boxes for one sting the his head he carefully inserted a cent in the and the turning to grin at mr who grinned back as the machine failed to work let me try it mr and the with the enthusiasm of nothing doing lady the fat man to the i guess draw two boxes too eh and fm in a cigar store how s that for your ho ho our mr the handed him	42
two boxes with an embarrassed and the fat man clapped mr s shoulder my turn shouted a young man in a green hat and a bright brown suit who had been watching with the sudden friendship which a crowd brought together by an accident mr was glowing no it ain t it s mine he achieved i invented this game never had he so stood forth in a crowd he was a bill with the polish of a floor he stood beside the fat man as a friend of sorts a person to be taken perfectly seriously it is true that he didn t add to this spiritual triumph the triumph of getting two more boxes of matches for the girl exclaimed no it s my turn and lifted the match machine to a high shelf behind her but mr went out of the with his old friend the fat man saying to him quite as would a wit i guess we get stung eh the fat man walking down to your store sure won t you walk down a piece yes i would like to which way is it fourth avenue and twenty eighth walk down with you fine and the fat man seemed to mean it he confided to mr that the fishing was something elegant at new that he was some at the casting of flies in fishing that he wished exceedingly to be at fishing with flies but was prevented by the manager of the cigar store that the manager was an old devil that his the fat man s own name was tom that the store had a new brand of cigars kept in a swell new bought upon the advice of himself mr that one of the young he is our mr clerks in the store had done fine in the modified that the had had a great team this year that he d be glad to give mr mr eh one of those cigars great cigars they were too and that he hadn t laughed so much for a month of sundays as he had over the way they stung s on them matches all this in the easy affectionate slightly wistful manner of fat men mr s large round friendly childish eyes were never sarcastic he was the man who makes of a crowd in the smoking room old friends in half an hour in turn mr did not shy off he hinted at most of his and a fair number of his sorrows and when they reached the store not only calmly accepted but even one of the new cigars as he left the store he knew that the golden age had begun he had a friend he was to see tom the coming thursday at s and now he was going to find he laughed so loudly that the policeman at thirty fourth street looked self conscious and felt to find out what was the matter with his uniform now this evening he d try to get on the track of well perhaps not this evening the offices wouldn t be open but some time this week anyway two nights later as he waited for tom at s he lashed himself with the thought that he had not started to find good old of the cattle boat but that was forgotten in the wonder of tom s account of mrs s a boarding house where all the folks likes each other you ve never fed at a boarding house eh said tom well i guess most of em are pretty poor feed and pretty sad bunch but mrs s is about as near like home as most of us poor ever gets nice crowd there if mrs mrs r t is her name but we always call her mrs if she don t take to you our mr she don t mind letting you know she won t take you in at all but if she does she ll worry over the holes in your as if they was her husband s all the bunch there drop into the parlor when they come in pretty near any time clear up till twelve thirty and talk and laugh and rush the and play five hundred just like home mrs s nearly as fat as i am but she can be pretty if there s something she can do for you nice crowd there too except that he s one of these here boy actors always out of work i guess mrs is kind of sorry for him say you seem to me like a good fellow why don t you get acquainted with the bunch maybe you d like to move up some time you was telling me about what a old party your landlady is anyway come on up there to dinner on me got anything on for next monday evening n no come on up then east well why don t you then get there about six ask for me monday monday wednesday and friday i don t have to get to the store evenings come on you ll find out if you like the place by i mr the table at last he was through just through with around and not getting acquainted he told himself he was tired of there was nothing to he would go up to mrs s and now he was going to find next morning at himself for not having done this easy task before he to the railroad offices asked for and in one half minute heard yes this is harry i he is our mr mr i ll just bet you can t guess who is i guess you ve got me well who do you think it uncle mr felt lonely at finding himself so completely outside s own world that he was not	42
thought of he hastened to claim a part in that world say mr i wonder if you ve ever heard of a cattle boat called the i say is this bill r yes well well well i where are you when get back oh i been back quite a little while tried to get hold of you almost called up couple of times i m in my office company now back on the old job say i d like to see you well i d like to see old got a date for dinner this evening n no no i don t think i ve got anything on s voice seemed to sound a doubt mr reflected that must be a society person and he made his invitation highly polite well say old man i d be awful happy if you could come over and feed on me can t you come over and meet me y yes i guess i can yes do it where i meet you how about twenty eighth and sixth avenue that ll be all right bill bout six o clock fine be awful nice to see you again old same here by gazing across the table at s mr saw in the familiar body and sturdy face of of s our mr the cattle boat a stranger slightly uneasy and very quiet wearing garments that had nothing whatever to do with the cattle boats a crimson with a of diamonds and sleek brown ready made clothes with curved and pocket would say nothing of his wanderings after their parting in liverpool beyond oh i just around places warm to night for this time of year thrice he explained i was kind of afraid you d be sore at me for the way i left you that s why i ve never looked you up thrice mr declared that he had not been sore then ceased trying to make himself understood their talk both of them played with their knives a good deal built a set of out of while pretending to give hushed attention to the s of s little while mr stared out of the window as though he expected to see the building across get immediately when either of them invented something to say they started chattering with guilty haste and each agreed with any opinion the other advanced mr surprised himself in the thought that hadn t anything very new to say which made him feel so that he burst out say come on now old man i just got to hear about what you did after you left liverpool t weu i never got out of liverpool i worked in a but next time i ll go clean to exploded and i did see a lot of english life in liverpool mr talked long and rapidly of the world s ball series and shoes he tried to think of something they could do he is our mr say i know an awful nice down here in a cigar store let s go down and see him all right tom was very cordial to them he dragged brown canvas out of the tobacco scented room y here cigars were made and the three of them in the back of the store while tom of the races cigar and jews aroused to tell the time story of the judge and the he was cheerful and laughed much and frequently said ah there in general but he kept looking at the clock on the in the wall over the just at ten he rose hesitated and murmured well i guess i ll have to be beating it home from mr oh so early tom what s the big hurry i ve got to run clear over to city was cordial but not convincing say said tom kindly of face his bald head shining behind his twin as he rose i m going to have up to dinner at my next monday like to have you come along it s a fine place mrs she s the landlady she s a wonder there s going to be a vacant room there maybe you two fellows could frame it up to take it understand i don t get no off on this but we all like to do what we can for m no said sorry couldn t do it staying with my brother in law costs me only bout half as much as it would i don t do much chasing around when i m in town i m going to save up enough money for a good long i m going clean to st but i ve had a good time to night glad great stuff about you fellows on the said tom hastened on a bit you fellows sport around a good deal don t you our mr i can t afford to well good night glad to met you mr g night old going to the for walk over with you said mr their walk was quiet and for mr sad he saw doing the wandering he had once planned he felt that while making his vast new circle of friends he was losing all the wild of bill and he was parting with his first friend at the house pronounced his well so long old fellow with an that meant mr fled back to tom s store on the way he was shocked to find himself relieved at having parted with the cigar store was closed at home mrs him for his rent a day and he was very that was to keep back the o god how rotten i feel with which in his room he the desolation of loneliness the ghost of dead and forgotten was with him all next day till he got home and found on the staid black hat rack a	42
of white silk lay tenderly along the smooth softness of her young shoulders a smart patent leather belt encircled her sleek waist thin black stockings showed a modestly arched and rather small foot in a black pump she looked as though she were trained for business awake self self respecting expecting to have to get things done all done yet she seemed gentle good and believing and just a bit shy was twenty four or twenty five in years older in business and far younger in love she was bom in s grove there for eighteen years she had played to at parties hid away the notes with which the boys invited her to at beach read much walter scott and occasionally taught sunday school her parents died when she was beginning her fourth year in high school and she came to new york to work in s toy department at six dollars a week during the holiday rush her patience with old and her large had gained her a permanent place in the store she had climbed to the position of second assistant in the department at fourteen dollars and eighty cents a week that was quite all of her history except that she attended a church nearly every sunday the only person she hated was hood the cheap actor who was playing the piano at mr s entrance just now was playing with amazing rapidity stamping his foot and turning his head to at the others mrs led her chattering flock to the dining room which had pink wall paper and a mr was placed between mrs and out of the mist of strangeness he enters society presently emerged the personality of miss mary a lively but religious of forty who made for the women s exchange and had two hundred dollars a year family income to the right of the dish were the elderly samuel esq also mrs mr had come from five years before but he always seemed just to have come from there he was in a real estate office he was gray ill tempered impatiently honest and to and the newspapers mrs was only to mr across the table was felt the presence of james t who looked like a dignified red sunday school but who for a cloak and suit house heavily on and and was esteemed for his straight back and knowledge of trains which is all of them as soon as mrs had guided the maid in serving the vegetable soup and had her into bringing mr a she took charge of the conversation a luxury which she would never have to her flock s efforts mr said she had spoken of meeting a friend of mr s mr was it not a very nice man she understood was it true that mr and mr had gone clear across the atlantic on a cattle boat it really was oh how interesting contributed pretty beside mr her young eyes filled with an admiration which caused him and difficulty in his soup he was confused by hearing old samuel state h h h back in i the vessel no it was y it must have been it was father said mrs i was on a vessel young man but our mr we didn t cattle mr hood darkly his spectacle case sharply shut and fell to eating as though he had settled all this nonsense with occasional witty from the actor mr told of hay of the wit of and the wickedness of satan the but you haven t told us about the brave things you did mrs she appealed to i ll bet he was a cool one don t you think he was i m sure he was s voice was like a mr knew that there was just one thing in the world that he wanted to do to persuade miss that though he was a solid business man indeed yes and honorable he was a cool one who had chosen in wandering o er this world so wide the most perilous and cattle places he tried to think of something modest yet striking to say while tom was arguing with miss mary the respectable about the of giving away street car as they finished their floating mr achieved do you come from new york miss and listened to the tale of parties in s grove he was absolutely happy this is like getting home he thought and they re folks to get home to now that i can tell em apart miss is a and brains he had a frightened hope that after dinner he would be able to get into a comer and talk with but tom conferred with hood and called mr aside had been acting with a moving picture company for a week and had three passes to the celebrated mr had hood s remarks such as tee and oh you naughty man but when he heard that this he enters society had shared in the glory of making moving pictures he went proudly forth with him and tom he had no chance to speak to mrs about taking the room to be he wished that carpenter or the could see him sitting right beside an actor who was shown in the pictures there before them asking him how they made just as friendly as though they had known each other always he wanted to do something to entertain his friends beyond taking them out for a drink he invited them down to his room and they came was in wonderful form he every one they saw so that tom knew the actor wanted to borrow money the party were lovingly humming the popular song of the time any little girl that s a nice little girl is the right little girl for me as they up the gloomy steps of the and struck attitudes on	42
the inside stairs and sang aloud mr felt conscious of mrs down below he kept listening as he led them up stairs and lighted the gas but so colonel with two water glasses for eye glasses and a small hat brush for that mr was moved to exclaim say fm going out and get some beer or d you rather have something else some cheese how about em fine said tom and together not only did mr buy a large bundle of bottles of beer and cheese but also a small can of and in his room he spread a clean then two clean on the and arrayed the feast with two water glasses and a for cups hood spreading on a and loudly singing his i swan i s our mr stopped short and fixed amazed eyes on the door of the room mr hastily turned the light fell as on a cliff of gray rock on mrs in the open door vast in her gray her arms folded mist she began in a high voice that promised to burst into passion but she was addressing the formidable adventurer bill he had to protect his friends he sprang up and walked across to her he said quietly i didn t hear you knock mrs ah didn t knock and ah want you should then please do knock unless you want me to give notice he was quivering his voice was shrill from the hall below called up ma come down here mat but mrs was too well started if you think ah m going to stand for a lazy little keeping the whole street awake and here it is nearly midnight just then mr william saw and heard the most thing of his life and became an eternal slave to tom tom s broad face became hard his voice he shouted at mrs beat it or i ll run you in trouble with you is you old you don t appreciate a nice quiet little chap like and you try to bully him and him here for years get out or i ll put you out i m no lamb and i won t stand for any of your monkey shines get out this ain t your room he s it he s paid the rent it s his room get out kindly tom worked in a cigar store and was accustomed to talk back to drunken men six feet tall his voice was tremendous and he was immovable i he enters society he didn t a bit mind the fact that mrs was still glaring speechless but behold an ally to the forlorn lady when in the hall below heard tom she knew that mr would room here no more she galloped up stairs and over her mother s shoulder you will pick on a lady will you you drunken you you i ll have you arrested so quick you look here lady said tom gently fm a clothes man a his large voice like a tiger s i don t want to run you in but i will if you don t get out of here and shut that door or you might go down and call the on this block he ll run you in for breaking code of the law and that s what it uneasy frightened then mrs swung about and the door sick guilty banished from home though he felt mr s voice with an attempt at dignity i m awful sorry she in while you fellows was here i don t know how to forget it old man rolled out tom s bass come on let s go up to mrs s but it s nearly a quarter to eleven that s all right we can get up there by a little after and mrs stays up playing cards till after twelve mr ejaculated under his breath as they entered mrs s though not on his part the parlor door was open mrs s broad back was toward them and she was announcing to james t can and miss with whom she was playing five hundred well i ll just bid seven on hearts if you re going to get so set up she glanced our mr nodded said come in children picked up the widow and discarded with quick of the cards the frightened mr feeling like a land compared this smoking woman with the intense respectability of his dear lost patron mrs he sat uneasy till the hand of cards was finished feeling as though they were only him and was nowhere in sight suddenly said mrs and now you would like to look at that room mr unless i m wrong why yes i guess i would like to come with me child she said in pretended severity tom you take my hand in the game and don t let me hear you ve been bidding ten on no suit without the she led mr to the hat rack in the hall the third floor back will be vacant in two weeks mr we can go up and look at it now if you d like to the man who has it now works nights he s some kind of a head waiter at s or something like that and he s out till three or four come when he saw that third floor back the room that the smart people at mrs s were really willing to let him have he felt like a man just engaged it was all in soft green grass green pale green walls chairs of white with green cushions the bed a couch with a cover and four sofa pillows it gave him the impression of being a guest on fifth avenue it s kind of a plain room mrs said doubtfully the furniture is kind of plain but	42
my head waiter man it was furnished for a friend of his he says he likes it better than any other room in the house it if comfortable and you get lots of sunlight and i ll take how much is it please with board she spoke with a take it or leave it defiance a week it was a terrible extravagance much like marrying a sick woman on a salary of ten a week he reflected he enters society eleven fifty left him only seven fifty for clothes and and things and but take it he said hastily he was frightened at himself but glad very glad he was to live in this heaven he was going to be away from that woman and was she engaged to some man he wondered mrs was saying first i want to ask you some questions though please sit down as she into one of the chairs she suddenly changed from the rolling card player to a woman dignified reserved commanding mr you see miss and miss are on this floor miss can take care of herself all right but is such a trusting little thing she s like my daughter she s the only one i ve ever given a reduced rate to and i swore i never would to anybody do you drink drink much i mean on this floor near him now he had to have this room he forced himself to speak directly i know how you mean mrs no i don t drink much of any hardly at all just a glass of beer now and then sometimes i don t even touch that a week at a time and i don t and and i do try to keep er straight and all that sort of thing that s good i work for the and art novelty company on twenty eighth street if you want to call them up i guess the manager give me a pretty good recommend i don t believe i ll need it mr it s my business to find out what sort of men are by just talking to them she rose smiled out her hand you be nice to t you i m going to fire that out don t tell him but i am because he gets too fresh with her yes she suddenly broke into laughter and ejaculated say that was hard work don t you to have to be our mr serious f let s down and make tom or rush us a of beer to welcome you to our midst m bet your aren t i m going to in and take a look at them once i get you up here but i won t read your love letters i now let s go down by the fire where it s xv he studies five hundred and snap office on a couch of glossy red leather with glossy black buttons and stiff also of glossy red leather mr william sat upright and was very confiding to miss who was curled among the satin pillows with her skirts drawn carefully about her ankles he had been at mrs s for two weeks now he wore a new light blue tie and his trousers were pressed like sheet steel yes i suppose you re engaged to some one miss and you ll go off and leave us go that blamed s grove or some place i am not engaged i ve told you so who would want to marry me you stop me you re mean as can be i ll just have to get tom to protect me i course you re engaged ain t are ain t who would want to marry poor little me why anybody of course you stop me besides probably you re in love with twenty girls i am not why i ve never hardly known but just two girls in my life one was just a girl i went to with once or twice she was the daughter of the landlady i used to have before i came here if you don t make love to the landlady s daughter you won t get a second piece of pie i quoted out of the treasure house of literature our mr f sure that s it but i bet you who was the other girl oh she she was a an artist i liked her a lot but she was oh awful if but a sympathetic silence which broke with yes they re funny people artists do you have your lesson in five hundred to night your very first one i think so say is it much like this here oh say miss why do they call it five hundred that s what you have to make to go out no i guess it isn t very much like bridge though to tell the truth i haven t ever played bridge my it must be a nice game though oh i thought ly you could play it you can do most everything honest i ve never seen nothing like it now you stop mr i know i m a what was it mr used to call me a but miss you l well or a either you re a let s see an i am not even if i can my nose like a rabbit besides it sounds like a but anyway the head said i was crazy to day if i heard him say you were crazy would you beat him for me she a cushion and smiled gratefully her big eyes seemed to fill with light he caught himself wanting to kiss the softness of her shoulder but he said only well i ain t much of a but i d	42
try to make it interesting for him tell me did you ever have a fight when you were a boy were you a bad boy i never did when i was a boy but well i did have a he studies five hundred couple of fights when i was on the cattle boat and in england neither of them amounted to very much though i guess i was scared don t believe it r sure i was i don t believe you d be scared you re too earnest me miss why i m a regular cut up you stop making fun of yourself i like it when you re earnest like when you saw that beautiful last night oh dear isn t it hard to have to miss so many beautiful things here in the city there s just the and even there there aren t any birds real wild birds like we used to have in yes isn t it isn t it hard mr drew nearer and looked sympathy i m afraid i m getting miss she s in my department she d laugh at me but i do love birds and and and all those things in summer i love to go on on island or tramp in van park would you go on a with me some day next spring hastily i mean with miss and mrs and me i should be pleased to she was but trusting about it oh listen mr did you ever tramp along the as far as it s lovely there the woods and the river and all those funny little puffing along way way down below you why i could lie on the rocks up there and just dream and dream for hours after i ve spent sunday up there she was dreaming now he saw and his heart was passionately tender toward her i don t hardly mind a bit having to go back to the store monday morning you ve been up along there haven t you me why i guess i m the that discovered the yes it is won up there oh you are are you i read about that in american our mr history i but honestly mr i do believe you care for and things not like that or mr they always want to just stay in town or even tom though he s an old dear mr looked jealous with a small hot jealousy she hastened on with of course i mean he s just like a big brother to all of us it was sweet to both of them to her to declare and to him to hear that neither tom nor any other possessed her heart their shy glances were like an of tenderly touching hands as she confided mrs and he get up and when we re out on the he says to me you know sometimes he almost makes me think he is sleepy though i do believe he just off under a tree and talks to mrs or reads a magazine but i was saying he always says to me well sister i suppose you want to round and dream by your self you won t talk to a old bear like me well i m glad of it i want to sleep i don t want to be by you and your everlasting chatter get i b he just says that cause he knows i wouldn t v ant to run off by myself if they didn t think it was proper as he heard her lively effort to imitate tom s bass mr laughed and his knee and agreed yes tom s an awfully fine fellow isn t he i love to get out some place by myself too i like to wander round places and make up the fool little stories to myself about them just as bad as a that way and you read such an awful lot mr i my oh tell me have you ever read anything by bell or reed mr they write such sweet stones he had not but he expressed an resolve so to do and with she went on mrs told me you had a real big library nearly he studies five hundred a hundred books and do you mind i went in your loom and at them no course i don t mind i if there s any of them you d like to borrow any time miss i would be awful glad to lend them to you but rats i why i haven t got hardly any books that s why you haven t wasted any time learning five hundred and things isn t it because you ve been so busy reading and so on yes kind of mr looked modest haven t you always been lots oh haven t you always lots she really seemed to care mr felt excitedly sure of that and imparted yes i guess i have and i ve always wanted to travel a lot so have i isn t it wonderful to go around and see new places yes it he breathed it was great to be in england though the people there are kind of chilly some ways even when i m on a wharf here in new york i feel just like i was in china or i d like to see china and india when i hear the waves down at island or some place you know how the waves sound when they come in well sometimes i almost feel like they was talking to a you know telling about ships and oh say you know the aren t they just like the waves was at you they want you to come and beat it with you over to	42
china and places why mr you re a regular poet he looked doubtful honest i m not you you are a poet and i think it s fine that mr was saying that nobody could be a poet or like that unless they drank an awful lot and oh not be honest and be on a job but you aren t like that are you our mr he looked self conscious and earnestly well i try not to be but i am going to make you go to church you ll be a or something like that if you get to be too much of a poet and don t miss please may i go to church with you why next sunday why yes i should be pleased are you a though why i guess fm kind of a but still they re all so much alike yes they really are and besides what does it matter if we all believe the same and try to do right and sometimes that s hard when you re poor and it seems like like seems like what mr insisted oh nothing my you ll have to get up awful early sunday morning if you d like to go with me my church starts at ten thirty oh i d get up at five to go with you stupid now you re just trying to jolly me you are because you men aren t as fond of church as all that i know you aren t you re real lazy sunday mornings and just want to sit around and read the papers and leave the poor women but please tell me some more about your reading and all that well i ll be all ready to go at nine thirty i don t know why i haven t done much reading but i would like to travel and say wouldn t it be great to i suppose i m sort of a kid about it of course a has to tend right to business but it would be great say a man was in europe with with a friend and they both knew a lot of history say they both knew a lot about he was the that tried to blow up the english parliament and then when they were there in london they could almost think they saw him and they he studies five hundred could go round together and look at s window he was a poet at oxford oh it would be great with a with a friend yes wouldn t it i wanted to work in the book department one time it s so nice your being ready for five hundred tom in the hall below ready partner you tom was to mr into the game playing with him against mrs and miss mary mrs sounded the occasion s pitch of high merriment by delivering from the doorway the sacred old saying well the ladies against the men eh a general that might be assented i m a good she added watch us the men mary like to windows let s see it s red black up remarked tom as he prepared the pack of cards for playing yes i would it makes me so tired mrs to think of the old that men put up for when they know they re solemn old fools i d just like to get out and vote my head off well i think the woman s place is in the home miss away a she was finishing for the women s exchange and at her they settled themselves about the glowing glancing glittering golden oak table miss sternly mr sat still and frightened like a professor on a with two and a press agent though was smiling at him from the couch where she had started her a large christmas lamp mat for the wife of the at s grove don t you wish your little friend hood was here to play with you remarked tom our mr tr i do not declared mrs still there was one thing about i never had to look up his account to find out how much he owed me he stopped calling me little when he owed me ten dollars and he even stopped the front door when he got up to twenty o mr did i ever tell you about the time i asked him if he wanted to have sweep protested miss while on the couch ejaculated mechanically that story but mrs chuckled and continued i asked him if he wanted me to have sweep his when she swept his room he changed it next day your bid mr said miss severely first i want to tell how to play you see here s the we play you know oh yes said mr he had once heard of in new or or somewhere but that didn t seem to help much well you see you either make or go back continued tom and you know is high then right bower left and ace then let s see high bid takes the cat you know and ten tricks follow suit like of course i guess that s all that ought to give you the hang of it an i bid six on no as tom finished these instructions given in the card player s rapid don t ask me any more fool questions manner mr felt that he was choking he up his neck trying to ease his stiff collar so then he was a failure a social outcast already so then he couldn t learn five hundred i and he had been very proud of ring one card from another perfectly having played a number of games of two handed with tim on the cattle boat but what the did left	42
