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NicholasSynovic
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him and paul looked he rose quickly he said gently to i pose you ly i have a lot of yea idol then my dear since you ask it there a time in the last ten years i haven t found some nice little girl to comfort me and as long as you continue your i shall probably continue to deceive you it hard you re so id she howled words could not be distinguished in her of abuse then the bland george f was transformed if ul was dangerous if was a snake locked fury if the neat emotions suitable to the arms had been into raw it was who was the most formidable he le ed up he seemed very large he seized s shoulder the of the were wiped from his face and his voice was i ve had of all this damn i ve known you for twenty five and i knew you to miss a to take your disappointments out on paul you re not you re worse you re a fool and let me tell you paul b the finest boy god ever made every decent person is sick and of taking advantage of bein a d n by md ng yon the that s like have to p en ia a to go with me yoa act like were a of queen and yoa fool can t yon ice people at and at yoa was i ve i ve ne v er ever talked to me like this in all no bat that the way they talk at say a ou woman that cowardly attack broke her were blank she wept but glared he hat he was the ab official in charge that paul and mn looked oa him with awe that be alone could handle tut she tl certainly i ve been a bad i m ay do anything i d what do want she ihe enjoyed it to the of nothing ii more than a i want to let paul beat it off to with me how can i be going i was an and nobody paid any attention to me b yon can it all ri t all ri i what yoa got to do b to cot out that the minute be gets out of t go after some matter fact that ihe way yoa start the boy off wrong you oo t to oh i wm i george i know i was bad oh forgive me all of forgive me she enjoyed it so did he condemned and far and as he west out with us wife he wh r to her d n by kind of a shame to but count it was the way to handle her i certainly did have her she said calmly yes you were you were showing off you were having a time a great you ell by can you beat iti of x mi t of you to not stand by i mi t of you d up tar your own few she s so she takes it out m paul she hasn t a single thing to do in that little flat and she too much and she used to be so pretty and gay and she losing it and you were just as and mean as you could be i m not a bit proud of you or of paul about bis horrid love a re was silent he maintained his bad temper at a hi of outraged nobility all the four blocks home at the door be left ber in self proving and the lawn with a shock it revealed to him i if she was right if she was partly ri t must have him to it was one of the few times in bis life when be had his eternal excellence and he perceived the summer night the wet grass then i i ve pulled it off we re going to have and ua i d do ai they were buying their tackle at the goods with the help of fellow member of the was completely mad he and danced he muttered to paul say this b pretty good to be buying the stuff eh and good old coming down the floor to wait on say if fellows that are their for the d n by we to fit di one on i a ample of let me it iti i m to boy mt ae he on ud on with and ud ke be le h to boy of it mi be was protecting from but even paul listened a n t poetry and flies ow at yon know be said tlie great scrap ii between dry flies and wet flies vm for dry flies more sporting lots more knew little about flies wet or dry now if take my on these pale and silver and red boy there s a fly that red ant i you bet that s it a yes sir that red ant said is a real to god ob i guess mr won t come a when i drop one of those red on the and us thick wrists made a of yes sod the salmon take it too said who had never seen a salmon say paul can you see with his on em in morning seven wheel tbey were on the new york for without their families they were free in a man s in the smoking of the d n by die or was s an of st with the of li ts in the and clatter of die of of on leaning toward he pretty nice to t e at the small room with its of was filled mostly with the of men he dashed as the best ever real good there were them on the long seat a fat man with a fat face knife et ed	42
man in a green hat a very young man with ui and them on two ie leather were paid and a old man very cunning with wrinkles ii his mouth all read or trade boot and journals and waited for the joys of conversation it was the very young man now ha first journey by who began it i had a wild m hi he y if a knows the ropes there be can have as a time as he can in new i bet singly raised the m ned i figured you were a bad man when z saw yon get on the train i the me the others laid down papers well that s all t i guess i seen some in the you never semi con the boy oh bet you i bet you the a little then the boy having served as they ignored urn and charged into real talk only paul by at a story in a newspaper failed to join them and ao but regarded him as a an eccentric a per on of no whidi of them said which has never been and does not matter since they all had the same ideas and r d n by than with the and if it was not verdict at he was beaming on tbe it at that thou announced tbe th re quite some in guess tbey are know bow you fellows feel about but tbe way it me is that it s a mighty thing for the poor that hasn t got any will but lor like us it s an of personal liberty that a fact has got no ti t to with a fellow s personal liberty tbe second a man came in from the car but as all the seats full he stood up while he smoked his be was an ont he was not one of tbe old families of the tbey looked him and after trying to year at ease by examining his chin in tbe mirror he gave it up and went out in just been making a trip throng the south not very good down there said one of the l that a not very good a no didn t strike me tbey were up to not i to normal no i wouldn t hardly say they were the whole council nodded and hardly up to well business ain t what they t to be oat west neither not by a long shot that s a fact and i guess the business feels h that s one good thing though these hotels that ve been five a day yes and maybe six seven i for a rotten room are going to be dam glad to get four and maybe give you a little service that s a fact say hotels i hit the st francis at san for tbe first the other an bay it certainly is a first class place d n by i t ri t the st b a ai hut s a fact i m ri t you it s a place but say any of you fellows ever stay at the in i don t want to knock i in you can but say of all the rotten that pass ob as holds that s the worst i m going to get those one of these days and i told em so yon know how i am maybe you don t know but i m accustomed to and i m perfectly willing to pay a reasonable price i got into late the other ni t and the s near the station i d never been there before but i says to the driver i always in taking a when you get in late may cost a little more money but it s worth it when you got to be iq early next and out a lot of and i said to um oh just drive me over to the well we got there and i to the desk and said to the brother got a nice with bath foe you d a thought i d sold him a second or asked him to w on he bands me the cold stare and i friend iii see and be ducks behind the they keep track of the rooms oil i guess be called the credit association and the american security league to see if i was all right be certainly took long enough or maybe he just went to sleep but finally he comes out and looks at me like it hurts him and t think i can let you have a room with well that awful nice of you sorry to trouble how much it set me back i says real sweet cost you seven a day friend be it was late and anyway it went down on my if i d been paying it instead of the firm i d v tbe streets all night before i d a let any tavern me great big round dollars so d n by it go at the d a a lad not a day over old k at the battle of t over t i a one of the i from the v f he looked at and van me op to i out they called it a bat i t there d been i they we putting me in the at each and every i ve heard the r wai i go to i at the or tha say of ever at the at b h the b a of conference on the of bend flint fort worth ud jaw the man in die hat d the tooth on bis heavy i d like to where th get this stuff about down now yoa take this salt i	42
got cm he pinched us ti o leg four ago i forty two fifty for it and it waa real sure value here the other day i went a store back home and asked to see a suit and the oat some band me that honest x wouldn t pot on a hired man just out of curiosity i asks him what yoa tf g for that be says d yoa that s a piece of goods all like it waa nice vegetable wool right off tbe me it s ad be a a aod we get nine for h ob yoa do do i says not from me you i says and i walks right oat on him yoa i says to tha i said aa long as strength holds oat aad d n by can go ob ft more oo papa well pan tliat i t brother and just lo k at the man protested what the matter d you the cost of labor on is still two hundred and seven per cent above tb that if their old maid the fat man sold then the price of was what it should be bnt all other was too expensive they admired and loved oat another now tliey went profound into the of business and indicated that the purpose of a or a brick was so that it mi t be sold to them the hero was no the t the poet the the nor the young district but the great manager who bad aa analysis of problems on his ass desk title of was go and devoted him and his young to the purpose of not of ai in particular f or to anybody in particular bnt pure the talk roused paul thou he was n of and an unhappy husband he was also a very able of tar he listened to the fat man s remarks od the value of organs and as a method of i the out oi the road and be one or two thou ts m the of two cent on then he committed an against the law of the of good he became hi brow tbey were entering a on tbe outskirts they passed a mill which in and flame that licked at the at the and d n by i look at bet it s mend that tbe pilot th me old made a good three out of during the man vith the hat add reverently mean i mean it the my the li t that picturesque yard all with right ma of the said stared at him has certainly got one great little eye for and si ts and all that stuff t of been an author or something if be gone into tbe line paul looked annoyed wondered if paul tlie man in the hat i think keep awful bum but i don t there s any law against calling em if it gets yon tiiat way i paul returned to his new q er and the moved on to what time do we get into asked i think we get in at no that was last year wait a minute let s see got a time table ri here i wonder if on time sure we must be just about on time no we aren t we were seven minutes late last were we t why i thou t we were ri t on time no we re about seven minutes late that s right seven minutes late the porter entered a negro in white jacket with brass buttons how late are we george growled the fat man i know sir i we re about on tim d n by s id the folding op the rack above tbe the stared at him and when be was gone tbey i t know s come over these nowadays never ve you a answer that s a fact they re getting so they have a oo ut of respect you the old fashioned was a fine old be knew liis but young want h be or cotton oh they got to be and professors and lord knows what all i i tell yon it be c o g a serious problem we ought to get together j and show the black man yes and the yellow man his place now i got one of race prejudice i m the first to be ad when a so long as be stays where be and try to the ri tf ul authority and ability of the white man that tlie i l and another thing we got to do said the man with the hat whose name was is to these out of the country thank the lord putting a limit on these and have got to learn tliat this is a white man s country and tliey ain t wanted here when we ve tbe f we got here now and learned em the principles of and turned em into regular folks why maybe let in a few more you bet that s a fact they observed and passed on to topics they rapidly car prices od fishing and the prospects for the in but the fat man was in at this waste of time he was a and free of illusions already he had asserted that he was an old he one he leaned forward gathered in their attention by his expression of sly humor and grumbled ob let s cut out tbe and get down to the d n by they became very and and the boy vanished the others slid forward oo the long seat their their feet on the pulled the nearer and ran the green window down on its little to them in from the uncomfortable of ni l after bark of ter cried say hear the one	42
was and when the train stopped at an important station the men walked up and down the platform under the vast smoky roof like a stormy sky under the beside of ducks and sides of beef in the of an unknown d tb strolled abreast old friends and content at the like a call at dusk they hastened back into the smoking and two of the the tales their dan with smoke and ter they parted th shook hands and wed it s been a great to bust it mighty g to met you lay awake in the dose hot tomb of hb berth with remembrance of the fat man s about the lady who wished to be wild he raised the shade be lay with a arm tucked between bis head and the out on the sliding of trees and village lamps like he was happy d n by chapter xi hid four bom in new yoa between tho wished to see was the hotel bad been since bis last visit he s red i at it muttering ity two hundred and twenty two that s got in the beat lord their price of rooms is four to ei t dollars a day aud i n e maybe some ten and times twenty two hundred say six times twenty two hundred well anyway with and everything say between d t and fifteen thousand a day every i never t i d see a thing like that some of course the average fellow in has got more i tb than the here but i got to it to yes town re all ri t some ways wed old i guess we ve seen everything that worth we tbe rest of the but paul desired to see a always wanted to go to and by i will too a d before p aa be sighed a aa the north river they stared at tbe of tbe and her and lifted above tbe which shut her in by wouldn t be so bad to go over to the and take a at all these ruins and the where shake ware was bom and think of to order a drink whenever you wanted just range to a bar and out loud a and dam not bad at all what like to over d n by did not answer tamed paul was standing with fists head drooping staring at the as in terror his thin body seen against the summer id the wharf was again what would you hit for on the other side paul at the steamer his breast heaving paul oh my while him anxiously come on let s get out of this and down the wharf not looking back t that s funny considered the boy didn t care for seeing the ocean boats after all i t he d be interested in em he and made sage speculations about horse power as their train climbed the and from the summit he looked down the shining way among the pines though he remarked well by be discovered that the station at the end ol the line was an aged car s moment of impassioned release came when they sat on a on lake awaiting the from the hotel a had floated down the lake between the logs and the shore the water was thin looking flashing with a guide in black felt hat with in the band and flannel shirt of a peculiarly daring blue sat on a log and and was silent a dog a good country dog black and gray a dog in leisure and in meditation scratched and and slept the thick sunlight was lavish on the bright water on the rim of gold green boughs the and and across the lake it on the sturdy shoulders of the mountains over everything was a holy peace silent they on the edge of the wharf swinging legs above the water the immense tenderness of the place d n by into and be m u u red i d just like to tbe rest of my life ai and sit and never hear a or in tbe or and ted just at he patted paul s how does it strike you old ob it good there s of eternal about it for understood bim rounded tbe bend at the head of the lake under a mountain they saw the little central of their hotel and the of log served as tliey landed and endured the of the who had been at the hotel for a we in their cottage with its hi stone fireplace hastened as expressed it to get into some regular he they came out paul in an old gray suit and soft white shirt in shirt and vast and flapping trousers it was excessively new his spectacles to a city office and hb face was not but a city pink he made a noise in the place but with infinite satisfaction be bis legs and say this is getting back home di they stood on the wharf before the hotel he winked at paul and drew from hb back pocket a of to a forbidden in the home he took a beaming and his head aa he at it maybe i haven t been hungry for a of have some they looked at each other in a grin of understanding paul took the at it they stood quiet their jaws tb solemnly one after the other into the water y with lifted d n by iso the i hit sound of a tf off a leaped and back in a tb sighed together tbey bad a their they planned to get up early and before st each morning they lay till the breakfast that there no efficient wives to rouse than the mornings were cold the fire was kindly as they dressed paul was	42
clean but in a good in not having to till his was moved to it he every ot and fish on us new trousers all morning th or the dim and lighted among rank and mom with crimson they slept all afternoon and tiu t played with tlie guides was serious business to the guides they did not gossip they the thick cards with a menacing to the and joe paradise king of guides was sarcastic to who the game even to scratch at t as paul and he to their cottage over the wet grass and pine roots in the rejoiced that he did not have to to his wife where he had been all evening they did not talk much the nervous and of the club dropped from them but they did talk they slipped into the of days once they drew up to the bank of water a stream walled in by the dense green of the the sun roared on the green but in the shade was sleepy peace and the water was golden and drew his hand the cool flood and mused d n by never he d to no we ve done anything the my we we would i to live in with my people and the fiddle tbat so and bow i wanted to be a lawyer and go into z still think i mi t have made a go of it kind of got the gift of the i can think on my feet and make some kind of a on bust anything and of course that s the thing yon need in politics by ted s going to law even if i didn tl well i it out all t been a fine wife and means up her i figure out all sorts of plans to keep her i kind of feel life is going to be now that we re getting a good rest and can go back and start over i hope so old boy say it s been nice to sit around and loaf and and act regular with yon along you ad n u know what it means to me saved me the shame of emotion overpowered them they k little to prove they were good fellows and in a mellow silence whistling while paul they to the it was paul who had seemed who had been the protecting big brother paul became eyed and merry while sank into he uncovered on of hidden weariness at first he had played to paul and tor him sought amusements by the end of the week paul was nurse and accepted with the one always shows a patient d n by the day families arrived the women guests at the ob isn t it you must be so and the and paul to look but they went to bed and appeared said at once now we want you boys to go on playing just as if we weren t here the evening he stayed out for with the and she said in merriment you re a regular bad tlie second evening she s good heavens are you going to be out every t the third evening be didn t play he was tired now in every cell doesn t seem to have done me a bit of good he lamented paul as a but i swear ite and than when i came up here he had three weeks of at the end of the second week he began to feel calm and in life he planned an expedition to climb mountain and wanted to t at box car fond he was curiously weak yet cheerful as though he had his of poisonous energy and was filling them with wholesome blood he ceased to be irritated by ted s with a his seventh tragic affair this year be played catch with ted and with pride t him to cast a in the pine silence of fond at the end he sighed hang it i m just beginning to my but well i feel a lot better and it s going to be one great year maybe the real estate board will me president instead of some old fashioned like on the way home whenever be went into the be guilty at his wife and at being expected to fed guilty but each time he trim c t this b going to be a great year a great old d n by chapter xii all tbe my home from was certain that he a changed man he was converted to serenity be was going to cease worrying about business he was going to have public affairs reading and suddenly as he finished an e heavy cigar be was to stop smoking he invented a new and perfect method he would buy do tobacco he would depend on it and of course be would be ashamed to borrow often in a of ri he flung bis ci r case out of the smoking window he went and was kind to his wife about nothing in particular he admired his own purity and decided absolutely simple a matter of will power he started a magazine about a scientific ten miles on he was conscious that he desired to smoke he bis bead like a going into its shell he uneasy he two pages in his story and didn t know it five miles later he leaped and sought the porter say george have you got a the looked patient have you got a time table finished at the next stop he went out and bought a cigar it was to be his last before be reached he finished it down to an inch four days later he again remembered that he had smoking but be was too busy catching up with his to keep it remembered be would be an excellent no a man s working fool head off	42
i m going out to the d n by game three times a besides oo t to the home team he did go and support the team and the by yelling and he the he wore a cotton handkerchief about his collar he became he his month in a wide loose grin and drank out of a bottle he went to the game three times a we for one we then he on watching the advocate times board he stood in the and of the crowd and as the boy iq on the lofty platform recorded the of big the remarked to strangers pretty good and hastened bat to the office he honestly believed that he loved it is that he hadn t in twenty five years played any back lot catch with very gentle and strictly limited to ten minutes bat the game was a custom of his dan and it gave outlet for the and sides taking which called patriotism and love of as he the office be walked faster and faster muttering guess better bustle all about him the was for bustling s sake men in were to pass one another n the traffic men were to catch with another a minute and to leap from the to gallop across the to into into men in daily were to down the food whidi had to men in were ing me once over men were getting rid of visitors in adorned with the signs thi is my busy day and the lord created the world in six you can all you got to say in six minutes men who had made five thousand year before last and ten thousand last year were on nerve bodies and d n by brains so that they might make twenty this year and the men who bad broken down after making their twenty thousand dollars were to catch trains to through the which the ton had among them back to his office to sit down with nothing much to do t see that the ed aa they were in every saturday afternoon he out to his country did and through nine of as a rest after the s in it was as necessary a man to to a country club as it was to wear a linen collar s was the and country a i gray ed building with a broad porch on a cliff above lake there was another the country to which belonged charles and the other rich men o not at the but at the union e with you couldn t hire me to join the even if i did have a hundred and eighty to throw away on the fee at the we ve got a bunch of real human and the finest lot of little women in town as good at as the men but at the nothing but these would be s in new york get drinking too much dog altogether why i wouldn t join the even if they i wouldn t it on when he had played four at five be a bit his tobacco fluttering heart beat more and his vi to the of hundred of i d n by at least once a wa mr and bits and to the their favorite picture was the which three thousand and had an of f pieces wliich played arrangements the and a day on the farm or a fire in the stone decorated with chairs and almost t sat on columns with exclamations of well by i and you got to go some to beat this l admired the as he stared across the thousands of heads a gray plain in the as he good clothes and mild perfume and he felt as when be bad first seen a mountain and realized how very much earth and rock there was it he liked three kinds of pretty bathing girls with bare legs or and an industrious shooting of and funny fat men who ate he chuckled with immense moist eyed at and babies and be w t at and old mothers being patient in cottages mrs preferred the pictures in which handsome young women in elaborate moved through sets as the drawing rooms of new york as for she preferred or was to prefer whatever her parents told her to all his bridge long talks with paul at the or at the good red beef and old english chop house were necessary to for he was entering a year of activity as he had never d n by chapter xiii it ma by that bad bis to the s a r e b tlie s a r e b as its members called it tbe passion for mysterious and was tbe state association of real estate boards the of and s it was to hold its at monarch s chief rival among the of tbe state was an official another was whom admired fat his building and for his social position for being present at tbe dances on royal ridge was of the committee had growled to him makes me tired the way these doctors and and put on about im men a good has to have more knowledge ad than any of em right you i say why don t yon put that into a and give it at tlie s a r e b suggested if it would yon in making up the you the way i look at it is this first place we ought to that folks call us and not real men more like a profession second what it it a profession from a mere trade or what is it why it s the public service and the tbe trained and the knowledge and oh an that whereas a that merely goes out for the jack he never considers the service and trained skill and ao od now as a professional	42
perfectly perfectly now d n by you write it in a paper said as be rapidly j firmly moved away however to the literary of and was on the evening he sat down to prepare a paper which would take a whole ten to read he laid out a new fifteen cent school book on his wife s sewing table set q for the event in the living room the household had been into silence and ted requested to and threatened if i hear one sound out of if you for a of water one single solitary time you better not that s mrs sat over by the piano making a ni and gazing with respect while wrote in the book to the and of the sewing table when he rose damp and and his throat from she i don t see how you can just sit down and make things right out of your own ob it s the training in imagination that a gets bi modem business life he had written seven pages the first page set v s u d n by tbe other pages like the for a week he went looking id b as he he thou t stop to h na that before a can have or pro ct ai of those thin some has got to sell on the land au starts with him realize that at tha he led men aside to say if yon had to read a paper a big would yon start in with the funny or just kind of scatter em all through he for a set of about real estate something good and and provided something exceedingly good and but it was to t that most often turned he caught at the every noon and while looked hunted and say you re a on this writing staff how would yon put this sentence see here in my manuscript manuscript now the deuce is that oh yes here would you say we t not also to alone think or we ought also not to think alone or one evening when his wife was away and he had no me to forgot about style order and the other and oft what he really thought about the real estate business and about himself and he found the paper written when he read it to his wife she dear it s beautifully written and so clear and interesting and such ideas why it s just it s just next day be and son i finished it last just it i used to think you writing must have a hard job making up pieces but lord it s a pretty soft for you certainly earn your some day i get ready to retire guess take to writing and show you how to do it i used to think i write d n by j more and than all this staff bee printed and now i m suit of iti he bad four copies of the p in black with m red title bad them bound in pale blue and presented one to old tbe editor of the advocate times io said yes indeed yes be was very ad to have it and be certainly would read it all i soon as he could find time mis could not go to she bad a meeting said that be was very sorry besides tbe five official to the w a and were most of them with their wives met at the union station for the t train to monarch all of them save who was such a that he never displayed nd buttons the size of dollars and we for the official were magnificent with silver and ribbons martin s little boy carried a banner the z zeal zest and in as the arrived not in but in tbe driven by the oldest son or by cousin they formed tu throng the station waiting room it was a new and enormous waiting room with marble and the e of the river valley by f in the were shelves of ponderous mahogany the news stand a marble with a brass down the echoing of the ball the after s tbe men waving their the women of new d n by and of beads all to the tune of the official ci song written by good old our kin and wc bt in the ring we of thy prosperity the who had a gift of verse and had added to s city song a q for the oh here we come the from the we wish to state in real estate s none so live as we was stirred to he ed od a bench shouting to the crowd what s the matter with she s an what s best town in the u s a patient poor e waiting for the t tr in wonder italian women with old men with broken shoes road wise boys in suits had been when they were new but which were faded now and wrinkled perceived that as an he most be more dignified with wing and he up and down the platform beside the waiting driven baggage and red carrying bags ed down the platform with en agreeable effect of arc ts ed and stammered overhead the d n by i yellow an made hb voice to be measured and be thrust out his and we got to see to it that the the understand just where they get off in this matter of wing uttered e and the blind of a was raised and looked into an world the of the was the wife of the possibly thrilled she wai going to on the seat beside her was a bunch of and and a yellow book whidi seemed foreign while he stared she picked iq the then glanced out of the window	42