cat follow suit mean he five hundred and to fail with watching him i he pulled at his collar again thus he reflected while mrs and tom were following brilliant but society dialogue mrs well i don t know tom not failure but low bid is crime little one mrs mary shall i make tom hey no talking cross table mrs um let me see tom bid up bid up bid a little seven on hearts mrs just for that in t bid seven on hearts i tom oh how we will you what you bidding behind mr whispered to him bid seven on no suit you ve got the her delicate forefinger its nail shining was pointing at a curious card in his hand seven he eight hearts snapped miss drew up a chair behind mr s he listened to her soft explanations with the desperate respect and affection which a green would give to a general in battle tom and he won the hand he glanced back at with awe then clutched his new hand fearfully staring at it as though it might conceal one of those of which had just warned him a left bower good see said fifteen minutes later mr felt that tom was hoping he would lead a club he played one and the whole table said that s right fine on his shoulder he felt a light tap and he blushed like a sunset as he peeped back at mr the society light was our mr of the company all this time indeed at present our mr he intended to keep on taking the job seriously until that most distant time which we all await when something turns up his of the southern merchants was showing such results that he had grown from an interest in whatever papers were on his desk to a belief in the divine necessity of the job as a whole not now as of old did he keep the personal letters in his desk tied up ready for a sudden departure for or also he wished to earn much more money for his new career of luxury mr had assured him that there might be chances ahead business had been two new road and a man had been added to the staff and whereas the firm had formerly been only buying their from now they were having printed for them their own snap office which were making a big hit with the trade through his friend the mr got better acquainted with two great men mr l j the agent of the company and john the newly engaged head of motto he wanted to get all the different lines of the business so s he could step right in anywhere and from these men he learned the valuable secrets of business wherewith the of trade build up prosperity for all of us how to seat a selling agent facing the light so you can see his face better than he can see yours how much ahead of time to the motto that we ve simply got to have proof this afternoon what s the matter with you down there don t you want our business any more he also learned something of the various kinds of and ink well glass though these of course were merely matters of knowledge not of brilliant business and far less important than what tom and called handing out a line of talk he studies five hundred it say you re getting quite lately society leader informed him mr s answer was in itself a proof of the of s observation sure i m going to borrow some money from you fellows got to make an impression see a few hours after this came s second letter mouse dear i m so glad to hear about the yes indeed i would like to hear about the people in it and you are reading history that s good i m getting sick of paris and some day i m going to stop an on the and slap its face to show i m a sturdy moving picture western and then leap to saddle and pursue the i m working like the devil but what s the use that is i mean unless one is doing the job well as i m glad you are my dear keep it up you know i want you to be real whatever you are i didn t mean to preach but you know i hate people who aren t real that s why i haven t much of a for myself au i n after he had read her letter for the third time he was horribly shocked and regarded himself as a traitor because he found that he was only pretending to be excited over it it seemed so detached from himself au now what did those mean f and was always so discontented what d she do if she had to be on the job like oh is wonderful but i and when he who has loved says but i i love in panic he walked home thoughtfully after dinner he said abruptly to i had a letter from paris to day honestly who is she g g g g oh it s always a she why it is from a girl i started to tell you about i our mr one day she s an artist and once we took a long in the country i met her she was staying at the same place as i was in london but oh she s so blame literary she is a fine person do you think you d like a girl like that maybe i would if she was a man oh yes s artists are so romantic but they ain	42
was to write it they were now settling important details so when cried i think it s just a fine idea i knew you had lots of imagination tom interrupted her with no you write it bill i ll help you all i can of course tell you what you ought to do get hold of he s had a lot of stage experience he d help you about seeing the that d be the hard part you can write it all right but you d have to get next to the on the inside and say you certainly ought to write this thing bill might make a lot of money oh a breathed heard about a fellow continued tom fellow named wolf i it was that was so broke he was sleeping in park and he made a hundred thousand dollars on his first play or no tell you how it was he sold it outright for ten thousand something like that anyway i got that right from a fellow that s met him still an author s got to go to college and like that mr spoke as though he would be pleased to have the objection at once which it was with a universal oh in a brown jacket of flour whose very lump was a crisp delight hearing his genius and himself called bill thrice in a quarter hour mr was he asked the waiter for some paper and while the four hotly discussed things which it would be to have the president s daughter do he drew up a list of characters on a sheet of paper he still keeps it is headed s forty second street branch at the bottom appear numerous of the name g s f m m f m vex u i lie k w r f p st f it v a l t te our mr f i think call the heroine he mused blushed mrs and tom glanced at each other mr realized that he had even at this moment of social triumph made a break he said hastily i always liked that name i i had an aunt named that oh started she was fine to me when i was a kid mr added trying to remember whether it was right to lie when in such need oh it s a horrid name declared why t you call her something nice like or oh s an elegant name an elegant name he walked with behind the others along street to the s eye he was a small respectable clerk slightly stooped with a polite and the dignity that comes from knowing well a narrow world wearing an overcoat too light for winter too busily out of the way of people and guiding the nice girl beside him into clear spaces by touching her elbow too busy to cast a glance out of the crowd and spy the passing poet or king or the iron night sky he was as a bit of the evening street life as any of the file of street cars through the wet snow yet he was the squire to the greatest lady of all his realm he was a society author and a man of great wealth and power over mankind i say we ll have the dinner you ever saw if i get away the play he was saying will you come miss indeed i will oh you sha n t leave me wasn t i there when indeed you were oh we ll have a feast at the and and all sorts of stuff would would you like it if i sold the play he becomes literary course i would td buy the business and make manager he company so he came to relate all those of the job and he was overwhelmed at the ease with which she got old his preparations for writing the play were elaborate he paced tom s room till twelve thirty consulting as to whether he had to plan the stage setting smoking in attitudes on chair arms next morning in the office he made numerous plans of the setting on waste half sheets of paper at noon he was at tom regarding the question of whether there ought to be one desk or two on the stage he the evening meal at mrs s dining with literary at the for he had subtle problems to he bought a dollar fountain pen which had large gold like bands and a rather and a box of fairly large sheets of paper pressing his literary tenderly under his arm he attended four moving picture and by eleven he had seen three more one act plays and a dramatic he slipped by the parlor door at mrs s his room was quiet the on the delicately green walls was like that of a regular author s den he was quite sure he happily tested the fountain pen by writing the names and william on a bit of paper which he burned in an ash tray washed his face with water which he let run for a minute to cool sat down before his table with a of content went back and washed his hands fiercely threw off the of coat and collar sat down again got up to a picture picked up his pen laid it down and glowed as he thought of there near at hand her exquisite cheek against her arm perhaps and her white dreams our mr suddenly he roared at himself get on the job there will he picked up the pen and wrote the s daughter a one act dramatic by william characters john a railway president quite rich mr s daughter his secretary he was his pen at top speed scattering a shower of tiny drops of ink stage scene an office very expensive	42
mr and mr are sitting there miss comes in she says he stopped he thought he held his head he went over to the stationary bowl and soaked his hair with water he lay on the bed and kicked his heels slowly and gravely his fifty minutes later he gave a groan and went to bed he hadn t been able to think of what miss says beyond i have come to tell you that i am married papa and that didn t sound just right not for a first line it didn t anyway at dinner next night saturday tom was rather inclined to make to our author and to remark well i know where somebody was last night but of course i won t tell say them authors are a wild lot mr who had permitted the of even tim the wasn t going to stand for no from nobody not when was there and he called for a glass of water with the air of a assistant he becomes literary professor forced to eat in a lunch wagon and on the back by the cook soothed him the play is going well isn t it when he had with a detached grandeur of which he was immediately ashamed vouchsafed that he was already getting right down to brass on it that he had already four more plays and the actual writing every one looked awed and asked him questions at nine thirty that evening he and tightly brushed his hair which he had been angrily for an hour and a half went down the hall to s hall bedroom and knocked with it s mr may i ask you something about the play just a moment he heard her say he waited panting softly his lips apart this was to be the first time he had ever seen s room she opened the door part way smiling timidly holding her pale blue dressing gown close the pale was a modestly brilliant spot against the whiteness of the room white hung with dance and a yellow s grove high school banner white tiny pale yellow white and silver wall paper and a glimpse of a white soft bed he was dizzy with the exaltation of that purity but he got himself to say i m kind of stuck on the first part of the play miss please tell me how you think the heroine would speak to her would she call him papa or sir do you think why let me see they re such awful high yes that s so why i should think she d say sir maybe oh what was it i heard in a play at the academy of music father i have come back to sa a ay that s a fine line that get the crowd going right from the first i told you you d help me a lot our mr i m awfully glad if i have helped you she said earnestly awfully glad but good night and good luck with the play good night good night thank you a lot miss church in the morning remember i good night tne good night thank you a i remember i good night good night as it is well known that all labor with toy before them for working models mr ran to earth a fine unbroken box in which a ninety eight cent alarm clock had recently arrived he went out for some and three small setting up his box stage he a box and a match box on the floor the side of the box it had always been till now and there he had the mahogany he thrust three matches into the and behold three graceful actors graceful for at least there was fascination in having them enter through holes in the back of the box up to their and deliver magic speeches that would cause any audience to weep speeches regarding which he knew everything but the words a detail of which he was still quite ignorant after half an hour of playing with his before he went to bed that saturday night he had added to his manuscript mr says here are the papers sir as a great railway president you should the rest of that was to be filled in later how the could he let the public know how truly great his president was miss comes in miss father i have come back to you sir mr my daughter father i have something to tell you something breakfast at mrs s was always an inspiration in contrast to the lonely dingy meal at the he becomes literary lunch of his days he sat next to a fresh and enthusiastic after nine hours sleep so much for ordinary days but sunday morning that was paradise i the oil stove glowed and like a large tin cat it their legs into dreamy comfort while they stuffed themselves with toast and and coffee and he always felt gently superior to tom who would be a sleeping late as they talked of the joy of not having to go to the office of approaching christmas and of the superiority of s grove and this morning was to be mr s first attendance at church with the previous time they had planned to go mr had spent sunday morning in at the with a young man in a white jacket instead of at church with this was also the first time that he had attended a church service in nine years except for mass at st s which he regarded not as church but as beauty he felt set upon new paths of virtue and achievement he thought of those lonely and d they just didn t know what it meant to a fellow to be going to church with a girl like miss he reflected	42
as he his hair after breakfast he walked proudly beside her and made much of the of entering the church as one of the well to do and intensely bathed congregation he even bowed to an almost painfully washed and brushed young with gold eye glasses he thought scornfully of his days when he had bow d to the brass button man at the the church interior was as comfortable as toast and half a block of red carpet in the shiny solid oak gorgeous stained glass windows and a general polite creaking of ladies best our mr stays and gentlemen s shirt and an of the best and balls it lacked but six days till christmas mr s heart was a little garden and his eyes were moist and he peeped at as he saw the and ivy and the christmas peace on earth good will to men and the rest that brightened the spaces between windows christmas happy homes slaughter since as a boy he had attended the christmas of the old church sunday school at and got highly colored in a net bag his holidays had been celebrated by buying himself at lonely christ dinners at lai e cheap where there was no one to wish him merry christmas except his waiter whom he would quite probably never see again nor ever wish to see but this christmas he surprised himself and suddenly by hotly thrusting out his hand and touching her sleeve with the searching finger tips of a child comforted from night fears during the sermon he had an idea what was it had told him about peter pan oh yes somebody in it had said do you believe in say why wouldn t it be great to have the s daughter say to her father do you believe in love believe in he to himself as he felt s arm unconsciously touch his tom had hood in that afternoon for a hot looked very boyish very confiding and borrowed five dollars from mr almost so absorbed was mr in learning from how to sell a play to know the address of the firm of play in a building seemed next door to knowing a manager when had gone tom presented an idea which he becomes literary he had conceived during his sunday at the cigar store why not have three of us say me and you and mrs talk the play just like we was acting it he forced the plan on mr he down stairs and brought up mrs he dashed about the room shouting directions he dragged out his for the railroad president s desk and a table for the secretary and after some consideration and much rubbing of his chin with two and a bang he converted his hard green chair into an office safe the play was on mr t in the of the president entered with a stem high expression on his face threw a good morning at his secretary and off his gloves mr noted the gloves they were a touch mr approached his face lest mrs laugh at him here say what do you think would be a good way for the secretary to tell the crowd that the other is the president say how about this the vice president of the railway would like to have you sign these sir as president that s fine exclaimed mrs whose satin dress was carefully spread over her swelling knees as she sat in the oak like a cheerful bronze monument to sunday propriety but don t you think he d say when it s convenient to you sir that s the play was on it ended at seven mr took but fifteen minutes for sunday supper and wrote till one of the morning finishing the first of his manuscript was delightful for it demanded many with sitting at the parlor table with shoulders touching they were the more because tom had invited mr and is our mr mrs to the grand christmas eve ball of the cigar makers union at hall asked of mr almost as as of mrs whether she should wear her new white or her older rose colored china silk two days before christmas he timidly turned over the play for to a haughty public who looked like lee she yawned at him when he begged her to be careful of the manuscript the pink bound and red manuscript of the play was to messrs play at p m y christmas eve the four walked down sixth avenue to the cigar makers ball they made an indian file through the christmas crowds and stopped frequently and before the street of and bears they shrieked all with one mad laughter as tom over and bought for seven cents a pink doll which he pinned to the of his overcoat they drank hot at the store pretending to each other that they were shivering with cold it was here that reached up and patted mr s pale blue tie into better lines in her hair was the scent which he had come to identify as hers her white brushed against his overcoat the cigar makers with seven of them in full and two in dinner coats were already dancing on the floor of hall when they arrived a full was and itself into an of merriment on the platform under the red balcony and at the bar behind the balcony there was a spirit of beer and by night mr passed large groups of pretty girls he felt very light and in his new finish now that he had taken off his x he becomes literary and the slippery floor he tried desperately not to use his handkerchief too though he had a cold it was not till the choosing of partners for the next dance when tom stood up beside their arms swaying a little their feet tapping that mr	42
quite got the fact that he could not dance he had casually said to the others a before that he knew only the square dances which as a boy he had learned at parties at but they had reassured him oh come on we u teach you how to dance at the ball it won t be formal besides we ll give you some lessons before we go and playing five hundred had prevented their giving him the lessons so he now sat terrified as a two step began and he saw what seemed to be thousands of glittering youths and maidens whirling in a most involved course getting themselves past each other in a way which he was sure he could never imitate the over music as rich and smooth as milk which made him intensely lonely for though she was only across the room from him tom immediately introduced to a cigar who introduced her to three of the in evening clothes while tom led out mrs mr sitting in a row of persons who were not at all interested in his sorrows out across the hall and wished oh so bitterly to flee home came up glowing laughing with black and men and introduced him to them but he glanced at them and always she was carried off to dance again she found and introduced to mr a who came from and had never heard of tom or or oxford or any other topic upon which mr uneasily tried to discourse as he watched and smile up at her partners our mr presently the two sat silent the excused herself and went back to her from mr sat his friends for brought him the sweetness of and saying to himself oh sure she dances with all those other men me vm only the poor fool that talks to her when she s tired and tries to cheer her up he did not answer when tom came and told him a new story he had just heard in the landed beside him and insisted on his coming out and trying to learn to dance he brightened but remarked oh no i don t think rd better just then the and of all the cigar came begging for a dance and she was gone with only now get up your courage fm going to make you dance at the he her cross the floor with the hateful cigar slender in her tight crisp new white flourishing her fan and talking with happy rapidity she sat down beside him he said nothing he stared out across the floor she peeped at him curiously several times and made a low tapping with her fan on the side of her chair she sighed a little cautiously but very casually she said aren t you going to take me out for some mr oh sure i m good enough to buy for her he said to himself poor mr he had not gone to enough parties in and he hadn t gone to any in new york at nearly forty he was just learning the and and black jealousy of the lover to her why didn t you go out with that with the black he still stared straight ahead she was big eyed a tear showing why was all she answered he clenched his hands to keep from out with x he becomes literary ao the pitiful tears which were in his eyes but he said nothing what he turned around to her his hand touched hers softly oh fm a beast he said rapidly low his trembling to her ears through the laughter of a group next to them i didn t mean that but i was i felt like such a not being able to dance oh fm awfully sorry you know i didn t mean come on let s go get something to as they consumed ice cream and chicken at the refreshment counter they were very intimate the presence of others tom and mrs joined them tom made light her first mr admired the shy way in which taking the of she kept drawing out her with little and nose and pretended but he felt a lofty gladness when she threw it away after a minute declaring that she d never smoke again and that she was going to make all three of her companions stop smoking now that she knew how horrid and it was so there with what he intended to be deep mr drew her away to the and these two children over two glasses of ale looked their innocent and rustic love so plainly that mrs and tom away cut out a dance which she had promised to a cigar maker and started homeward with mr let s not take a car i want some fresh air after that smoky place she said but it was grand let s walk up fifth avenue fine a little he thought her voice somewhat chilly fm so sorry i didn t really have the chance to tell you in there how sorry i was for the way i spoke to our mr you i it was fierce of me but i felt i couldn t dance and oh no answer and you did mind it didn t you why i didn t think you were so very nice about it when tried so hard to have you have a good time oh tm so sorry there was tragedy in his voice his shoulders which he always tried to keep as straight as though they were in a when he walked with her were drooping she touched his glove oh don t it s all right now i understand let s forget oh you re too good o silence as they crossed twenty third on fifth avenue she took his arm he squeezed	42
her hand suddenly the world was all young and and wonderful it was the first time in his life that he had ever walked thus with the arm of a girl for whom he cared in his he glanced down at her cheap white tremulous on the fur were turned into diamond dust in the light from a street lamp which showed as well a tiny place where her collar had been torn and mended ever so carefully then in a of a second he who had been a wanderer in the lonely gray regions of a detached man s heart knew the pity of love all its emotion and the infinite care for the beloved that makes a man of a rusty clerk he lifted a face of adoration to the misty wonder of the bare trees whose of twigs filled square to the tower with its vast upward stretch toward the ruddy sky of the city s winter night all these mysteries he knew and sang what he said was those trees look like a lar picture i the tower just kind of away don t it yes it is pretty she said doubtfully but with a pressure of his arm he becomes literary then they talked like a summer time brook planning that he was to buy a christmas bough of which she would to breakfast in the morning their chatter persisted the new intimacy which had been bom in the pain of their misunderstanding on january loth the manuscript of the s daughter was returned by play with this letter dear sir we regret to say that we do not find play available we our reader s report on the same also bill for ten dollars for reading fee which kindly at early convenience he stood in the hall at mrs s just before dinner he the letter and slowly opened the reader s report which announced s daughter one act vile utterly to the limit dialogue sounds like of can it was coming down stairs he handed her the letter and report then tried to stick out his jaw she read them her hand slipped into his he went quickly toward the and made himself read the letter though not the report to the he burned the manuscript of his play before going to bed the next morning he into the job as he never had before he was gloomily certain that he would never get away from the job but he thought of a hundred times a day and hoped that sometime some spring night of a burning moon he might dare the great adventure and kiss her he remembered her as a great experience but what bodies these theories are that slow but absolutely accurate five hundred player mr william known as glanced triumphantly at miss who was his partner our mr against mrs and james t the man on that night of late february his was the last bid in the hand of the rubber game the others waited respectfully c he bid nine on no good lord james tc make it and he did he arose a victor there was no uneasiness but rather all the social polish of mrs s at its best in his manner as he crossed to mrs s chair and asked how is mr to night pretty miss offered him a lime and he accepted it i believe these are just about as good as park s he said his head say til match you to see who rushes a of beer tom be here pretty soon store ought to be closed by now we ll have some ready for him right bill agreed james t mr lost he departed after obtaining not one but two in one of which he got a pint of dark and in the other a surprise he up stairs to come on down can t you got a of ice cream for the ladies it is true that when tom arrived and fell to blows with james t over the merits of a tom mr was not brilliant for the reason that he took tom to be a man instead of the drink he really is yet as they went up stairs miss said to mr is quiet but i do think in some ways he s one of the men i ve seen in the house for years and he is so earnest and i think he ll make a good player besides five hundred yes said i think he was a little shy at first was always shy but he likes us and i like folks that like folks r said xvii he is blown by the he was blown by the and followed a wandering flame through perilous seas to a happy shore on an april monday evening when a small moon passed over the city and the streets were filled with the sound of and the spring cries of dancing children mr down to the dining room early for would be down there talking to mrs and he gaily wanted to make plans for a to occur the coming sunday he had a shy hope that he might kiss after such a he even had the notion that he might some day well other fellows had been married why not miss mary was mending a rent in the current table cloth with delicate swift motions of her hands she informed him mr will be back from his southern trip in five days we ll have to have a grand closing five hundred mr was too much absorbed in wondering whether miss would make some of her celebrated and justly celebrated ham for the to be much interested he was not much more interested when she said mrs s got a letter or something for you then as dinner began mrs rushed in and said there s a for	42
you mr our mr was it death whose death the table panted mr with them that s a ram meant to them their eyes were like a of charging as he opened and read the message a ship s meet me it s just a a business message he managed to say and his soup this was not the place to take the feelings out of his heart and examine them dinner was begun were considered in all their more important phases historical and social mr talked much and a little wildly after dinner he galloped out to buy a paper the s s was due at ten next morning it was an evening of frightened confusion he along avenue on a walk he knew only that he was very fond of yet eager to see he damned himself damned is literal every other minute for a a double faced traitor and all the other things a man is likely to declare himself to be for making the discovery that two women may be different and yet equally and every other minute he in an adventurous gladness that he was going to see actually going to see her just the next day i he returned to find sitting on the steps of mrs s both good sound observations and all they could say for a time while mr examined the under side of the iron steps rail was it something serious the no it was miss the artist i told you about asked me to meet her at the boat i suppose she wants me to help her with her baggage and the customs and all them things she s just coming from paris the yes i see so lacking in jealousy was that mr was disappointed though he didn t know why it always hurts to have one s turn out i wonder if you would like to meet her she s awful well educated but i maybe she d strike you as kind of but she dresses i don t think i ever seen anybody so elegant in dressing i mean course hastily she s got money and so she can to but she s oh awful nice some ways i hope you like i hope she won t oh i sha n t mind if she s a of course a lady gets used to that working in a department store she said then repented swiftly and begged oh i didn t mean to be forgive me i i m sure miss will be real nice does she live here in new york no in i don t know how long she s going to stay here well well hum m m i m getting so sleepy i guess i d better go up to bed good night uneasy because he was away from the office displeased because he had to leave his beloved letters to the southern trade angry because he had had difficulty in getting a pass to the wharf and furious finally because he hadn t slept mr nursed all these emotions attentively and waited for the coming of the he was wondering if he d want to see at all he couldn t remember just how she looked would he like her the great steamer swung side to and was alongside the wharf peering out between rows of crowding shoulders mr coldly the passengers the decks was not in sight then he knew that he was wildly agitated about her suppose something had happened to her our mr the man who had been into the crowd o politely suddenly dashed to the group forming at the gang plank and pushed his way rudely into the front rank his elbow dug into the proper waistcoat of a proper plump old gentleman but he didn t know it he stood grasping the rope rail of the plank gazing eyed while the plank was lifted to the steamer s deck and the long line of smiling and waving passengers then he saw her tall graceful in a smart check suit with a lively hat of black straw carrying a new bag he stared at her he gasped fm crazy about her i am all right she saw him and their smiles of welcome made them one she came from the plank and hastily kissed him really here she laughed well well well well i i m so glad to see glad to see you mouse dear have good tr don t ask me about it i there was a married man wife who persecuted me all the way over i m glad you aren t going to fall in love with me let s over and get through the customs as soon as we can where s n oh how clever of it it s right by m there s one of my trunks already how are you mouse dear but she didn t seem really to care so very much and the old bewilderment she always caused was over him it is good to get back after all and mouse dear i know you won t mind finding me a place to live the next few days will you she quite took it for granted we u find a place this morning past not too expensive i ve got just about enough to get back to man fashion he saw with acute clearness the pile of work on his desk and man fashion responded no be glad the how about the place where you re living you spoke about its being so clean and the thought of and together frightened him why i don t know as you d like it so very much h it ii be all right for a few days anyway is there a room vacant he was sulky about	42
the servant bring me my but mrs always was penitent when she had been nasty and though did not at once seem to know that the landlady had been nasty mrs invited her up to the parlor for after dinner so cordially that could but grant perhaps i will and she even went so far as to say i think you re all to be envied having such a happy family yes that s so reflected mrs yes added mr and that s so the whole table nodded gravely yes that s so i m sure smiled at mrs that it s because a woman is running things now think what cat and dog lives you d lead if mr or mr was it were ruling they applauded they felt that she had been humorous she was again and publicly invited up to the parlor and she came though she said rather shortly that she didn t play five hundred but only bridge a variety of which mr instantly resolved to learn she is perfectly accurate on the red leather couch among the pillows and smoked two into no s for conversation mr said to himself almost as she too good for us is she but he couldn t keep away from her the that was in the made him most of ms at and when miss inquired his opinion as to whether the coming should be held on island or the he said vaguely yes i guess that would be better for he was wanting to sit down beside our mr just be near her he had to be i so he ventured over and was instantly regarding all the rest as whom his wise comrade and himself were studying tell me mouse dear why do you like the people here the i mean they don t seem so very remarkable poor well they re awful kind always lived in a house where the folks didn t hardly know each other at all except mrs she was the landlady and i didn t like her very much but here tom and mrs and the rest they really like folks and they make it just like a home miss is a very nice girl she works for s she has quite a big job there she is assistant in the he stopped in horror he had nearly said in the department he changed it to in the clothing department and went on doubtfully mr is a man he s away on a trip which one do you play with so likes to well make b how did you oh i watched her looking at you i think she s a terribly nice pink face and just now you re comparing her and me she was immensely pleased with herself tell me what do these people think about at least what do you talk about say s s s not so loud my dear say i know how you mean you feel something like what i did in england you can t get next to what the folks are thinking and it makes you sort of lonely well i just then tom rolled up to the couch he had carried his many and pounds over to third avenue because miss reflected i ve the got a regular sweet tooth to night he stood before and mr holding out a bag of drops in one hand and in the other and which shall it be your nobody loves a fat man so he has to buy so s they ll let him stick around le s see you take bill name your drink miss she looked up at him gravely and politely too gravely and politely she didn t seem to consider him a nice person neither thank you sharply as he still stood there he moved away hurt bewildered was going on i haven t been here long enough to be lonely yet but in any case when mr interrupted you ve hurt tom s feelings by not taking any and he s awful kind i have i yes you have and there ain t any too many kind people in this world oh yes of course you re right i am sorry really i am she after tom s retreat and cheerfully addressed him h i do want some of those will you let me change my mind please do yes ma you sure can i said broad tom all one pleased chuckle out the two bags stopped beside the five hundred table to smile in a way down at mrs and say quite i m so sorry i can t play a decent game of cards i m afraid i m too stupid to learn you are very lucky i think mr on the couch was horribly agitated wasn t coming back she was she detached herself from the of our mr invitations to learn to play five hundred and wandered back to the couch murmuring was bad good am i forgiven mouse dear i didn t mean to be rude to your friends as the rise through water in a cooking pot as the surface and then after the long wait suddenly the water is so was the emotion of mr now that the had actually done something he suggested that was all he could say but from his eyes had gone all reserve her glance back was as frank as his only it had more of the mother in it it was like a kindly pat on the head and she was the mother as she mused so you have missed me then missed you did you think of me after you came here oh i know i was forgotten poor to the pretty pink face oh don t i can t we just go out for a little	42
walk so so we can talk why we can talk here oh there s so many people around when i came back to america i couldn t hardly sleep nights from across the room came the boisterous somewhat coarse voice of tom speaking to oh yes of course you think you re the only girl that ever seen a show ain t never seen a show oh no and miss dissolved in at the wit mr gazed at them detached these were not his people and with startled pride he glanced at s face delicately by thought as he stumbled hotly on just couldn t sleep nights at all then i got on the job let s see you re still with that same company the yes and art novelty company and i got awfully on the job there and so i managed to forget for a little while and so you really do like me even after i was so to you in england oh that wasn t nothing but i was always thinking of you even when i was on the job it s gratifying to have some one continue taking me seriously really dear i do appreciate it but you mustn t you mustn t oh i just can t get over it you here by me ain t it curious then he persisted with the tale of his longing which she had so carefully interrupted the people here are awful kind and good and you can bank on em but oh from across the room tom s pretended lighted up with miss s as paper island from tom yes you re a hot all right i suppose you can do the boston and all them swell dances h h h but oh you re like poetry like all them things a can t get but he tries to when he reads shakespeare and all those poets oh dear boy you mustn t we will be good friends i do appreciate having some one care whether i m alive or not but i thought it was all understood that we weren t to take playing together seriously that it was to be merely nothing more but anyway you will let me play with you here in new york as much as i can oh come on u s go for a walk let s let s go to a show i m ly sorry but i promised a man s going to call for me and we re going to a stupid party on park bore isn t it the day of landing and poor dreadfully our mr oh then don t go let s vm sorry mouse dear but vm afraid i can t break the date fact i must go up and now don t you care a bit he said why yes of course but you wouldn t have disappoint a nice after he s bought him a new would you good night dear she smiled the mother smile and was gone with a lively good night to the room in general went up to bed early she was tired she said he had no chance for a word with her he sat on the steps outside alone a long time sometimes he for a sight of s ivory face sometimes with a fierce compassion that longed to take the burden from her he pictured working all day in the pushing department tore on which the city summer would soon descend they did have their walk the next night and mr but kept the talk to laughing of their tramp in england somehow he couldn t tell exactly why he couldn t seem to get in all the remarks he had inside him about how much he had missed her wednesday thursday friday he saw her only at one dinner or on the stairs departing with men in evening clothes to waiting before the house was very pleasant just that pleasant she pleasantly sat as his partner at five hundred and pleasantly declined to go to the moving pictures with him she was getting more and more tired staying till seven at the store preparing what she called special for the summer white sale friday evening he saw her soft fresh lips drooping sadly as she toiled up the front steps before dinner she went to bed at eight at which time was going out to dinner with a thin faced sarcastic looking man in a jacket the and a black tie mr resented the jacket of course the men in evening dress would be expected to take away from him but a jacket he did not call it that though he had worn one in the fair village of it was still to him a coat with a belt he thought of all evening he heard her there on the same floor with him talking to miss who stood at s door three hours after she was supposed to be asleep no was saying with evidently cheerfulness no it was just a little headache it s much better i think i can sleep now thank you very much for coming hadn t told mr that she had a severe headache she who had once a few weeks before run to him with a cut in her soft small finger demanding that he bind it up he went slowly to bed he had lain awake half an hour before his agony so overpowered him that he flung out of bed he crouched low by the bed like a child his legs curled under him the wooden pressing into his chest in one long line of hot pain while he prayed o god o god forgive me forgive me oh forgive me	42
here i been forgetting and i love her and comparing her with and not her and always so sweet to me and trusting me so o god keep me away from wickedness he huddled there many minutes the pressure of the bedside growing more painful all the while the camp fire he had shared with was burning within his closed eyes and was visibly it in a london flat filled with clever people and he was passionately aware that the line of her slim breast was like the lip of a shell the line of her pallid cheek defined by her flame colored hair something utterly fine something he could not express our mr oh he she is like that poetry stuff in shakespeare that s so hard to get be extra nice to at the sunday her trusting me so and then me o god keep me away from wickedness as he was going out saturday morning he found a note from waiting in the hall on the hat rack do you want to play with poor to morrow sat afternoon and perhaps evening mouse you have saturday afternoon off don t you leave me a note if you can call for me at x i n he didn t have saturday afternoon off but he said he did in his note and at one thirty he appeared at her door in a new spring suit purchased on tuesday a new spring hat very and gay purchased saturday noon and the walking stick he had bought on court road but decently concealed from the boarding house took him to what she called a play she explained it all to him several times and she stood him tea and and recalled mrs s establishment with full attention to mrs s but earnest nose they dined at the and were back at nine thirty for said she was just a bit tired mouse they stood at the door of s room said you may come in just for a it was the first time he had even peeped into her room in new york the old shyness was on him and he glanced back was just coming up stairs staring at him he stood inside the door her lips apart with amazement ladies distinctly did not entertain in their rooms at mrs s he wanted to rush out to explain to invite her in to to he in his thought and by now had hastened past her face turned from them i the uneasily he on the front of a cane seated rocking chair glaring at a pile of books before one of s trunks sat on the bedside nursing her knee she burst out o mouse dear vm so bored by everybody every sort of everybody of course i don t mean you you re a good oh paris is too complex especially when you can t quite get the and new york is too youthful and earnest and will be plain hell and all my little parties i start out on them happily always as as a going to a birthday party and then i get there and find i can t even dance square dances as the does and go home oh damn it damn it damn it am i shocking you well what do i care if i shock everybody her slim length was flung out along the bed and she was crying her beautiful hands clutched the comers of a pillow bitterly he crept over to the bed patting her shoulder slowly and regularly too frightened of her mood even to want to kiss her she looked up laughing please say there there there don t cry it always goes with for girls you know o mouse you will be good to some woman some day her long strong arms reached up and drew him down it was his head that rested on her shoulder it seemed to both of them that it was he who was to be not she he pressed his cheek against the comforting hollow of her shoulder and rested there abandoned to a forlorn and growing happiness the happiness of getting so far outside of his tight world of that he could give comfort and take comfort with no worried thoughts of murmured perhaps that s what i need some one to need me only she his hair now you must go dear our mr you it s better now i m afraid i ain t helped you much it s t other way round oh yes indeed it s all right now just nerves nothing more now good night please won t you come to the to morrow it s no sorry but can t possibly please think it over no no no no dear i you go and forget me and enjoy yourself and be good to your pink face isn t it she seems to be terribly nice and i know you two will have a good party you must forget me i m just a teacher of playing games who hasn t been successful at any game whatever not that it matters i don t care i don t really now good night xviii and follows a wandering flame through perilous seas they had dinner early up there on the and mr mrs and tom miss and mrs samuel the last of whom kept well i ain t run like this in ten years t they about a red cotton table cloth spread on a rocky discussing the and cold chicken and and stuffed and laughing almost to a point of distress over tom s accusation that miss had about her person a bottle of was very pleasant to mr but she called him neither nor anything else and mostly she talked to miss smiling at him but saying nothing when he managed to get out a	42
jest about mrs s when he moved to her side with a wooden plate of cream cheese which tom termed cold cream mr started to explain how he had come to enter s room why shouldn t you asked and turned to miss she doesn t seem to care much he reflected relieved and in his humble vanity and to all at once he was anxious about her opinion of and her opinion of himself and slightly defiant as she continued to regard him as a respectable person whose name she couldn t exactly remember hadn t he the right to love if he wanted to our mr he desired to know of himself besides what had he done just gone out walking with his english hotel acquaintance he hadn t been in her room but just a few minutes fine reason that was for to act like a blooming besides it wasn t as if he were engaged to or anything like that besides of course would never care for him there were several other with which he himself while trying to appear agreeable he was getting very much confused and was slightly abrupt as he said to let s walk over to that high rock on the edge a dusky filled the sky before them as they silently to the rock and from the top of the sheer contemplated the smooth and gray below her fear at the drop and clutched his arm but suddenly let go and drew back without his aid he groaned within i haven t the right to help her he took her arm as she hesitatingly climbed from the rock down to the ground she jerked it free saying no thank you she was in a moment and cheerfully miss took me in her room yesterday and showed me her things my she s got such be ti ful jewels la v and pearls and a swell my i she told me all about how the girls used to study in paris and how sorry she would be to go back to and keep house keep house let him suffer for a moment before she relieved him with for her father oh did she say she was going back to soon not till the end of the summer maybe oh oh for the first time that day he was perfectly sincere a wandering flame he was trying to confide in her but the shame of having emotions was on him he got no farther to his amazement mused she is very nice he tried hard to be gallant yes she is interesting but of course she ain t near as nice as you be oh don t the quick agony in her voice almost set them both weeping the shared sorrow of separation drew them together for a moment then she started off with short swift steps and he after he found little to say he tried to comment on the river he remarked that the apartment houses across in new york were bright in the sunset that in fact the upper windows looked like there was a fire in there her sole comment was yes when they rejoined the crowd he was surprised to hear her talking to miss he rejoiced that she was game but he did not rejoice long for a frightened feeling that he had to hurry home and see at once was turning him weak and cold he didn t want to see her she was but he had to go go at once and the agony held him all the way home while he was mechanically playing the part of stem and agreeing with tom that the horrors of the recent shirt waist factory fire showed that something be done sure be he trembled on the till with a burst of tenderness in her young voice suddenly asked why you re shivering dreadfully did you get a chill naturally he wanted the credit of being known as an invalid and pitied and nursed but he reluctantly smiled and said oh no it ain t anything at all then called him again and he over the of their landing and at home was out he went resolutely down and found alone sitting on a round pale yellow straw mat on the steps our mr he sat by her he was very quiet not at all the jovial young man of the properly following the boarding house district rule that should be and show their appreciation of the ladies by them and he spoke with a quiet that was almost with a note of weariness and spiritual experience such as seldom comes into the boarding houses to joy and bring wisdom and give words shyness he had as he sat down intended to ask her to go with him to a moving picture show but inspiration was on him he merely sat and talked when mr returned from the office two evenings later he found this note awaiting him dear mouse friend has asked me to join her in have beat it sorry not see you say good by come see me before and see if i m spring address xx south washington in he spent the evening in not going to the several times he broke away from a game to rush upstairs and see if the note was as chilly as he remembered it always was then for a week he awaited a more definite invitation from her which did not come he was uneasily polite to these days and of her gentleness he wanted to brood but he did not take to his old habit of long solitary walks every afternoon he planned one for the evening every evening found that he wanted to be around with folks he had a sort of youthful defiant despair so he much at the card table by way of his new game of	42
about to go through a tumultuous agony after which he would be free of all the j a our mr desire for and ready to serve sincerely and humbly but be found that the agony was all over even to save his dignity as one who was being he couldn t keep his thoughts on every time he thought of his heart was warm and he chuckled softly several times out of nothing came pictures of the persons whom he had heard the problems of the world at the on washington square and he muttered oh hope they choke s all right though she learnt me an awful lot but i i m glad she ain t in the same house i suppose rd ag round if she was suddenly at no particular street comer on drive just a street he fled over to and the he had to be under the same roof with if it were only possible to see her that but it was midnight however he a plan the next morning he would leave the office find her at her department store and make her go out to beach with him for dinner that night he was home he went happily up the stairs he would dream of and s door opened and she peered out drawing her about her oh she said softly is it your yes my you re up late do you are you all right he dashed down the hall and stood scratching at the straw of his hat why yes course poor oh don t tell me you have a headache again no i was awful foolish of course but i saw you when you went out this evening and you looked so savage and you didn t look very well but now it s all right then good night a wandering flame oh no listen please do i went over to the place miss is living at because i was pretty sure that i ain t on her sort of by her any more and i found i ain t i i don t know what to say but somehow i want to i want you to know that from now on i m going to try and see if i can t get you to care for me he was dreadfully earnest and rather quiet with the dignity of the man who has found himself i m scared he went on about saying this because maybe you ll think i ve got an idea i m kind of a little tin god and all i ve got to do is to say which girl i ll want and she ll come a running but it isn t that it isn u it s just that i want you to know i m going to give all of me to you now if i can get you to want me and i am glad i knew she learnt me a lot about books and all so i have more to me or maybe will have for you it s promise you ll be my friend promise if you knew how i rushed back here to night to see you she held out her hand and he grasped it as though it were the sacred symbol of his dreams to morrow she smiled with a hint of tears i ll be a lar lady i guess and make you explain and explain like everything but now i m just glad yes i will admit it if i want to lam glad her door closed to a happy shore upon an evening of november it chanced that of mrs s flock only and mr were at home they had finished two hot games of and sat with their feet on a small amiable oil stove mr laid her hand against his cheek with infinite content he was the situation at the office the business had so increased that mr r the manager had told the head that he was going to an assistant manager should he mr try to get the position the other and and were all good friends of his and could he run a bunch of if he was over them why of course you can i remember when you came here you were sort of shy but now you re most the star i and won t those others be tr to get the job away from you of course yes that s so why some day you might be say that would be great wouldn t it but do you think i might have a chance to land the assistant s job i certainly do oh you make me oh learn to bank on myself he kissed her for the second time in his life to a happy shore mr stated mr next day i want to talk to you about that assistant the manager in his new office and his new waistcoat had acted interested when our steady and mr came in but now he tried to appear dignified and impatient that he began ive been here longer than any of the other men and i know every line of the business now even the you remember i held down s job when his wife was sick yes but and i guess thinks i can all right and miss too now will you kindly low me to talk a little i know a something about how things go in the office myself i don t deny you re a good man maybe some day you may get to be assistant manager but i m going to give the first try at it to he s had so much more experience with meeting people directly personally but you re a good man yes i ve heard that before but i ll be	42
if i ll stick at one desk all my life just because i save you all the trouble in that department and now now how now calm down hold your horses my boy this ain t a you know yes i know i didn t mean to get sore but you know well now i ll tell you what i m going to do i m going to make you head of the department instead of getting in a new man and shift to i ll put on your old job and expect you to give him a lift when he needs it and you d better keep up the most important of the letters i guess well i like that all right i appreciate it but of course i expect more pay two men s work si our mr let s see what you getting now twenty three well that s a good deal you know the overhead expenses have been increasing a lot faster than our profits and we ve i got to see where new business is coming in to justify the liberal way we ve treated you men before we can afford to do much salary raising though we re just as glad to do it as you men to get it but if we go to getting extravagant we ll go and then we won t any of us have still i am to raise you to twenty five though thirty five i mr stood straight the manager tried to stare him down panic was attacking mr and he had to think of to keep up his defiance at last mr glared then roared well confound it i ll give you twenty and not a cent more for at least a year that s final understand all right mr he was to himself never thought i d get anything like that twenty nine fifty more n enough to marry on now i m going to get twenty nine married five months ago to night honey said mr to his wife in their flat and thus set down october as a great date in history oh i know it i wondered if you d remember you just ought to see the i m making but that s a s remember should say i did see what i ve got for somebody he opened a parcel and displayed a pair of red bed slippers a creation of one of the greatest red to a happy shore artists in the whole land yes and he could afford them too was he not making thirty two dollars a week he who had been poor and his chances for the assistant looked good oh they ll be so when it gets cold you re a dear oh the says the lady across the court in number seventy is so lazy she wears her to bed did the get the coal put in yes but her husband is laid off again i was talking to her quite a while this afternoon oh dear i do get so lonely for you sweetheart with nothing to do but i did read some this afternoon i liked it that s fine but it s kind of hard maybe fu oh i don t i guess i ll have to read a lot he patted her back softly and hoped maybe some day we can get a little house out of town and then you can garden sorry old is laid off again is the gas stove working all right now um honey i fixed it say let me make the coffee you ll have enough to do with setting the table and watching the all hun but oh i m so i was going to get some and i ve just remembered i forgot she hung her head with a to her pretty lips and pretended to look dreadfully ashamed would you mind so ver ee much down to s for some ah h is it just fearful neglected when it comes home all tired out no but you got to kiss me first else i won t go at all turned to him and as he held her her head bent far back she lay against his arms staring up at him panting with her head on his shoulder a soft burden of love that his shoulder rejoiced to bear they stood gazing out of the narrow kitchen window s our mr of their sixth story flat and noticed for the time that the trees in a vacant lot across were quite as red and yellow as the trees in central park along fifth avenue sometime mused mr we ll live in where there s trees and trees and trees and maybe there ll be to play under them and then you won t be lonely honey they ll keep you some busy i you along now and don t be talking nonsense or i ll not give you one single bit of dinner then she blushed with infinite hope he hastened out of the kitchen with the happy glance he never failed to give the living room its red walls with shiny imitation oak the rows of on the plate rack the imitation oak dining table with a of newly paper roses the chair with s sewing on a tiny table beside it the large gilt framed of s peak by moonlight he down the slate of the stairs he fairly out of doors he stopped startled across the ragged vacant lots to the west a vast sunset marched down the sky it had not been visible from their flat which looked across east river to the tame grassy shore of a real estate s he mourned it s the first time i ve noticed a sunset for a month i used to see knights flags and and	42