as though she was bored she must have looked t at him and he had met but she gave no she languidly pulled down the blind and he stood still a cold feeling of in his heart but on the train his pride was restored by meeting from and other smaller of the state who listened when as a from of he explained politics and the value of a good sound business they fell joyfully into q talk the purest and most form of how d this fellow make out with this big i hotel he was going to put iq do get out bonds to it asked a teu you said no if i d been handling it so wing was i hired this window for a week and put up a big sign toy town for tiny and stuck in a lot of houses and some little trees and then down at the bottom baby likes this but papa and will prefer our beautiful and know that got folks talking and first week we d n by its tbe sang as the train no through the district flame and power were red li ts green lie ts furious white lights past and was important again and eager he d b thing he bad his clothes pressed on tbe train in the morning halt an hour before they reached monarch the porter came to his and whispered there a room vacant sir i put your suit in there in tan autumn overcoat over his slipped down tbe green curtain lined aisle to the glory of his first private the porter indicated that be knew was used to a man servant he held the ends of s trousers that the beautifully garment might not be soiled filled the bowl in the private and waited with a to have a private was luxurious however en a was by night even to it was in the morning when it was with fat men in every hook filled with wrinkled shirts the leather seat piled with dingy toilet and the air with the smell of soap and did not think much of privacy but now he in it in his and with pleasure as be gave tbe man a tip of a dollar and a half he rather hoped that he was being noticed as in his newly pressed with the porter carrying bis he at monarch he was to share a room at tbe with w a tliat shrewd rustic looking dealer in farm lands they had a noble with am d n by i not in cups but in large pots grew and told about tlie art of writing he gave a boy a quarter to fetch a morning from the and salt to a post card papa wishes you were to bat round with him the meetings of the were in the of the in an was the of the f ia a of the committee he was the man in the he was so busy that he got nothing done whatever he sat at a table in a room with led paper and all day long town and and who wished to lead came and to him whereupon he looked vague and said rapidly yes yes that s a fine idea well do that and forgot all about it lighted a cigar and forgot that too the rang and about him men t say mr say mr without penetrating his exhausted hearing in the exhibit room were plans of the new of pictures of the new state at de and large ears of com with the nature s gold from county the garden spot of god s own country the real con ted of men muttering in hotel or in groups amid the spotted crowd in the but there was a show of public meeting the first of them opened with a welcome by the mayor of monarch the of the first christian church of monarch a large man with a long damp informed god that the real estate men were here now the venerable major read a paper in which he co er stores william a of gave a f d n c i s hie fro for increased and reminded that plate prices were two points lower was on the tes were incessantly and firmly the chamber of commerce gave them a banquet and the an afternoon reception at which a was presented to each of the and to each of the men a leather bid fold inscribed from monarch the mi mrs wife of the of fleet wing opened her italian garden and served tea six hundred real estate men and wives down the paths perhaps three hundred of them were quietly perhaps three hundred vigorously exclaimed this is pretty eh picked the late and concealed them in pockets and tried to t near enough to mrs to shake her lovely hand request the tes except gathered round a marble dancing and sang here we come the from the it chanced that all the from belonged to the and order of and they produced an banner b p o e best pie on earth oh nor was de the state capital to be the leader of the de was a large man but active he took off coat hurled his black felt hat on the ground rolled his sleeves climbed upon the and well the world and the good lady who s giving the show this afternoon that the in this man s state b de you boys can talk about np but murmur that old has the largest proportion of home citizens in the state and when folks own their homes ui starting labor troubles and they re raising d n by instead of de for the town that em alive the guests drove os the garden shivered into quiet but mrs sighed as she lo at a seat	42
warm from five hundred of on the face of a winged it some one had drawn a in lead paper were among the on the walk like flesh were the of the last rose floated in the pool trailing an evil stain as they swelled and and beneath the marble seat the fragments carefully put was a smashed as he rode back to the hotel reflected have enjoyed all this social agony for himself he cared for the garden party than for the the monarch of had arranged he viewed water stations and tan he devoured the which were given to him and to his w a of course this town a patch on it got our outlook and natural resources but did you know i did till to day that th seven hundred and million feet of lumber last year what d you think of he was nervous as the tune for reading his paper approached when he stood on the low platform before the he trembled and saw only a purple haze but he was in earnest and when be bad the formal paper be talked to them his hands in his pockets his face a flashing like a plate set op on edge in the b t they shouted that s the and in the d n by bon afterward tbey with to our friend and brother mr george f he bad io fifteen minutes changed from a minor ate to a age almost as well known as that of business after the meeting from all over the state said you brother sixteen complete strangers called him george and three men took him into comers to mighty glad you had the course to stand iq and give the profession a real now i ve always maintained next with tremendous asked the girl at the hotel news stand for the from there was nothing in the but in the advocate times m the third page he gasped they had printed his picture and a half column account the heading was sensation at annual s g f prominent in fine address he murmured reverently i guess some of the folks on heights will sit up and take notice now and pay a little to old it was the last meeting the were the claims of their several cities to the next year s were announcing that de the capital city the site of college and of the knitting works is the recognized of culture and high class enterprise and that the big little city with lt where every man is en handed and every woman a heaven bom hostess throws wide to you her gates in the midst of these more invitations the golden of the opened with a of trumpets and a parade rolled in it was of the d n by dressed u bard at the head was big in die and gold and coat of a drum major him as a down beating a bass drum and noisy was ie ed on the platform play with his and observed and the time has came to get down to cases a in the wool sure loves his neighbors but we ve made up our minds to this off our like we ve the business and the er business and j harry the hinted we e grateful to you mr but you must the other boys a chance to hand in their bids now a fog bom voice in int rides through the prettiest country running down the aisle g his hands a lean bald man cried i m from onr chamber of has me they ve set aside thousand dollars in real money for the entertainment of the a looking man rose to talks i we the bid from it was accepted the committee on resolutions was they said that whereas ty god in his beneficent mercy had seen fit to remove to a here of higher usefulness some thirty six of the state the past year therefore it was the sentiment of this assembled that they were god had done it and the secretary should be and was instructed to spread these resolutions on the minutes and tb the families by sending them each a copy a second resolution the of d n by to q fifteen thousand in sane tax measures in the state this resolution had a good deal to say about to sound business and dealing the wheels of from ill advised and obstacles the on reported with startled awe learned that he had been appointed a member of the on titles he rejoiced i said it was going to be great year old son got big things ahead of you i you re a orator and a good and there was no formal entertainment provided for the last evening had planned to go home but that afternoon the of suggested that nd w a have tea with them at the inn were not unknown to his wife and ht earnestly attended them at least twice a year but they were sufficiently to make him feel important he sat at a l ass table in the art room of the inn with its painted on bark and being in dutch caps he ate insufficient sand and was lively and naughty with mrs who was as smooth and large eyed as a model and he had met days before so they were calling each other and said say boys before you go seeing this is the last chance i ve got it in my room and here is the best little t in the like us say with wide flowing gestures and followed the to their room mrs shrieked oh bow she saw that she had left a d n by of sheer cr w the bed she tucked k into a big don t mind ns we re a o little	42
for ice and the bell who t it said and ted glasses or mixed the in one of those dismal white water which exist only in when they had finished the first round she proved by think you b could stand another you got a coming that thou she was hut a woman she knew the and perfect of drinking outside hinted to say w a old it comes over me that i could stand it if we didn t go back to the wives this handsome but just of stayed in and threw a party george you speak with the tongue of wisdom and el wing s wife has gone on to let s see if we can t gather him in at half past seven they sat is their room with wing and two state coats were ofi their en their faces red voices they were finishing a bottle of and the bell boy say son can you get us some more of this were smoking large cigars and ashes and on the carpet with windy they telling stories they were in fact in a happy state of nature si ed i don t know how it strikes you but i like this loose for a change and kicking over a couple of mountains and climbing up on the pole and waving the around the man from a grave intense i guess i m as good a husband as the run of the mill but god i do get so tired of going home every evening and nothing to see but the that s i go out and d n by i l w ae i i got ae httle in my but i to do as a kid know what i to do wanted to be a big tha s i wanted to do bat mi eat oa the road aad hat i m for a oh the started this talk how boat bother iii d ink aad a cr drink do i yea cut the said w a know i m the village come oo said the old to tbe young am dry i dry the to the old so am i k am v ti bad in the of the somewhere somehow seemed to have gathered in two other comrades a of fly er and a they all drank from tea cups and were and never listened to one another except when w a the italian waiter say i want a le o ears sorry we any no can what do you know about that i turned to says the cars are all be said the man from with difficulty hiding his laughter wed in that case just bring me a o and a couple o f potatoes and some peas went on i back in dear old d n by it e get fresh garden peas oat of the no we have very nice in italy is that a fact i do you hear that they get their fresh garden peas out of the garden in by yon live and learn don t you you certainly do live and learn if yon live long and keep your strength all right just me in that with about two of french on the deck afterward wing admired certainly did have that poor going w a he couldn t make you out at in the monarch herald found an be read aloud to t and ter old colony theatre shake the old dog to the the of bathing in and his oh this is the straight the of the are the bunch that ever hit steer the feet get the card board and twist the to the show ever you will get iii b on your in this fun the sisters are sure some and will give yon a run for your is one of the lads and slips you a dose of real laughter shoot the up and down to and west for graceful they run i a under the wire and will blow the in their laugh something doing boys listen to what tho bird sounds like a show to me let all take it in a a d n by but pot off u long as they could tbey safe sat here firmly under the bat felt unsteady tb were afraid of the and slippery floor of the under the eyes of the other guests and the too attentive when they did venture tables got in their way and they t to cover embarrassment by heavy at the as the handed out their hats they smiled at her and hoped that she a cool and e judge would fed that they woe gentlemen they at one another who owns the bum lid and you take a good george take s left and to the check they better come along sister high wide and evening ad of them tried to tip her urging one another v here i got it t among them gave her three dollars smoking they sat in s box at the show their feet up on the rail while a chorus of twenty worried and respectable swung their in the chorus and ft made fun of jews in the they met other lone a dozen of them went in out to t blossom inn where the were made of paper along a room low and like a cow stable no longer wisely used here was served openly in glasses two or three who pay day longed to be taken for danced with j and girls io the narrow space between the tables whirled the a young man in evening and a dim mad girl in silk with hair flung up as as tried to dance with her bi d n by the floor too to be ui a to the of the im and hi ui im ty n he would b ve had	42
him with a strength he was mad deaf m he could not see the tables the bat he by the girl and her young when she had firmly to his ho by a connection w h a i that mother mother had been and with head thrown wide ha ve r and but that was the his and the man from said he was a bum aad lor ten with in a ai called for the manager insisted that the place ab the a hot raw for more brutal a mn n ti when w a what say we go down the and look over the is be agreed before they went three of then secretly made with the pro girl who agreed yes yes tore darling to said aad forgot them as they drove bad the of streets ui small brown wooden cottages rf ss as tbey rattled war dis t by night seemed vast and perilous as they toward the red li ts sod violent and the women was ba to leap the hot all his body was a fire and be groaned too late to now and knew he did not want to quit there tbey felt one very humorous incident on at way a from said is a hit than you haven t get like these here t l a dirty d n by yon can t find in tn we got more and an all kinds than any in the state he realized they were bustling at him he to fi t and forgot it in e as he had not known since b oe be to his desire for was satisfied he had to a he was irritable he did not smile when w a ow a i certainly do fed like the of god this morning i know what was tbe went and put in my but ni t s was never known to his nor to nay one in save and wing it was not recognized even by himself it it bad q u have not been d n by chapter xiv this a mr w g of ma appointed of the united states but mi interested in the national campaign than in the local thou he was a lawyer and a of the state was candidate for mayor of on an labor ticket to him the and united on a a perfect record for mr was supported by the banks the of commerce all the decent and george f was leader on ta but his district was safe and he for his paper had given him the beginning of a reputation for so the republican central committee sent him to the seventh ward and south to address small of workmen and clerks and wives uneasy with their new he acquired a fame enduring for now and then a was present at one of his meeting and the they were not very large indicated that george f had addressed cheering throng and man of bad pointed out the of once in the section of the sunday advocate there was photograph of ai d a dozen other business men with the leaders of and commerce who back he deserved his glory he was an he had faith he was certain that if were alive he would be for mr w g unless be d n by came to and for he did not by silly represented honest i and you could take your with bis broad and he was obviously a good fellow and of all he really liked people he almost liked common he wanted them to be well paid and able to afford high rents though naturally they must not interfere with the reasonable profits of thus nobly endowed and hi by the discovery that he was a natural orator he was with and he raged through the campaign renowned not only in the seventh and ei th wards but even in parts of the sixteenth crowded in his car they came driving to han south his wife ted and paul and the hall was over a shop in a street with and smelling of and and fish a new of filled all of them including t know how you keep it talking to in one evening wish i had your strength said paul and ted exclaimed to the old man certainly know how to kid these men in black shirts their faces new washed but with a hint of under their eyes were k on the broad stairs up to the hall s par edged them and into the room at the front of which was a with a red throne and a pine altar painted watery blue as used nightly the grand masters and supreme of innumerable the hall was full as pushed the fringe at the back ue the precious that the d n by down the aisle an tv speaker ah ready let s se ms the name sir then slid into a sea of eloquence ladies and of the sixteenth there it cannot be with us here to ni t a man than there ia no more in all the political i to oar leader the honorable front of the aad county of since be is not here i that yon will bear with me if as a friend and as one who is to with yon the common of being a resident of the great d of i tell yon in all honesty and sincerity bow the issues of this critical appear to one plain man of business to one brought up to the blessings of poverty and of manual labor has even when fate him to sit at a desk never forgotten how it feels by to be up at five thirty and at the factory with the in his hardened the whistle blew at seven unless the owner in ten minutes on us	42
and blew it ter to come down to the and issues of tliis can the great error by there were workmen who young cynical men for the most part foreigners jews but the older the patient stooped and him and when be worked to his anecdote of eyes were wet bu y he out of the hall tm applause and off to his third audience of the evening ted you better drive be said kind of all fat after that paul d it go did i get em you bad a lot of his oh it was so dear and interesting and when i hear you i i q bow profoundly you think ud d n by ft aad yon have but was she worried bow you know that of lad so on and m will ra be a failure mrs i should think you could see and realize that your father all worn out with it s no time to him to e lain these complicated i m sure when he rested bell be glad to explain it to now let s all be quiet and give papa a to get for his just think now tbey ie gathering in le and for and sound defeated mr and class rule and was again saved was several minor to among poor relations but be preferred advance information about the of paved hi and thb a grateful administration gave to also he was one of only nineteen t the dinner with the of commerce the victory of ri his reputation established at the dinner of the real estate board he made the annual address the advocate times reported this with one of the that has recently been pulled off last night in the annual get together of he real estate board held in the ball room of the house mine host o bad as usual done himself proud and those assembled on such an assemblage of plates as could be west of new york if there and washed down the feed with the cup which inspired but did not in the shape of the farm president of the board and acted as and d n by i o as mr suffering from t and throat g f made the talk the progress of real estate titles mr in part as follows in rising to address yon with my in tu tucked into pocket i am reminded of the story of the two and pat who were riding on the both of them i forgot to say woe sailors in the navy it seems had the lower berth and by and by he heard a terrible from the iq and when be up to find out what the trouble was fat answered an an how can i ever get a night s sleep at all at all i been trying to get into this little ever now gentlemen standing here before you i fed a good deal like fat and maybe i ve along for a while i may fed so dam small that be able to crawl into a with no trouble at all at all gentlemen it strikes me that each year at this annual when friend and foe get together and lay down the battle ax and let the waves of good th n up the slopes of it us standing together ye to eye and shoulder to shoulder as fellow citizens of the best in the world to consider where we are both as regards ourselves and the common it is true that even with our or practically population there are by the last almost a score of larger cities in the united states but gentlemen if by the next we do not stand at least tenth then be the first to any to remove my shirt and to eat the same with the of g f it may be true that new york and will continue to keep ahead of us in size but aside from these three are so overgrown that no decent white man d n by y loves us e and and god s good ont o doors likes to shake the hand of his in greeting to live in and let me tell you ri t here and bow i trade a hi t class development for the whole length and breadth of or state aside from these it s evident to any one with a head or facts that is the finest of american and to be f anywhere t mean to say we re perfect got a bt to do in the way of extending the of for me it s the with to ten thousand a year say and an and a nice little family in a ow cm the edge of town that makes the of go that s the type of fellow that s ruling america to day in bet it s the ideal type to which the entire world must tend if there to be a decent well balanced christian future for this little old once in a while i just sit back and size up this solid american citizen a of a lot of satisfaction onr ideal citizen i picture him first and foremost as i being than a bird dog not wasting a lot of good time in dreaming or going to or kicking about things i that are none of his business but putting the into some store or an or art at night he li ts up a good cigar and into the little old and maybe the and shoots out home he lawn or in some practice putting and then he s ready for dinner after dinner be the a story or takes the family to the or plays a few fists of bridge or reads the evening paper and a chapter or two of some good lively western novel if he	42
has a taste for and maybe the folks next door drop in and they sit and visit about their friends and the topics of the day then he goes to bed his conscience clear having d n by i us to the of the and to hb own bank in politics and this sane is the on and in the arts he invariably has a which makes bim pick oat the best eveiy time in m country in the world will yoa find so many ti the old masters and of well known paintings on parlor walls as in these united states no country has anything like our number of bs with not only dance records and comic bat also the best such as rendered by the s hi paid la other countries art and literature are to a lot tf living hi and feeding on and but in america the writer is from other decent business man and i for one am only too glad that the man who has the rare to season his message with interesting reading matter and who shows both purpose and in handling literary warn has a to drag down his fifty thousand a year to mingle with the biggest aa terms of perfect and to as big a house and as swell a car as any captain of industry but yoa it s the q rf the who i have been has made this and you got to band as much credit to as to the finally but most in x our even if he is a is a lover of the little ones a porter of the is the foundation of our civilization first last and all the time and the that most us from the decayed of europe i have never yet europe as a of tact i don t know that i care to such an awful lot as as there s own mi ty and mountains to be seen bat the my i figure it out there must be a good mai of our own sort d abroad indeed one of the enthusiastic d n by s i met the of per im that o and all ye o but same time one that ui from our good tbe over there is that th te to take a lot the and and while the modem american man knows how to talk ri t up for knows bow to make it good and plenty clear that he to run the works he have to call in some hi hired man when it s necessary for him to answer the crooked critics of the sane and life he s not dumb like the old fashioned merchant he got a and a with modesty i want to stand up as a representative business man and gently whisper here s o kind of here s the q of the can i the new generation of americans f with hair ni and in eyes and adding in their offices we re not doing any but we like ourselves rate and if yon like us out get cover before the c done in my clumsy way i have tried to sketch the real be man the with and bang and it s because has so large a proportion of men that it the most stable the greatest of our cities new york also has its thousands of real but new york is cursed with foreigners so are and san xi we have a golden of and with their renowned with its great and and with their city and and that open their gates on the bosom of the ocean like and countless other sister for by the last there were no less than e t glorious american with a population of over one hundred and all these cities stand u for power and purity and ai d n by i i ideas and with with with los with with a good live wire from or or is the of every like from or fort worth ot but it s here in the home for manly mm and womanly women and t that you find the largest of these regular and that s what sets it in a class by that s will be remembered in as having set the pace for a civilization that shall endure the old time killing ways are gone forever and the day of earnest efficient endeavor shall have dawned all round the some time i hope folks will quit handing all the credit to a lot of eaten out of date old european and give credit to the famous spirit that clean fitting determination to win success that has made the little old city in eveiy land and milk and are known i believe me the ld has fallen too long for these worn out countries that aren t i anything but and scenery and that haven t got one hundred pet ie and that know a loose leaf a cover and it s just about time for some to get his back up and for a show i tell you and her are producing a new type of civilization there are between and these other and i m dam glad of iti the i extraordinary growing and sane of stores i offices streets hotels clothes and ut the united states shows bow strong and enduring a type is i always like to remember a piece that wrote tor the about his lecture it is doubtless familiar to many of bat if you will permit me i d take d n by a and read it of the poems like if t or s the man w th and i always this of it in my note book when i am out upon the road a a peter s i mostly sing a hearty song and take a and along a out my fine	42