all sorts of stuff in wistfully the exile gazed at his lost kingdom till the october chill aroused him but he learned a new way to cook eggs from the proprietor of the store and his plans for spending the evening playing with and reading the evening paper aloud set him softly to himself as he hurried home through the brisk autumn breeze with seven cents worth of the end the books you like to read at the price you there are two sides to everything including the which covers every book when you feel in the mood for a good romance refer to the carefully selected list of modem fiction most of the by prominent v of the day which is printed on the back of every book you will find more than five hundred titles to choose from books for every mood and every taste and every forget the other side hut in case the is lost write to the for a complete there is a book for every mood and for every taste ii m s novels may bt had sold for a richard a fascinating story in which love and play strange tricks with women s souls a bachelor husband can a woman love two men at the same time in its of this particular variety of a bachelor husband will particularly interest and strangely enough without one shock to the most conventional minded the with fine comprehension and insight the author shows a terrific contrast between the woman whose love was of the flesh and one whose love was of the spirit the marriage of here is a man and woman who marrying for love yet try to build their wedded life upon a gospel of hate for each other and yet win back to a greater love for each in the end the road the heroine of this story was a of thieves the man was fine clean fresh from the west it is a story of strength and passion winds of the world a poor little the great henry and millions but not happiness then at last but we must leave that to m to tell you as only she can the second in this the author has produced a book which no ne who has loved or hopes to love can to miss the story fairly leaps from climax to climax the tom lover have you not often heard of being in love with rather tha the person they believed the object of their affections that was i but she passes through the crisis into a deep and profound love i i new york l s novels ba hai art ask ft s list the white ladies of a novel of the th century the heroine believing she had lost her lover enters a content he returns and interesting follow the tree a love story of rare charm it with a successful author and his wife through the gate the story of a seven day courtship in which the in ages vanished into before the demonstration of abiding love the the story of a young artist who is to love beauty above all else in e world but who when blinded through an accident gains life s greatest happiness a rare story of the great passion of two real people capable ot love its and its exceeding reward the mistress of the lovely young lady recently by the death of a husband who never understood her meets a fine clean yoimg chap who is ignorant of her title and they fall deeply in love with each other when he her real identity a situation of singular power is developed the broken the story of a young man religious belief was shattered in childhood and restored to him by the little white lady many years older than himself to whom he is passionately devoted the following of the star the story of a young missionary who about to start for africa wealthy rivers in order to help her ful u the conditions of her uncle s will and how they finally come to love each other and are after experiences that soften and new york m s novels to mv mm fir it s charles the against a hidden secret and die lore of a strong man and a courageous woman the top of the world of the path which leads at to the top of the world which it is given to few to find the lamp in the desert of the of love that continues to shine au sorts of ns to final happiness the story of a whose body a soul the chance a hero who worked to win even when was on y a chance the the story of a bad man s soul revealed by a woman s the l wave tales of love and of who learned to know the true from the false the safety curtain a very vivid love story of india the volume also contains four other long stories of equal interest new yo h porter s novels be books tar ft s j m just david the tale of a boy and the place he fill in the hearts of the folk to whose care m is left the road to understanding a compelling romance of love and e oh money money a wealthy bachelor to test the tions of his relatives sends them each a check for and then as plain john smith comes among them to watch the result of his experiment six s tar a wholesome story of a club of six and their summer on six star dawn the story of a blind boy whose e leads him through the g of despair into a final victory gained by his life to die service of blind soldiers across the years short stories of our own kind	42
at thirty four mr was the entry clerk of the company he was always bending over bills and columns of figures at a desk behind the stock room he was a meek httle bachelor a person of blue ready made suits and a small unsuccessful to day have established the date as april i i there had been some mixed orders bom the and mr had been ir by the office manager mr r he needed the friendly nod of the ticket he found street after office hours swept by a dusty wind that the skirts of countless plump girls whose v showed a w brown under the elevated station he secretly believe that he was in paris for here beautiful boys swayed with of a tramp displayed crimson mechanical which on silvery leading strings and a was heaped the orange and green and gold of magazine ge l in mr lots of colors hop j see foreign stuff like that in the moving pictures he came up to the feeling in his tes pockets for a and peering around the at the friendly ticket but the latter was thinking about buying s should he get them at the street store or s or over at s near home so he his wheel mechanically and mr s slip was indifferently received in the plate glass of the without the s even seeing the clerk s bow and smile mr trembled into the door of the he wanted to turn back and rebuke this fellow but was restrained by shyness he had the man s fine sir rain or shine but he wouldn t stand for being cut wasn t he making nineteen dollars a week as against the ticket s ten or twelve he shook his head with the defiance of a mouse with his and regarded the moving pictures gloomily they helped him after a domestic drama came a stirring western scene the goat of the which depicted with much humor and tumult the revolt of a cook a mr was really seeing not cow and sage brush but g is the office manager s and i against the ticket man s now he was ready for the nearly overpowering delight of travel pictures he slightly as a presented he was a of travel pictures for all his life he had been planning a great journey though he had done island and an excursion to bound brook neither of these was his grand tour it was yet to be taken in mr apparently fastened to new york like a domestic minded lay the possibilities of heroic he knew it he too like the man who had taken the pictures would among dusky natives in with on the roofs and temples and and places i the scent of oriental was in his nostrils as he out of the without a look at the and headed for home for his third floor front on west sixteenth street he wanted to through his collection of for a description of but of course when one s landlady has both the and a case of patient one stops in die dining room to inquire how she is mrs was a fat landlady when she sat down there was a straight line from her chin to her knees she was usually sitting down when she moved she groaned and her apparel she groaned and from bed to breakfast and ate five cakes two s of an egg some and three cups of coffee slowly and she and groaned from breakfast to her rocking chair and sat about wondering why providence had inflicted upon her a weak mr also wondered why but mrs was too to be much cheered by the sympathy of a yankee couldn t appreciate the subtle sorrows of a of s allied to all the first families of virginia our mr mr did nothing more th still in the furniture crowded room which of dead food and pride in a race that had never existed he sat still because the chair was broken it had been broken now for four years for the hundred and twenty ninth time in those years mrs said in her rich corruption of southern negro dialect which can only be indicated here ah been meaning to get that chair mended mist he looked gratified and gazed upon the of lee the older daughter who was in a factory and of was usually called and many times a day was she called by mrs a tamed child was with which mrs had been to have removed and which she would continue to have benevolent s about till it should be too late and she should discover that providence never would let go to school yes mist ah told she was to see the man about getting that chair fixed but she does nothing ah tell her in the kitchen was the noise of aged eight still washing though not cleaning the incredible pile of dinner dishes with a trail of hesitating remarks on the sadness of and windy evenings mr forth from the august presence of mrs and mounted to paradise his third floor front it was an respectable room the patched no two pieces of furniture from the same family half tones from the magazines pinned on the wall but on the old marble lived his friends books from other friends the room had rarely known it was hard enough for mr to get acquainted with people anyway and mrs did not expect her to entertain so mr lot h mr is lonely i had given up asking even carpenter the i assistant at the company to call that left him the books which he now with small eager finger tips he picked out a p o circular and i hastily left for the april skies glowed with benevolence this saturday morning the	42
tower was singing bright ivory tipped with gold uplifted and intensely glad of the morning the buildings in square were the honest red brick fronts radiant the new witty the in the middle of fifth i avenue were all talking at once but cleverly i the polished brass of threw off smiles at least so mr fancied as he up fifth avenue the skirts of his small blue double coat he was going blocks out of his way to the office ready to defy time and eternity yes and even the office manager he had awakened with defiance as his and throughout breakfast at the lunch sunshine had over the dirty he up to the company s brick building on twenty eighth street near sixth avenue in the office he chuckled at his ink well and the on his orderly desk though he sat under the weary unnatural of a fight he dashed into his work and was too keen about this business of living merrily to be much by the bustle of the lady s superior good morning even up to ten thirty he was still down papers on his desk just let any one try to stop his course his readiness for snapping fingers at the job just let them try it that was all he wanted then he was shot out of his chair and four feet along the corridor in response to the surly r r r i of the mr r the er h our mr desired to see him he along the corridor and slid through the manager s doorway into the long sun bright room with and seven glittered on the desk alone including a large shakes re ie glass ink well containing and a small iron style one containing ink mr like a noon roused in the the manager dropped his fist on the desk glared smoothed his of waistcoat and growled his red quivering look here what s the matter with you the order for may day was filled twice they write me they ordered twice sir by smiled mr in an agony of politeness they ordered hell twice the same order yes sir their was they say they ve looked it up anyway they won t pay twice i know em we ll have to crawl down graceful and all because you i want to know why you ain t more careful the announcement that mr twice his head and once tossed it would not half his wrath at last it was here the time for revolt when he was going to be defiant he had been careful old was only barking but why should he be at with his voice and his heart so that he felt sick he declared i m sure sir about that order i looked it up their was drunk it was done and now would he be discharged the manager was speaking probably you looked it up eh send me in the two order records well but i want you to be more careful after this you re pretty now get out expect me to make pay twice for the same order cause of your carelessness i a mr is lonely mr found himself outside in the dark the manager hadn t seemed much impressed by revolt the manager wasn t he called a and dictated gentlemen our mr has again that again miss again looked up your order for may day as we wrote before order certainly was by our mr is thoroughly and we have his records of these two orders we shall therefore have to push both after all mr was thinking the might be merely concealing his hand perhaps understood the defiance that him till after lunch but at three when his head was again with work and he had forgotten whether there was still april anywhere he began to dread what the manager might do to him suppose he lost his job the he worked late hoping that the manager would of it as he wavered home drunk with weariness his fear of losing the job was almost equal to j his desire to resign from the job i he had worked so late that when he awoke on sunday morning he was still in a whirl of figures as he went out to his breakfast of coffee and wheat at the lunch the lines between the blocks of the walk radiant in a white of sunshine recalled the cross lines of order lists with the narrow blocks at the standing for column even the of the lunch s imitation steel running in parallel lines down at him that he was a man whose path was a ruler he went clear up to the branch post after breakfast to get the sunday mail but the mail was a h to i our mr he was awaiting a wonderful fully illustrated guide to the land of the midnight sun a suggestion of possible and improbable whereas he got only a letter from his oldest cousin john of new york the boy who comes to play of mr s back yard days in without opening the letter mr tucked it into his inside coat pocket threw away his and turned to sunday he down twenty third street to the north river took money and of course one up for future great over him the april clouds were whose gaiety made him shrug with excitement and take a with a as as a central park lamb there was no hint of lists in the clouds at least and with them mr s soul swept along while his half fee best shoes were past only once did he condescend to being really on street at the ninth avenue corner under the elevated he sighted two blocks down to the general s brick and found in a pointed doorway suggestions of alien beauty but his real object was to	42
on a west and south railroad in luxury and go sailing out into the foam and perilous seas of north river he passed through the smoking cabin he didn t smoke the habit used up travel money once seated on the upper deck he knew that at last he was outward bound on a true there was no great motion but mr was inclined to let off easily in this feature of his voyage at least there were life in the white overhead and everywhere the world to his certain witnessing was turned to to setting forth in great ships as if it were again in the brisk morning of history when the joy of adventure possessed the he wasn t excited over the they passed he was so experienced in all of travel save the as to j mr is lonely lave gained a calm interested knowledge he knew the three away and explained to a her fine points speaking earnestly of and sticks and knots not excited but where couldn t he go jf he were pulling out for on the what were even the building block towers of the and singer buildings and the times s cream stick compared with some old shrine in a cathedral close that was with centuries all this he felt and to himself though not in words he had never heard of though for many years he had been a citizen of that sure he declared to himself he was on the now he was sliding up the muddy see the w s note for the source of his visions he was off to st george s square for an organ recital see the english then an express for london and the was entering her slip mr trotted toward the bow to thrill over the of the boat s nose against the lofty swaying piles and the of the brown waves heaped before her as she into place he was carried by the herd on into the station he did not notice the individual people in his exultation as he heard the great of the station s p the vast roof roared as the iron stamped hoofs of scorn at the little stay at home that is a washed out hint of how the poets might describe mr s passion what he said was he strolled by the lists of hung on the track gates the the sunset over washington and the magic thither the iron horses would be galloping their smoke whipped back by the out with strong hoofs their sixty miles an hour veiy well in time he also would mount i go and h long island our mr upon the iron and charge upon just as soon as he got ready then he headed for street for long city finally the navy yard along his way were the of the tramp where he might ship as in the all promising sometime he had never done anything so reckless as actually to ask a for the chance to go a sailing but he had once gone into a mission society s free shipping office on west street where a elder had at him are you a sailor no can t do anything for you my friend are you saved he wasn t going to risk another horror like that yet when the golden morning of sometime dawned he certainly was going to go off to as he walked through long island city he contrived conversations with the sailors he passed it would have surprised a un s mate to learn that he was really a gun and that as a matter of fact he was now telling of the spanish main to the man who slid by him mr envied the on the training ship and carelessly went to sea as the president s guest in the admiral s and was frightened by the stare of a shop girl and arrived home before dusk to mrs s approval dusk made in his third floor front pleasantly in those slight neat legs after his walk mr sat in the by the window patting his tan and the day s wandering when the gas was lighted he over pictures in a magazine for a happy hour then yawned to himself well guess it s time to crawl into the he and smoothed his ready made suit on the rocking chair back sitting on the edge of his bed quaint in his cotton night gown like a rare little bird of le j at t r is lonely he rubbed bis bead um m m m ml how tired he was he went to open the window then his tamed heart leaped into a and he forgot fronts and through the window came the chorus of fog on north river boom m m that must be a giant up through the fog it was a she d be roaring just like that if she were off the banks if be were only off the banks that was a n n another the tumultuous chorus repeated to all the adventures of the day he dropped upon the bed again and stared at his clothes out of the inside coat pocket stuck the letter from cousin john he read a paragraph of it he sprang from the bed and danced a in his like a drunken the letter announced that the farm at left to mr by his father had been sold its on a river bluff had made it valuable to the association there was now to his credit in the national bank nine hundred and forty dollars he was wealthy then he had enough to stalk up and down the earth for many but economical months till be should learn the trade of wandering and its mysterious trick of living without a job or a salary he crushed his pillow with head and sobbed excitedly with a terrible stomach	42
sinking and a chill shaking then be laughed and wanted to but didn t rush into the adjacent ball room and tell the total stranger there of this world changing news he listened in the hall to learn whether the were up but beard nothing returned and up and down on a map of the world happened i could travel all guess i won t be very much afraid of our mr things like that if i don t get to b i ll be late at the office in the morning mr lay awake till three o clock monday morning he felt rather ashamed of having done so v a thing but he got to the office on time he was worried with the cares of wealth with having to decide when to leave for his world rings but he was also very much aware that office are disagreeable if one isn t on time all morning he did nothing more reckless than balance his new fortune his against on a waste half sheet of paper the noon hour was not the job s but his for k of the lands of romance that lie hard by h twenty eighth street and sixth avenue but he had to f go out to lunch with carpenter the assistant i that he might tell the news as for he needed frequently to have a who knew per j the ways of the office manager mr i mr and chose that is to say chose table at s eating house mr timidly hinted i ve got some big news to tell you j but interrupted say did you hear light into this morning i won t for it say did you hear him the old f h what was the trouble i h trouble nothing was the trouble except with v old i made one little break in my accounts why if old had to keep track of seventy accounts and watch every single last movement of a fool girl that can t even run the adding machine why he d get green around the he d never do anything but make well i guess the old must have had a i bum breakfast t his m wanted some exercise to k it me f as the exercise i was the goat he j l calls me in and he calls me down and me well just k tell you i calls his h m y with quit mr is lonely carpenter stopped his rapid with quick head shakes like those of to raise hia to his mouth in this slow gesture the memory of his wrongs again overpowered him he flung his right hand back on the table scattering ashes jerked back his head with the irritated patience of a nervous martyr then waved both hands about while he with his handsome smooth face more flushed than usual sure you can just bet your bottom dollar i let him see from the way i looked at him that i wasn t going to stand for no more monkey business you bet i did i i ll fix him i will vou just me hey got any bring me a will why that cross eyed double fat old i ll him in the so hard some day i will you just watch my smoke if it wasn t for that wife of mine i ought to desert her and i will some day and mr was for a second i know how it is but you ll get over it honest you will say i ve got some news some land that my left me has sold for nearly a thousand by the way this lunch is on me let me pay for it promised to let him pay quite readily and said great great congratulate you don t know anybody i d rather ve had this happen to you re a meek little lamb but you ve got lots of stuff in you old oh say by the way could you let me have fifty cents till saturday thanks i ll pay it back sure by you re the only man around the office that what a double duck lined old old is the old j aw i wish you wouldn t jump on l so hard he s always treated me square h square he s square just like a m our mr you know it too now that you ve got enough money so s you don t need to be scared about the job you ll realize it and you ll want to him same s i do say the impulse of a great idea made him shake his fist say why don t you him they bank on you at the company dam sight more than you realize tell you why you do about half the stock keeper s work sides your own tell you what you do you go to old and tell him you want a raise to twenty five and want it right now yes by thirty you re worth that or pretty dam near it but course old never give it to you he ll threaten to fire you if you say a thing more about it you can tell him to go ahead and then ll he be guess that ll call his bluff yes but then if feels he can t pay me that you know he s responsible to the he can t do everything he wants to why he ll just have to fire me after i ve talked to him like that whether he wants to or not and that d leave us that d leave them without a clerk right in the busy season why sure that s what we want to do you go it d leave em without just	42
about two men bother cm like the deuce it d bother mr x y most of all thank the lord he wouldn t know where he was at trying to break in a man right in the busy season here s your chance come on kid don t pass it up oh i can t do that you wouldn t want me to try to hurt the company after being there for see it must be seven years well maybe you to get your little nose rubbed on the i i suppose you d like to stay on at nineteen per for the rest of your life don t get sore please don t i d like to get off all right like to go and stuff like that h m mr is et i d like to wander round but i can the but can t you see you poor nut you won t be leaving em they ll either pay you what they ought to or lose you oh i don t know about that was making up for some uncertainty as to his own logic by beaming and mr was afraid of being no no he rising well all right if you like to be s goat oh you re all right i suppose you had ought to stay if you feel you got to well so long i ve got to beat it over and buy a pair of before i go back mr crept out of s behind him very melancholy even admitted that he had ought to stay then and what chance was there of persuading the dread mr r that he wished to be looked upon as one where then any chance of globe trotting perhaps for months he would remain in slavery and he had hoped just that morning one dreadful quarter hour with mr and he might be free he grinned to himself as he admitted that this was like seeing europe after merely swimming the atlantic well he had nine minutes more by his two dollar watch nine minutes of he gazed across at a greek with signs in real greek letters hke ruins well at a chinese chop den with a red and yellow carved and at an upper window a who might easily be carrying a or whatever them knives are as he observed taken this journey before whose upright c j ducks were happily to a s window were i huts of awful brave the sea guards in just as he d seen them at a academy of music play and a bear meaning to him the northern lights the long and the at night and the there were that though he only half knew it and that all i whispered to him of where in the hot hush he saw the and what was it in i that poem that thing was it about h anyway h them smells h and the sunshine and the palms and the bells h he had to hurry back to the office he stopped only to pat the head of a s delivery horse that looked l wistfully at him from the poor old what you thinking about want to be a horse and wander le s beat it together you can t eh poor old i at three thirty the time when it seems to office persons that the day s work never will end even by a miracle mr was about his duty to the firm he was more so after an interview with the manager who spent a few minutes which he happened to have free in roaring i want to know why at mr there was no particular why that he wanted to know he was merely getting scientific out of a phrase which mr had taken from a business magazine that theories for at five twenty the manager summoned him com i him on nothing in particular and suggested that he stay late with carpenter and the stock to a line of desk which they were closing out as mr returned to his desk he stopped at a i t to mv l as j mr is lonely window on the corridor and the bright late afternoon the of lofty buildings the sunset shone through the glass like upper floors he wanted to be out there in the streets with the crowds old didn t consider him why should he consider the firm he walks with miss i as he left the company building after ing late at taking and down toward street mr the worst of it all was that he could not go to the for moving pictures not after having been cut by the ticket then there before him was the glaring sign of the tempting him a bill with great train robbery tonight made his heart like stair climbing and he dashed at the ticket with a extended he felt queer about the as the girl slid out a why did she seem to be watching him so closely as he dropped the ticket in the he tried to glance away from the brass button man for one nineteenth of a second he kept his head turned it turned back of itself he stared full at the man half bowed and received a hearty nod and a fine he sang to himself a monotonous song of great joy when he stumbled over the feet of a large german in getting to a seat he as though he were accustomed to laugh easily with many friends the train robbery was well he kept repeating to himself how the men did simply and behind the mr shrank as one of them out of the picture at him how gallantly the train dashed toward the robbers to the spirit stirring roll of the drum the rush ie walks with miss from the bushes followed the battle	42