of brand of sweet and and stable lines of and jokes to and folks to clubs and fed i uke other and then old satan a s always ke gives his tail a lively and gets in quick his dirty work he fills me up my tke backward way ke ke makes me a on sunday when the folks t t round and then b i prefer to never be a a ri t round in cars and smoking fifty cent cigars and never more i want to i simply want to be back a and ham who i am but when i get that i simply seek tke best no matter in town i st paul or k c in in or and at inn it my dome that i again am right at if i stand a in front of that first that to the to across from some big if i look around and and wonder in i town i was i swear i never for all tke crowd be so in just tke same fine sort of wear at and all tke queens y on beans and all tke fellows round a always m be bound tke same good kind of bout politics and stuff and players of renown nice ik then i entered that around and say for be tke same news stand d n by l ami grand of ra find at home i tt and i m bunch m for at and in to large of french then i d stand right up and never left home at ofl and ah i d me beside some m brown upon a chair of and murmur to urn in a rush ia tell me good old how it a then w d be off two solid a uke giddy of weather home and woes lodge brothers jar all our so when sam satan makes yon good friend what i d up and da far in these states fm yon never leave home sweet home to these other arc our true in the of living but let s any mistake about this x claim that is the best partner and the partner of the i trust i be if i ve a few to back up mj claims if they are old stuff to any of you yet the of like the good of the bible never become tedious to the ears of a real no how oft the sweet story is every intelligent knows that ma more milk and cream more p boxes and more li tin than any other in the united states if not in the world but it is not so universally known that we also stand in the ture of butter sixth in the realm of and and somewhere about third in leather tar breakfast food and i our greatness however lies not alone in but equally in that public it that forward looking and brotherhood which has marked ever since its foundation by the fathers we have a right indeed we have a duty toward our fair to the d n by about onr u hy and tbe finest systems in the bar none our magnificent new hotels and banks and tbe and carved marble in th d r and the second national tower the second building in any inland in tbe entire country when i add that wc have an number of miles of paved streets and all the other signs of civilization that our library and art are st and in convenient and buildings that our park system is more than up to par with its handsome ad with grass shrubs and then i give but a hint of the unlimited of however in the best to the when remind you that we have car five and seven ths persons in the then i ve a rock practical indication of the kind of progress and is with the name but the way of the ri is not all roses before i dose i must call your to a problem we have to face this year the menace to sound government is not the but a lot of work under cover tbe long haired call themselves and and non and god only knows bow many other trick teachers and constitute tbe worst of this ag and i am ashamed to say that several of them are on tbe faculty of our great state the u is my own and i am proud to be known as an but there are certain there a seem to think we ou t to turn the conduct of the nation over to and are the to be they and au their milk and water the american business man is generous to a fault but one thing be demand of all d n by i s en and and if we re going to pay them good money tbey got to help by and ing it up rational l and it comes to these mouth fault finding cynical university teachers let me you that during this golden it s just as much our duty to bring influence to have those fired as it is to all the real estate and gather in all the good we can not till that is done will our sons and see that he ideal of american manhood and culture isn t a lot of around the rag about their rights and their wrongs bat a god fearing successful two regular who belongs to some church with and piety to it who to the or the or the to the or or red men or knights of or any one of a score of of good jolly laughing lend a handing royal good fellows who plays hard and works hard and whose answer to his critics is a square boot the and smart to the he man and get out and root for	42
uncle u promised to become a orator he entertained a of the men s of the road church with irish and chinese dialect stories but in nothing was he more dearly revealed as the in his lecture on facts on real estate as delivered before the class in methods at the y m ca the advocate times reported the lecture so fully that said to you re getting to be one of the in town seems s if i couldn t d n by if a p reading down all this oo t to bring a lot of business into your office go od quit said feebly but at this tribute from himself a man of no mean fame he delight and wondered how before his i he could have the joys of being a solid d n by chapter xv ha to ms not did not bring the ad the deserved they were not to the nor invited to the dances at the union fretted be didn t care a fat for all i but the would kind of like to be among he nervously awaited us class dinner and an evening of furious intimacy with such ai charles the the banker the tool and the fashionable he was their friend as he had been in college and when he encountered th still called him george but he didn seem to encounter them often and they never invited him ta dinner with and a butler at their houses oo ridge an the we the class dinner he thou t of than vo reason we become real like an true american and spiritual the dinner of the men of the class of was organized the dinner committee like a once a we sent out no old are yon ng to be with ui at the friendship feed the of the good old u have d n by cr known tbe of ob tamed ont are we boys to be by a bunch of come on work up real genuine enthusiasm and all together for tbe dinner i elegant eats short talks and memories shared together of the est of life tbe waa in a private room at the union club was a old knocked together and the hall resembled a yet the who was free of the magnificence of the club entered with he nodded to the an ancient proud negro with brass buttons and a blue coat and the ball trying to look like a member men had come to the they made islands and in tbe hall they packed the and the of tbe private dining room hey tried to be intimate and enthusiastic tb to one another exactly as they had in college as raw whose present and wrinkles were but jovial put on the evening you haven t a they tbe men whom they could not recall they addressed well well great to see you again old man what are you doing the same thing one was always starting a cheer or a college song and it was always into silence despite their resolution to be they divided into two sets the men with dress clothes and the men without extremely in dress clothes went from one to the other thou he was almost frankly out for social conquest he sought paul first he alone neat and silent paul i m no good at this and who s here now and be a d n by bunch of boys on say you seem kind of om matter oh the usual run in with come let s in and forget our troubles he kept paul beside him but worked toward the x t charles stood his admirers like a furnace had been the hero of the class of not only captain and hammer but and in what the state considered he had an had captured the construction once owned by the best known of he built state ers railway he was a heavy shouldered big man but not there was a quiet humor in his eyes a smooth quickness id his which and warned re and in his presents the most intelligent or the most sensitive artist felt thin blooded and a little shabby he was particularly when he was or labor very easy and and gorgeous he was he was a peer in the r idly american aristocracy inferior only to the ty old families in an old family is one which came to town before his power was the greater because he was not by senses by either tbe vice or the virtue of the older tradition was being merry now with the great the and the land owners and lawyers and had and went to squeezed among them he liked s smile as much as the social advancement to be had from his favor if in paul s company he ponderous and with b he t and he heard say to the banker yes well put up sir s love for titles became a rich relish you know lie s one of the d n by men in old george is getting than i ami the shouted take your seats shall we make a move said casual to t fault how the old planning to t anywhere george come on let s some seats come on i read about your in the bully after that would have followed him fire he was busy during the dinner now y cheering paul now approaching with hear you re going to build some in now noting how the failures of the class by themselves in a group looked up to him in his association with the nobility now warming himself in the society talk of and they e of a dance for which had decorated her house with thousands of they with an excellent imitation of pf a dinner in washington at which had met a a princess and an english major	42
general called the princess and let it be known that be had danced with her was thrilled but not so with awe as to be silent if he was not invited by them to dinner he was yet accustomed to talking with and who entertained poets he was bright and with say remember in junior year how we a sea hack and chased down to to the big show madame brown used to put on how you beat up that that tried to nm us in and we pinched the sign and took and hung it on s door ob those were the d q l l ll i f those agreed the days had reached it isn t the books you study in but the you make that counts when the men at head of the table broke into song he attacked it s a shame shame to drift apart because our business lie in different fields i ve enjoyed talking over the good old days you and mrs must to dinner some night vaguely yes indeed like to talk to you about the growth of real estate out beyond your i might be able to t you os to a thing or two splendid we must have tt just let me know and it will be a great pleasure to have your wife and yon at the house said much less vaguely then the s voice that prodigious voice which once had roused them to cheer d ance at from or or come on you all together in the long that life would never be sweeter than now when be joined with paul and the newly recovered hero in get an ax get who the u i the invited the to dinner hi early december and the not only accepted but after the date once or twice actually came the somewhat y discussed the details of the dinner from the purchase of a bottle of to the d n by of to be placed each person e did tbey the matter of the other guests to the last held oat for giving paul the benefit of with the good old would paul and better than some hi he insisted but mrs interrupted his observations with yes perhaps i thick iii try to get some and when she was quite ready she invited dr j t the and a lawyer named with wives neither nor to the or to the neither of them bad ever called brother w asked his opinions on the only human people whom she invited raged were the and at times became so that longed for the refreshment of s well old ie face what s the good word immediately after lunch mrs began to set the table for the seven thirty dinner to the and was by order home at four bat they find for him to do and three times mis do please to keep out of the he stood in the of the e his lips drooping and wished that or sam do or would come along and talk to him he saw ted about the comer of the s the matter old man said is that you thin one ma certainly is on the i told her and i would soon not be let in on the to it and she bit me she says i got to take a bath too but say the men will be some to ni tl little in a dress the men liked the of it he pot his arm about the s shoulder he wished that paul had a dan ter so that ted mi t many bo yes your d n by n v kind of all ri it he said and together and and mat id to the were less than fifteen minutes late hoped that the would see the and their waiting in boot the dinner was cooked and plentiful and mrs bad brought out her grandmother s silver worked hard he was good he told none of the jokes he wanted to tell he to the others he started os with a let s hear about your trip to the he was extremely he found opportunities to remark that dr was a benefactor to humanity and profound scholars charles an in to youth and mrs an to the social circles of washington new york paris and numbers of other places but he could not stir it was a dinner without a soul for no reason that was clear to was over them and they laboriously and unwilling he concentrated on carefully not looking at her shoulder and the band su her frock i suppose be going to europe pretty soon again won t you he invited i d like awfully to nm over to rome for a few weeks i suppose you see a lot of pictures and music and and everything there no what i really go for is there s a little on the get the best in the world oh i yes that must be nice to that yes at a quarter to ten discovered with i t found regret his wife had a headache he said as d n by him with his coat we must lunch together some time and talk over the old days when the others had labored out at half past ten turned to his wife pleading said be had a time and we must lunch said they wanted to have us iq to the house for dinner before long she achieved oh it been one of those quiet evening that are often so much more ble than noisy parties where everybody talks at once and doesn t really settle down to nice quiet enjoyment but from his cot on the sleeping he heard her ing slowly without hope for a month they watched the social columns and waited for a return dinner invitation as the	42
hosts of sir the were all the week after the dinner received sir who had come to america to buy coal the newspapers him on ireland ment naval the rate of exchange tea drinking drinking the of american women and daily life as lived by en county families sir seemed to have heard of all those topics the gave him a dinner and miss pearl society editor of the advocate rose to her hi eat lark read aloud at table the original and oriental the strange and food and the both of the guests the charming hostess and the noted host never has seen a more affair than the dinner dance given last evening by mr and mrs charles to sir as we fortunate one i were privileged to view that fairy and f at lo or oe of capital be more it it not for that ii in matter ra becoming known at the inland city in the country though he is too modest to admit it lord gives a to our smart such as it has not received the ever visit ol the earl of not only it he of the british but he is also on a leader of the british metal as he comes from a favorite haunt of robin hood though now we are informed by lord a live modem city of inhabitants and important lace as well as other we like to think that perhaps through his vein ran ome of the blood both red and blue of that earlier lord o the good the robin the lovely never was more fascinating than last evening in her blade net gown relieved by dainty bands of silver and at her waist a glowing o ward roses said bravely i hope they t invite ns to meet this lord dam si t rather just have a nice little dinner with and the at the club they discussed it an t e we ll have to call from bow on said it beats all get out meditated that man of how hard it is for some pet le to get thin straight here they call this it ought to be sir la that a fact i sir eh that s yon call urn eh m to know that later he hia it s n goat the way some folks that just because they happen to lay a big go entertaining famous don t have man idea tt a rabbit how to address em so s to make em feel at d n by oat driving home be passed and sir a large po eyed whose of yellow gave him an sad and doubtful drove on by he had a and conviction that the were at him he betrayed his by the violence with which he informed his wife that really tend to business got the time to waste on a bunch like the this stuff is like any other if you devote yourself to ft get oo but i like to have a to with you and the children instead of all thia round th did not of the again it was a at this worried time to have to about the ed was a of had been a he had a large family and a feeble business out in the of he was gray and thin and he had always been gray and thin and he was the person wh n in any group you forgot to introduce then introduced with extra enthusiasm he had admired s good fellowship in college had admired ever since his power in real estate his beautiful house and it pleased it him with a sense of re at the class dinner he had seen poor in a shiny blue business suit being in a comer with three other failures he had gone over and l een cordial why i hear you re writing all the in now bully they recalled the good old days when used to write poetry him by say i hate to think of how we been drifting apart i d n by oo irish you and mn would come to some ni t just let me know and the wife and i want to have at the he forgot it but d did not repeatedly he td to inviting him to dinner mi t as go and get it over groaned to his wife bat don t it simply yon the way the poor fish know the first thing about social etiquette think of him me instead of his wife sitting down and writing us a regular well i guess we re stuck for it that the trouble with ah this class brother hot he s next plaintive invitation for an evening two off a dinner two we off even a dinner never seems so appalling till the two we have a disappeared and one comes dismayed to the hour they had to change the date because of own dinner to the but at last th gloomily drove out to the house in it was miserable from the be the bad dinner at six the never dined before seven permitted himself to be tm minutes late make it as short as possible i think well duck out quick ill say i have to be at the office extra early t he planned the house was it was the story of a wooden two family dwelling a place of baby carriages old in the hall smell and a bible on the parlor table ed and his wife as awkward and as usual and the other guests were two dreadful families names never t and never desired to but he was touched and dis by the way in which praised him we re mi ty proud to have old here to ni tl of course you ve all read about his q and in file p and the s	42
ever entered the church except to wash the windows or repair the and a sewing which made short little for the children of the poor mis drew read aloud from earnest novels dr drew was his was gracefully e as he said it had the moat features of those noble monuments of grand old england stand as of the eternity of faith religious and civil it was built of in an in style and the main bad lifting from in lavish on a december y the went to church dr john drew was unusually eloquent tbe crowd was immense ten brisk young in morning coats with white roses were bringing folding chairs up the there was an musical ram conducted by of the ca who also the cared less for this because some person had taught young mr to d n by smile he sin ng but all the i of a he it had the the road from the ds cm smith at thia abundant harvest time of all the year di thou stormy the sky and the path to the ng yet the hovering and q back o er all the labors and desires of the past oh then it seems to me there sounds behind all oar apparent failures the golden chorus of greeting from those passed on and on the m horizon we see behind clouds the ml mass of mountains of melody mountains of mirth of mi tl i certainly do like a sermon with culture and t ia it meditated at the end of the ce he was when the shaking hands at the door oh brother can you wait a want your advice sure into my office i think like the cigars there did like the he also liked the j was distinguished from other of only by the of the familiar wall to this is the lord s day came hi then william w mr was the seventy year old president of the bank of he wore the delicate patches of side had been the uniform of in if was envious of the smart set of the before william washington he was mr had nothing to do with the smart set he was above it he was the great of one of the five men who founded in and he was of the third tion of he could examine make or injure a man s in his presence breathed quickly and young d n by the dr into room and into ive you to stay so z can put a proportion the sunday needs it s the fourth largest in but no reason why ve should take anybody s dust we ou t to be first i want to request you if you to a committee of advice and for the sunday school look it over and make any suggestions for its and then perhaps see that the press os some attention give the public some really and news instead of all these and said the banker and were w t j to join him if had asked his on was be would have d in my religion is to serve my men to honor my brother as n and to do n bit to make life ba er for and all if you bad pressed him for more detail he would have announced i m a member of the church and naturally i accept its doctrines if yon had been so brutal as to go on be would have protested s no use and arguing about it just op bad fed actually the content of his was that there was a who had tried to make us perfect but had failed that if one was a good man be would go to a place called heaven unconsciously pictured it as rather like an hotel with a private garden but if one was a bad man that is if he murdered or committed or used or bad or sold non real estate be would be punished was uncertain about w he this business of he d n by ao to ted of i m pretty i don t ex believe in a fire and hell stands to reason though that a fellow can t get away with all sorts of v ce and not get for it see how i mean upon this he pondered the of his practical was that it was re and to one s business to be seen to services that the church k t the worst elements from being still worse and that the s sermons however dull th mi t seem at the time of taking yet had a power which did a good kept him in touch with hi er things his first for the sunday school committee did not inspire hun he liked the busy folks bible class of mature mm and women and addressed by the old school dr t in a style to of the more refined humorous after dinner but when he went down to the junior classes he was disconcerted he heard of the i ca and leader of the church choir a pale but young man with curly hair and a smile teaching a class of old boys lovingly them now i to have a heart to heart talk evening at my house next thursday well get ob by and be frank about our secret you can just old any thing like all the fellows do at the y i m going to explain frankly about the a falls into unless he s guided by a big brother and about the perils and of sex old beamed the boys ashamed and didn t know way to turn embarrassed eyes less but also much were the which were being instructed in philosophy and oriental by earnest most of them met in uie hi d n by sunday school room but there was	42
an to the was decorated with water pipes and lighted by small windows high up in the wall what saw however was the first church of he was back in the sunday school of bis boyhood he again that polite to be found only in church he recalled the case of sunday school books a humble heroine and jo a lad of be once more the high text cards which no boy wanted but no boy liked to throw away because they were somehow sacred he was l the stumbling of thirty ve years ago as in ths vast church he listened to now you read the next verse what does it mean when it says it s easier for a to go through a needle s eye what does this teach us please don t if you bad studied your lesson you wouldn t be so now earl what is the lesson was trying to teach his the one thing i want you to especially boys is the words with god all things are possible just think of that always please pay attention just say with god all things are possible whenever you feel discouraged and will you read the next verse t d pay attention you wouldn t lose your place gigantic bees that in a of started from his f en eyed nap thanked the teacher for the privilege of listening to her teaching and staggered on to the next circle after two weeks of this be had no suggestions whatever for the reverend dr drew then he discovered a world of sunday school journals an enormous and busy domain of and which were as as practical and forward looking as the d q l ll i no real estate columns or the trade he half a dozen of them at a book shop and till after midnight he read hum and admired he found many tips m for new and getting prospects to sign up with the sunday school he particularly liked the word prospects and was moved by the the moral springs of the community s life lie deep hi its sunday schools its schools of religious instruction and in h neglect now means loss of q vigor and power to years to come facts like the above t a t arm appeal will reach folks who can never be laughed or into doing their part admitted tliat s so i used to skin out of the sunday school at eveiy chance i got but same time i wouldn t be where i am to day maybe if it been for its training in in power and all about the bible great literature have to read some of it again one of that days how the sunday school could be he learned from an article in the bible class the second vice after the fellowship of the class she chooses a to help her these become y one who comes gets a glad hand no one goes away a stranger one of the stands on the and by to come in most of all appreciated he by william h in the sunday school times if you have a sunday school class without any and go fa it that is without interest that is in attendance that acts like a fellow witb the spring fever let dr write you a tion invite the bunch tar the sunday school journals were as well rounded as th d n by were tb needed none of the arts as to the school advertised that c known to thousands his sacred had written a new entitled yearning tor you the poem by d is one of the you could ne and the music is beautiful critics are agreed that it will sweep the country may be made into a charming sacred song by the hymn words heard the voice of say even manual training was considered noted an ingenious way of the of christ for to make tomb with rolling door a square covered box turned side down pull th cover forward a little to form a at the bottom cut a square door also cut a circle of to more than cover the door cover the circular door and the tomb thickly with stiff mixture of sand flour and water and let it dry it was the heavy circular stone over the door the women found rolled away on morning this is the story we are to ten in their the sunday school journals were thoroughly was interested in a which takes the place of exercise for men by building up nerve the brain and the system was to learn that the selling of bit i and strictly and as an on he was pleased by the communion company s announcement of an improved and satisfactory out including y polished beautiful tray this tray all noise is lighter and more handled than others and is more in keeping with the furniture of the church than a tr y of any other material d n by he ed the of school journals he pondered now there s a real he world ashamed i sat in more that s an influence in the if be doesn t take part in a real religion sort of christianity you nd t say but with all some folks might claim these sunday school are and and so on sure always some to spring things like that i knocking and and tearing down so much easier than tp but me i certainly hand it to these magazines they ve t george f and that s the answer to the critics i the more manly and practical a fellow is the more be to lead the christian life me for it i cut out this carelessness and and i where the devil you been this is a fine time o night to	42
equal to the of all the rest of the world but they were so that they predicted to s irritation that there would some day he a third party which would give trouble to the and shook hands with three times at mentioned his extreme fondness for within a week three newspapers accounts of sterling labors for religion and all of them mentioned william washington as his nothing bad brought quite so much credit at the the club and the his friends had always congratulated him on his but in their was doubt for even in speeches the city there was brow and like writing poetry but now jones shouted across the dining room here s the new of the first state the eminent of chuckled wonder you mix with common folks after holding s hand i and the was at last willing to discuss buying a house in when the sunday school campaign was finished to say how about doing a little for drew personally d n by oa the to do a little for mr there s hardly a week goes by without his ringing up the papa to say if well chase a to his study hell let us in on the story about the swell sermon he s going to preach on the wickedness of short skirts or the of the don t you worry about him there s just one better in town and that s this that runs the child and the league and the only reason she s got drew beaten is because she has got w now i don t think you ought to talk that way about the doctor a preacher has to watch bis interests hasn t yon that in he bible about about being in the lord s or something ah right get something in if you want me to mr but have to wait till the managing editor is out of town and then the city thus it came to pass that in the sunday advocate times imder a picture of dr drew at his with eyes alert as granite and rustic lock an tion a wood twenty four hours the r v dr john drew u a of the beautiful ch road church in heights is a soul he holds the local record for during his an average of almost a hundred sin weary persons per year have declared their resolve to lead a new life and have a harbor of refuge and peace everything at the road church the are to the top of dr w is especially keen on good singing bright cheerful hymns are used at every meeting and the special sing attract lovers of music and from all of the city on the popular platform as well as in the dr w is a renowned word and during un d n by of the j or he literally of oo to at both here let dr drew know that be was responsible for this tribute dr drew called bim brother and shook bis band a great many times during tbe meeting of the committee had that be would be to invite to dinner but bad murmured so nice of old man now almost never go out surely would not refuse his own said to drew say doctor now we ve put this thing over strikes me it iq to the to blow tbe three of us to a bully i you delighted cried dr drew in bis way some one had once told him that be talked like the late president and doctor be sure and get mr to come it it s i think be sticks home too much for bis own health came it was a friendly dinner gracefully of tbe g and value of en to tbe they were he said the of the fold of commerce for the first time departed from the topic of and asked about tbe progress of his answered modestly almost a few months when he had a chance to take part in the street con s deal did not care to go to his own bank for a loan it was rather a quiet sort of deal and if it had come out the public mi t not have he went to bis friend mr be was welcomed and received tbe loan as a private venture and they both pr ted in their pleasant new after that went to church regularly oa d n by sunday whidi were obviously meant lor he to ted i you there s no stronger of sound than the church and no better to make friends whom help you to gain your ri place in the than in your own u d n by chapter xviii he saw them twice daily he knew and discussed every detail of their yet for together was no more conscious of his children than of the buttons on his coat sleeves the admiration of made him aware ot she had become secretary to mr of the leather she did her work with the of a mind which details and never quite understands them but she was one of the people who give an impression of being on the point of doing something desperate of leaving a job or a husband without ever doing it was so hopeful about s that he became the playful parent when he returned from the he peered into the living room and ed has our been here to ni t he never s protest why ken and i are just good friends and we only talk about ideas i won t all this sentimental nonsense would spoil everything it was ted who most worried with conditions in latin and english but with a triumphant record in manual training basket ball and the organization of dances ted was ng his senior year in the east side high school at home he	42
with her then he discovered the to the party the boys and girls disappeared occasionally and he remembered of their drinking together from hip pocket he round the house and in each of the dozen cars waiting in the street he saw the points of light from from each of them heard high he wanted to them but standing in the snow peering round the dark comer be did not dare he tried to be when he had returned to the front hall he the boys say if any of you fellows are there s some ale thanks th condescended he sought his wife in the and exploded i d he to go in there and throw some of those young out of the they talk down to me like i was the i d like to i know she sighed says au the mothers d n by me unless stand them if yoa get angry because th go out to can to have a drink th wont come to your any and we wouldn t want ted left out of things would we he announced that he would be enchanted to have ted left out of and hurried in to be polite lest ted be left out of but he resolved if he found that the boys were drinking be he d hand tm something that would em while be was trying to be agreeable to shouldered young be was earnestly at them twice he t the of time but then it was only twice dr in he had come in a of solemn parental patronage to look on ted and were dancing moving like one body ed he called there was ft and e q to that s mother bad a headache and needed her she went off in tears looked after them furiously that little getting ted into and the conceited old gas bag acting like it was ted that was the later he on ted breath after the farewell to the guests the terrific a thorough family scene like an and without thundered mrs ted was defiant and in confusion aa to whose side she was taking for several months there was coolness between the and the each family their the wolf next dow and still q in periods about and the but they kept away from mention of their families whenever came to the she discussed with pleasant intimacy d n by the fact that she bad been forbidden to come to the and tried with no success to be and with her an ted to as tb r hot of and an of nuts in the of the royal store it gets me why doesn t just pass out from being so every evening he sits there about half asleep and if or i say come on let s do something he doesn t even take the trouble to think about it he just and says this suits me right here he doesn t know there s ai fun going on ai i he must do some thinking same as you and i do but there s no way of it i e that outside of the oe ce and playing a bum on saturday be knows there s anything in the to do except just keep sitting there there every ni t not wanting to go anywhere cot wanting to do thinking us are sitting there tf if he was m by ted s was not sufficiently by she was too safe she lived too much in the neat little room of her mind and she always under fool when were not at home conducting cautiously radical courtship over sheets of were off to lectures by authors and hers and to bis wife as th y walked home from the bridge party it gets me bow and that fellow can be so they sit there night after ni it be isn t working and they don t know there any d n by am b the all talk ud lord sitting ni t after not to do thinking i m i like to go oat and play a fist of cards sitting there then round the bored by ing tht perpetual surf of family life new swelled s father and mother air and mrs t their old in the district and moved to the hotel that boarding with red and the sound of they were there and every other evening the had to dine with them on discouraged and ice cream and ut polite and restrained in the while a young woman songs from the german own mother came down from to q end three weeks she was a kind woman and she congratulated the on being a nice loyal home body without ad these ideas that so many girls seem to have nowadays and when ted filled the with out of pure love of and she rejoiced that he was so handy around the house and helping his father and all and not going out with the girls all the time and trying to pretend be was a society fellow loved his mother and sometimes he rather liked her but be was annoyed by her christian patience and he was reduced to she about a quite hero called your father yon won t remember it you were such a little at the ny i remember just how you locked that d n by day your brown and your lace yon a and kind of and and yon loved bo and the red oa your little and all and your father was taking ns to church and a man st q us and said major so many of the neighbors used to call your father major of course he was only a private in the war but everybody knew that was because of the jealousy of his captain and he	42
on t to have a hi i officer he had that natural to command that so very very few men have and this man came out into the road and up his hand and ed the and said major he said a lot of the around here that have decided to for and we want you to join us meeting de the way yon do in the store you could b us a lot your father just looked at him and said shall do nothing of the sort i don t like his politics it said the man captain smith th used to im and heaven only knows why because he the shadow of a right to be called captain or ai other this captain smith said well make it hot for you if you stick by friends major yon know how father was and this smith knew it too he knew what a real man he was and he knew your knew the political situation from a to z and he t to have seen that here was one man he couldn t on bat he went on trying to and and trying till your father spoke iq and said to him captain smith he said i have a reputation around these parts for being one is qualified to mind his own business and let other mind and with that he drove on and left the fellow stand ing there in the road like a on a was most exasperated when she revealed his boy hood to the children he had it seemed been fond of had the little pink bow in bis d n by and his own name to he thou he did not bear ted come oo now kid the bow in your curls and best it down to breakfast or will jaw your bead off s half brother martin with hia wife and youngest baby came down from for two days martin cattle and ran the dusty general store he was proud of being a independent american of the good old yankee he was proud of being honest blunt n and dis agreeable his favorite remark was how much did you pay for that he regarded s books s silver and on the table as and said so would have with him but for his wife and the baby whom b and fingers at and addressed i think this s a bum yes dr i think this little baby s a bom he s a bum yes air he s a bum that s what he is he s a bum this baby a bum he s nothing but an bum that s what he is a all the while and held long inquiries into ted was a disgraced and aged eleven was demanding that she be allowed to go to the thrice a week like all the girls raged i m sick of it i having to three whole damn bunch lean on me half of mother s income listen to henry t listen to s ing be polite to and get called an old for trying help the children all of em depending on me and picking on me and not a damn one of em grateful i no relief and do credit and no help from anybody and to keep it up for lord how long he enjoyed b ng sick in february he was ted by their consternation that he the rock should give way he had eaten a questionable for two days he was and and he was allowed to d n by oh let me he on p and the winter sun slide along the curtains turning ruddy to pale blood red the shadow of the draw rope was black in an le on tlie canvas he found pleasure in the curve of it a ed aa the fading light il he was ct life and a little sad with no before to set his face in resolute he beheld and half admitted that he his way of life as mechanical mechanical business a brisk selling of badly mechanical religion a dry hard church shut off from the real life of the streets re aa a top hat me and dinner parties and bridge and save with paul mechanical and never daring to essay the test of he turned uneasily in bed he saw the years the winter and all the long which were meant for meadows lost in such he t of about of men he hated of making business calls and waiting in dirty ns ut on knee yawning at being polite to office bo rs i don t hardly want to go back to work he prayed n like to i know a but be was back nest day and of ml d n by chapter xix the street to car repair shops in the of but when th came to boy the land found it held on q tions by the the agent the first and even the president of the con q protested against the price they mentioned their duty toward they threatened an a q to the courts though somehow the peal to the courts was never carried out and the found it wiser to with copies of the correspondence are in the company s ere they may be viewed by any public com just after this three thousand dollars in the bank the agent of the street t a five thousand dollar car the first vice president built a home in woods and the was appointed minister to a foreign country to obtain the to tie up one man s land without letting his neighbor know bad been an unusual strain on it was necessary to introduce about planning and stores to pretend that he wasn t taking any more to wait and look as bored as a la at a time when	42
mm d n by you ever mean to do wrong and i if you get a good that ll you up a little you ll turn out a yet but i see how i can keep you on leaned the his hands in his pockets and laughed so i m old y and i m to death but i don t want you to think yon can get away with any thou stuff sure i ve pulled some raw stuff a little of it bat bow i it in this now by god man tut keep the naughty er down and because in the outside office hear you they re probably listening right now old dear you re crooked in the first place and a damn in the second if you paid me a decent salary i wouldn t have to steal os a blind man to keep n wife from starving us married just five months and her the girl living and you keeping us flat broke all the time you damned old thief so you can put money away for your of a son and your fool of a wait you ll by god take it or so the whole office will hear iti and crooked say if i told the attorney what i know about this last street steal both you and me would go to jail along with some nice clean pious iq guns i ell looks like we were coming down to cases that deal there was nothing crooked about it the only way you can get progress is for the broad men to get things done and they got to be k b for s sake don t get virtuous on met as i gather it i m fired all right it s a good thing for me and if i catch you knocking me to ai other firm all i know about you and t and the dirty little hat you of industry pull oft for the bigger and and get chased out of town and d n by you re t i ve been crooked bat now i m going and the step will be to get a job id some e where the t talk about bad lock old dear and you can your job up the sat for a long time alternately raging him arrested and yearning i wonder no i ve never done anything that wasn t to keep the of progress moving next day he hired in place the man of his most injurious rival the east side homes and ment company and thus at once annoyed his and acquired an man young was a playing younger he made to the c a t of him as a son and in him had an abandoned race track on the outskirts of a plot for factory was to be sold and asked to bid on it for him the strain of the street deal and bis disappointment in bad so shaken that he it hard to sit at bis desk and he proposed to bis family look here do you know who s going to trot up to for a couple of days just end won t lose but one day of school know who s going with that celebrated business george f why mr i ted shouted and oh maybe the men won t paint that town red i and once away from the familiar of home they were two men together ted was young only in his k tion of and the only apparently in which bad a larger and more grown up knowledge than ted s were the details of real estate and e phrases of politics d n by the other of the had left them to s voice did not into the playful and otherwise offensive tone in which one addresses but continued its and and ted tried to imitate it in his tenor you certainly did show up that poor boot when he got about the league of national the trouble with a lot of these fellows is they singly t know they re talking about they don t get to facts what do you think of ken i tell you it strikes me ken is a nice lad no faults except he too much but slow lord i if we give him a the poor dumb bell will propose and just as bad slow yes i guess you re right th e slow they haven t either one of em got our p p that s right they re slow i swear i know bow got into onr bet if the truth were known you were a bad old egg you were a wa i wasn t so bet you weren tl bet yon miss many tricks well when i was out with the girls i didn t spend all the time telling em about the strike in the knitting industry th roared together and together lighted cigars what are we going to do with em consulted i don t know i swear sometimes i feel like taking ken aside and putting him over the and to me lad are you going to marry young or are you going to talk her to death here you are getting on toward thirty and you re only making twenty or twenty five a we when you going to a sense of responsibility and get a raise if there s anything that george f or i can do to you call on us but show a little speed ell at that it might not he so bad if you or i talked to be mi t not understand he s one of these hi d n by brows he cant down to cases and lay bis cards on and talk t out from tbe like yon or i can right he s like all the	42
hinted say how about a little something to eat i know a where we could get a swell and we m t dig up a little drink that is if you ever touch the stuff but why don t you come to my room i ve some scotch not half bad ml i want to use up all your it s dam nice of you but you probably want to hit the hay sir was transformed he was oh really now i haven t had a decent evening for so long d n by il having to go to all these dances no to fa and that sort of thing do be a good chap and come along won t you will i you i thought say by it does do fellow good it to sit and about conditions after he s been to these and and and all that stuff i often fed that my in sore you bet come that s awfully nice of you they beamed along the street to here old ch can you me do american n keep up this dreadful social pace all these magnificent parties go on now quit your you with court balls and functions and everything no really old ch l mother and i lady i say we usually play a hand of and go to bed at ten bless my soul i couldn t keep your and all your american women they know ao much culture and that of thing this mis your friend old good kid she asked me which of the galleries liked best in or was it in never been ic italy in my and did i like do you know what be deuce a primitive is me i should say but i know a for cash is so do i ty but they with the sound of a luncheon sir s room was except for his ponderous and ba very much like the room of george f nd quite in the manner of he disclosed a huge looked proud and bo and chuckled say old d n by a it af to the drink that how do yon get the notion that writing like and this wells us tlie real l u i en nd we think those are both have their comic old yon know old hunting people and all that sort of thing end we both have our wretched labor leaders bat we both have a of sound men run the show here m with here to it was after the fourth drink that sir asked what do you think of north but it was not tin after the fifth that b u to call him and confided i ny do you mind if i pull off my boots and his feet his poor tired hot swollen feet out on the bed after the sixth arose i better be along you a regular human being i wish to thunder we d been better acquainted in can t you come back and stay with me a so must go to new york to morrow most aw sorry old boy i haven t enjoyed an evening so much i ve been in the real talk not all this social i d never have let them give me the title and x didn t get it for nothing eh jf td thought i d have to talk to women about and thing to have tn thou annoyed the mayor most i got it and of course the likes it but calls me now he was almost weeping and nobody in the states has treated me like a friend till to ni tl good by old chap good thanks don t mention it and remember whenever yon get to the latch string is always out and don t forget old if you ever come to d n by and i be md to see i die in your ideas about visions and real at our next club lay at his tbe asking him what kind of a time d ou have in and his answering oh fair ran around vith a lot meeting and her you re all t mis when you aren t trying to pull this bi pose it s just as aid says to me in oh yes an old friend of mine the and i are thinking of to england to stay with in his castle next year and be said to me old x like first but yon me george we got to make her get over this hi ty ti way she b got but that evening a thing happened whidi wrecked his pride at the counter he fell to talking with a of and they dined together was filled with friendliness and well being he enjoyed the of the dining room the the curtains the portraits of kings against of oak he enjoyed the crowd women good solid were liberal he q ed he stared and turned away and stared again three tables off with a doubtful of woman a woman at once and withered was paul and paul was st posed to be in selling tar ihe woman was tapping his hand at him and felt be had encountered something involved and d n by ms talking with the r of a is his he was concentrated on the woman s faded es once he held her hand and once blind to the other guests he his lips as thou he was pretending to her had so strong an impulse to go to paul that he could fed his body his shoulders moving but be felt desperately that he must be and not till he saw paul paying the check did he to the piano by friend of mine over there me just a y to him he touched	42
paul s shoulder and cried when did hit paul glared up at him face ob george thou t you d goat back to he did not introduce his m ed at her she was a pretty weakly woman of forty two or three in an hat her was thorough but un where you staying the woman turned yawned examined her nails she ned accustomed to not being introduced paul grumbled inn on the south side alone it sounded furiously paul turned toward ihe woman smiling with a fondness sickening to want to introduce you mrs this is my old george growled while she oh i m very pleased to meet any friend of mr s i m sure demanded be back there later this evening paul iii drop down and see you no better we better lunch together to morrow all t but i ll see you to ni t too paul go to your hotel and i ll wait for by chapter xx hi bat v with the ng to the refuge of gossip to ts of he the more od the surface as secretly be became more apprehensive more hollow he was that paul was in without s knowledge and that be was doing not at all moral and secure when the ii yawned that he had to write up his left him left the in leisurely calm but be laid to the driver he sat agitated oo the ery leather seat in that chill which of dint and perfume and he did not the snowy lake the dark spaces and sudden t bi the unknown land south of the the office of the inn was hard t new tht ni t clerk harder and ter he said to mr paul here is he in now then if give me his key m wait him can t do that brother wait down here if you had with the e which all the of good fellows give to hotel clerks now he said with i may to wait some time i m s ill go q to his room d i look like a thief his voice was low and not pleasant with considerable haste the clerk took down the key protesting never said d n by yoa looked like a just of the bat if you want to on his way in the why be was here why shouldn t paul be dining with a respectable mai woman why had he lied to the clerk about paul s brother in law he had acted like a child he must be careful not to say foolish dramatic to paul as be settled down be tried to look and then the t suicide he d been without know ing it paul would be just the person to do something like that he must be out of his head or he wouldn t be confiding io that that dried oh damn bow he d that ig of a woman she d probably succeeded at last and driven suicide out there in the lake way out beyond the piled ice the shore it would be cold to drop into the water to ni t or throat cut in the flung into paul it was he smiled feebly he pulled at his choking collar at his watch opened the window to stare down at the street looked at his watch tried to read the paper lying on the ass looked again at his watch three minutes had gone by be had first looked at it and be waited for three hours he was sitting chilled the turned came in paul said been waiting uttle well what just t i d drop in to see how out in i did all what difference does it make d n by t are you sore what are you into my for why paul that s no way to i m not into nothing i was so glad to see old that i just ed in to say i m not going to have anybody following me and trying to me i ve had all of that i m going to weu g b i m i didn t like the way you lodged at or the way you talked weu all ri t if you think i m a then just butt i don t know who your may is but i know good and well that you and t talking about tar no nor about playing the if you haven t got any moral consideration for yourself you ou t to have some for your position in the community the idea of your going around places into a female s es like m love sick i can understand a fellow slipping once but i don t to see a fellow that s been as with me as you have getting started on the downward path and off from his wife even as a one as to go woman chasing oh you re a perfectly moral little i am by god i ve never looked at any woman since i ve been married practically and i never i tell you there s nothing to it don t pay cant you see old man it just makes still slight of resolution as he was of body paul threw his overcoat on the floor and crouched on a cane chair oh you re an old and you know less about morality than but you re all right but you can t understand that i m through i can t go s any she s made up her mind that i m a devil and torture she it it s a game to bow sore she can make me and me other it d n by find a little any comfort or else do something a lot this mrs she s not	42
so young but she s s fine woman and she understands a fellow and she s had her own troubles yea i suppose she s one of these whose husband doesn t understand hei i i don t know maybe he was in the war up stood beside paul patting his shoulder making soft q noises honest george she s a fine woman and she s bad one of a time we manage to jolly each other up a lot we each other we re the pair on earth maybe we don t it but it helps a lot to have somebody with whom you can be perfectly simple and not all this discussing explain and that s as far as you go it is say well i i cant say i like it with a burst which left him feeling large and shining with generosity it s none of my dam business ill do anything i can for you if there s anything i can do there might be i judge from s letters that ve been forwarded from that she s getting suspicious about my staying away so long she d be perfectly capable of having me and of coming to and into a dining room and me out before everybody ill take care of ill hand her a good fairy story when i get back to i don t i don t think you better try it you re a good fellow but i don t know that is your strong nt looked hurt then irritated i mean with women i with women i mean course they got to go some to beat you in business but i just mean with women may do a lot of rough talking but she s she d have the out of you in no time d n by all ti t bat was still at not being allowed to play secret agent paul soothed course maybe yon mi t tell ber yoa d beat in mad seen me there why sure you don t i have to go look at that property in don t i ain t it a shame i have to stop off there i m so anxious to get home ain t it a regular shame say it s a fine but ia glory s sake don t go putting any fancy on the story when men lie they always try to make it too artistic and that s get suspicious and let s have a drink i ve got some and a little the paul a second a second now and a third he became red eyed and he was and in the found tears crowding bis eyes he had not told paul of his plan but he did stop at between trains for the one purpose of sending to a with had to come here for the day ran into paul in be called on her if for public appearances was over over painted and for private misery she wore a filthy blue dressing gown and torn thrust into pink satin her face was she seemed to have but half as much hair as remembered and that half was she sat in a amid a of boxes and cheap magazines and she sounded when she did not sound but mt y well well old dear having a good loaf while away that s the ideal bet a hat never got iv d n by is ten i ma in i borrow just in to see if i could borrow your bottle we re going to have a want to some coffee oh did you get my card from saying i d nm into paul yes what was he doing how do you mean he his overcoat sat on the arm of a chair you know bow i she the pages of a m with an irritable clatter i o e he was trying to make love to some hotel or girl or somebody hang it you re always letting on that paul goes round ng skirts he doesn t in the first place and if he did it would be because you keep at bim and at bim so much i hadn t meant to but since paul k away in he really is is i know he has some horrible woman that be writes to in didn t i tell you i saw him in what re trying to do make me out a liar no but i just i get so worried now there you that s gets met you love paul and yet you plague him and him out as if him i simply cant understand why it is that the more some folks love pet le the harder they try to make em you love ted and i and yet yon them oh that that s different besides i don t not what you d call but saying now here s paul the most sensitive on god s green earth you ought to be ashamed of yourself the way you pan bim why you talk to him like r i m surprised you can act so common d n by ie over her linked i know i do and get mean and i m sorry afterwards bat ok paul is so honestly i ve tried hard these last few years to be nice to but just i to be q or i seemed so i wasn t really bat i used to speak up and that came into my head and so he up his that was my bolt can t always be my fault can it and now if i to he just silent oh so dreadfully od he won t look at me he just me he simply isn t and be deliberate keeps it up till z bust out and bay a lot of thin i	42