with concealed in the express car mr was standing and shooting coolly with the slender hawk faced man in with him he leaped to horse and followed the robbers through the forest he stayed through the whole twice to see the train robbery again as he started to go out he found the ticket changing his long light blue robe of state for a highly commonplace sack coat without brass buttons in his astonishment at seeing bow a could be transformed into an every day man mr stopped and having stopped spoke that was quite a quite a picture that train robbery wasn t it i now where s the devil and his wife flew away to with my hat them la always it picture why i didn t see it no more n say you pink eye say you footed did you my hat ain t he the cut up ain t both them the being and hiding my hat in the box office picture i don t get no chance to see any of em funny ain t it me barking for em like i was the grandmother of the that invented em and not knowing whether the train now who stole my going home shoes why i don t know whether the train did any or he mr on the back and the clerk s heart bounded in he was surprised into declaring say i bowed to you the other night and you well honestly you acted like you never saw me well well now and that s what happens to me for the of five and a she girl and a tom cat i couldn t ve seen you me i was probably that with cares was probably thinking who was our mr it et the pie on me was it or or i em both together or just bite me wife mr knew that the ticket had never never really considered biting his wife he knew his nod and grin and that s the idea were he urged oh yes i m sure you didn t intend to hand me the icy say i m thirsty come on over to s and i ll buy you a drink he was aghast at this abyss of money spending into which he had leaped and the brass button man was suspiciously wondering what this person wanted of him but they crossed to the adjacent saloon a new york comer saloon which of course glittered with a large mirror heaped glasses and a long shining foot rail on which in mr placed his fee best shoe said the said the brass button man h h h h said mr in a frightened now that wealthy citizen though he had become he was in danger of exposure as a who couldn t choose his drink properly been me guess i d better just take a you re the brother in law to a wise one commented the brass button man me i ain t never got the sense to do the traffic on the the old woman she says to me she says if you was in heaven and there was a of beer on one side and a gold harp on the other she says and you was to have your pick which would you and what d think i answers her the beer said the she had your number all right not on your tin type declared the ticket me i says to her me i d pinch the harp and it for ten of dutch beer and some sized rum j e walks with miss heel grinned mr ha ha ha grumbled the well yawned the ticket the old woman ii be chasing me best around the flat if she don t have me to chase pretty soon guess i d better beat it much obliged for the drink mr so long mr set off for home in a high state of which he noticed exactly resembled driving an and went briskly up the steps of the genteel but residence he was much nearer to heaven than west sixteenth street appears to be to the for he was an of the a trusted man on the job an associate of witty he was an army lieutenant who had with his friend the hawk faced man stood off in an attack on a train he opened and closed the door gaily he was he was an little mr his landlady stood on the bottom step of the hall stairs in a mother groaning mist if you got to come in so late ah wish you wouldn t just make all the noise you can ah don t see why ah should have to be kept awake all night ah suppose it s the will of the lord that whenever ah go out to see mrs and just drink a drop of coffee ah must get but ah don t see why anybody that tries to be a should have to go and bang the door and just rack nerves he up stairs behind mrs s gloom there s something i wanted to tell you mrs something that s happened to me that s why i was out last evening and got in so late mr was sitting in the yes ah noticed you was out late mist you see mrs i my father left me some land and it s been sold for about one thousand i j our mr ah m awful glad mist she said maybe you d like to take that hall room beside yours now the two rooms d make a nice apartment she really said you understand why i hadn t thought much about that yet he felt guilty and was cordial to lee the factory who bad just down stairs miss was a large young	42
lady with a bust much black hair and a handsome discontented face waited till he had finished greeting her then and at her mother she ma they went and kept us late again to night i m getting just about tired of having a bunch of jews and think i m a i hate them t mist s just inherited two thousand dollars and he s going to take that upper hall room j mrs beamed with maternal fondness at the t but the gallant friend of faced her for first time waste his travel money he was exclaiming as he said but i thought you had some one in that room heard that fellow oh he ain t going to be and he promised me so you can have i m awful sorry mrs but i m afraid i t take it fact is i may go for a while co se you ll keep your room if you do mist why i m afraid i ll have to give it up i may not be going for a long long while yet and of co i ll be glad to i ll want to come back here when get back to new york i won t be gone for more thai oh probably not more than a year anyway and ah thought you said you was going to be mrs began quietly to herself up into and here ah ve gone and fa your room fixed up just for you and new paper put in a e e walks with miss you ve always been talking such a lot about how you wanted your furniture arranged and ab ve gone and made all plans mr had been a paying guest of the for four years that famous new paper had been put up two years before so he oh i m sorry i wish i don t ah d you mist if you could conveniently let me before you go running off and leaving me with empty rooms with the landlord after the rent and me turning away people that d pay more for the room ah wanted to keep it for you and people always coming to see you and making me answer the door and even the house worm was making small sounds that turning lee snapped just in time oh cut it out ma will she had been staring at the worm for he had suddenly become interesting and and incidentally an heir i don t see why mr ain t giving us all the notice we can he said he t be going for a long time oh mrs so own flesh and blood is going to turn against me she rose her appearance of majesty was somewhat lessened by the of stays but her instinct for was always good she said nothing as she left them and she up stairs with a train of sighs mr looked as though sudden illness had overpowered him but laughed and remarked you don t want to let ma get on her high horse mr she s a bluff with much of the lower less stiff part of her garments she sailed to the cloudy mirror over the magazine and her cap of false curls b ith many of her large firm hands which flashed diamonds though he had heard the our mr word he did not know that half her hair was false he stared at it though in disgrace he felt the honor of knowing so ample and rustling a woman as miss lee but say i wish i could ve let her know i was going earlier miss i didn t know it myself but it does seem like a mean trick i s pose i ought to pay i something extra why child you won t do anything of the sort mar hasn t got a bit of kick coming you ve always been awful nice far as i can see she smiled i went for a walk to night i wish all those men wouldn t stare at a girl so i m sure i don t see why they should stare at me mr nodded but that didn t seem to be the right comment so he shook his head then looked embarrassed i went by that you were telling me about mr some time i believe i ll there again she paused he said only yes it is a nice place remarking to herself that there was no question it after all he was a little fool continued siege do you dine there often oh yes it is a nice place could a lady go there why yes i yes i should think so he finished oh i do get so awfully tired of the greasy stuff ma and dish up they think a big that tastes like dish water is a dinner and if they do have anything i like they keep on having the same thing every day till i throw it in the sink i wish i could go to a once in a while for a change but of course i s it would be proper for a lady to go alone even there what do you think oh dear she sat brooding sadly m ie walks with miss he had an inspiration perhaps miss could he persuaded to go out to dinner with him some time he i begged i wish you d let me take you up there some evening miss p now didn t i tell you to call me miss well i suppose you just don t want to be friends with me nobody does she again oh i didn t mean to hurt your feelings honest i didn t i ve always thought you d think i was fresh if i called you miss and so i why i guess i could go up to the	42
with you perhaps when would you to go you know i ve always got lots of dates but i um let s see i think i could go to morrow evening let s do shall i call for you miss yes you may if you ll be a good boy good night she departed with an air of intimacy mr to the and admitted to the brass button man that he was feeling pretty good s evening he had never supposed that a handsome creature like miss could ever endure such a slow fellow as himself for about one minute he considered with a chill the question of whether she was agreeable because of his new wealth but the who was making the suggestion for had he not heard her mention with great scorn a second cousin who had married an old yankee for his money that just settled he assured himself and at a passing messenger boy for having thus hinted but hastily as the showed signs of loud displeasure the is peculiar for it has foreign food at low prices and is below street yet it has not become consequently it has no bad music and no crowd of persons from whose our mr women risk salvation for an evening by smoking here prosperous oriental merchants of mild natures and faces drink semi liquid coffee and discuss and in fact the place seemed so that facing mr was bored and the was foreign without being society it suggested rats tails and birds nests she was quite sure she would gladly have with or but what social was there to be gained at the factory by remarking that she always did like f mr did not see that she was glancing about for he was listening to a young man at the next table who was remarking to his a a pale lady in black with the lines of a boat try some of the stuffed vine leaves child of the angels and some wheat i a and some your wheat is a comfortable food and cheering to the stomach of man simply as for the he is a merry beast a brown rose of with honey between his and here waiter vine leaves wheat p twice on the order and it when you get through listening to that man he talks like a bar of soap tell me what there is on this bill of fare that s safe to eat i thought he was real funny insisted mr i m sure you ll like and s who ever heard of such a thing haven t they any oh i thought they d have stuff they call delight and things like that delights is i think well i know it isn t because i read about it in a story in a magazine and they were eating it on the terrace what is that it s lamb on i know tou u like it a walks with miss well i m not going to trust any to cook my meat i ll take some eggs and some of that what was it the idiot was talking about that s awful nice with honey and do try some of the stuffed and rice all right said gloomily somehow mr wasn t vastly transformed even by the possession of the two thousand dollars her mother had reported he was still funny and sort of not like the overpowering southern gentlemen she supposed she remembered also she was hungry she listened with stolid to mr s observation that that was an awful big hat the lady with the funny had on he was chilled into till papa the owner of the arrived from above stairs papa was a russian jew who had been a police spy in and a hotel proprietor in where he called himself and married a he had a nose like a and a neck like a blue he hoped that the place would into a where liberal would think they were and would think they were entering society so he always wore a and talked bad he was local color atmosphere flavor mr murmured to say do you see that man he s the owner i ve talked to him a lot of times ain t he great look at that of his don t he make you think of and and stuff what does he make you think he s got on a dirty collar that waiter s awful slow would you please be so kind and pour me another glass of water but when she reached the she grew toward mr she had two cups of and felt fat about the eyes and affectionate she had i i the br mentioned that there were good shows in i she resumed have you been to the gold brief yet no i i don t go to the much was telling me that this was t show she d ever seen tells how two confidence men one of those terrible little towns shows all the funny people you know like they have in towns i wish i could go to it but of course i have to help out the folks at home so well oh dear say i d like to take you if i could let s go this he quivered with the adventure of it why i don t know i didn t tell ma i was going to be out but oh i guess it would be all right if i was with you let s go right up and get some tickets all right her assent was too eager but she immediately corrected that error by yawning i don t suppose i d ought to go but if you want to they were a very lively couple as they walked up he sympathy when	42
she told of the selfishness of i the factory girls under her and the meanness of the over her and he laughed s she remarked that the ought to be boiled alive that s what all ought to be so she j repeated the with such increased that i swung up to the in a gale and once facing the i ticket he demanded dollar seats just as j though he had not been doing sums all the way up to prove that seventy five cent seats were the best he could afford the play was a of yankee mr was disturbed by the fact that the heroes quite all the others but he was stirred by the brisk romance of money making the were beasts with card and instead of not that mr made any walks with miss regarding but when by way of commercial genius the robbed a young night clerk mr whispered to he certainly does know how to jolly them sh h h h h h said every one made millions victims and all in the last act as a proof of the social value of being a live business man as they along with the departing audience mr that makes me feel just like i d been making a million dollars he proposed say let s go some place and have something to eat all right let s i almost feel as if i could afford s after that play but anyway let s go to s though he was ashamed of himself for it afterward he was almost haughty toward his waiter and ordered and beer quite as though he usually on them he may even have a little as he hailed a car with an imaginary walking stick his parting with miss was intimate he shook her hand warmly as he he hoped that he had not been too abrupt with the waiter poor but he lay awake to think of s hair and hand clasp of polished and gentlemen who summoned and who had he tossed the about in his struggle to get the word who had a punch he would do that great of his in the land of big business the five thousand princes of new york to protect themselves against the four million ungrateful slaves had devised the sacred of dress coats large houses and as the outward and visible signs of the virtue of making money to into respectability and teach them the social value of getting a dollar away from that injurious some one else that our mr should dream for dreaming s sake was our mr i ml b usual i he might do things because he wanted t not because they were fashionable whereupon police forces and the clergy would wall street and fifth avenue would go thundering down hence for him were provided those y m c a night classes administered by solemn earnest men of thirty for solemn youths of twenty nine those sermons on content articles on building up the store by live stories about playing the game and correspondence school that shrieked mount the ladder to thorough knowledge the path to power and to the fuller pay envelope to all these mr had been indifferent for they showed no imagination but when he saw big business j by a humorous then the job appeared j to him as adventure and he was in peril of his imagination the eight o clock sun which usually found a wildly i mr discovered him dreaming that he i was the manager of the company but that was a complete misunderstanding of the case the manager of the company was mr r and be called mr in to him with that fact when the new started his career in big business by arriving at the one hour late what made it worse considered mr was that i this had a higher average of than any one else in the office which proved that he knew better worst of all the family eggs had not been i scrambled right at breakfast they had been mr the and set his face toward the door with a prepared mr seemed weary and not so as j usual look here you were just about two hours late the walks with miss this morning what do you think this office is a club or a reading room for ever occur to you we d like to have you favor us with a call now and then so s we can learn how you re getting along at or whatever you re doing these days there was a baby shoe office pin cushion on the manager s desk mr eyed this and said nothing the manager hear what i said d think i m talking to give my throat exercise mr was stubborn i couldn t help it couldn t help and you call that an i know just exactly what you re thinking you re thinking that because i ve let you have a lot of chances to really work into the business lately you re necessary to us and not simply an expense oh no mr honest didn t well hang it man you want to think what do you suppose we pay you a salary for and just let me tell you right here and now that if you can t condescend to spare us some of your valuable time now and then we can good and plenty get along without you an old tale oft told and never believed but it interested mr just now i m real glad you can get along without me i ve just inherited a big of money i think i ll right now whether he or mr r was the more aghast at hearing him this no one knows the manager was so worried at the of breaking in a new man that his	42
eye glasses slipped off his poor nose he begged in sudden tones of old friendship why you can t be thinking of leaving us why we expect to make a big man of you i was joking about firing you you ought to know that after the talk we had at s the other night you can t be m thinking of leaving there s no end of here said the dogged soldier of dreams why that hurt and astonished victim of ingratitude mr i ll leave the middle of june that s plenty of j notice mr at five that evening mr dashed up to the i brass man at his station before the crying you come from ireland don t you now what would you oh no i m a from no honest straight tell me i ve got a chance to travel what d think of that ain t it and i m going right away what i wanted to ask you was what s the best place in ireland to see o course i was born there from his pocket a pencil and a worn envelope mr added the new point of interest to a list from bay to he up town looking at the stars he shouted as he saw the of a big up at the end of street he stopped to chuckle over a of the at the window of a greek j s stand stars steamer temples all these were his he owned them now he was free lee sat waiting for him in the till ten thirty while he was with at the grand central then she went to bed and though he knew it not that prince of wealthy j mr had entirely lost the heart and hand of f v he stood before the manager s god like desk on june sadly good by mr leaving to day i wish i e walks with miss i wish i could tell you you know about how much appreciate the manager moved a wire basket of copies of letters from the left side of his desk to the right staring at them thoughtfully his in a pile before his ink well glanced at the point of an pencil with a manner of startled examination tapped his desk with his then raised his eyes he studied mr smiled put on the look he used when inviting him out for a drink mr was essentially an honest fellow by the job a well satisfied victim with the imagination clean gone out of him so that he took follow up letters and the of office boys as the only serious things in the world he was strong alive not at all a bad chap merely efficient well i suppose there s no use of rubbing it in course you know what i think about the whole thing it strikes me you re a fool to leave a good job but after all that s your business not ours we like you and when you get tired of being just a bum why come back we ll always try to have a job open for you meanwhile i hope you ll have a mighty good time old man where you going when d start out why first i m going to just kind of wander round generally lots of things i d like to do i think i ll get away real soon now thank you awfully mr for keeping a place open for me course i ly won t need it but i sure do appreciate it say i don t believe you re so crazy about leaving us after all now that the cards are all out straight now are yes sir it does make me feel a blue been here so long but it be awful good to get out at sea i know i d like to go myself i suppose you fellows think i wouldn t care to go around like you do and never have to worry about how the firm s going to break even but well i i these k h aft our mr v good by old man and don t forget us drop me a line now and then and let me know how you re getting along oh say if you happen to see any that look good let us hear about them but drop me a line anyway we ll always be glad to hear from you well good by and good luck sure and drop me a line in the corner which had been his home for eight years mr could not devise any new and yet more improved arrangement of the wire baskets and and desk so he cleaned a pen blew some gray dust from under his iron ink well standard and decided that his desk was in order reflecting he d been there a long time now he could never come back to it no matter how much he wanted to how good the manager had been to him he hadn t appreciated how he started down the corridor on a round of to the boys too bad he hadn t never got better acquainted with them but it was too late now anyway they were such fine jolly sports they d never miss a stupid like him just then he met them in the corridor all of them except by the and carpenter who was bearing a box of handkerchiefs with a large green and c rim son pa per nor upon this suspicious occasion we have the pleasure of showing by this small token of our esteem our of your in the investigation of r of the trust and say old man joking aside we re mighty sorry you re going and well we d like to give you something to show we re mighty sorry	42
you re going we thought of a box of cigars but you don t smoke much anyway these han k chiefs ii help to show three cheers for fellows afterward by his desk alone holding the box of hand c e walks with miss there with the red and green mi began to cry he was lying at eight thirty on a morning of late june two weeks after leaving the company deliberately hunting over his pillow for cool spots very hot and restless in the legs and depressed in the soul he would have got up had there been anything to get up for there was nothing yet he felt uneasily guilty for two weeks he had been afraid of losing by neglect the y job he had already voluntarily given up so there are men whom the fear of death has driven to suicide nearly every morning he had driven himself from bed and had finished before he was quite satisfied that he didn t have to get to the office on time as he wandered about during the day he remarked with i m scared as teacher s pet playing for the first time like what we used to do in all proper persons were at work of a week day what then was he doing walking along the street when all morality demanded his sitting at a desk at the company being a little more careful to win the divine favor of r he was sure that if he were already out on the great he would be able to push the on himself and get up his nerve but he did not know where to go he had planned so many these years that now he couldn t keep any one of them finally decided on for more than an hour it rather stretched his short arms to embrace at once a gay old dream of seeing and the stem duty of hunting dangerous beasts in the bush the expense him too he had through many years so persistently saved money for the great that he money for that itself indeed he planned to spend not more than of the accumulated on his first venture i i i i of the venture h mr of m l fact k mud during which he hoped to the trade he was always by a sentence he had read somewhere about one of those globe you meet carrying a monkey in then in and a at the he would learn some trade that would teach him the use of tools also daring and the of haunts islands and stations with curious names he pictured himself shipping as third engineer at the islands or engaged for taking moving pictures of an flight in he to get away from he had to be out on the iron seas where the battle ships and went by like a marching military band but he couldn t get started once beyond sandy hook he would immediately all about engines and fighting it would help he was certain to be but no matter how wistfully no matter how late at night he forced himself to among english on west street he couldn t get himself except by person wishing ten cents for a place to sleep when he had through breakfast that morning he sat about once he had pictured sitting reading travel books as a perfect occupation but it c no exciting little surprises when he could be a on any plain monday new made his bed till noon and the gray and brown seemed to trail all about the disordered room in a paragraph he rose threw one hundred ways to see on the tumbled bed and ran away from our mr but our mr pursued hint along the where the sun glared on water he had seen the twelve times that fortnight la fact he even cried that he had seen too blame much of the blame walks with miss early in the afternoon he went to a moving picture show but the first sight of the white giant figures against the gray background was wearily unreal and when the inevitable large eyed black indian maiden met the cow he about in his seat was irritated by the nervous click of the machine and the hot of the room and ran away just at the exciting moment when the indian chief dashed into camp and summoned his to the war path perhaps he could hide from thought at home as he came into his room he stood at gaze like a of good family beholding a asleep in its pink basket for on his bed was mrs her curves stretching behind her large flat feet whose were toward him she was her stays regularly as she breathed except when she moved slightly and groaned he down stairs and went along the dusty brick side streets wondering where in all new york he could go he read a an excursion to the to start that evening for an moment he resolved to go but oh there was a lot of them rich society folks up there he bought a morning american and sitting in union square gravely studied the humorous drawings he casually noticed the help wanted they suggested an uninteresting idea that somehow he might find it economical to go venturing as a waiter or farm hand and so he came to the gate of paradise men wanted free passage on cattle boats to liverpool feeding cattle low fee easy work fast boats apply and atlantic employment street he cried i guess providence has picked out my nt for me he starts for the land of elsewhere the and atlantic employment is a long dirty room with the plaster cracked like the outlines on a map hung with and the laws of new york regarding employment offices which are regarded as humorous by	42
there yes i see mr observed as though he were and an old about the floor mr is it my boy by name and true by nature f this last was said quite without conviction it was a joke which had come down from earlier years r ignored it and declared as stoutly as he could you see mr i d be willing to pay you i ll tell you just how it is mr i ain t one of these employment i m an american i like to look out for americans even if you didn t come to me first i ll watch out for your interests same s if they was mine now do you want to get fixed up with a nice fast boat that leaves next saturday just of days wait our mr oo but if h i h ana mi l oh yes i do mr well my list is really full men waiting too bi it d be worth five dollars to you to here s the five dollars the ship agent was disgusted he had estimated from mr s cheap jacket and shoes that he would be able to squeeze out only three or four dollars and here he might have made ten more in sorrow than in anger of course you understand i may have a lot of trouble working you in on the next boat you coming as late as this course five dollars is less n what i usually get he contemptuously tossed the bill on his desk if you want me to slip a little something extra to the agents mr was too head to be timid let s see that did i give you only five dollars receiving the bill he folded it with much tucked it into the pocket of his shirt and remarked now you said you d fix me up for five dollars sides that letter from is a form with your name printed on it so i know you do business with him right along if five dollars ain t enough why then you can just go to hell mr yes sir that s what you can do i m just getting tired of around if five is enough i ll give this back to you friday when you send me off to if you give me a receipt there he almost so weary and discouraged was he now was a warm hearted rogue and he liked the society of what he called white people he laughed a at mr and consented all right i ll fix you up have a smoke pay me the five friday or pay it to my when he put you on the cattle boat i don t care a rap which you re all right can t bluff you and further mr he suggested to him lodging house for his two nights in boston tell the f m ie the land of elsewhere clerk that red headed sent you and he ll give you the best in the house tell him you re a friend of mine when mr had gone mr remarked to some one by coming now don t try to do me out of my bit or i ll cap for some other joint understand stick him for a thirty five cent bed s long the of s who left for by night steamer friday was headed by a who wore no coat and whose swung cheerfully open a were the jews with small trunks large and bundles a stolid procession of weary men in tattered and sweat shop clothes there were englishmen with rope bound pine a mouthed american named tim who said he was a out of work and a loud talking tough called mingled with a of the counted the group and selected his for the trip to mr and a youth named was a square heavy young man with hands who up to his eyes was stolid and solid as a granite monument but merry of eye and friendliness in his soft brown hair he was always a pipe and blowing smoke through his nostrils mr and he smiled at each other as the boat out and a wind swept straight from the land of elsewhere after dinner smoking a pipe shaped somewhat like a stick head and somewhat like a at the rail of the steamer turned to mr with bunch of we ve got to go with my name s our mr i m awful to meet you mr my name h glad to be off at last ain t you should say i am so m i been waiting for this for years i m a for the p r r in n york i come from new york too so lived there long i began mr well i been working for the for seven now now i ve got a of three months on gives me a chance to travel a little got ten and a second class ticket back from but i m fl to see england and france just the same ly c many too second class why don t you go and save oh got to come back like a gentleman you g you re from new york too eh yes i m with an art novelty company on eighth street i been wanting to get away for quite some time too how are you going to travel on tear dollars oh work m way always land on my feet not on my at that i m only twenty eight bu i ve been on my own like the english fellow says i was twelve well how about you t going somewhere just i m glad we re going together mr i don t think most of these are very j nice except for the old jews they seem to be fine old i	42
they make you think of oh you know i and stuff watch em over there making tea i suppose the steamer ain t i seen one i tbe joy line saying his prayers i suppose he was in a md of shawl well well you don t say distinctly mr felt that he was one of th r the land of gentlemen who in stand at steamer rails exchanging observations on strange lands he uttered look at that sunset ain t that holy it sure is i don t see how anybody could in religion after looking at that shocked and confused at such a theory yet excited at finding that apparently had thoughts mr honestly i don t see that at all i don t see how anybody could anything after a sunset like that makes me believe all sorts of thing gets me going i imagine i m all sorts of places on the and so on that s just it s so peaceful and natural just is gives the imagination enough to do even by itself without having to have religion well reflected mr i don t hardly ever go to church i don t believe much in all them sermons that don t come down to brass ain t got nothing to do with real folks but just the same i love to go up to st s cathedral why i get real thrilled i hope you won t think i m trying to get mr why no not i understand it gets me going when i look down the aisle at the altar and see the arches and so on and the priests in their they look so so way up oh i just how to say it so kind of sure i know just the end of the game you the beauty part of it sure that s the word that s what it is yes but just the same it makes mc feel s i believed in all sorts of things tell you what i believe may happen though this and maybe even these here workers of the world may pan out as a new kind of religion i don t know much about it ur mr i got to admit but looks as though it might be that i way it s dead certain the old parties are just i don t stand for anything except the name but i this comrade business good brotherhood of i man real brotherhood my idea of religion one that is because it s got to be not just because it always has been me for a religion of working together to make things easier for each other you bet commented mr and they smote each other upon the shoulder and laughed together in a fine flame of shared hope i wish i knew something about this stuff i mused mr with head examining the i edges of the sunset great stuff not working for some lazy that s i inherited the right to you and int f brotherhood not just new thing i surely would like that awfully sighed mr j he saw the of world brotherhood tramp i steadily through the sunset s u red f marching by faced and languid south sea the toward whom had always but i don t care so much for some of these i street comer though mused kind that come get saved our way or go to hell i keep off guides to prosperity sure ha ha ha soon had another thought still same time us that do the work have got to work out something i for ourselves we can t bank on the boys i wear eye glasses and condescend to like us cause think we ain t entirely too dirty for em to associate fl all these writer and so on that s where j l ot to hand it to the street comer the land of elsewhere yes that s jo y right there i guess all right they looked at each other and laughed again friends each other s souls they shared and when the other passengers had gone to bed and the sailors on watch seemed lonely the two men were still declaring but that things is curious i in the damp discomfort of early morning the from the steamer at and were to a lunch room by the who cheerfully smoked his corn and ejaculated to mr and such interesting facts as is a you don t want to let the bluff you aboard the they ll try chase you in where the you the ii what do you get and bread and water what s beef without the beef oh the be i rotten is a he wouldn t be nowhere if t wa n t for me mr appreciated england s need of roast beef but he timidly desired not to be by which seemed imminent before breakfast coffee the streets were coldly empty and he was sleepy and was silent at the sitting on a high stool before a pine counter he choked over an egg made with thick of a bread that had no personality to it he about beside the gloomy pipe fighting two fears the company might not need all of them this trip and he might have to wait secondly if he did get and started for england the might prove dreadfully dangerous after intense thinking he ejaculated be bored or get which was much too good i not to tell so they laughed very much and at ten o clock were signed on for the trip and led to the deck of the s s cattle were still struggling down the from the dock the dirty decks were uttered with and the s luggage the elders stared at the wilderness of open and rude as	42
though they were death but mr standing beside his suit case to guard it with romantic love upon the rusty iron sides of their and as the left the wharf no more handkerchief waving or than a s leaving he free free out to sea free free that s me then he becomes the great little bill when the was three days out from the frightened stiff known as wanted to die for he was now sure that the smell of the fo c in which he was lying on a thin of straw covered with damp both could and would become daily a thicker smell a stronger smell a smell and deadly though it was so late as eight bells of the evening the tough factory hand and tim the down and out were still playing seven up at the dirty fo c table while under of the cattle gang lay in his berth heavily studying the game and blowing of lunch cut tobacco up toward the tough was very evil he sneered he stole he he was a and a person without cleanliness of speech tim the was a loud talking under s tim wore a dirty rubber collar without a tie and his soul was like his neck ware the under was a good shepherd among the men though he bad recently lost the head by a complicated with language and violence he looked like one of the with broad short neck and short curly hair above a thick deeply wrinkled low forehead he never but was always seen l now in heavy shoes and blue gray i tucked our mr over the of his he was and i and and honest shook and drew his breath sharply as the fo horn out its n n n again reminding him that they were still in the bank fog that at any were likely to be stunned by a heart stopping crash as some s bow burst through the fo c s walls in a collision bow plates in and the in thrust of an enormous black bow water in and however the horn did at least show that they were awake up there on the bridge to steer him through the fog and t they experienced hadn t they made this trip ever so many times and never got killed f wouldn t they take all sorts of pains on their own account as well as on but just the same would he really ever get to england alive and if he did would he have to go on holding his breath in terror for nine more days would the fo c always keep heaving up up like this then down as though it were going to sink how do like de fog horn the tough spit the question up at him from a comer of his mouth hope we don t run into no ships he winked at tim the who took the cue and mourned i m afraid we re going to ain t you the mate was telling me he was scared we would t ing you know hey wait till have to beat it down stairs and tie up a bull in a storm last quick on de game oh shut up snapped s friend but was and not him other dangers which he was happily sure were threatening them shivered to hear that the d worse he under s load questions about his loss in some cattle pen of the scarlet jacket which he had proudly and g y great little bill purchased in new york for his work on the ship and the card players assured him that his suit case which he had to the ship s carpenter would probably be stolen by satan satan i shuddered still more for satan the gaunt hook rail faced head smiling when angry when calm was a lean human whip lash he dilated upon satan s wrath at for not coming across with ten dollars for bribe as he had done he lied of course and his words have not been given literally they were not beautiful words the straw would always lie awake to enjoy a good brisk story but he liked s admiration of him so with his bull like head out of his berth he hey you it s time to pound your ear cut it out called down sternly i ain t no student and i don t mind but i wish you wouldn t talk like a hey did bring your dictionary to tim two feet distant from him to say ain t you afraid one of them long like t will turn around and bite you right on the wrist dry up snapped a aw cut it out you groaned another shut up added the straw both of you raging to bed or i ll beat your block clean off mean it see hear me yes heard him doubtless the first on the bridge heard too and perhaps the inhabitants of but took his time in scratching the back of his neck and stretching before he crawled into his berth for half an hour he talked softly to tim for si our mr s benefit stating his belief that satan the head had once thrown overboard a jew much like and was likely thus to serve too tim pictured the result when after the of the steamer which would undoubtedly occur if this long sickening kept up had to take to a boat with satan the fingers of curled into shape for some one when was asleep he worried off into thin then there was satan the head him of his berth stirring his cramped joints to another of two hours of work and two of waiting the daily eight o clock insult called breakfast he on his shoes at mr s really being there at his sitting in cramped stoop on	42
the side of a berth in a dark filthy place that went up and down like a freight subject to the orders of persons whom he did not in the least like through the damp gray sea air he staggered along the to the and trembled down the iron ladder to s crew decks first watering the by walking backward with of water he carried till he could see and think of nothing in the world save the water butt the in front of it and the dipping out there through centuries that would never how those did drink s favorite bull which he called the gi diet took ten and still persisted in dripping gray mouth beyond the trying to reach more as was carrying a to the beyond the s horn caught and tore his the boat the whirled out of his band he grasped an iron and kicked the in the jaw the steer backed off a character cheered for such were a rule of the game great little bill good work remarked tim the you go to hell snapped and tim looked much more respectful but lost this credit before they had finished feeding out the hay for he grew too dizzy to resent tim s remarks straining to pitch into the pens while the boat rolled along the wet down by the of coal where the heat seemed a close wound choking and the darkness was made only a little pale by light coming through dust port holes he and and till he was exhausted the floating bits of hay dust were a thousand hands with poisoned nails scratching at the roof of his mouth his skin all over he constantly discovered new and aching muscles but he on until he finished the work fifteen minutes after tim had given out he crawled up to the main deck and huddled in the shelter of a pile of hay where was declaring to tim and the rest that satan couldn t never get nothing on him broke into s with the question say is it straight what they say that you re the that owns the line and that s why you know so much more than the rest of us poor the needle quick applause and laughter felt personally grateful to for this but he went up to the aft top deck where he could lie alone on a pile of he made himself observe the sea which as and jack london had promised him in their stories surrounded him everywhere shining free but he glanced at it only once to the north was a bound for home e thai he was sick o in while at he could forget things our mr with bright ease made the i romantic as mrs s i but the fleeting cattle boat seem about kitchen sink why he wondered why had he been a him a wanderer f no he was a hired man on a farm well he d get this job before he was through with it but then bi to god s while the eleven days out pleasantly rocked through the irish sea with the moon revealing the coast of one bill lay on the after deck to the heavens it was so warm that they did not need to sleep and half a dozen of the had brought their up on deck beside bill lay the man who had given him that name tim the who had become weakly alarmed and admiring as learned to rise feeling like a boy in early time and to find shouting in sending a of hay fifteen good feet who lay near by had also adopted the name bill most of the trip had discussed and tim instead of the fact that things is curious mr had been jealous at first but when he learned from the theory that even a was a victim of he went out for knowing him quite system a ally to he had been bill since the day when he had kept a hay from slipping back into the hold on the s head satan and called him but he was not thinking about them just now with tim listening to observations on tim fell asleep bill lay quiet and let color the sky above he recalled the gardens water which had in foam for him strange and and the schools of black pop p great little bill that for him had through violet waves most of all he brought back the yesterday s long excitement and delight of seeing the irish coast hills his first foreign land whose faint sky had seemed with the lore of ireland a country that had ever been to him the haunt not of potatoes and but of he had wanted they were not common on the of west sixteenth street but now he had seen them in he was falling asleep under the dancing dome of the sky a happy mr when he was aroused as a furious bin the was near by hoarsely was a and er name was w say who said you shut up commanded bill say be careful the awakened tim implored of him who says to shut up hey who was it satan from the where he was still smoking the head muttered what s the odds the little man won t say it again stood by bill s shut up f sounded bill out of bed with what he regarded as a vicious fighting for he was too sleepy to be afraid i did what you going to do about it more mildly as a fear of his own courage began to form i want to sleep oh you want to sleep little wants to sleep does he come here the tough at bill s shirt collar across the bill stuck out his arm and struck half by accident roaring him and	42
he went down with kneeling on his stomach and him and honest the straw sprang k drag off while satan the with the first s our mr i h interest they had ever seen in his eyes em fight fair rounds you re a right bill right commended with satan s praise firm but fearful in his rubber surprised and shocked to find himself here doing this bill at the the moon touched sadly the and tile rippling wake but bill of dream moon and faced his fellow they stuck out his foot gently sprang in furiously none o them rough tricks right o added he was left powerless he and grew dizzy as bill danced delicately about mm for he could do nothing without back street he did bloody the nose of bill and his ribs but many and much told and he was ready to laugh foolishly and make peace when at the end of the sixth round he felt bill s neat little fist in a straight and entirely accidental to the point of his jaw sent his opponent spinning with a back which awoke all the cruelty of the terrible bill silently bill plunged in with a like a savage using every grain of his strength let us turn from the lamentable luck of he had now got the idea that his supposed victim could really fight dismayed shocked disgusted he stumbled and sought to flee and was sent flat this time it was the great little bill who had to be dragged held him kicking and his mild like a cat s till the next round when was knocked out by a clumsy of fists he lay on the deck with bill standing over him and demanding what s my name s w great little bill i t ink it s bill now all right old bill old groaned he was permitted to off into oblivion bill went below in the dark passage by the he fell to weeping but the water that stopped his nose saved him from he climbed to the top deck and now he could again see his brother pilgrim the moon the and were talking excitedly of the fight tim rushed up to great bill old you done just what i d a done if he d me told you was a out said satan tim fled came up looked at bill him on the shoulder and went off to his the away but and satan were still discussing the light on the hard black pile of bill talked to them warmed to them and became mr he announced his determination to wander every shining road of europe nice work sure you ll make a little globe sure ought to be able to get the kind of for four bits a day nice work satan from time to time with smooth irony sure go ahead like to hear your plans broke in cut that out you re a satan all right quit your the httle man he s all right and he done fine on the job last three four days lying on his bill stared at the of the against the brilliant sky the lines made him think of the ruled order of the he mused i d like to know if is handling work the way we they like it i d like to see the our mr old office again and just for a of minutes i wish they could have seen me j all over to that s what i m going to do blooming englishmen if they don t like me the s s panted softly beside the landing stage at liverpool s city resting in the sunshine after her voyage while the cattle were they had encountered fog banks at the mouth of the river mr had watched the shores of england england ride at him through the fog and had panted over the lines of english among the it was like a dream yet the shore safe solid colors real red and green and yellow when contrasted with the fog wet deck with mist lights now he was seeing his first foreign city and to curious beside him he could say nothing with church tower and dome dome liverpool lay across the up through the liverpool streets that ran down to the river as though through peep holes straight back into the ages his vision plunged and it wandered through each street while he free free in ro that s the were called to help the remaining hay they made a game of it even satan smiled even the elders were lightly as they made fierce gestures at the patient hay tim the danced a foolish upon the deck and the bon bon of lo o o o the crowd come on bill your turn up with that or we ll bill on you bill standing very dignified i m i own all these cattle the l h i a t tn great little bill do what i say tim walk on your the laid his head on the deck and waved his legs in accordance with directions from colonel late the hay was off the and across the to the dock in liverpool while the played the deck and laughing they made last at the water dragged out their luggage and descended to the as the passed bill and shouting affectionate good in english or courteous bill commented to on the that the solid stone floor of the great shed seemed to have enough sea motion to make a sick it was nearly his last utterance as bill he became mr absolute mr on the street as he saw a real english a real english and the sign house tea id england now for some real cried no more and willow leaf tea stretching out their legs under a table with sally and	42
served by a who said thank you with a rising gazed at the line of running all und the room over the long seat and smiled the triumphant content which comes to him whose for dreams and hunger for meat are i b he finds much quaint english flavor ig all right england sure is the sea busy i liverpool but sa t english f at that red lion inn overhead they call the elevated real flavor all right english as can be t sure like to wander around these little shops crowd that s where you get the real quaint flavor thus to the glowing mr as they into st george s square noting the s tea sir thomas wasn t he a friend of anyway he was some kind of a lord and he ow big society racing in the square mr j marked greek temple fine agreed that s st george s hall where they have organ explained mr and the art gallery across the square and here s the lime street station he had studied his as club women study the let s go over and look at the trains funny little boxes ain t they them things what is it they call em carriages second third class just like in books office that s tickets funny eh mr insisted on paying for both their high english flavor at the cheap timidly but earnestly was troubled as they sat on a park bench smoking those most dainty bits mr begged what s the matter old man oh nothing just thinking smiled he added presently well old bill got to make the break can t go on living on you this way aw thunder you ain t living on me besides i want you to honest i do we can have a whole lot better time together yes but i can t do it nice of you can t do it though got to go on my own like the fellow say a aw come on look here it s my money ain t it i got a right to spend it the way i want to haven t i aw come on we ll bum along together and then when the money is gone we ll get some kind of job together honest i want you to don t believe you d care for the kind of i ll have to get sure i would aw come on i you re too level headed to like to bum around like a fool you d dam soon get tired of it what if i did look here i ve been learning something on this trip i ve always wanted to just do one thing see foreign places well i want to do that just as much as ever but there s something that s a whole lot more important somehow i ain t ever had many friends some ways you re about the best friend i ve ever had you ain t neither too or too and this friendship business it means such an awful lot it s like what i was reading about something by or thunder i can t remember his name but it s one of those poet that writes for the back page of the journal something about a joyous adventure that s what being friends is course you i i our mr understand i wouldn t want to say this to most people but you ll understand how i mean it s this friendship business is just like those old ers you know they d start out on a fine morning you know shining all that stuff it wouldn t make any what they met as long as they was together rainy nights with folks through the rain to get at em and all sorts of things ready for anything long as they just stuck together that s the way this friendship business is i b just like it said in the sure is it s chance to tell folks you think and really get some fun out of seeing pi together and i ain t ever done it much course i don t mean to say i ve been living off on any blooming desert all my life but just the same i ve always been kind of alone not knowing many folks you know how it is in a new york house so now aw don t slip up on me honestly i don t care what kind of work we do as long as we can stick together i don t care a hang if we don t get anything better to do than floors patted his arm and did not answer for a then i know how you mean and it s good of you like beating it around with me but you sure got exaggerated of me and you d get sick of the holes i m likely to land in there was a certain pride which seemed dreadfully to shut mr out as added why man i m going to do all of europe from to oh st you made good the all right but you do like things oh i d we might stay friends if we up now and met in new york again but not if you get into all sorts bum places w why look here l l been how aw what er i o do holes ly to d h b all sorts rf english with me however i ll think it over let s talk about it till to morrow oh please do think it over old man won t d to night you ll let me take you to a won t yes hesitated a music not mere mr could hardly keep his feet on the pavement as they to	42
you can sleep in the stable if you d hke but you must blooming well stop smoking so in the dark hay mr stretched out his legs with an affectionate good night to he slept nine hours when he awoke at the sound of a chain in the stable below was gone i this note was pinned to his sleeve dear old man i still feel sure that you will not enjoy the i is not much fun for most people i don t think even if they say it is i do not want to live on you i always did hate to on people so i am going to beat it os alone but i hope i will s many a good laugh together o n y we will enjoy j our trip if you will you the p r r you can find out when i get back so o i do not know what your address will be please look me u i hope you will have a good trip yours truly p mr lay listening to the rattling of thai chain harness below for a long time when he crawled languidly down from the hay he in a manner j which was decidedly surly even for bill at a middle j english aged english stranger who was stooping over a cow s in a stall facing the ladder you doing here asked the englishman raising his head and regarding mr as a does a in the bowl mr was bored this seemed a very poor sort of man a with a dirty neck cloth vile of black and a waistcoat cut foolishly high the owner said i could sleep here he snapped ow e did did e e t been giving you any of the too as e it was sturdy old bill who oh shut up bill didn t feel like standing much just then he d punch this fellow as he d as soon as not or even sooner ow it s shut up is it i ve a mind to set the on you but i m i ll just it you on the bloody bill stepped ladder and at him he was sorry that the was smaller than the came over in an absent minded manner made swift and circles with his left hand and hit bill on the bloody nose which immediately became a bleeding nose bill felt dizzy and sitting on a grain sack listened to the s i m sorry i t got time to ave the law on you but i could spare time to it you again bill shook the blood from his nose and staggered at the who seized his collar set him down outside the stable with a and walked away whistling come oh c ev v v v to our sunday school ry sunday mom i i i was mourned mr william and i thought getting t s bu i down i if was so hard to i i he is an orphan sadly clinging to the plan of the walking trip was to have made with mr by to quite unhappily for he to be discussing with the of th he looked for the half the way over as he walked through for he pricked himself on to note red brick rows almost shocking in their lack of high front along the country road he reflected wouldn t enjoy this farm yard all paved with a roof on it stove stuck in a kind of foreign as the deuce but was off some place in a darkness there weren t things to enjoy mr had lost forever once he heard himself wishing that even tin the or good old were along scene so british that it seemed proper to enjoy it he did find in a real garden party with what appeared t be a real out of a story in the strand passing cups but he passed out of that hot glow into a q that led him to and a dull hotel might as well have been in or he somewhat timidly enjoyed the early part of the next day following a guide about the walls gaping at the mill on the and asking the guide two intelligent questions about roman remains he s through the g streets peering up dark e ll l h he is an set in heavy that spoke of historic and imagined that he was for a time mr s fancies contented him he smiled as he addressed glossy red and green to lee and cousin nd mr writing on each a of having a splendid trip this is a very interesting old town wish you were here he found a showing the hotel where he was staying or at least two of its chimneys and marking it with a heavy cross and the announcement this is my hotel where i am staying he sent it to carpenter he was at his nearest to greatness at cathedral he chuckled aloud as he passed the remains of a of days in the dose where knights had tied their just like he d read about in a story about the times he was really there he glanced about and assured himself of it he wasn t in the office he was in an english cathedral close but shortly thereafter he was in an english hotel sitting still almost weeping with the longing to see he walked abroad feeling like an intruder on the lively night crowd in a tap room he drank a glass of english porter and tried to make himself believe that he was acquainted with the others in the room to which theory they gave but little support all this while his loneliness him of that loneliness one could make many books how it sat down with him how he crouched in his chair by it till he	42