watch the fur and if they d permit him he d wind by calling for a cheer for the and and the all together to professor be pretty nice to have as low a as that everybody d say he must be an i wonder how he got it ill bet he and dined the of the license to a fare you then addressed them some of you may fed that it s out of place here to talk on a strictly and artistic subject but i want to out and ask you to o k the proportion of m now where a lot of yon make your mistake is in assuming that if you like classical music and all that you ought to it now i want to confess that though i m a literary by i don t care a r for all this long haired music i d rather d n by to a good band ai than to some piece by that hasn t any more tune to it than a bunch of fighting cats and you couldn t whistle it to save your but that isn t the point culture has become as necessary an and advertisement for a d to day as or it s culture in and art galleries and so on that brings thousands of visitors to new york every year and to be frank for all our we haven t yet got the culture of a new york x w boston or at least we don t get the credit for it the thing to do then as a live bunch of go is to to go right out and it and books are fine for those that have the time to study em but they don t shoot out tm the road and this is what little old can put up in the way of culture that s what a s does do look at the credit and get an with first class and a swell conductor and i believe we ou t to do the thing up l own and get one of the paid on the market providing he ain t a hun it goes right into and new york and washington it plays at the best to the most and people it gives such as a town can get in no way and the who is so short sighted as to this proposition is passing the chance to impress the glorious name of on some big new york that mi t that might establish a branch factory i could also go into the fact that for our show an in row music and may want to teach it having an ai local organization is of great b but let s keep this on a practical basis and i call on you good brothers to it up for culture and a world beating they d n by i to a rustle of gentlemen we will now proceed to the annual of officers for each of the six offices three bad been chosen by a committee the second name among the for vice president was s he was surprised he looked conscious his heart he was still more agitated when the were counted and said t a pleasure to announce that will be the next assistant x know of no man who stands more for sense and enterprise than good old come on let ve him our best long as they a hundred men crushed in to slap his ba had never known a higher he drove away b a of wonder he into his office ling to miss well i guess you better your been elected of the he was she answered only ob mr s been trying to get you cm the but the new by chief say that s great that s perfectly i m to congratulations i called the and to his you were trying to get me s you got to hand h to little this better talk von an dow addressing the vice of the oh pretty b the new president he s away little takes the and ai op and the u matter if tb ye the governor himself and it pots him in solid with h paul d n by e paul and let him know about it right away el paul s in jail he shot his wife he shot this she may not live d n by chapter he drove to the city prison not blindly but with care at comers the of an old woman plants it kept him from facing the of fate the attendant said you can t see any of uie till three thirty visiting hour it was three for half an hour sat looking at a and a dock on a wall the chair was hard and mean and people went through the office and he thought stared at him he felt a defiance broke into a fear of this machine which was grinding paul paul exactly at past three be sent in his name the attendant returned with says he don t want to see you you re you didn t give him my name him it s george wants to see him george i told him all ri t all right he said he didn t want to see you take me in nothing doing if you ain t his lawyer if be don t want to see you that s all there is to it but my god say let me see the he s busy come on now you reared over him the attendant hastily changed to a you can come back and try to probably the poor is os his nut drove not at all carefully or sliding past the s curses to the city hall d n by s be u q ed with a grind	42
of wheels the ran iq the marble to the c e of the hon mr front the mayor he the mayor s with a dollar he was inside demanding you remember me mr vice president of the for you say have you heard about poor well i want an order on the or whatever you call um of the city prison to take me back and see him good thanks in fifteen minutes he was down the prison corridor to a cage paul sat on a cot twisted like an old beggar legs crossed arms in a knot biting at his clenched fist paul looked up as the keeper unlocked the cell admitted and left them together he x ke slowly go on i be moral i on the couch beside him i m not going to be i don t care what i just want to do anything i can i m glad got what was coming to her paul said now don t go jumping on i ve been thinking maybe she bad any too easy a time just after i shot her i didn t hardly mean to but she got to me so i went just for a second and pulled out that old revolver you and i used to shoot with and took a crack at her didn t hardly mean to after that en i was trying to the blood it was terrible it did to her shoulder and she had beautiful skin maybe she won t die i hi e it won t leave her skin all but just afterward when i was through the for some cotton to stop the blood i ran a little yellow duck we hung on the tree one christmas and i remembered she and i d been awfully then hell i can t hardly believe it s me here as s ann about his shoulder paul sighed i m glad you came but i t maybe you d lecture me and when you ve com d n by a murder and been t here and was a big crowd outside the house all staring and the took me it oh i m not going to talk it any e but he went on in a terrified insane to divert him said why you a on your yes that s where the hit me i si get a lot of fun out of too he was a big fellow and they wouldn t let me down to the quit iti listen she won t die and it s al over you and go off to and maybe we can get that may to go along ill go iq to and ask her good woman by and afterwards see that you get started in business out west somewhere maybe they say that s a paul was half smiling it was now he could not tell whether paul was but he on till the coming of paul s lawyer p j a thin man who nodded at and hinted if and i could be alone for a moment wrung paul s hands and waited in the came out look old man what can i do be begged nothing not a thing not just now said sorry got to hurry and don t try to see him i ve had the doctor give him a shot of so hell it seemed somehow wicked to return to the office felt as though be had just come from a funeral he drifted out to the city hospital to inquire about she was not likely to die he learned the bullet from paul s huge army revolver had smashed her shoulder torn upward and out he wandered home and found his wife radiant with the d n by md and new the trial occupied less than fifteen minutes filled with the evidence of doctors that would recover and that paul must have insane day paul was to three in the state and taken quite not merely in a tired way beside a cheerful and alter saying good by to him at the station returned to his to realize that be faced a world without paul war d n by chapter was to he kept of thinking his wife and the b o re generous evening be played bridge or the and the days were blank of face and silent in june mrs and went east to stay with relatives and was free to do be was not quite sore all day long after their departure he thou t of the in which he could if be desired go mad and curse the gods without having to keep a he considered i could have a par to stay oat till two and not do any explaining afterwards he to to both of them were engaged for the and suddenly he was bored by having to take so much trouble to be he was silent at unusually kindly to ted and hesitating but not when stated her of s of dr john drew s hi of the opinions of the ted was working in a the summer and he r bis daily how he had found a cracked what he had said to the old what he had said to the about the future of ted and went to a dance after dinner even the maid was out rarely had been alone in the house for an entire evening he was restless he vaguely wanted something more than the new comic to read he up to room sat cm her d n by and bed and in a aa he her books s rescue a strangely named figures of earth poetry quite poetry t by and essays by h l highly essays making fun of the and all the he liked none of the f books in them be a	42
spirit of rebellion against and solid p authors and he supposed they were famous ones too did not seem to care about a good story which would enable a to forget his troubles he sighed he noted a book three black l ah that was something like iti it be an adventure story maybe about up on the old at night he tucked the book under his arm he downstairs and solemnly began to read under the piano lamp a twilight like blue dust into the shallow fold of the thickly wooded hills it was early october but a frost had already stamped the trees with gold the spanish oaks were hung with patches of wine red the was brilliant in the darkening a pattern of wild low and above the hills wavered against the serene evening penny standing in the comparative clearing of a road decided that the shifting regular t would not come close for a shot he had no intention of hunting the with the drooping of day his had an habitual strengthened him there it was again discontent with the good common ways laid down the book and listened to the stillness the inner doors of the house were open he heard from the kitchen the of the a and he to the window the summer evening was and seen throng the wire the street lamps were crosses of pale fire the world was d n by e ik and ted came in and went np to bed in tbe he put on his hat his respectable lifted a cigar and walked up and down before the house a worthy native figure humming threads among the he casually might call up paul then be remembered he saw paul in a s but he be didn t believe the tale it was part of the of fog enchanted evening if she were here would be isn t it late he ed in and freedom fog ud the house now the world was a chaos without or desire the mist came a man at so feverish a pace that be to dance with fury as he entered the of from at each st p he his stick and brought it down with a crash his glasses on their broad ribbon against bis stomach saw that it was st q bis vision and with there s another fool lives for know i am i m traitor to i m drunk i m talking too much i care know i could ve been i could ve been a field or a james maybe a i could ve whim to this just made it glittering of and burnt and boy hear that i i made that up i don know what it means beginning good verse s verses and write iq ad could have too d n by he darted od an alarming always to pitch forward yet never quite falling would have been bo more astonished and no less had a out of the fog his head he accepted with vast be poor i and straightway forgot him he into the house went to the and it when mis was at home this was one of the major he stood the covered eating a chicken leg and half a of ra and grumbling over a cold ix ed he was thinking it was coming to him that perhaps all life as he knew it and vigorously practised it was futile that heaven as by the reverend dr john drew was neither probable nor that he hadn t pleasure out of making money that it was of doubtful worth to rear children merely that they mi t rear children would rear children what was it all about what did be want he into the room lay on the hands his head what did he want wealth social position servants yes but only incidentally i it up he si ed but he did know that he wanted the presence of paul ling and from that he stumbled into the that he wanted the in the flesh if there had been a woman be loved he would have fled to her his on her he thou t of his miss he i of the prettiest of the girls at the as he fell asleep on the he felt that he had found in life and that he had made a thrilling break with everything that was decent and d n by he had forgotten ne rt that he was a rebel but he was irritable in the and at the eleven o dock drive of calls and visitors he did he had often desired and dared he left the to those his and mat to the he enjoyed the right to be he out with a vicious to do he pleased as be approached the table at the everybody laughed well here s the said yes i saw him in his said it must be great to be a smart gi like moaned he s probably stolen all of i d hate to leave a poor little piece of property lying around he could get his hooks on they had perceived something on him they had their on ordinarily he would have been at the implied in being but he was suddenly he sore maybe iii take you cm as of ce he was impatient as the jest rolled on to its of course he may have been meeting a they laid and no i think he was waiting for his old sir he exploded oh ring it firing it you what s the great is t le a grin went round the table revealed the truth he had seen coming out of a at noon they kept it iq th a a hundred d n by they that he had gone to the during business he didn t ao much mind but he was annoyed	42
by that brisk lean red headed of jokes he was too by the lump of ice in his f am t water it was too large it round and burned his nose when he tried to drink he raged that was like that of ice but be won through be kept i his till they grew tired of the jest and turned o the great of the day he reflected what s the matter with me to day seems like i ve got an awful only they talk so dam much but i better steer careful and keep my mouth shut as they lifted cigars he got to get back and on a chorus of if yon go spending your morning with lady at the he escaped he heard them he was embarrassed while he was most agreeing with the coat man that the weather was warm he was conscious that he was longing to run with his les to the of the fairy child he kept miss after he had finished ha searched for a topic warm her office into friendliness where you going on your he i think go state to a farm do you want me to haye the lease ed this afternoon oh no hurry about it i si you have a great time when you get away from us in the office she rose and gathered her oh nobody s i think i can get it after i do the letters she was gone utterly the view that ht had been to discover how was miss mo there was nothing doing he d n by the agent lived the street from waa giving a sunday his wife young who loved io muse and in clothes and was at wildest she cried we l have a real party i as she the guests had uneasily felt that to many men she might be now he admitted that to himself she was mrs had never quite approved of was d that she was not this evening he insisted on helping in the kitchen the chicken from the oven the from the ice box he held her hand once and she didn t notice it she you re a good little mother s now trot in with the tray and leave it on the table he wished that would give them that would have one he wanted oh he wanted to be one of these you read about wild lovely girls who were not necessarily bad certainly but not tame like how he d ever stood it all these years did not give them true they with and with several by jones of any time wants to come sit on my lap tell this to beat it but they were respectable as sunday evening had ted a place b side on the piano bench while he talked about while he listened with a fixed smile to her account of the she bad seen last wednesday while he hoped that she would hurry and finish her description of the plot the beauty of the leading man and the luxury of the setting he studied her waist p with raw silk strong hair darted above a broad f she d n by vn youth to him sod a charm which he thought of how a companion she would be on a long tour mountains in a pine grove high above a her touched him he was angry at the family all at once he with the fairy girl he was startled by the that th had always had a romantic for each other i suppose you re leading a ufe now you e a she said you i m a bad little fellow and proud of it some evening you slip some in his coffee and across the road and iii show you how to mix a he roared well now i might do it you never can whenever you re ready you just hang a out of the window and for the every one at this in a pleased way stated that be would have a physician his coffee daily the were diverted to a discussion of the more agreeable recent but drew back to personal things that s the prettiest dress i ever saw in my life do you honestly like it like it why say i m going to have put a piece in the paper saying that the dressed woman in the it s is mrs e now you stop but she beamed let s dance a little george you ve got to dance with me even as he protested oh you know what a rotten i ami he was to his feet teach you i can teach anybody her eyes were moist her voice was jagged with he was that he had won her he clasped her conscious of her smooth warmth and solemnly he in a heavy version of the one step he ed into only one or by two people i m not di ng so bad em v hke a regular stage he and she answered busily i told i could teach long steps for a moment he was robbed of confidence with he to keep time to the mu c but he was q ed again by her enchantment she s got to like me make her he vowed he tried to kiss the lock beside hit ear she mechanically moved her head to avoid it and mechanically she murmured don t i f a moment he hated her but the he was as urgent as ever he danced with mrs jones but he watched ing down the length of the room with husband careful i you re getting foolish he the while he and bent his solid knees in with mrs jones and to that lady it s without reason he thought of paul in that shadowy place where men never dance i m to ni	42
t go home he worried but he left mrs jones and dashed to i s lovely side demanding the next is mine oh i m so hot i m not going to dance this one then b come out and sit on the porch and get all nice and in the tender darkness with the in the house behind them he took her band she squeezed his race then relaxed i think you re the thing i i think you re veiy nice do you you got to like me i i oh be all t when your wife comes home no i m always lonely she her hands under her chin so that he dared not touch her he sighed when i feel and he was about to bring in the d n by tragedy of but that was too sacred for the of love when i get out at the of ce and every i like to look across the street and think of you do you know i dreamed of you one was it a nice dream lovely i ob well they say dreams go by now i nm in she was on feet oh don t go in please yes i must have to look out for my guests let em look out for i couldn t do that she carelessly tapped bis shoulder and slipped away but after two minutes of and childish longing to home he was certainly i wasn t trying to get with knew there was nothing doing ail the and he in to dance with mrs jones and to and d n by chapter xxiv his visit to paul was as as his ni t of fog and he went prison of to a room lined with pale yellow pierced in like the shoe store benches he had known as a boy the guard led in paul above bis of gray paul face was pale and without expression he moved in to the commands he pushed of tobacco and magazines across the table to the guard for examination he had nothing to say but oh i m getting used to it and i m working io the tailor shop the stuff hurts my s knew that in this place of death paul was dead and as he pondered on the train home something in his own self seemed to have died a loyal and vigorous faith in the goodness of the world a fear of public a pride in success he was glad that his wife was away he admitted it without it he did not care her card read mrs daniel knew of ner as the widow of a paper she must have been forty or forty two but he thou t her he her in the that she had come to inquire about an and he took her away from the girl he was nervously attracted bj her she was b slender in a black frock dotted with white a cool looking graceful frock a broad d n by black hat shaded her face her t a were her soft chin of agreeable and her an even rose afterward if she was made but no man living knew less of such arts she sat revolving her violet her voice was iq without being i wonder it you can help me be delighted i ve looked and i want a little flat just n bedroom or perhaps two and sitting and and bath but i want one that really has some charm to it not these dingy places or these new ones with terrible gaudy and i can t pay bo dreadfully much my name s i think maybe i ve got just the thing for you would you like to chase around and look at it now yes i have a ie of hours in the new apartments bad a flat which he bad been holding for but at the thou t of driving beside this agreeable woman be threw over bis friend and with a note of gallantry be proclaimed let you see what i can he the seat of the car for her and twice he risked death in showing ob his driving you do know how to handle a she said he liked her voice th e was he thought music in it and a hint of culture not a like s he boasted you know s a lot of these fellows that are so scared and drive so slow that they get in everybody s way the safest is a fellow that knows how to handle his machine and yet scared to up when it s necessary don t you think so oh i bet you drive like a oh no i mean not really of course we had a car d n by i i mean before my husband passed and x to make drive it but i t think woman ever tb drive like a man now there s some ty good woman oh of course these women that to imitate men and play and and ruin their and tb bands i that s sa i never did like these i mean of course i admire them dreadfully and i fed ao weak and useless beside them ob rats now i bet you play the piano like a oh no i not really bet you he glanced at her smooth her diamond and she t the ance hands together with a of slim white fingers which delighted him and i do love to play i mean i like to drum on the piano but i haven t had real training mr used to say i would ve been a good if i d had any training but thai i guess he was flattering me ill bet he wasn tl bet you ve got ten do you like music mr you bet i only i	42
don t know s i care ao all this stuff oh i i just love in and all those do you honest well of course i go to lots of but i do like a good ri on its toes with the fellow that plays the bass fiddle it around and beating it up with the bow oh i know i do love good dance mu i love to don t you mr sure you bet not that i m very dam good at it though oh i m sure you are you ought to let me teach you i can teach anybody to dance would you give me a lesson some time d n by indeed i would better be careful or be taking you up on that ill be coming iq to your flat and making you me that ye es she waa not bat she was non he warned himself have some sense now yoa go making a fool of again and with he i wish i could dance like some of these young but tell you i feel it s a man s place to take a full you mi t say a share in the world s work and and have something to show for his life don t you think so oh i do i and so i have to sacrifice some of the i might to tackle i do by play about as good a game or as the next oh i m sure you do are you married yes and of duties i m the vice president of the club and i m running one of the of the state association of real estate boards and that means a lot of and and practically no gratitude for it oh i public men never do get credit they looked at each other with a high degree of mutual and at the he her out in a manner waved his hand at the house as though he were presenting it to her and ordered the boy to and get the keys she stood close to him in the and he was stirred but cautious it was a pretty flat of white and soft blue walls mrs with pleasure as she agreed to take it and as they walked down the hall to the she touched his sleeve oh i m so ad i went to it s such a to meet a man who really understands hie some have showed d n by he bad a instinctive f he pot hb am her but be himself and he saw her to the car drove her borne all the my to bis office he raged glad i bad some for once curse it wish va tried she s a a a eyes and darling lips and that trim waist never get like some women no no she s a real lady one of the brightest little women i ve met these many understands about public t and but dam it didn t i try he was harassed and puzzled by it but he found that he was turning toward youth as youth the girl who especially disturbed him though he had never spoken to her was the last girl on the right in the shop she was small swift black haired smiling she was nineteen perhaps or twenty she wore thin salmon colored exhibited her shoulders and her he to the for his hair trim aa always he at his the building shop then for the first time he his sense of guilt it i don t have to go here if i don t want to i don t own the these got nothing on me get my hair cot i want to i don t want to hear anything more about i m standing by e i want to it doesn t get you anywhere i m i the shop was in the of the hotel largest and most bold in marble steps with a rail of polished brass led from the down to the shop hie interior d n by s was of and white and a ceiling of gold and a fountain in which a massive th forever emptied a scarlet forty and nine girls worked and at the door six colored to greet the customers to care reverently for their hats and to lead them to a place of waiting where on a carpet like a isle in the stretch of white stone floor were a dozen leather and a table he ed with magazines s porter was an gray haired negro io did him an honor highly esteemed in the land of greeted him by name yet was y his t particular girl was engaged she was doing the sails of an man and with him hated him he thought of waiting but to tlie powerful system of the was and he was instantly into a chair about him was luxury rich and delicate one wa having a violet ray treatment the next an boys about miraculous machines the snatched steaming from a machine like a of polished and them away after a second s use on the vast marble facing the were hundreds of and and it was flattering to to have two personal slaves at once the and the he would have been c hi y if he could also have had the girl the ni ed at his hair and asked his opinion of the de grace races the season and mayor the young negro the camp meeting and perished in to his tune drawing the shiny shoe rag so at each stroke that it snapped like a string the was an he made fed rich and by his of inquiring what is your sir have yon time to d sir d n by as for manage is a little ti shall i	42
a s best thrill vas in the the hair with thick so then as bait over the in it with hot water whidi along his and at last ran the ice at the the sudden burning cold on his skull j heart his chest heaved and his was an wire it was a sensation which broke the of life e looked the as he sat up the rubbed his wet hair and bound it in a as in a so that resembled a pink on an and throne the begged in the manner of one who was a good fellow yet was hy the of the how about a little oil rub sir very to the sir i you one the last time he hadn t but agreed all ri t with eagerness he saw that his waa free i don t know i guess have a after all he and excitedly watched her coming dark haired little the would have to be finished at her table and he would be able to talk to her without the listening he waited not trying to pe at ha filed his nails and the shaved him and on his all the interesting the minds of have devised through the revolving ages when the was done and he sat t the at ha table he admired the marble of it admired the sunken set bowl with its tiny silver and admired for being able to frequent so costly a place when she withdrew his wet hand from the it was so sensitive from thi warm so y water that he was aware of the da of her firm little he ted in the and d n by of her nails her seemed to bim than mrs s thin fingers and more elegant he had a certain ecstasy in the pain she at he of his nails with a sharp knife he not to look at the of her young bosom and her the more apparent under a of pink he was c of her as an exquisite thing and when he tried to impress his on her he spoke as awkwardly as a country boy at his first par well hot to be working oh yes it is you cut your own last time ye es guess i must ve yoa always ought to go to a m be that s so i there s nothing looks so nice as nails that are after good i always think that s the best way to a real was an in here yesterday that claimed yon could always tell a fellow s class by the car he drove but i says to him be silly i says the a look at a fellow s nails when th want to if he s a or a real yes maybe there s something to that course that with a pretty like you a man can t be coming to get his done i may be a kid but vm a wise bird and i know when i see i can read at a and i d never talk so with a if i see he was a nice she smiled her eyes seemed to him as gentle as pools with great seriousness he informed that there were some who would think that just because a was a girl and maybe not awful educated she was no good but as for him he was a and stood people and he stood by the assertion that this was a d n by fine girl a good but not too good hb inquired in a voice quick with i you have a lot of fellows to get with you say do ii say listen there some of these tore that think because a girl s working in a shop they can get away with the things th but believe me i know how to hop those i just t ma the north and south and ask nm say who do you think you re talking to and they away like love s young and oh don t you want a box of it win the shiny as when first harmless to and lasts for days sure some say say it s funny i ve bees here ever since the opened and with surprise i don t believe i know your name i dim t you my that s funny i don t know now you quit what s the nice little name oh it ain t so dam nice i guess it s kind of but o folks ain t my papa s papa was a nobleman in and there was a gentleman in here one day he was kind of a count or something kind of a no account i guess you meant who telling this and he said he knew n papa s papa s folks in and they had a big right cm a doubtfully maybe you dim t believe it sure no really sure i do why not think i m you honey but every time i ve noticed yon i ve said to myself that kid has blue blood in her did you honest honest i did well come on now the darling little name it so much a of a name i always say to ma i say ma why didn t you name me ix something with some class to it d n by a now i think it s a name i bet i know now not necessarily of course ob it so specially known aren t you mr s that travels the kitchen ko i am not i i m mr the real ob excuse oh of course you mean here in with the of one n feeling have been hurt oh sure i ve read your tliey re swell um well you might have read about my course i	42