violently rose and fled with loneliness for companion in his flight he was lonely he sighed that he was lonely as fits lonely the word him doubtless he was a bit mad as are all the isolated men who sit in distant lands longing for the voices of friendship next morning he hastened to take the train for oxford to get away from his loneliness which beside n n k our mr him in the he tried to convey to a north his interest in the way the seats each other the man said oh aye and returned to his newspaper feeling that he was so offensive that it was a matter of honor for him to keep his eyes away mr stared out of the door till they reached oxford there is a calm beauty to new college gardens is mr observed something simply all these old crossed by students in short gowns but he always returned j to his exile s room where he now began to hear the voice of nameless fear fear of all this world that didn t care whether he loved it or n he sat thinking of the cattle boat as a home which had loved but which he would never see again he had to use force on himself to keep from hurrying back to j liverpool while there still was time to return on the same j boat no he was going to stick it out somehow and g the hang of all this business then he said oh dam it all i feel rotten i v i was dead those sir are the windows of the apartment occupied by walter said the american after whom he was trailing mr viewed them j and with shame remembered that he didn t know who walter was but oh yes now he j remembered walter was the that d murdered his j whole family so aloud well i guess oxford s sorry j ever come here all right my dear sir mr was the most genius of the nineteenth century dr i the american severely mr had met d near the had upon polite request still more politely lent him a j he is an orphan match and seized the chance to confide in somebody had a bald head neat eye glasses a fair family income a good fellowship at the faculty club and a chilly in his class room at university he wrote poetry which he filed away under the letter p in his letter i file dr took mr about to i teach him what not to enjoy he pointed at s rooms as at a angel s feather but mr f admitted that he had never heard of whose name he confused with o s which dr deemed an error then s window the doctor shrugged oh well what could you expect of the swinging his stick he stalked to the and vouchsafed that sir is the had in his pocket when he was drowned though he heard with sincere regret the news that his i new idol was drowned mr found that left him cold it seemed to be printed in a foreign language but perhaps it was merely a very old book standing before a case in which was an exquisite book in a queer language bearing the legend that from this volume had translated the dr waved his hand and looked for thanks pretty book said mr and did you note who used i yes he hastily glanced at the mr say i think i read some of that it was something about a i don t remember exactly dr walked bitterly to the other end of the room about eight in the evening mr s landlady knocked with there s a gentleman below to see you sir our mr i i i mr he galloped down stairs panting to himself that had at last found him he peered out and was overwhelmed by a car with dr waiting in fur coat and in the car lamp light that loomed in the evening fog just like a hero in a reflected mr get on your things said the i m going to give you the time of your life mr went up and put on his cap h was excited yet frightened and at being into all this business which he had been putting away the past two hours as he stole into the car dr seemed com human remarking i feel bored this i thought i would give you a how you like to go to the red at the few untouched old that would be nice said mr ally his impressed dr who told one of the best of his well known stories ha ha remarked mr he had been saying to himself lain to even try to be a society with him no more i n just going to be me and if he don t like it he can go to t so he was gentle and sympathetic and talked sixteenth street to the s lofty amuse ment the tap room of the red was lighted by and a fireplace that is a simple thing to say but was not a simple thing for mr to see as observed the trembling shadows on the floor and excitedly murmured he is an orphan the shadows slipped in over the dust gray floor and as bravely among the as though they were in such a tale as men told in believing days in drank ale from and in a comer was an ear with his black head propped on an pack stamping in chilly from the ride mr laughed aloud with a comfortable feeling on the side toward the fire he stuck his slight legs straight out before the old time settle looked devil may care made delightful on the floor with his toe and clapped a pot on	42
his knee with a small emphatic after about two and a quarter he broke out say that there don t he look like he was a you know through the hedges around the to steal the earl s daughter yes you re a then i take it yes i guess i am kind of like to read and stuff he stared at but say say i wonder why somehow i haven t enjoyed oxford and the rest of the places like i ought to see i d always thought i d be simply about the and stuff but i m afraid they re too for me i hate to own up but sometimes i wonder if i can get away with this the magnificent had mixed ale and punch he was instructive do you know i ve been wondering just what you get out of all this you really have a very fine imagination of a sort you know but of course you re lacking in certain as i see it your would be to travel with a pleasant wife the two of you hand in hand so to speak looking at the more obvious i public buildings and avenues and there must be a certain portion of the class which has the ability for to admire and for to see l dr finished his second and with a our mr mr the world s a see though not of course of his hand presented i all the thereof for t to admire but what are you to do now about oxford well i m afraid you re taken into a bit late to be led for that sort of thing do about oxford why go back master the world you understand by the way have you seen my book on saxon not that i m prejudiced in its favor but it might give you a glimmering of what this thing culture the were a church the glow of the ale was in mr he leaned back entirely happy and it seemed to him that what little he had heard of his learned and affectionate friend s advice gratefully confirmed his own theory that what one wanted was friends a nice wife folks yes sir by it was awfully nice of the he pictured a tender girl in golden back in the new york he so much desired to see who would await him evenings with a smile that was kept for him that was what he was going to be he happily and thoughtfully ran his finger about the rim of his glass ten time to go i m afraid dr was saying through the exquisite haze that now filled the room mr saw him dimly as a of shirt front and two gleaming for eyes his dear friend the as he walked through the room chairs got in his way but he good picked a path among them and fell asleep in the car all the ride back he made soft mouse like sounds of when he awoke in the morning with a headache and surveyed his dingy room he realized slowly after his head in the pillow to shut off the light from his that dr had called him a fool for trying to wander he protested but not for long for he hated to venture out there among the he is an dreadfully learned and try to understand stuff written in letters that look like crow tracks he packed his suit case slowly feeling that he was very wicked in leaving oxford s opportunities mr rode down on a court road the of london life was a rosy ringing pursuit for he was about to ship on a steamer laden chiefly with adventurous friends the passed a victoria containing a man with a real a smiled up at him the strand roared with lively traffic but the gray and windows of the southern company s office did not invite any mr to come in and ship nor did the hall porter a person with a huge collar and painfully sleek hair whose eyes were like cold boiled as mr please please will you be so kind and tell mc i can ship as a steward for the m none needed f or spain i just want to get any kind of a job at first potatoes it don t make any difference none needed i said my man the porter examined the hall clock bill suddenly into being and demanded look here you i want to see somebody in authority i want to know what i can ship as the porter turned round and started all his faith in mankind was destroyed by the shock of finding the fellow still there nothing i told you no one needed look here can i see somebody in authority or not the porter was privately esteemed a wit at his law s away he answered or not mr drooped out of the corridor he had planned bee the gallery but now he hadn t the courage face the difficulties of pictures he s i w see the face the th k seven home mourning what s the use and i ll i hung if i ll try any other offices either the icy that s what they hand you here some day i ll go to the and try to ship there ly i feel rotten out of all this fog of appeared the j at the st house first as a being to whom he could second as a woman she was ignorant and vulgar she english cruelly she wore greasy cotton garments planted her large feet i on the floor with firm and always laughed at the wrong cue in his but she did laugh she did listen while he stammered his ideas of meat i and st paul s and and	42
him talk to it for a long while he stood before the peering in and whenever no one else was about he murmured poor they won t let you go you got a worse n f poor old he didn t at all mind the disorder and smell of the cage he had no fear of the tiger s sleek power but he was somewhat afraid of the sound of his own voice he had spoken aloud so little lately a man came an englishman in a high waistcoat and stood before the cage mr away robbed of his new friend the tiger the person in london kicking at pebbles in the path as half dusk made the quiet street even more detached he sat on the steps of his house on place keeping himself from the one definite thing he wanted to the thing he keenly imagined a happy doing dashing over to the station to find out how soon and where he could get a train for and a boat for america i our mr a girl was approaching the house he viewed carelessly then intently it was the lady of mrs s tea house the young woman c the tight fitting crash gown and colored hair she j was coming up the steps of his house he made room for her with feverish courtesy she lived in the same house he instantly without a bit of encouragement from the way in which she the door to made up a whole novel about her she was a french who lived in a j and she was staying in fl seeing the sights she was a noble she was above him a window opened he glanced up was leaning out the street i why her windows were next to living next room to an unusual person as unusual dr he hurried ip stairs with a but vague plan to meet her maybe she really was a french all evening sitting by the window he i comforted as he heard her move about her room he a friend he had started that great work of maid friends well not started but started starting then h got confused but the idea was a flame to warm the f chilled spaces of the london street at his breakfast he waited long she not come another day but why paint another day j that was but a of flat dull slate yet another j breakfast and the lady of mystery came before knew he was doing it he had bowed to her a slight easy bend of his neck she peered at him sat down with her back to him he got much good healthy human tion in her violently from the french i he had given her and remembering that of course she l just a fool ly a blooming he scorned and so settled her also he t w he meets a temperament her by that her new gown was than ever a pale green thing with large white buttons as he was coming in that evening he passed her in the hall she was clad in what he called a and what she called an of black embroidered with dull gold and stars showing a v of exquisite flesh at her throat a of lace loose at the opening of the her radiant hair tangled over her forehead shone with a thousand various from the gas light over her head as she moved back against the wall and stood waiting for him to pass she smiled very doubtfully the smile he felt of a great lady from he his head lowered his eyes and noticed that along the shelf of her held against her waist she bore many silver toilet articles and such a huge heavy fringed bath as he had never seen before he lay awake to picture her brilliant throat and shining hair he himself for the lack of dignity in thinking of that when she wouldn t even return a fellow s bow but her hair was the star of his dreams in his room in the afternoon mr heard slight active sounds from her next room he burned down to the stoop she stood behind him on the door step glaring up and down the street as bored and as ready to spring as the tiger mr heard himself saying to the girl please miss do you mind me i m an american i m a stranger in london i want to go to a good play or something and what would i what would be good i don t know she said with much everything s rather rotten this season i fancy her voice ran up and down the scale her a s were very broad oh oh y you are english then yes oh i just had a idea maybe you mi i n french english she perhaps i am y know said what made you think i was french tell me interested oh i guess i was just well it was almost make b how you had a castle in just a kind of a fool game oh don t be ashamed of imagination she demanded stamping her foot while her voice fluttered low and beautifully controlled through half a dozen notes tell me the rest of your story about me she was sitting on the rail above him now as spoke she her chin with the palm of her hand and observed him curiously oh nothing much more you were a please not just were please sir t i e now oh yes of course you he cried delight timidity and your father was sick with mysterious and all the shook their heads and said we what it is and so you down to the treasure chamber you	42
see your your father i should say he was a old just in the story you know he didn t think you could do anything yourself about him being mysteriously sick so one you oh was it dark very dark and silent and my footsteps rang on the hollow and i the gold and went forth into the night yes yes that s it but why did i it i m just coming to that he said sternly oh please sir i m awful sorry i interrupted he meets a temperament study medicine so s you could cure your father but please sir said the girl witb immense gravity t i let him die and not find out what s him bo i can marry the firmly you got to say i didn t expect to tell you all this make b i m afraid you ll think it s awful fresh of n oh i loved if really i did because you liked to make it up about poor my name is i m sorry to say i m not her two were quite different a you know tell me you live in this same house don t you please tell me that you re not an interesting person please i i guess i don t quite get you why stupid an interesting person is a writer or an artist or an editor or a girl who s been in jail or for or any one else who depends on an accident to be tolerable no i m afraid not i m just a kind of clerk good good my dear sir whom i ve never seen before have i by the way please don t think i usually pick up stray gentlemen and talk to them about my pure white soul but you you know made stories about me i was saying if you could only know how i and hate and despise interesting people just now i ve seen so much of them they talk and talk and talk they re just like s log what is it t see us rise in a flung half way up to the jealous moon don t you wish you could know all about art and as we do that s what they say then she her fingers in the air like white shrugged her shoulders rose from on su our mr k with h loi the rail and sat down beside him on the steps quite m a r of f a c he could his temple beat with excitement she turned her pale sensitive vivid face slowly toward him when did you see me to make up the story f at mrs s oh yes how is it you aren t out sight seeing or is it possible that you aren t a a why i he hunted uneasily for the right answer not exactly i tried a coming over on a cattle boat that s good much better she sat silent while with enormous and self betraying pains to avoid detection he studied her firm thin brilliantly red lips at last he tried please tell me something about london some of you english oh i i can t get acquainted easily my dear child i m not english i m quite as american as yourself i was bom in i never saw england till two years ago on my way to paris i m an art student that s why my accent is so j english i can t afford to be just ordinary british y know her laugh had an october of bitterness in it well i ll say what do you know about he said weakly tell me about yourself since apparently we re now acquainted unless you want to go to that music hall oh no no no i was just crazy to have somebody to talk to somebody nice i was just about i was so lonely all in a burst he finished hesitatingly i guess the english are hard to get acquainted with lonely she mused abrupt and kind as i he meets a temperament b man for all her woman s voice you don t know any of the people here in the house no m say i guess we got rooms next to each other how she s my name william i work for i used to work for the and art novelty company in new york oh i see nice little ash with love from the station and pin cushions f and fat dogs with black eyes oh no o o please not pale sympathetic blue eyes nice honest blue black awful black say i ain t talking too am i you mean the s changed since oh yes of course you ve succeeded in talking quite nice and oh say i didn t mean to when you been so nice and all to me don t demanded savagely haven t they taught you that yes m he she sat silent again apparently not at all satisfied with the architecture of the opposite side of place he edged into speech honest i did think you was english you came from oh say i wonder if you ve ever heard of dr he s some kind of school teacher i think he teaches in college you know him she dropped into interested familiarity i met him at oxford really my brother was at i think i ve heard him speak of oh yes he said that was a if you know what i mean rather oh how shall i express it oh shall we our mr lid him to b l put it about things people have just told about yes glowed mr to the iti of feeling that he knew the unusual miss he sacrificed	42
dr and eye glasses and and all without mercy yes he was awfully funny i didn t care much for him of course you know he s a great man however was as bland as though she had meant that all along which left mr nowhere at all when it came to deciding what she meant without warning she rose from the steps flung at him g night and was off down the street sitting alone all excited happiness mr muttered ain t she a she s striking l some hours later he said aloud tossing about in b i wonder if i was too fresh i hope i wasn t i oi to be careful he was so worried about it that he got up and a remembered that he was breaking still rule by smoking too much then got angry and snap at his suit case well what do i care if i smoking too much and i ll be as fresh as i want he threw a newspaper at the suit case and much relieved went to bed to dream that he was a rabbit making amusing at which he laughed in half dream till he realized that he wan being awakened by the sound of long sobs from the of afternoon mr in his room miss was back from tea but there was not a sound to be heard from her room though he listened with mouth open bent forward in his chair his hands clutching the wooden sea j his finger tips rubbing nervously back and forth over t f he meets a temperament rough under surface of the wood he wanted to help her the wonderful lady who had been sobbing in the night he had a plan in which he really believed to say to her please let me help you princess like i was a knight at last he heard her moving about he rushed downstairs and waited on the stoop when she came out she glanced down and smiled he was sure that she expected to see him there but all his plan of assistance vanished as he saw her impatient eyes and her of dress another tight fitting gown of smoky gray with faint silvery lights gliding along the fabric she sat on the rail above him immediately and answered his cheerfully he wanted so much to sit beside her to be friends with her but he felt it took courage to sit beside her she was likely to stare at him however he did go up to the rail and sit kicking his feet beside her and she did not stare instead she moved over an inch or two glanced at him almost as though they were sharing a secret and said quietly thought quite a bit about you last evening i you really have an imagination even though you a i mean so many don t you know how oh yes you see mr didn t know he was commonplace after i left here last night i went over to and she dragged me off to a play i thought of you at it because there was an imaginative butler in it you don t mind my comparing you to a butler do you f he was really quite the person in the play y know most of it was rotten it used to be a french farce but they sent it to sunday school and gave it a nice frock it seemed that a gentleman had n trying to make a match between his nephew and his ward the ward personally i think it was by art but anyway the uncle knew that nothing brings people together so well as the same person you know like the cousin when you re a the cousin that always keeps her nails clean yes that s so so he turned nasty and of course the nephew and ward till death did them part which i m very sorry to have to tell you death wasn t decent enough to do on the stage if the play could only have ended with everybody s funeral i should have called it a real happy ending mr laughed gratefully though he knew that she had made jokes for him but he didn t exactly know what they were the imaginative butler he was rather good but rest that must have been a funny play he said she looked at him and will you me a favor oh yes i ever been married he was startled his no sounded a though he couldn t quite remember she seemed much amused you wouldn t have b fl that this superior woman who tapped j fingers carelessly on her slim exquisite knee had sobbed in the night oh that wasn t a personal question she said i just wanted to know what you re like don t you i ever collect people i do em quite cruelly j and pin their poor little out on nice clean you live alone in new york do you y yes who do you play with know not not much of anybody except maybe carpenter he s assistant for the he meets a company he had wanted to and immediately decided not to invent whereof he was an intimate what do oh you know people in new york who don t go to parties or read much what do they do for amusement i m so interested in types well said he that was all he could say till he had a pair of thoughts just what did she mean by types had it something to do with stories and what could he say about the people anyway he observed oh i don t just talk about oh cards and and folks and things and oh you know go to moving pictures and and go to island and	42
oh sleep but you well i read a good deal quite a httle shakespeare and geography and a lot of stuff i like reading and how do you place she gravely to know i you know the german oh yes let me see now he s why you remember don t you and he wrote the great musical comedy of the century and did the music and i haven t been to it he said vaguely i don t know much german course i know a few words like si dutch and sir that at the company he s a german jew i learnt me but say isn t great when i read i can imagine i m along one of those roads in india just like i was there you know all those and so on s wonderful ain t it urn yes i bet you read an awful lot very little oh d and some our mr and a little that last was a joke j know oh yes what sorts of plays do you go to mr moving pictures mostly he said easily then wished he hadn t confessed so low life a habit well tell me my dear oh i didn t mean that artists use it a good deal it just means old chap you t mind my asking such personal questions do you i m interested in people and now i must go up and write a letter i was going over to s she s one of the interesting people i spoke of but yon see you have been much more amusing good night you re lonely in london aren t you we ll have to go some day yes i am he exploded then meekly j thank you i sh d be awful pleased to have you the tower miss no never have you no you see i thought it d be kind of a thing to see all alone is that why you haven t been there too my dear man i see i shall have to you sha i i ve been taken in hand by so many people it wc be a pleasure to pass on the implied shall i please do one simply doesn t go and see the tower because that s what do don t you understand my j pardon the my dear again the tower is the sort of thing school see and then go back and lecture on in school assembly room and the g a r hall i ll take you to the gallery then very abruptly g night and she was gone he stared after her smooth back thinking i wonder if she got sore at something i said i don t think i was fresh this time but she beat it so quick lips of hers i never knew there was such red lips he meets a temperament an artist pictures read a lot german musical comedy wonder if that s that merry widow thing that gray dress of hers makes me of fog cur ous in her room her nose in a mirror powdered and sat down to write on thick paper dear i m in a fierce boarding house except for a little man of or with e imagination a virgin soul i ll try to keep from planting radical thoughts in the virgin soul but i m tempted oh dear i m lonely as the devil would it be too to say i wish you were here i put out my hand in the darkness yours wasn t there my desolate oh you understand it only t grin your superior eye ignorance of poor eager america i suppose i am just a barbarous as said at the you a of the but i you can cook paint you he wins i can t sell a single thing to the art here or get one single order one horrid eye earnest youth who sees people at a magazine he vouchsafed that they didn t use any and his hair was nearly as red as my wretched so i came home howled burned before your picture i did though you don t deserve it oh damn it am i getting sentimental you ll read this at over si grin at your poor i n my dear how o well with your ic your it s just i mr and and th of thought in his room next evening after an hour had proved two things thus fl the only thing he wanted to do was to go back to america at once because england was a country where i every native or american was so and so vastly wise that he could never understand them b the one thing in the world that he wanted to do was to be right here for the most miraculous event of which he had ever heard was meeting miss first j one then the other these thoughts back am forth like the swinging tides he got away from only long enough to rejoice that somehow he didn know how he was going to be her most intimate friend because they were both americans in a strange land and because they both could make believe then he was proving that would and would not be the perfect comrade among women when some one knocked at his door his cramped body shot up from its and he darted to the door stood there tapping her foot on the sill haste in her manner abruptly she said so sorry to bother you i just wondered if you could let me have a match f i m all out oh here s a whole box please take em got plenty more which was absolutely do he thank you s good o you she	42