always he came back to and yet whatever the misery he could not regain contentment with a world which once doubted became absurd only be himself he was through with this chasing after girls by he was not so sure even of that if in miss and he had failed to find the lady kind and it did not prove that she did not exist he was hunted by the ancient thou t that somewhere must exist the not she would him value him and make him h mn returned in on her he had missed her ban of her arrival he had made a te though he dared not hurt her by letting a hint of it appear in his letters he was that she was con g before he had found himself d n by and lie was by tbe need of meeting her and look ing ful he down to the station he studied the lest be have to speak to acquaintances and his uneasiness but he was well trained when the train in he was out on the platform peering into the chair cars and as be saw ba in the line of passengers toward the he waved his hat at the door he her and announced well well well t you look fine you look fine then he was aware of here was something this child with her absurd little dose and lively eyes that loved him believed him great and as he darted her lifted and held her till she be was for the moment back to his old steady sat beside him in tbe car with hand on the wheel pretending to help him drive and he shouted back to his bet the kid will be the best in the she holds the like an old all the while he was tbe moment when he would be alone with his wife and she would patiently expect him to be ardent was about the an theory that be was to take his alone to a week or ten in but he was by the memory that a year ago be had been with paul in he saw himself returning finding peace there and the presence of paul in a life primitive and heroic like a shock came tlie thou t that be actually could go only he couldn t really he couldn t lave bis business and would think it sort of funny his going way off there alone course he d decided to do whatever be pleased from now on but still to go way ff to he i d n by th his wife it u to that oe was to seek paul s in the be the lie over a year ago and scarcely used at all he said that be had to see a in new york on business he could not have even to himself why be drew from the several hundred dollars more than he needed mr why he kissed so tenderly and cried god bless you l from the train be waved to her she was but a scarlet spot beside the brown presence of mrs at the end of a and aisle ending in vast barred gates with m be looked back at the last of ah the way north he pictured the m e e and strong and daring jolly as they played in their wise in as th r the forest and shot the he particularly remembered joe paradise half yankee half indian if he could but take up a with a man like jo v work hard with his hands be free and noisy in a shirt and come back to this dull or like a er in a northern canada plunge through the forest make in the a grim and why not he do there d be money at home for the family to live on till was married and i ed self supporting old henry t would look out for them why really ihe he longed for it admitted that be longed for it then almost believed that he was going to do it whenever common sense nonsense i folks don t run away from decent and just don t do it that s then answered well it wouldn t take any more nerve than for paul to go to jail and lord how i d like to do six gun frontier town under the stars be a regular man with he men joe paradise d n by so he came to a in stood on the wharf the again q at into the d and shivering water while the pines the mountains owed and a leaped and fell in a sliding circle he hurried to the guides as to his real home bis real friends l missed they would be glad to see him they would stand and shout why here s mr he me of these he s a real id and rather cabin the sat about the greasy table playing with greasy cards half a dozen wrinkled men in old trousers and easy old hats they glanced up and nodded joe paradise the await man with the big how do bad again silence except the clatter of ch stood beside th em very lonely he hinted after a period of bi y concentrated guess i t take a band joe sure sit in how many you want let s see you were here with wife last year you said joe paradise that was all of s to the home he played for half an hour before he e again his head was re ng with the smoke of pipes and cheap cigars and he was weary of pairs and four of way in which they ignored him he flung at joe working now like to guide me for a few days well soon i t engaged	42
till next week only thus did joe recognize the was him b paid up his losses and left the rather joe raised his head from the of like a seal ri ng from surf come t morrow and down to his three d n by in his cabin fragrant with of pine nor along the lake nor in the sunset clouds which presently the mountains could find the spirit of paul as a presence he was so lonely that after supper he stopped to talk with an old lady a and steadily lady by the stove in the hotel office he told her of ted s pre future ha in the state university and of s remarkable till be was for the home he had left forever through the darkness that northern pine walled silence he down to the lake front and found a there were no in it but with a board sitting awkwardly and at the water rather than he made his way far out on the lake the lights of the and the cottages became yellow a cluster of ow worms at the base of mountain larger and ever more was the mountain in the star darkness and the lake a pavement of black marble he was and dumb and a little awed but that freed him the of mr george f of and freed his heart now he was conscious of the presence of paul fancied him rescued from prison and the brisk of the business playing his at the end of the he vowed i will go never go now that paul s out of it i don t want to see any of those damn people i was a fool to get sore because joe paradise didn t np a d me he s one of these too wise to go and talking your arm off like a but get him back in the mountains out oo the trail i that s real d n by t joe at s cabin at nine the next greeted him as a joe how d yon fed about the trail and getting away from these dam soft and these women and au au ri t mr what do you say we go over to box car fond me the there isn t being used and out well all right mr but it s nearer to pond and yon can get just about as good fishing there no i want to get into the real au right we ll put the old on our backs and get into the woods and really i think maybe it would be easier to go by water lake we can go all the way by boat boat with an no sir i bust up the quiet with a not on your life i you just throw a pair of in the old pa and em what you want for eats i d be ready soon s you are most of the sports go by boat mr it a walk look here joe are you to walking oh no i guess i can do it bu i haven t that bt for sixteen years most of the sports go by boat but i can do it if you say so i guess joe walked aw in sadness had recovered from his wrath joe returned he pictured him as warming up and telling the most stories but joe had not yet warmed when ihey took the he persistently kept and d n by however much his ached from the pack sorely he panted could hear his guide equally but the was satisfying a path brown with and rough with roots among the the the groves of white he became again and rejoiced in when be stopped to rest be guess e it op pretty good for a cot le o birds a admitted joe this is a mighty pretty place look can see the lake down through the trees i tell you joe you don t ai bow lucky you are to live in woods like this instead of a with grinding and and people the life out of you all the i wish i knew the woods like you do say what s the name of that little red flower rubbing hia back joe regarded the flower well some folks it one thing and some calls it another i always just call it pink flower ceased thinking as turned into blind he was hi weariness his s seemed to go on by themselves without guidance and he wiped away the sweat which stung his eyes he was too tired to be glad as after a mile of road a swamp where flies hovered a hot waste of brush they reached the cool shore of box car pond when he lifted the pack from his back he staggered from the change in balance and for a moment could not stand he lay beneath an an le tree near the guest and sleep running his veins he awoke toward dusk to find joe cooking and eggs and for su q er and bis admiration of the returned he sat on a and felt joe what would you do if you had a lot of money would d n by j you stick to or would you take a claim back la die woods and be independent of people for the first time joe brightened he his end s second and i ve often thought of if i bad the money i d go down to s falls and q en a shoe store after si q n joe proposed a game of but refused with and joe went to bed at e t sat on the facing the dark save the guide there was no human being within ten miles he was than he bad ever been in his life then he was in he was worrying as to whether	42
miss wasn t paying too much for paper he was at once missing the persistent at the necks table was wondering what was doing now he was wondering whether after the summer s maturity of being a ted would get busy in the university he was thinking of his wife if she would only if she wouldn t be so dam satisfied with just settling down no i i wont i i won t go be fifty in three years sixty in thirteen years i m going to have some fun before it s too late i don t i he thought of of of that nice widow what was her name the one for whom he d found the he was in conversations then i can t seem to get away from thinking about thus it came to him merely to run away was folly because be could never run away from that moment he started for in his journey there was no appearance of t but he was and four days afterward be was on the train he knew that he was back not because it was what he longed to do but because it was all he could do he again bis d n by he could never nm away and and because in his own brain he bore the office and the family and eveiy street and and of but i m going to oh i m going to start he owed and be tried to make it d n by chapter xxvi as lie the train for he saw only one person whom he knew and that was the lawyer who after the blessings of bang in s own class at college and of a had turned had headed labor tickets and with admitted he was la rebellion naturally did not care to be seen talking with such a but in all the he could nd no other and be was a t man like that be t s grin he was a book called hm way of all flesh it looked to and be wondered if could possibly been converted and turned decent and patriotic why be said looked his voice was how do been away a c i ve in washington d how s the old g e u t making it s wont you sit down don t care if i do been quite a while since had a good to talk to yon i was yon at tlie last ow the to for seemed he was die pages of hb d n by book he said i t as thou it t mean anything in and he smiled liked that and hunted for conversation saw a bang in york the good morning at the hotel yes they re pretty girls i danced there one evening oh like naturally i like ham ing and pretty women and good food better than anything else in the world most men do but i thought you fellows wanted to ah die good eats and away from us no not at all what i d hke to see is the meeting of the garment at the with a dance after ward isn t that reasonable might be good idea all li t shame i haven t seen more of you recent years oh say hope haven t held it a me n you as mayor on the stump for you see i m an organization republican and i kind of there s no reason you shouldn t fi t me i have no doubt you re good for the organization i remember in college you were an unusually liberal ch i can still recall your saying to me that you were going to be a lawyer and take the cases of the poor for nothing and fi t the rich and i remember i said i was going to be ue of the rich and buy paintings and live at i m sure you us all weu i ve always aimed to be was shy and proud and he tried to look like the he had been a quarter century ago and he shone his old friend as he with a lot of these fellows even the live wires and some of em that think th re forward looking is they aren t broad minded and liberal now i always believe in the other fellow a chance and listening to his ideas d n by that g oe ten you bow i figure it a little ia good for all of a especially if he s a business man in doing the of the world ou t to be ye i always say a ou t to have vision and i some of the in my think i m pretty ut i just let em think they want to and go right on same as you do by y this b nice to have a chance to sit and visit and kind of you mi t say brush ip on our but of course we do rather get beaten ft you not a nobody can dictate to me what i you re the man i want to help me i want to talk lo some of the business men and try to make them a little more liberal in their attitude toward poor but why he s this nut that got ki ed out of the church he and free love and explained was indeed the of but he saw as a priest of the of man of was an so would his acquaintances from bounding and his forlorn little p you i d can down any of the boys i hear getting about said to his dear friend up and became he rf student days in of for sin tax in of labor he his friends lord professor b had always supposed that only with	42
before he that neither he nor the would be the same again ten days after his return he could not that he bad ever away nor was it at all evident to bis acquaintances that there was s new george f save that he was more irritable under the at the club and once observed that ought to be hanged oh rats he s not so bad at home he eh across the newspaper to his wife and was by s new red lam o and announced no class to that iron have to me a frame one and appeared really to be in bis new had conducted a pure food against commission as a result he bad been given an excellent job in a and be was making a on which be could marry and who wrote stories houses without knowing what tbey were talking about this september ted had entered the state as a in the college of arts and hie university was at only fifteen miles from and ted came down for the we end was worried ted was going in for everything but books he had tried to make d n by tbe team as a u t half back lie was forward to tbe basket ball be was os the for die hop and as a ao among the he was being rushed by two but of bis studies could learn nothing save a oh these old of teachers just ve you a lot of about literature and one week end ted proposed say why can t i transfer over from the to the school of and take mechanical you always that i never study but honest i would study there no the school got the standing tbe college has fretted i d like to know bow it the can play any of tbe i there was much e of the dollars and cents value of being known as a college man when you go into the law and a truly account of the lawyer s life before he was through with it had ted a united states among the great lawyers whom he mentioned was but ted i thought always said this was a that s no way to speak of a great s always been a good friend of mine fact i helped him in college i started him out and you might say in him just b cause he s with the aims of labor a lot of that lack liberality and broad think he s a but let me tell you there s mighty few of em that in the he does and he s a friend of some of the strongest most men in the world like lord this this big english nobleman that s so well known and you now which would you rather do be in with a lot of greasy and men or up to a real fellow like lord and get invited to his house for parties d n by io ted the nest week end be came in with say couldn t i take instead of the you talk about standing much in but tbe tb got out of in the new to d n by chapter ths strike turned into f and red began late in september with a walk out of and in protest against a s wages the newly formed union of workers went out partly in tl r and partly in demand for a j forty four hour week they woe followed by the i union industry was tied np and the whole city was j with talk of a strike a strike a gen strike furious citizens trying to get calls throng strike breaking is danced helplessly every i that made its way from the to the freight stations was guarded by a policeman trying to look beside the i driver a line of fifty from the and company was attacked by rushing out i the pulling drivers from the seats and while girls cheered from the walk and small boys heaved bricks he national guard was ordered out colonel jn private life was mr secretary of the con put on a long coat and stalked through crowds a in band even s friend drum the shoe merchant a round and merry man told stories at the and who resembled a dog was to be seen as a but ferocious obtain with bis ti t about his comfortable little and bis round little mouth as he to chattering on move on there i can t have any of this d n by ia in the city save one was a the when stands at each was stationed a a young embarrassed with eye glasses er or clerk in private trying to look dangerous while small boys get de tin and striking drivers inquired say joe when i was fighting in was you in camp in the states or was you doing exercises in the y m c a be careful of that now or cut i that was no one in who talked of anything but the i strike and no one who did not take sides you were a courageous friend of labor or you were a fearless f the rights of and in case yon were i and ready to any friend who did not hate enemy a milk plant was set each charged it to the other and the city was hysterical and chose this time to be publicly liberal he belonged to the sound sane right thinking wing and at first he agreed that the crooked a ought to be shot be was sorry when his friend defended arrested and be thought of going to and about these but when he read a de ng that even on their former wages the girls had been hungry be was troubled all lies and figures he said	42
but in a doubtful for the sunday after the road announced a sermon by dr john drew on how the would end strikes had been ne about church going but he went to the service ful that dr drew really did have the information as to what the divine powers thought about strikes beside in the large was d n by the gives the i don t believe in a preach into political let him stick to straight and save souls and not stir a lot of discussion but at a time like this i do think he ought to stand right iq and out those to a fare you yes said the rev dr drew his rustic bang with the intensity of his poetic and during the series of which have let us be courageous and admit it boldly the business life of our fair these past days there has been a great deal of loose about scientific of scientific scientific t now let me tell you that the most thing in the world is take the attacks on the established of the christian creed which were so the a generation ago oh yes they were mighty fellows and great of criticism i they were going to destroy the church they were going to prove the world was created and has been brought to its extraordinary level of morality and civilization by blind chance yet the church stands just as firmly to day as ever and the only answer a christian needs make to the cf of his simple faith is just a pitying and now these same want to replace the natural condition of free competition by systems which no matter by what high sounding names they are called are nothing but a de naturally i m not labor courts against men to be striking or those in which the men and the get but i certainly am the systems in which the free and of independent labor is to be replaced by cooked up scales and and government and labor and au that d n by what is not understood is that this trial matter tin t a question of it s and a matter of love and of the practical rf the christian a factory instead of of workmen the the goes them smiling and they smile back the brother and die younger brothers that what they must be loving brothers and then strikes would be as inconceivable as hatred in the it was at this point that muttered said he doesn t know he s talking about it as clear as mud it mean a dam thing maybe but looked at him doubtfully all the service kept l at bim doubtfully till was the bad announced a parade for bat colonel had forbidden it the new said when drove west om his office at ten that he saw a drove of shabby men heading toward the tan district beyond house square he hated them because they were poor because they made him fed damn i wouldn t be common workmen if had any he he wondered if there was going to be a riot he drove toward the starting of the parade a of limp and faded grass known as street park and halted his car tbe park and streets with young men ta blue shirts old men with caps them keeping them stirred like a boiling pot moved the could hear the soldiers keep y d n by move on bo your feet admired their good er the crowd shouted tin soldiers and dirty servants of the but the and answered sure that s ke moving thrilled over the soldiers the who were the pleasant ways of admired s contempt for the crowd and as c tain drum that rather puffing shoe dealer came raging by respectfully great i don t let em march he watched ae from the park many of them bore with they can t our peacefully walking the tore away the but the ml in behind their leaders and off a thin between lines of soldiers saw with that there wasn t going to be any violence nothing at then be md among beside a young workman was content in front of him was head of the history department in the state an old man and white bearded known to come from a distinguished family why a swell like him in with the and good they re fools get mixed up with this bunch they re parlor they have got nerve and nothing in it for them not a and i don t know s all the look like tou nuts look just about like anybody else to the were turning the parade down a side street they got just as much right to march as anybody th own the streets as much as drum or the american le on does grumbled of course they re a bad element oh d n by i at the ma fretted i don t know the s to their q with c tain drum came ng by l ia how s it captain oh we got on wc worked on off on streets and q em and th got and wait home due work no work groaned if i had my way there d be a lot of and i d start if and then the thing would be over i in back aod wet musing these and the drag m i you these are nothing in god s but a lot of throwing and and the only way to handle em is with a that what i d do beat up the lot of saying oh rats they h just about like you and me and i certainly notice any drum oh you didn t di you d like to take charge of the just i t the he	42
d be glad to hear about hi drum strode on while all the table stared at what s the idea do yon want us to ve those love and kisses or said jones do defend a lot of that are trying to take the bread and butter away from our raged professor said nothing he put mi like a mask his jaw was hard his short hair seemed his silence was a thunder while the assured that they must have him looked as though he had understood only too a judge he to s d n by o sure they re a bunch of but i just mean strikes me it s bad policy to talk about em doesn t he s got the de italian hand and that s why he s drum is jealous of him well said professor q you hurt s george he s been out there all morning getting hot and dusty and no wonder he wants to beat the tar out of those sons of said nothing and and knew that he was being watched as he was leaving the heard protesting to don t know what s got into him last sunday drew preached a sermon about decency in business and kicked about that too near s i can figure out was he saw a crowd listening to a man who was talking from the of a kitchen chair he ed his car new pictures he knew that the must be the notorious preacher of whom had spoken was a gaunt man with hair weather beaten cheeks and worried eyes he was if those girls can hold out living on one meal a day doing their own washing starving and smiling you big men ou t to be able saw that from the ver was him in vague he started the car and d n by i drove ob s eyes to follow him all the way there a lot of these fellows was to his wife that think if go oa strike they re a bunch of now of course it s a fight between sound business and the destructive element and we got to the s out of em when they challenge us but if i see we can t fig t like gentlemen and not go calling em dirty do and saying they ought to be shot down why george she said placidly t you s insisted that all ought to be put in jail i never did i i mean some of em of course leaders but i mean a fellow ought to be l and liberal about things like but i thought you always said these so called ib people were the worst of woman never can the different of a word depends on how you mean it and it pay to be too about anything now these honest they re not such bad people just foolish they don t understand the of and profit the way we business men do but sometimes i think they re about like the rest of us and no more for wages than we are fix profits if were to hear talk like that of course i know you i remember what a wild b yoa were i know you don t mean a word you say but if people that understand you to bear you talking th d think you were a regular what do i care what p and let me t now i want you to distinctly i never a wild crazy kid and i say a thing i mean it and d n by t stand by it and honest do you think people would think i was too liberal if i just said the were decent of course they would but don t dear i know you don t mean a word of it time to trot to bed now have you enough covers for to ni t on the sleeping porch he puzzled she doesn t me hardly understand myself why can t i take things easy way i used to wish i could go out to s house and talk thin over with him saw going in wish i knew some really smart woman and nice that would see what i m trying to get at and let me talk to her and i wonder if s right could the fellows think i ve gone just because i m broad minded and liberal way looked at d n by chapter hiss into bis private office at three in thi with mr there a on the wants to see about de ud are all oat want to talk to ha all right the of was clear and the of die seemed to bold a tiny f image of her eyes nose gentle is mis do you remember me you drove iq here to the and helped me find a nice flat bet i what can i do you why it s a i don t know that i ou t to bother you but the seem to be able to fix it you know my flat is on the top floor and with these autumn rains the roof is beginning to and i d be awfully ad sure ill come up and take a at it nervously when do you expect to be in why i m in every morning be in this afternoon in an hour w so ye es perhaps i could you a of tea i think i t to after all your trouble fine ill run there soon as i can get away he meditated now there s a woman that s got refinement after all trouble give you a cup of tea she d i a fellow i m a fool but i m not a bad get to know me and not so much a	42