said hurriedly c night she turned away but he followed her into the hall urging have you been to another show i hope you draw a better one next time n the one about the with the nephew thank you she glanced back in the half dark hall from her door some fifteen feet from his he was scratching at i the wall paper with a finger hopeful for a i talk i won t you come in she said hesitatingly r oh thank you but i guess i hadn t better suddenly she flashed out the of smiles her blue gray eyes with cheery friendship come in come in child as he hesitatingly entered she needn t both be so lonely all the time after all need we even if you don t like poor you don t do you seemingly she didn t expect an answer to her question for she was busy lighting a it was the first time in his life that he had seen a woman smoke with embarrassed politeness he glanced away from her as she threw back her head and deeply he the room in the farther corner two trunks stood open one had the tray removed and out of the lower part hung a confusion of things from which he turned away uncomfortable eyes he recognized the black and gold which was tumbled on the bed with a of lace and soft wrinkles in the lawn a green book with a paper bearing the title three plays for a red and an open box of on the plain kitchen ware table was spread a cloth of green hke a dull old leaf in color on it lay a i gold mounted fountain pen huge and pointed l of papers and torn a bottle of our mr and a silver framed portrait of a lean smiling with a single eye glass mr did not really see all these details but be had an impression of luxury and high artistic success he considered the the largest bottle of perfume he d ever seen and remarked that there was some s picture on the table he had but a moment to for she was saying so you were lonely when i knocked why how oh i could see it we all get lonely don t we i do of course just now i m getting and on people i think i ll go back to paris there even the interesting people are why they re interesting you see i am an american why i d don t exactly get what too mean how do you mean about interesting people my dear child of course you don t get me she went to the mirror and patted her hair then curled on the bed with an won t you sit down and smiled blowing the blue toward the as ae continued of course you don t get it you re a nice sensible clerk who ve had enough real work to do keep you from being afraid that other people will you re ou don t ha e to y into enough to earn a by talking why interesting je you find em and new york and san just tbe they re convinced they re tbe wisest on s a few artists and a bum or two social workers the particular bunch that me to hate just now and that i can t do they gather around c who makes a kind of out of her rooms on great james off s road they might just as be in new but they re even they c he get sick of the game of being on intellectual heights as soon as new do i ll have to take you there it s a cheery sensation you know to find a man who has some imagination but who has been by interesting people and take him to hear them they sit around and growl and rush the hope you know rushing and rejoice that they re free spirits being free of course they re not allowed to go and play with nice people for when a person is free you know he is never free to be anything but free that may seem but they understand it at s of course there s different sorts of and each all the others mostly each consists of one person but sometimes there s two a and an audience or even three for instance you may be a and a but if some one is a and has a good why then that s what i mean by interesting people i them so of course being one of them i go from one bunch to another and upon my honor every single time i think that the new bunch is interesting then she smoked in gloomy silence while mr remarked after some mental labor i guess they re like the cattle they are the more romantic they look and then when you get to know them the chief trouble with them is that they re yes that s it they why they re oh poor dear there there there it sha n t have so much discussion shall it i think you re a very person and i ll tell you what we ll do we ll have a si fire shall we in the fireplace yes she pulled the old fashioned bell cord and the north country landlady came tall thin faced looking as though she had bet dressed up in garments in and left to h our mr in an parlor ever since she silent at the presence of mr in s room but sent a to make the fire mr felt guilty till the of the a christmas story book a small and merry lump	42
my hands you ve got to learn to play you don t know how to play come i shall teach you i don t know why i should either but come she explained as they left the gallery first the art of riding on the oh it is an art you know you must appreciate the flower girls and the r young you must to watch for the blossoms on the and roll on the grass in the you re much too respectable to roll on the grass aren t you i ll try ever so hard to teach you not to be and we ll go to tea how many kinds of tea are there oh and english breakfast and oh chinese b and he added excitedly as they took a seat in front the are a beginning at least she reflected but how many kinds of tea are there oh say i hadn t ought to course call me or anything else only you mustn t call ray bluff what do i know about tea au of us who play are more or less and we are ever so polite in pretending not to know the others are there s lots of kinds of tea in the new i him com l dies h and b our mr york i saw once do you know being a new i don t suppose you do oh yes and i used to wander round there well down at the seven chop and american cooking there s tea at five dollars a cup that they is grown on cloud covered mountain tops i suppose when the tops aren t cloud covered they only charge three dollars a cup but there s really only two kinds of those you go to to meet the man you love and ought to hate and those you give to spite the women you hate but ought to isn t that lovely and complicated that s with words my aged parent calls it talking too mu and not saying anything note that anything it s one of the rules in playing that mustn t be broken he understood that better than most of the things she said why he exclaimed it s kind of talking side ways why yes of course talking sideways don t y see now gallant gentleman as he was he let her think she li invented the phrase she said many other things things such learning that he made gigantic to read like thunder her great lesson was the art of taking tea he found that they weren t really going to their clothes by rolling on park grass instead she led him to a tea room behind a shop on court road a low room with white chairs colored set in the wall and green ware with irregular of white roses a with wild rose cheeks and a busy step brought orange and for her and russian tea and a of cream for him with a pile of h h f s she i r ki of h he but said isn t this like in but you must the of english most of all if you get to be very good at it the will let you take tea at the they are such and the one that brings the gold butter measuring rod to test your skill why he always wears knee breeches of silver gray so you can see how careful you have to be and eat them without your nose for jf you butter your nose they ll think you re a greek professor and you wouldn t like that would you honey he learned how to pat the butter into the comfortable brown of the that looked so cold and without but seemed to have lost interest and he didn t in the least follow her when she doubtless it was the best butter but where where dear are the and hare especially the sweet rabbit that his ears and loved the met where where are the and hare and where is the best butter gone presently come on let s beat it down to for dinner or no now you shall lead me show me where you d go for dinner and you shall take me to a music hall and make me enjoy it now you teach me to play i m afraid i don t know a single thing to teach you yes but see we are two lonely western in a strange land we ll play together for a little while we re not used to each other s sort of play but that will break up the monotony of hfe all the more i don t know how long we ll play or shall we oh yes now show me how you play our mr i don t believe i ever did much really well you shall take me to your kind of a i don t believe you d care much for penny mi little meat um little ones with covers um why course i and ha p ny tea lead to it o brave knight and to a he found that this devoted attendant of had never seen the beautiful who upon protesting with small clubs or the side s assistant who breaks up piles and piles of plates and as to the top hat that turns into an and produces much melody she was at after supper he talked of and south beach of carpenter and they sat at midnight on the steps of the house in place i do know you now she mused it s curious how any two in a strange enough woods get acquainted are a lonely child aren t you her voice was mother soft we will play just a little i wish i had some games to teach but you know so	42
much and i m a perfect beauty too aren t i she said gravely yes you are stoutly you would be loyal and i need some one s admiration mostly paris and london hold their laughing at poor he caught her hand oh don t they must pi you i d like to kill anybody that didn t thanks she gave his hand a return pressure an hastily withdrew her own you ll be good to some io he sweet pink face and i ll go on being discontented oh isn t life the proposition we seem different you and i but maybe it s mostly surface down deep we re alike in being desperately unhappy because we never know what we re unhappy about he wanted to put his head down on her knees and rest there but he sat still and presently their cold hands together after a silence in which they were talking of themselves he burst out but i don t see how paris could help you i ll bet you re one of the best artists they ever saw the way you made up a picture in your mind about that sorry can t paint at all ah stuff with a quite i ll bet your pictures are urn please would you let me see some of them some time i suppose it would bother i come up stairs i feel inspired you are about to hear some great though nasty on the works of the unfortunate miss she led the way laughing to herself over something she gave him no time to blush and hesitate over the of entering a lady s room at midnight but stalked ahead with a brief come in she opened a large covered with green black paper and out a dozen and wash drawings which she scornfully tossed on the bed saying as she pointed to a mass of roofs do you see this sketch the only good thing about it is the thing that last art editor that red headed youth probably didn t like don t you hate red hair you see these ridiculous glaring purple shadows under the she stared down at the picture forgetting bim her chin thoughtfully while she murmured th re rather nice rather good rather good getting i h our mr she h then quickly twisting her shoulders about she p out but look at this consider this arch it s miserably out of drawing and see how i ve this figure it isn t a real person at all don t you notice how i ve with this why my dear man every bit of the drawing in this thing would disgrace a drawing class in and regard the bunch of in this other picture they look like down in a silly wash basin it s terrible don t act as though you liked them you really needn t you know can t you see now that they re out of drawing mr s fancy was walking down a green lane of old france toward a white cottage with orange trees gleaming against its walls in her pictures he had found the land of all his forsaken dreams i i i was all he could say but admiration in it thank you yes we play to he the he wanted to find a cable office stalk in and send to his bank for more money he could see himself doing it maybe the cable clerk would think he was a rich american what did he care if he spent all he had a he himself just had to have coin when be was goin with a girl like miss at least seven times he darted up from the where he was on watch for her and briskly trotted as far as the corner each time his courage melted and he back to the door step sending for money he groaned that was pretty dangerous besides he didn t wish to go away might come down and play with him for three hours he on that door step til he came to hate it it was as much a prison as his room at the had been he hated the and a big brown spot on the pavement and as a driver hates a so did he hate a woman across the street who peeped out from a second story window and watched him with cynical interest he finally could endure no longer the world s criticism as expressed by the woman opposite he started as though he were going to go right now to some place he had been intending to go to all the and stalked away the woman he caught a then another then walked a while u tow that he was moving he was considering his i our mr problem what was to him what could he be to he r a just a clerk she could never love him and of course he explained to himself you hadn t love a person without you expected to marry them you t never even touch her hand yet he did want to touch hers he suddenly threw his chin back high and firm in defiance he didn t care if he was wicked he declared he wanted to shout to across all the city let us be great lovers let us be let us stride over the though that was not at all the way he it then he into a knot of people standing on the walk and came down from the in one a crowd was collecting before hall bore the sign glory special salvation army experiences of in africa r he at the sign a in the crowd trim and well set up his red salvation army cap at a angle said won t you come in brother i mr meekly followed into the hall bill was nowhere in sight i	42
now it chanced that told much of and the n of and week long but mr s imagination was not for a second drawn to africa nor did he even glance at the sim women packed in the hall he was going over and over the s of the englishmen and who on the mail boats suppose it had been himself and his madness over at the moment he quite called it madness that the i had i that the g the a near by was staring at him mt he walked away from the his dinner with a grave courtesy toward the food and the waiter he was positively to his fork for he was just he was going to steer clear of mad artist women of all but nice good girls whom you could marry he remembered the s thundered words you call it look into your hearts god himself hath looked into them and found the to hell and tell you that these army officers and the women with their wine and with their devil s calling cards and their jewels with their hell lighted talk of the follies of and art and horse racing o my brothers it was all but a cloak for looking upon one another to lust after one another rotten is this empire and shall fall when our soldiers seek instead of kneeling in prayer like the iron men of card playing talk of and art mr felt very guilty smoking and drinking wine but his moral reflections brought the picture of the more clearly before him the warmth of her perfect fingers the curve of her backward bent throat as she talked in her melodious voice of all the beautiful things made by the wise hands of great men he dashed out of the no matter what happened good or bad he had to see her while he was climbing to the upper deck of a he was trying to invent an excuse for seeing her of course one couldn t go and call on ladies in their rooms without some special excuse they would think that was awful fresh he left the at the sign of a shop and purchased a s and a century had told him these were the chief english high magazines h he ate our mr he carried them to his room rubbed his thumb in the on the gas and the magazine covers then cut the leaves and ruffled the to make the magazines look dog with much reading not because he wanted to appear to have read them but because he felt that would not permit him to buy things just for her all this business with details so him that he wondered if he really cared to see her at all besides it was so late after half past eight rats hang it all i wish i was dead i don t know what i do want to do he groaned and cast himself upon his bed he was sure of nothing but the fact that he was unhappy he considered suicide in a dignified manner but not for long enough to get much frightened about it he did not know that he was the toy of forces which working on him through the strangeness of passionate womanhood could have made him a great or a petty hero as easily as they did make him sorry for himself that he wasn t very much of a or anything of a hero is a detail an accident from his or thirty six years of or hero filling scandal columns or histories he would have been the same william he was thinking of as he lay on his bed in a few minutes he dashed to his and brushed his hair so nervously that he had to try three times for a straight parting while brushing his eyebrows and he solemnly contemplated himself in the mirror i look like a damn rabbit he scorned and marched half way to s room he went back to change his tie to a navy blue bow which made him appear younger he was feeling rather at everything including as he finally knocked and heard her come there was in her room a wonderful being j i i the ing chair one leg over the chair arm a young young with broken brown teeth always seen in his grin but a nose a high forehead and yellow hair the being wore large round spectacles a soft shirt with a gold collar pin j delicately gray garments was curled on the bed in a leaf green silk with a great gold mounted pinned at her mr tried not to be shocked at the she had been frowning as he came in and a long thin green book of verses but she glowed at mr as though he were her most friend murmuring mouse dear i m jo glad you could come in mr stood there awkwardly he hadn t expected to find another visitor he seemed to have heard her call him mouse yes but what did mouse mean it wasn t his name at all this was all very but how awful glad she was to see him mouse dear this is one of our best little poets mr from america too mr ty mr pleased meet you said both men in the same tone of annoyance mr implored i i thought you might like to look at these magazines just dropped in to give them to you he was ready to go thank you so good of you please sit down i and i were only fighting he s going pretty soon we knew each other at art school in now he knows all the in london mr said the best little poet i hope you ll back up my says th i have	42
told you just about enough times that i do not intend to stand for any i should ven you would be able to the standard in first year art class at bi i our mr mr showed quite ail of his ragged teeth in a noisy joyous grin and went on miss says that the best european thought personally gathered in the best shows that the is getting the eye from all the real what is your opinion mr turned to for protection she promptly announced mr absolutely with me by the way he s doing a big book on the of after his and oh come off anti cried kicking out each word with the assistance of his swinging left foot j much relieved that the storm had passed him mr sat on the front edge of a cane chair with the magazines between his hands and his hands pressed between his forward cocked knees always in the hundreds of times he went over the scene in that room afterward he remembered how cool and smooth the magazine covers felt to the palms of his hands for he associated the with the apprehension he then had that might give him up to the grin of who would laugh him out of the room and out of s world he hated the poetic youth and would gladly have broken all of s teeth short off yet the dread of having to try the feat himself made him admire the manner in which tossed about long sounding words like a bush playing with scarlet he talked of and the of sex energy and and the poetry of yawned openly on the bed kicking a pillow but she was surprised into energetic discussion now ind then till in ally called her again when she sat up and remarked to mr oh don t go yet you can tell me about the article when ion t go h h the dear said he was only going to stay till mr hadn t had any intention of going so he smiled and his head to the room in general and stammered y yes while he tried to remember what he had told her about some article article perhaps it was a company novelty article great idea perhaps she wanted to design a motto for them he decidedly hoped that he could fix it up for her he d sure do his best he d be glad to write over to mr about it anyway she seemed willing to have him stick here yet when dear had departed leaving the room still loud with the of his grin seemed to have forgotten that mr was alive she was at a book on the bed as though it had said things to her so he sat quiet and crushed the magazine covers more closely till the silence choked him and he dared mr is an awful well educated man he s a she snapped she softened her voice as she continued he was in the art school in when i was there and he on that it was good of you to stay and help me get rid of him i m getting i m sorry i m so dull to night i suppose i ll get sent off to bed right now if i can t be more entertaining it was sweet of you to come in mouse you don t mind my calling you mouse do you f i won t if you do mind he awkwardly walked over and laid the magazines on the bed why it s ail right what was it about some novelty some article if there s anything i could do an article why yes that you wanted to see me about oh oh that was just to get rid of his familiarity the penalty for my having been a hungry for friendship once and now our mr good n oh mouse he says my eyes even with this green on come here dear tell me what color my eyes are she moved with a quick swing to the side of her bed thrusting out her two arms she laid ivory hands on his shoulder he stood every one of the rules by which he had a shy polite way through life he fearfully reached oi his hands toward her shoulders in turn but his arms were shorter than hers and his hands rested on the sensitive warmth of her upper arms he peered at those dear gray blue eyes of hers but he could not calm himself enough to tell whether they were blue or black tell me she demanded aren t they green yes he you re sweet she said leaning out from the side of her bed she kissed him she sprang up and hastened to the window laughing nervously and i shouldn t have done that i shouldn t forgive me like a child was so bad so bad now you must go as she turned back to him her eyes had the peace of an oil friend s because he had wished to be kind to people because had been pitiful toward mr able to understand that she was trying to be a big sister to him and he said good night is smiled in a lively way and walked out he got out the smile by his nerves for which he paid in agony as he knelt by his bed acknowledging that would never love him and that therefore he was not to love would be a fool to love never would love her and seeing again her while arms softly by her green sleeves no sight of no scent of her hair no sound of her always changing voice for two days twice seeing a il n re ire ar the of light under her door as he came up the darkened stairs he knocked but there	42
was no answer marched into his room with the dignity of fury numbers of times he quite gave her up decided he wanted never to see her again but after one of the of these while he was stamping down court road he saw in a window a walking stick that he was sure she would like his carrying and it cost only two and six hastily before he changed his mind he rushed in and down his money it was a very beautiful stick indeed and of a modesty to commend itself to just a plain straight stick with a cap of metal curiously like silver he was conscious that the whole world was at him demanding what re you carrying a cane for but he the misunderstood was willing to wait for the reward of this in s approval the third night as he stood at the window watching two children playing in the dusk there was a knock it was she stood at his door smart and in a black suit with a small that hid the of her red hair come she said abruptly i want you to take me to s flat i ve been reading all the there is i want to talk can you come oh of course hurry then he seized his small foolishly round hat and he tucked his new walking stick under his arm without displaying it too proudly waiting for her comment she led the way down stairs and across the quiet streets and squares of to great james street she did not even see the stick she said scarce a word beyond i m sick of s bunch i never want to dine in with an and a sex instinct again de la but one has to play with somebody and he mr sell your prayer book to buy ant self to a point of madness one who calls you the came in together the and direct and jane the writer of prose and they sat silently on a couch rose nodded at mr and departed despite s hospitable shrieks after them of oh stay it s only a little after ten do stay and have something to shut the door resolutely the hall was dark it was gratefully quiet she snatched up mr s hand and held it to her breast oh mouse dear i m so i want some real things they talk and talk in there and every night they settle all the fate of all the nations always the same way i don t suppose there s ever been a bunch that knew more things you hated them didn t you why i don t think you ought to talk about them severe he implored as they started down stairs don t mean re like you they don t like you do i mean it but i was awful int rested in what that miss said about in school getting crushed into a that s so ain t it never thought of it before and that mrs talked about so beautiful oh my dear you make my task so much harder i want you to be different can t you see your cattle boat experience is than any of the things those have done i i m half baked myself oh i ve never done nothing but you re ready to oh i don t know i want i wish the i met in san i wish he were here mouse maybe i can make a of you i ve got to create something oh those nt the people if you just knew that fool mary is mad about that person and her husband him to is mad about who ll probably take out and marry him and he ll keep on hanging about the greek girl i don t know i don t know but as he didn t know what he didn t know she merely patted his arm and said soothingly i won t your first specimens of any more they arc trying to do something anyway then she added in an tone you re exactly as tall as i am mouse dear you ought to be taller they were entering the stretch of place after a silence as when she exclaimed mouse i am so sick of everything i want to get out away any and do something anything just so s it s different even the country i d hke why couldn t we let s go out on a to morrow a with and a pillow cushion and several kinds of cake i m afraid the has spoiled me for that let me think she drooped down on the steps of their house her head back her strong throat arched with the passion of she devoured the dim over the stale old roofs across the way stars she said out on the they would come down by you what is your adventure your for it let s see you take common roadside things seriously you d be dear and excited over a red lion inn are there more than one red li my dear mouse england is a of red lions and white lions and green why not why not not let s walk to it s a fool colony of artists and so on up in but they got some beautiful cottages and they re more than start right now take a train to our mr say and tramp all night take a couple of days or so t get there think of it through dawn past english fields think of it yankee and not caring what anybody in the world thinks shall wh h h h y he was sure she was mad all he couldn t let her do this she sprang up she stared down at him in her hands clenched her voice	42
was hostile as she demanded what don t you want to with me he was up beside her angry dignified a man look here you know i want to you re the i mean you re oh you ought to know i can t you see how i feel about you why i d rather do this than anything ever heard of in my life i just don t want to do anything that would get people to talking about you who would know besides my dear man don regard it as exactly wicked to walk decently along country road oh it isn t that oh please don t look at m like that like you hated me she at once on his arm sat down o the railing and drew him to a seat beside her of course mouse it s silly to be angry yes i di believe you want to take care of me but don t worry come shall we go but wouldn t you rather wait till to morrow no the whole thing s so mad that if i wait till thi i ll never want to do it and you ve got to come so that i ll have some one to quarrel with i hate the of london especially the of the anti anti so that i have the finest mad mood come we ll go even this logical had not convinced him but he did not as they entered the halt and rang for the landlady his knees grew sick and nd h h i the as he heard the landlady s voice loud now do they want it s eleven o clock aren t they ever done a ringing and a the landlady the tired thin faced north whose god was respectability of lodgings listened in a frightened way to s superior statement mr and i have been invited to join an excursion out of town that leaves to night we ll pay our rent and leave our things here going off r my good woman we are going to here s two pound don t allow any one in my room and i may send for my things from out of town be ready to pack them in my trunks and send them to me do you understand yes miss but my good woman do you realize that your are insulting oh i didn t go to be insulting then that s all hurry now mouse on the stairs ascending she whispered with the excitement not of a tired woman but of a and girl we re off just take a tooth brush put on an suit any old and an old cap she darted into her room now mr had for any old thing as well as for afternoon and evening dress only the sturdy clothes he was wearing so he put on a cap and hoped she wouldn t notice she didn t she came knocking in fifteen minutes trim in a suit with low thick boots and a jolly blue o come on there s a train for in half an hour my time table confided to me i feel like singing ft they rode out of london in a third class opposite a and two people who were just people and defied you cheerfully explained to mr to make anything of them but just people wouldn t they stare if they knew what we re up j to she suggested mr his head in entire agreement he was trying without any slightest success to make himself believe that mr william our mr late of the company was starting out for a country tramp at midnight with an artist girl the night of the station a person of ment and pride stared at them as they alighted at ford and glanced around like strangers mr stared back and marched with from the station through the sleeping town past its ragged edges into the country they on a bit wearily mr was beginning to wonder if they d better go back to mist was dripping and blind and silent about them weaving its heavy gray with the night suddenly caught his arm at the gate to a farm yard and cried look we re in england we re abroad yes abroad a paved with farm and ancient was ht faintly by a lantern hung from a post that was to a soft by centuries n f just ge a he goes a that couldn t be america he i m just iti i m so dam glad we came here s real england no it s what i ve always wanted a country that s old and different and pretty soon it be dawn summer dawn with you with i it s the adventure yes come on let s walk fast or we ll get sleepy and then your romantic heroine will be a interesting people listen there s a sleepy dog barking a million miles away i feel like telling you about myself you don t know me or do you i just how you mean oh it shall have its romance but some time i ll tell you perhaps i will how i m not really a clever person at all but just a savage from outer darkness who to understand london and paris and and gets scared of them wait listen hear the mist from that tree are you nice and drowned f kind of but i been worrying about you being soaked let me see why your sleeve is wet clear through this of mine keeps out the water better but i don t mind getting wet all i mind is being bored i d like to run up this hill without a thing on just feeling the good healthy real mist on my skin but i m afraid it isn t done mile	42

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