fool as d n by the great strike was over the beaten except that seemed less cordial there do visible of s treachery to the dan the oppressive fear of was gone but a loneliness remained now he was so that to prove be wasn t be about the office for fifteen minutes looking at blue explaining to miss that this mrs scott wanted more money her house had raised the asking price raised it from seven thousand to eighty five hundred would miss be sure and put it down on the card mrs scott s raise when he had thus established as a person and interested only in business he out he took a particularly long time to start bis car he kicked the the glass of the and the holding the wind shield spot light he drove ht off toward the district of the presence of mrs as of a light on the horizon the leaves had fallen and they lined the of the a halted streets it was a day of pale gold and faded green tranquil and lingering was aware of the meditative day and of the of blocks of wooden houses little shops k ts needs i needs the touch that ie like mrs could ve a place he as be rattled through the long crude airy streets the wind rose keen and in a blaze of well being he came to the flat of she was wearing she admitted him a of black cut modestly round at the base of her pretty throat she seemed to him immensely he at the and prints in her living room and you ve fixed the place takes a woman to know how to make a home all tou really like it i m so c l but you ve neglected me you to come some time and to dance d n by ob but you didn t it perhaps not but you might have well here i ve come for my lesson and you mi t prepare to have me stay for they both laughed in a manner indicated that of course be didn t mean it but first i guess i better look at that she climbed witb bim to the flat roof of the a detached world of wooden walks water in a he at things his toe and sou t to her by being learned about cr the of passing through a lead collar and sleeve and them with copper and the advantages of over iron for you have to know so much in real estate i she he promised that the roof should be within two days do you mind my your be asked heavens no i he stood a moment at the over a land of bard little with large and new small but brave with walls and beyond them was a with b of yellow day like a vast wound beside each were small it was a world of good little people comfortable in the light the flat was and the air was a sun tinted pool it s fine afternoon you get a great view hen t s hill said yes isn t it nice and so dam few people appreciate a anew you go raising n rent n that oh d n by bs ity of i mu seriously though there are so few who who to v i mean they haven t any feeling of and beauty that s a fact they he breathed admiring her and the absorbed way in which she k the hill lifted lips smiling well guess i d better the so they ll get on the job first thing in the morning when he had it and and masculine he looked doubtful and better oh you must have that of tea it would go pretty good at that it was luxurious to in a green chair his le thrust out before bim to glance at the black chinese i ne stand and the colored photograph of mount which he had always liked so much while is the tiny so near mrs sang my queen in an intolerable sweetness a contentment so deep that be was wistfully discontented he saw by t and heard plantation to the he wanted to be near her on of helping her yet he wanted to remain in this still ecstasy languidly he remained when she in with the tea he smiled i at her is awfully the first time he was not he was quietly and securely friendly and friendly and quiet was her answer it s nice to have you here you so kind helping me to find this little home th agreed that the weather would soon turn cold they agreed that was they agreed that art in the home was they agreed about everything they even became bold they hinted that these modem young girls well honestly their short skirts were short they were proud to find that were not shocked by such frank ventured i know i d n by mean i don t quite know bow to say it but i do tint who pretend they re bad by the w y they dress never go any farther tbey away the fact that the the instincts of a womanly woman remembering the girl and bow ill she had used him agreed with enthusiasm r bow ill all the world had used him be told of paul of of of the strike see how it was course i was as anxious to have those beggars licked to a as anybody else but reason for not seeing de for a fellow s own sake he s got to be broad minded and liberal you think so oh i sitting on the hard little couch she her hands beside her leaned toward him absorbed bim and in a glorious state of being	42
appreciated he so i up and said to the fellows at the club hen i do you belong to the union i think it s no the you course they re always me to join the union but i always say no sir i nothing i don t mind the but i can t stand all the old oh yes that s so but tell me did you to them oh you don t want td hear it i m probably yon to death with my you wouldn t hardly think i was an old i sound like a oh you re a boy yet z mean you can t be a day over forty five well i m much but by i to fed middle aged sometimes au these and ad ob i her voice him it him like warm silk and i fed lonely so lonely some days d n by eve a pair of but i think pretty dam yes i think we re lots than most people i tbey smiled but please tell me what you said at the well it was like this course is a friend ts mine they can say what they want to they can call him they please but what most folks bat don t know is that is the bosom of some of the biggest in the world hard you know this big british nobleman my friend sir told me that lord is one of the biggest guns in or told me do you know sir the one that was here at the s know him well say i know him just well so we call each george and and we got so together in that have been fun but she shook a finger at him i can t have you getting have to take you in wish you well saying you see i happen to know what a big noise is outside of but of course a prophet got any honor in his country and dam his old hide he s so blame modest that he never lets folks know the kind of an he with when he goes abroad during the strike drum comes to our table all i st to in his nice cap n s uniform and says to him the strike well he up like a pigeon and he so b you could hear him way in the reading room yes sure i the strike leaders they got ob and so tb y went home i says to him ad there wasn t any violence d n by yea he but if i t my t e would ve been ad those fellows had in they re oh rats i sa rs looked em ah over care folly and tb didn t have any more n a i says i says they re foolish but re a good deal like you and after all and then or somebody no it was you know this famous poet great of mine he says to me look here he says do you mean to say yoa advocate these strikes i was so disgusted with a whose mind worked that way that i swear i had s good mind to not at him ob that s so said mrs but finally i explains to him if you d done as as i have on chamber of commerce and all says then you d have the ri t to talk but same time i says i believe in treating your o like a weu sir that held em i i always call him he have word to say but at that i some of em kind o thought i was too liberal what do yon think oh you were so wise and courageous i love a man to have the courage of his convictions but do you think it was a good after ad some of these fellows are so dam cautious and minded that they re prejudiced against a that talks t out in what do you care in the long nm they re bound to respect a man makes them think and with for you what do you know about my reputation fa oh i m not going to you everything i but seriously you realize a famous man are i done much this m d n by too kind of by paul i guess but do yoa know you re the first person that s really understood i was getting at listen to me wiu fat nerve i ve got calling you oh and shall i call you george don t you think it s awfully nice when two people have so much what shall i call it so much analysis that they can all these stupid and understand each other and become acquainted right away like ships that pass in the t i certainly dot i certainly do he was no longer in bis chair he wandered about the room he dropped on the couch beside im but as he awkwardly stretched ills hand toward her fragile fingers she said do give me a would you think poor was dreadfully if she smoked lord he had often and pondered smoking in but he knew only one woman who mrs sam his he lifted s ci looked for a place to the burnt match and q ed it into bis pocket i m sure you want a yoa poor she do you mind one oh i love the smell of a good so nice and so nice and like a man find an ash tray in my bedroom on the table beside the bed if yon don t getting it he was embarrassed by her bedroom the broad couch with a cover of violet silk curtains striped with chinese and an amazing row	42
of slippers with ribbon wound shoe trees and lying across them his of bringing the ash tray had just the ri t note of easy friendliness he a like would try to get funny about her bedroom d n by a but i take it he was not casual afterward of companionship was gone and be was restless with desire to touch her hand but whenever be turned toward her the was in his way it was a between them he waited till she should have finished bnt as he rejoiced at her quick crushing of its light on tbe she said don t you want to give me another and bt he saw the screen of pale smoke and her graceful hand again between them he was not mo curious now to find out would let bim hold her hand all in the purest friendship naturally bat with need of it on the surface ai none of this they were talking cheerfully of of to of once he said i do hate these i hate these people that invite to meals but i seem to have a i m going to have er with the mrs to night but i you ly have seven dates already well i was thinking some of going to tbe yes i really think i ou t to get out and get fresh air she did not encourage him to stay but never did she him he considered i better take a she will let me stay there is something doing and i mustn t get mixed up i mustn t i ve got to beat it then no it s too late now suddenly at seven brushing her away taking her hand stop you know we we an a couple of birds and we re awful happy together anyway i ami never been so do let me i d down to the and buy some chicken maybe or cold turkey and we can have a nice little and rd s if yon want to me ill be good and go like a lamb d n by it would be nice she said nor did she withdraw her hand he squeezed it trembling and his coat at the he t preposterous stores of food on the principle of from the store across the street he to his wife got to get a to sign a lease before he leaves town on the midnight wont be till don t wait up for me kiss good ni u he back to the flat ot you bad thing to buy so much was her greeting and her voice was gay her smile he helped her in the tiny kitchen he washed the he the olive bottle she him to set the table and as he trotted into the living room as he hunted the for knives and he utterly at home now the only other thing he announced is what you re going to wear i can t decide whether you re to put on your evening gown or let your hair down and put on short skirts and make believe you re a little girl i m going to dine just as i am in this old rag and if you can t stand poor that way you can go to the club for stand he patted her shoulder child you re the and the loveliest and finest woman i ve ever come now lady if take the duke of s we will in to the ok you do say the things i when they had finished the er he thrust his out of the window and it s turned awful chilly and i think it s going to rain you want to go to the wish we had a i wish it was like all to ii t and we were in a funny little old d n by cottage die trees like and big log fire let tin to the and our feet out and pretend it wood fire oh i think that yon big but they did draw to the and propped feet against it his clumsy black shoes her in the th talked of of bow lonely she was how he and how that tbey bad found each other as tb silent the room was a country lane there was no sound from tbe street save the of the of a distant fret t train self contained was the room warm from tbe world he was absorbed by a rapture in which all fear and ing were smoothed away and when he reached home at tbe r bad to and full of d n by chapter thk of s friendship s at the be became though was it the others at the table came to accept as having for do visible turned they argued with him and he was and the of his interesting he even praised professor said that was carrying s joke too far bat argued i tell you he s got one of the keenest in the country why lord said oh who the is lord what you always him in for you been him for the last six protested jones george ordered him from you can get those en by mail for two apiece suggested that s all right lord he s one of the biggest in english political life as i was saying of course i m myself but i af a gi like because interrupted harshly i wonder if you are so i find i can manage to nm my own business without any and like in iti the of s voice the hardness of his jaw disconcerted but he recovered and went on till looked bored then irritated then as doubtful as d n by he t of with be her every hb arms for her i ve f i ve	42
dreamed of her all and now f be he met her at the in the n be drove out to her flat in the late afternoon or on c he was to be at the he knew ba t and advised her about them while ihe i her feminine ignorance and praised his aad proved to know much more about bonds than he did bad and ter over old times once they and be raged that she was as as bis wife and far more when be was that passed safely hi hour was a on s ringing december afternoon snow drifted meadows down to the river she was in an cap and a short coat she slid on the ice and shouted and be panted her with ter never on tbe ice he was afraid that they would be seen together in it is impossible to lunch with a nd wife without the bet bring known before nt in every in circle but was beautifully discreet however appeal in she mi t turn to him they were alone she wm gravely when were abroad and be hoped that the would be taken few a jones once aw emerging from a and me make you with now a knows tbe t t to come to mr he was a man of morals and o d ay machinery seemed satisfied his fear not from any c but from the habit of r was that hit wife d n by learn of tbe affair he was certain that she knew about but be was also certain that she suspected something indefinite for years she had been bored by anything more affectionate than a farewell kiss yet she was hurt by any in his irritable interest and now he had no interest rather a he was completely faithful to he was distressed by the si t of his wife s slack by her and of flesh by the tattered which she was always meaning and always forgetting to throw away but he was aware that she so long to him t all his he heavily tried to them he couldn t they had a tolerable was there engaged to mrs was tearful and called her new son was worried about ted because he had ceased complaining of the state university and become su he wondered tbe boy was planning and was too shy to ask himself away on christmas afternoon to take bis present a silver box to when be returned mn asked much too innocently did you go out for a little fresh air yes just drive be after new year s bis wife proposed i heard from my sister to day george she isn t well i think perhaps i ou t to go stay with her for a few weeks now mrs was not accustomed to leave home during tbe winter except on violently demanding occasions and only tbe summer before she had been gone for weeks nor was one of the husbands who take casually he liked to have there she looked after bis clothes she knew how his ou t to be cooked and her made him feel secure but he could not drum up even a dutiful ob she doesn t really need you does she while he tried tp look he felt that his d n by to um he was filled tt do you think i d better go she said you ve got to decide i can t she away and his was dan till she went four days later she was curiously he affectionate her train left at noon aa saw ft grow small beyond the train shed he longed to lo no by i won t do he vowed want go near her for a but he was at her flat at four he who had once controlled or seemed to control his life a progress but and sane was for that fortnight borne on a current of desire and very bad and all the of new acquaintances those furious new who demand so much more than old friends each morning he gloomily recognized his of the evening before with his head throbbing ha tongue and lips from be incredulous counted the number of drinks he had taken and groaned i got to he had ceased saying i w t for however resolute he mi t be at dawn he could not for a un evening check his drift he had met s friends he had with the ardent haste of the midnight people who drink and dance and rattle and are ever afraid to be silent been ted as a member of her which they called the he first met them after a day when be had worked particularly hard and when he hoped to be quiet with and slowly her admiration from down the hall he could hear shrieks and the grind of a as the door he saw fantastic d n by figures dancing in a haze of smoke the tables and chain were against the wall oh isn t this she at him had the loveliest idea she decided it was time for a par she the bunch and told on to gather round george this is was in the less desirable aspects of both at once and she was perhaps forty her hair was ao ash and if her chest was flat her were ponderous she greeted with a to our little says you re a real he was a e to dance to be boyish and gay with and he did his best he hi about the room into other couples into the into chair as he danced he surveyed the rest of the bunch a thin young woman who looked capable and sarcastic another woman whom he could never quite remember three and young men fountain clerks or at least bom for that profession a man of his own ag immovable	42
satisfied of s presence when be bad finished his dutiful dance took him aside and begged dear wouldn t like to do something for me i m all out of and the bunch want to couldn t you down to s and get some sure he said trying not to sound sullen you get to drive down with you was pointing to the thin sarcastic young hiss greeted him with an how d yon do mr tells me you re a very prominent man and i m honored by being allowed to drive with you of course i m not accustomed to with society like you so i don t know how to act in such d n by talked all the to h s to her he wanted to reply ok o to the bat be never quite to that ment he was the existence of the whole be had heard of darling and she s so her bat hid been real to him he bad as a rose tinted waiting for him free id tht of a when they returned be bad to the of at they were as friendly as mat was called um ou and shouted on now shake a leg boys in coats pin y boys as young as ted and as as chorus men but powerful to dance and to mind die and smoke and he tried la be one of them be cried good wo but us q enjoyed the companionship of the darling to their bland and kissed them at the end of each dance tm the moment he saw her as middle aged he wrinkles in the softness of her throat the her chin the muscles of ha youth were loose and h ing between dances she sat in the largest chair waving d her admirers to come and ta to her she thinks a blooming ba she to miss isn t my little sweet it s a plain old aod flat ob god i wish i was i wonder if i cant a now his grew however as be applied t s raw but vigorous he blended the bunch he began to rejoice that and oe most nearly of the m d n by uke him and it was important to win over tlie surly older man who proved to be a railway clerk named the c of the bunch was hj colored full of to people whom did not know ai they thou t very comfortably of they were the bunch wise and beautiful and amusing they were and accustomed to all the luxuries of dance and and in a cynical to people who were slow or ti they ob did i tell you what that of a said i came in late yesterday oh it was per ly oh but wasn t t d say he was what did say to him think of the nerve of bob trying to get us to come to his say the nerve of can you beat it for nerve some nerve i call iti did you notice how was she the limit was to be beard agreeing with tbe miss that persons who let a night go by without to music were and poor fish and he roared you bet i when mrs ed don t you love to sit on the floor it s so be began to think extremely well of the bunch when he mentioned his friends sir lord william washington and he was proud of their interest he got so thoroughly tbe q that he didn t mind seeing drooping against tbe shoulder of tbe youngest and of tbe young men and he himself to hold s hand and dropped it because looked angry when he went at two be was fully a member of the d n by an the thereafter he was bound by the the demands of life of and freedom he had to go to their parties he was involved in the agitation when everybody to everybody else that she hadn t what she d said when she d said that and anyway why going around saying she d said it never was a family more on learning one another than were the bunch all of them knew or indignantly desired to know where all the others had been every minute of the we found e ig to or just what be had been doing that he should not have joined them till ten o clock and do ing for having gone to dinner with business acquaintance every member of the was expected to to every other member at least a why yon called me up was asked y not by and but presently by new and and if for a be had seen as withering and he lost that at dance mrs hark had a large house and a small husband to her par came all of the bunch perhaps thirty five of then th were con under the name of was now a of the each it changed half its member iq and he who could recall the days of a t ago before mis the food had b and had got sore at was a leader and to to new and and at did not have to work at being hostess she was dignified and sure a dear fine figure in the be had always loved and in wider of that ugly house was to sit bv he of his first at feet and d n by drove next day he bon t a violent tie to make himself young for her he knew a little sadly that he could not make beautiful be beheld as heavy of but he danced he dressed he to be as young as she was as young as she to be as all whether to a on love m find as by magic that thou hitherto these have not seemed to exist	42
now the whole world is filled with their so once he was to discovered agreeable for it everywhere he had a new view of his sam the were respectable people industrious people q whose ideal of happiness was an their life was by of and kisses and their set worked all the week and all week looked forward to saturday ni t when they would as they expressed it throw a party the thrown party grew and to sunday dawn and usually included an extremely rapid expedition to in particular one evening when was at the found himself being lively with the with men he had for years to mrs as a rotten bunch of tin horns that i wouldn t go out with not if th were the last people on earth evening be had come home and about in front of the house q ing os the walk the ice like made by the steps of by during the recent came iq still a george cold again to ni t what do you hear from the wife d n by she s fine but her sister is pretty say better come in and have with as to george oh oh thanks have to go out suddenly he could not endure s of the more interesting about totally uninteresting he scraped at the walk and sam appeared working hard exercise cold for you to ni t well just about a s while she s away i know yoa care much for fights but the and i d be ad if you could come in some ni t you could stand a good for once stand it young i bet old uncle george can the best in these united states that s the way to look here there folks coming to the house to ni t and some other live ones and i m going to up a bottle of e ar gin and maybe well dance a why don t yoa in and it up a little just for a what time they coming he was at sam s at nine it was the third time he had entered the house by ten he was calling sam old at they au drove out to the old farm inn sat in the back of s car with once he had tried to make love to her now he did not try he made love and dropped her head on his shoulder told what a was and accepted as a decent and well trained the of a bunch the and other in f there was not an evening tor two weeks he did not return home late and with his other faculties he yet had the s gift of being able to drive he could scarce walk of down at comers and allowing for approaching can he came into the house if and were bout he got past them with a hasty greeting horribly of their level young glances and bid up he found he came into the warm house that he was than he had believed his head whirled he dared not lie down be tried to out the in a hot bath for the moment his head was clearer but when he moved about the his calculations of distance were wrong so that he dragged down the and knocked over the so dish with a clatter which he feared would betray hun to the chilly in his dressing gown he tried to read the evening paper he could follow every word be seemed to take in the sense of thin but a minute afterward he could not have told what he had been reading when he went to bed his brain in circles and he hastily sat struggling for control at last he was able to lie still feeling only a little sick and and ashamed to hide bis condition from his own to have danced and shouted with whom he despised to have said foolish thin sung son tried to kiss silly he remembered that he had l his roaring familiarity with them laid to the of youths whom he would have kicked out of his office that by dancing too he had exposed himself to from the of withering women as it came back to him he i hate myself i god how i hate but he raged i m l no had he was about it the morning after be was trying to be grave and paternal with his ten at break d n by at be ms less sore h did d am he had been a fool be it almost as dearly at t but ai be struggled was better than back to a life of barren at four be wanted m be t a in his desk now aiid after two of battle be bad bis drink three drinks later be see the bunch as tender and amusing friends and by six he was with them and the tale was to be im ao over each morning his head ached a little less a bad lor drinks had been his but the was presently he could be drunk at dawn yet not fed wretched in his or ia us be awoke at ei t no regret no desire to escape the toil el with the merriment of the was ac as his of inferiority be to keep to be the of them was as his now as it bad been to at making money at at driving at at to the set but occasionally be he that and the other men tt h rf the bunch too polite and the who kissed behind doors too as from heights down to the bond so tht young from the of the c to times with women whom they pi ed in department st and at tried to any them there was a car of	42
and for him a shrieking and s he sat beside ber and worried he was to her along sang out hey quit crushing me he did quite know how to go on in the of a saloon and had a was by new at them wanted to go nd bad a a good drinks d n by two after the surly older m n of the took aside and here it s of my and god knows i always lap i my of the but don t you think you better watch yourself you re one of these that always things d you realize you re throwing in the as fast as you can and you eat one right after another cut it oat for a while said that good old was a prince and yes be certainly would cut it out and th he lighted a and took a drink and bad a terrific quarrel with when she caught him being affectionate with next he himself that he should have sunk into a position where a like could rebuke him he perceived that since be was making love to every woman possible no longer bis one pure star and he wondered whether ever been more to him than a woman and if had spoken to him were other pe le talking about him he su watched the men at the that noon it seemed to him that they were uneasy they had been talking about him then he was angry he became he not only defended but even made fun of the y m c a was rather brief in his answers afterward was not he was afraid he did not go to the next lunch of the club but hid in a cheap and while he a ham and egg and coffee from a on the arm of his chair he four days later when the bunch were having one of their best parties drove them to the which had been laid out on tbe river after a the streets had frozen in smooth ice down those wide endless streets the rattled between tbe rows of houses by and the whole district seemed a frontier town even with chains on all four was afraid of sliding and when be came to the long slide of a bill he crawled down both on round a corner came a less cautious car it it almost with its rear in relief at their escape the bunch shouted oh baby and waved their hands to the agitated other driver then saw professor laboriously crawling up hill at the he was sure that recognized him and saw kiss him as she you re such a good driver at lunch next day he with out last ni t with my brother and some of his what s glass thou t i saw you the avenue hill no i wasn t i didn t see you said hastily rather perhaps two days afterward to lunch at the hotel she who had seemed content to wait for bim at her flat had begun to with smiles that he must think but little of her if he never introduced her to his friends if he was unwilling to be seen with her except at the he thought of taking her to the ladies of the club but that was too dangerous he would have to introduce her and oh people mi t and he on the she was unusually smart all in black small black hat short black coat loose and swinging and austere high black velvet frock at a time when most street were like evening gowns perhaps she was too smart every one in the gold and oak of the was staring at her as followed her to a table he uneasily hoped that the bead waiter would give a dis place behind a pillar but they were stationed on d n by aisle seemed not to notice ber admirers smiled at with a lavish ob iso t this what a looking i had difficulty in lavish in return for two tables away he saw all the meal watched them while watched being watched and tried to keep bom s gaiety i like a to day she i love the don t you it s so live and yet so refined he made talk about the the service the food the pe q le he recognized in the all but there did not seem to be anything to talk of he smiled at her fluttering he agreed with her that was so hard to get along with and young such a silly kid really just no good at all but be himself had nothing to say he telling ber his about but oh it was too much work to go into the whole thing and explain about and everything he was relieved when he put on a he was cheerful in the familiar un of his office at four o clock called on him was agitated but began in a friendly way how s the boy say some of us are getting up a scheme we d kind of like to have you come in on fine shoot you know during the war we had the element the and walking and just the plain common dead to ri ts and so did we for quite a while after the war but folks forget about the danger and that gives these a chance to begin working especially a lot of these parlor well it s up to the folks that do a little sound thinking to make a conscious effort to ke these fellows s back east has organized a called the good citizens league for just that d n by ff of course the of and ths ind so on do a fine in keeping the in the saddle but they re devoted to w tbey can	42
t attend to this one die good league the g c i tb stick ri t to it ok g c l has to l ve some here in i think it ou t to the park project and the city planning nd then too k have a social a being made up of the best p e have dances and so on as one of the best it can put the on b to apply thb business to folks so yoa cant reach on then if that don t the g c l can finally a around to inform that get too th got to to decent standards and quit shooting off mouths so free don t it sound like the tom do a great work we re already got of the m den in town and of course we want you in how it was he a back q the standards he had so vaguely yet so de he i you d li t oo like and to make em ou bet your sweet life we look here old i ve never one believed you meant it i defended and the and so on at tbe x knew you were simply those poor su at least i certainly hope yoa oh course yon mi t m of how feeble be sounded ui m u s of mature and eye yoa know i no labor l i m a man first hat aad al oe but honestly i think done m and you got to remember he an old friend c george it right down to a b d n by ud tbe of our homes on the one hand and red ruin those dog for free beer on tbe other you got to give i even di he that i dot with me is against me ye es i how about it going to join us in tbe good league ill have to think it over au ri t just you say was relieved to be let off so easily but went oa george i know come over you none of us do and we ve talked a lot about for a while we figured out you d been t happened to poor and we forgave you for fool things you said but that s old stuff now and we cant make out what s got into you personally i ve always do you but i must say it s getting too much for me ad the boys at the and the are sore tbe way you go on and his bunch of bell bounds and talking about being liberal and even saying this preacher isn t a professional free love artist and tbe way been carrying on personally joe says he saw yon out the other night with a gang of all to the and here to day coming ri t into the with a well she may be all and a perfect lady but she did look like a t for a fellow with his wife out of town to be taking to lunch didn t look what tbe devil has come over you george strikes me there s a lot of fellows that know more about my business than i do now go getting sore at me because i come out like a friend and say i think instead of your back tbe way a lot of em do i you george you got a position in the and the you to live up to u and better think d n by j the good see it later be gone evening he saw all the l good peering the modem laying urn fear sat beside him and be told that t ii be not go to sat and he not go d n by chapter xxx thb before mn s letters bad with desire to return to now they nothing of but a wistful i si everything is going on all right without me among her of weather and hinted to that he hadn t been very urgent about her coming he worried it if she were here and i went oo raising like i been doing she d have a fit i got to get hold oi myself i got to learn to around and yet not make a fool of myself i can do it too if folks uke let me alone and stay away but poor ud she sounds lonely lord i want to hurt be wrote that they missed her and her next letter said happily that she was coming home he persuaded himself that be was eager to see her he t roses for the house be ordered for dinner he had the car cleaned and polished all the way home from the station with her he was adequate in bis accounts of ted s success in basket ball at the university but before they reached heights there was nothing more to say and already he the of her wondered whether he could remain a good husband and still out of the house this evening for half an hour with die when he had the car he upstairs into the familiar warmth of her presence help you your bag wo i can do it she tamed holding op a small box and by b id i brought a present just a new d case i know if you d care to it she was the girl the brown whom he had married and be almost wept for pity as he kissed her and oh honey honey core to it of course i m awful proud yon t ft to me and i needed a new case badly he wondered he would get rid of the case he bad bought the week and you really are ad to see me back why you	42
poor what you been worrying well you didn t seem to miss me very much by the time he bad finished bis of lying were bound again by ten that evening it that she had ever been away there was but one difference the of a respectable husband a husband yet seeing and the bunch with he had promised to to that evening and now it was ic he about the in thrusting out a hand to lift the but never quite daring to risk it nor could be find reason for slipping down to the store on smith street with its he was laden with re kid till he threw it off with the q why the deuce should i fret so about not bang able to she can get along without me i don t owe her ai thing k ft fine girl but i ve her just as as she has me oh damn these women and the way get yoa all tied in for a we he was attentive to his wife her to the to dinner at tbe then the old weary ag and shifting began and at least two evenings a ma he d n by ent with the he still made of going to the and to but less and less did he trouble to have his excuses interesting less and less did affect to believe them he was certain that she knew he with what heights called a crowd yet neither of them acknowledged it in matrimonial the distance between the first mute recognition of a break and the admission thereof is as great as the distance between the first faith and the first doubting as he began to drift away he also began to see her as a human being to like and dislike her instead of ting her as a comparatively part of the furniture and he c v pas that husband and wife relation which in years of married life had become a separate and real he recalled their high lights the summer in virginia meadows under the blue wall of the mountains their tour through and the e q on of and the birth of their building of this new house planned to comfort them a happy old age they had said that it might be the last home either of them would ever have yet hia most softening remembrance of these dear moments did not keep him from barking at dinner going out f few hours don t sit up for me he did not dare now to come home drunk and be in his return to morality and spoke with gravity to and about th r drinking be at s and that a fellow couldn t ever to handle if be was s by a lot of women he no longer wondered if wasn t a bit worn and in contrast to the complacent he saw her as swift and air borne and radiant a fire tenderly stooping to the hearth and however be m ui he to be with d n by then mrs tore the decent from her a happiness and the astounded male discovered that she m having a small determined of her own tbey were beside the fire place in the she said ou haven t given me the list of expenses while i was away no i haven t made it out yet very a we must try to keep down expenses this year hut s so i don t know where all the money goes to i to but ft just seems to i su i t to q so much on cigars don t know but what cut down my smoking maybe cut it oat entirely i was thinking of a good way to do it the other day start on these and they d kind of me with smoking oh i do wish yon would i it isn t that i care but it is so bad for to bo you think you could reduce the amount and ge i notice now when you come home from these and a sometimes yon smell of you know i worry so much about the moral of it but you have weak stomach and you can t stand all drinking weak stomach i guess i can carry my a well as most i do think you ought to be careful don t yon see dear i don t want you to get sick sick i m not a i guess i to get just because maybe once a week i shoot a that s the trouble with women they always so george i don t think you ought to talk that my when i m just q for your own good d n by i know but su the always and lad things i and then they s it s your own good l why george that s not a nice way to talk to answer me so short well i didn t mean to answer short but talking at if i was a not able to one without calling for the st mary s a fine idea you must have of me i oh it isn t that it s just i don t want to see you get sick and my i didn t know it was so don t forget to give me those accounts for the time while i was away oh thunder the use of taking the trouble to make em out bow let s just em for that period why george in all the we ve been married we ve never failed to keep a a account of we ve no maybe that s the trouble with us what in the world do yon mean oh i don t mean anything only sometimes i get so dam sick and tired of all this routine	42
and the at the office and e q at home and and and and wearing out worrying over a lot of that doesn t really mean a thing and being so good what do you think i m made for i could have been a dam good and here j fuss and fret and don t you i ever get tired of i get so with three meals a day three hundred and sixty five days a year and my eyes over that sewing machine and looking after your clothes and and ted s and s and everybody and the and d n by js and going down to the pig y wig y to and bringing my basket home to save money on the well with s certain astonishment i maybe you but talk about here i have to be in the office single day while you can go out all afternoon and see and visit with the and do any thing you want yes and a fine lot of good that does just talking over the same old things with the same old crowd while have all sorts of interesting coming in to see you at the office interesting old that want to know w iy i t deer precious homes for about seven times their value and bunch of old the everlasting out of me because they don t every cent of their by three g m on the second of the interesting just as interesting as the small now george i will not have you shouting at me that it gets my goat the way figure out that a man doesn t do a dam thing but sit on his chair and have with a lot of and give ran the aa i guess you manage to ve them a glad th do come in what do you mean mean i m i should at your ow look here i you may not believe it of all you see is fat little handy man around the house the furnace when the furnace man doesn t show up and pays the bills but dull awful you may not believe it but there s some women that think old george isn t such a bad think he s not so bad not so bad that it hurts and d n by he s got a good line of and some even think he shakes a dam wicked at dancing yes she spoke slowly i haven t much doubt that i m away you manage to find pet e who a you i just mean he protested with a sound of denial then he was into semi honesty you bet i i find of folks and nice ones that don t think i m a weak baby i that s what i was you can nm around with anybody you please but i m to sit here and wait for you you have the chance to get all sorts of culture and everything and i just stay home well almighty there s nothing to prevent your reading books and going to lectures and all that is there george i told you i won t have you shouting at me like that i don t know what s come over you you never used to speak to me in this w i didn t mean to sound but it certainly makes me sore to get the blame because you don t keep up with i m going will you help me sure i can do to you in the culture yours to oblige g f veiy well then i want you to go to mrs s new thought meeting with me next sunday afternoon mis who s which liis the field tar the american new thought league she s going to speak on the sun spirit before the league of the hi at the oh new thought with a the it sounds like why is a mouse when it ins that s a fine q for a good to be going to when you cat hear d n by s reverend drew is a and a and all that but be t got the inner as his calls it he hasn t any for the en women need iu i now so i yoa t come as yon promised the branch of the of the hi mt met in the at the a refined with pale green walls and plaster wreaths oi roses refined and r ned a chairs here were gathered s five women and ten men most of the men in their chairs and ed while wives sat rigidly at attention but two of them men were as re y devout as wives they were rich having t and now buying a rained ready made it had been a toss up with them whether to buy new t science or a good standard hi i of e in the flesh mis of a pro aspect she was pot and with the face of a a button of a and arms so short that de te her most she could not clasp her hands in of her as she sat on die platform waiting her frock of and green with three strings of as beads large folding ha n g in g from a was a of mrs was by the of of the bi an young woman with a yearning voice white ts and a said that mrs now make it plain to the how the son be cultivated and th had d n by about one would do to treasure mrs s words because even and knew that stood in the van of and thou t progress didn t often have the to sit at the feet of such an and met as mrs bad lived the life of wider usefulness and in the silence found those secrets	42
of mental control and the inner k which were immediately going to and bring power and prosperity to the unhappy nations and so would they for this precious studded hour forget the illusions of the seeming real and in the of the lying with mrs to the realm if mrs was rather than one would like one s and yet ha voice had the real note it was refined and it was calm it on without one till was her favorite word was always she pronounced ways her principal was a but y blessing with two fingers she explained about this matter of spiritual there arc those of those she made a linked sweetness long drawn ont a far off delicate call in a twilight minor it the restless husbands yet t them a message of healing there are those who have seen the rim and outer seeming of the there are those have and in enthusiasm possessed themselves of some and portion of the there are those who thus but not penetrated and by the go always to and fro that th possess and are possessed of the and the but this word i bring you this d n by t i that those that are not utter are not and that is in its essence s always and it that the essence of the sun spirit was truth but its and were cheerfulness face always the day with the dawn with the enthusiasm of the who that all works together in the of the wheel and who answers the of the souls of the with a it went on for about an hour and seven minutes at the end mrs spoke with more and now let me to all of the advantages of the and oriental circle which i represent our object is to unite all the of the new era into one whole new t christian science and the other q from the one new light th is but ten dollars a year and for this mere the members receive dot only the monthly magazine of but the privilege of sending right to the president our mother any questions regarding spiritual progress matrimonial problems health and being questions financial difficulties and th y listened to her with attention they looked genteel they looked out they and crossed their le with and in expensive linen handkerchiefs blew their noses with a altogether and refined as for he sat and suffered when they were out in the air again when tbe drove home through a wind smelling of snow and honest sun he dared not they bad been too near to these days mrs forced it d n by did yoa mrs talk well i what did you get out of it oh it starts a person it gets you out of ft routine of ordinary ts hand it to she isn t ordinary but honest did that stuff mean anything to you of course i m not trained in met and was lots i couldn t quite grasp but i did feel it was in and she so readily do think yoa ought to have got something out of it well i didn tl i swear i was simply the way those women i ed it i why the they want to put in their time listening to all that when it s certainly better for them than going to and smoking and drinking i don t know it is or personally i don t see a lot of difference in both cases they re trying to get away from most everybody is these days i guess and i d certainly get a whole lot more out of it in a good lively dance even in some than sitting looking as if my collar was too tight and feeling too scared to t and listening to ha words i m sure you dot you re very fond of no doubt saw a lot of than while i was look you been doing a hell of a lot of and around lately as if i were leading a double life or something and i m damn sick of it and i don t want to hear anything more about it i why george do you realize what you re saying why george in all our years together you ve never talked to me like it s about time then you ve been getting worse and worse and now finally you re cursing and swearing at me and shouting at me and your voice so ugly and hateful i just by o ob rats quit i wasn t or ing either i wish you could hear your own maybe yoa realize how it sounds but even so yon used to talk like that you talk this way if hadn t happened to you bis mind was bard with he found that be wasn t particularly sorry it was only with an that be made agreeable well i didn t mean t get bore george do you realize we can t go aa like this getting farther and farther and you and me i just don t know what s going to happen he bad a moment s pi for her be t of bow many and things would be hurt if they really couldn t go on like this but bis i ty was and be was wondering wouldn t it maybe be a good thing if not a divorce and all that o bat kind of a little more independence while she looked at him y he drove m in a d n by chapter he was away from her while he about the and t the snow off the board and a cracked connection he repented he was and that be could have out at his wife and t fondly how much more lasting she was than	42
the bunch he wait in to that be was sorry didn t mean to be and to as to her interest in but in the darkness of the he that he d gone and tied himself to all over again he bad some satisfaction in taking it out on hang any why d she gone and got him these and made him all y and nervous and too many con q cut em he wanted peace for ten days he did not see not to her and instantly she put upon him the which he hated when he had stayed away from her for five days taking pride in his and how greatly must miss him miss reported mrs on the like t speak t yon was quick and quiet mr oh george this is i haven t seen for anyway yon aren t sick are you no just been terribly rushed i i think a big revival of building this year got to got to hard d n by of my i you to you know tt you much more than i am for n i just t want you to forget poor you call me soon you please do i sha n t call you again he meditated poor but she on to me at the office she s a wonder ambitious for me but i won t be made and compelled to call her till i get ready these women the w they make demands i be one long old time i see her but i d like to see her to ni t sweet little thing oh cut that now you ve broken away be she did not again nor he but after five more days she wrote to him have i offended yon know dear i mean lo i m to lonely and i need to me up why didn t yon come to the nice party we had at t last evening i remember she invited yon can t you come here evening i be alone and hope to ee you hb reflections were numerous it can t she let me alone why can t women ever learn a fellow to be and they rs take advantage of you by bow lonely they are now that isn t nice of you young she s a fine square straight girl and she does get lonely she writes a well hand nice looking plain refined i guess have to go see her weu thank god i got tm to morrow night free of her anyway she s nice but hang it i won t be made to do thin l i m not married to her no nor by going to oh rats i suppose i better go see her d n by the to morrow of s note was full of at the table at the talked of the good citizens league and it seemed to deliberately left him out of the invitations to join old mat the general utility man at s office had troubles and came in to groan about them his oldest boy was no good bis wife was sick and he bad with his brother in law also had troubles and was one of his best had to listen to them mr it appeared was suffering from a peculiarly interesting and the had bim when came home everybody bad troubles his wife was simultaneously thinking about the in new maid and worried lest the maid leave and desired to her teacher ob quit you never bear me about my troubles and yet if you bad to run a to day i found miss was two with her accounts and i pinched my finger in my desk and was in and just as um as ever he was so vexed that after dinner when it was time for a escape to he merely to his wife got to go out be back by eleven should think you re going out again what do you mean again l haven t hardly been out of the house for a are you are you going to the got to see people though this time he heard his own voice and knew that it was though she was looking at him with wide eyed reproach he into the hall jerked on his and gloves and went out to start the car he was relieved to find cheerful and d n by in a frock of brown net over gold yoa man having to come out on a t like it s cold don t yon think a would be nice now by s a witb i think we more or stand a hi if it too a one not over a foot he her with be forgot the of her he stretched in a large chair and felt that he had beautifully come home he was suddenly he told her what a and man be was and how to and other men of their acquaintance and she bending rd in hand brightly agreed but when he forced to ask well honey how s things with you she took his du mi seriously and he discovered that she too had troubles oh all right but i did get so angry with she told that i told her that was an awful ti and me had told her and of coarse i told her i hadn t said anything of the kind and then had told me and she was singly because had me of course i was just boiling because had told her i d her and then we all met st s his wife is thank oh the flow in hia house to dance and we woe as of us singly furious at each other and oh i do hate kind of a iq you i it s so m refinement but	42
and mother wants to come and stay with me for a whole month and of course i do love her i va pose i do but honestly shell my style dreadful she never can learn not to and she always wants to know where i m g ng i go out and if i lie to her she always around and and finds out i ve been and she looks like patience m a till i could just scream and di i d n by know i about i just hate pe q le who do t you but i feel so id to night and i know i must be yon with all this but what would you do about mother he gave her masculine advice she was to put off ber mother s stay she was to to go to the for these valuable she thanked bim and they into the gossip of the bunch of what sentimental fool was of what a la was of how met could be course lots of people think he s a regular old they meet him because be doesn t give em the glad hand the first crack out of the box but when they get to know him he s a but as they had gone through each of before the conversation staggered tried to be intellectual and deal with general topics he said some thoroughly sound things about and and but it seemed to him that general interested only she could apply them to or themselves he was conscious of their silence he tried to stir her into chattering again but silence rose like a and between them i he labored it strikes me it strikes me that is maybe will get a decent then silence he what s the trouble you seem kind of quiet to night am i oh i m not but do you really care whether i am m not care course i do you really she on him sat on the arm of his chair he hated the drain of having to a f ear fond of d n by ber he her hand smiled up at her and sank back george i wonder if you really like me at all course i do silly do you really precious do you care a bit why you t i d be here if i now see here young man i won t have you speaking to mt in that i didn t mean to sound i just in injured and childish tones almighty it makes me tired the way everybody says i sound when i just talk do they me to sing it w something who do you mean by everybody how ladies have you been look here now i won t have this humbly i know dear i was only i know it didn t mean to talk it was just tired bad but say you love me say it i i love you course i do yes you dot oh darling i don t mean to be rude but i get so i feel so useless nobody needs me nothing i can do for anybody and you know dear i m so active i could be if there was something to do and i am young aren t ii i m not an old thing i m not old and stupid am i he had to assure her she his hair and he had to look pleased under that touch the more demanding ia its softness he was he wanted to flee out to a hard sure man world her and caressing fingers she may have caught something of she left him he was for the moment relieved she dragged a to his feet and sat looking at him but as in men the of a dog the of a frightened child rouse na ty but a surprised and cruelty so her humility only d n by um and be ber now as as beginning to be even while be detested his own thou ts they rode him she ma old he he noted bow the oft flesh was into folds beneath her chin her eyes at the base of her wrists a patch of her throat bad a minute like the from a rubber she was younger in years than yet it was sickening to have her yearning at him with rolling great eyes as if he shuddered his own aunt were making love to him he fretted inwardly i m with tl a nine around i m going to cut her out she s a dam decent nice woman and i don t want to hurt her but it ll hurt a lot less to cut her right out like a good clean operation he was on his feet he was by every rule of self esteem he had to prove to her and to that it was ber fault i maybe i m kind of out of sorts to night but honest honey when i stayed away for a while to catch up on work ai d everything and figure out where i was at you ought to have been and waited till i came back cant you see dear when you made me i bang about an average bud headed n tendency was to resist listen dear i m going now not for a while ri t dow and then sometime well see about the future what do you mean dear about the future have i done something i t to ob i m dreadfully sorry he resolutely put his hands him not a thing god you not a thing you re as good as they make em but it s just good lord do you realize i ve got things to do in the world i ve	42
going to be into joining ai thing not even by yoa we re not anybody dr b an but col nd snow thrust him with certainly we are we don t mind a little if it s the g has been talking about you a good deal you re to be a sensible clean responsible man you always have been but lately for god knows what reason i hear from all of sources that you re around with a loose crowd and i t s a whole lot worse you ve actually been and 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 interests in town like my friends of the street company and my have given you a lot of well you can t the decent citizens to go on you if you to side with the people who are trying to us was frightened but he had an instinct d n by that if he in this he in everything he you re colonel i believe in and but of 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 colonel snow ob no i m not why the doctor here heard yon out and one of the finest types of republican just this and you have entirely the wrong idea about thinking over joining we not begging you to join the g we re permitting you to i m not sur my boy but what if yon put it off be too i m not sure we ll want yoa then better think quick better think quick i the three formidable in their ri stared at him in a waited through he t nothing at all he merely waited while in his echoing head i don t want to join i don t want to t don t want to all right sorry for said snow and the three men abruptly turned their backs as went out to his car that evening he saw ver coming down the block he raised his band 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 dear was in this afternoon and she says that says the committee of this good citizens league especially asked you to d n by join and you wouldn t don t you think it would be better you all the people belong sod the le stands i 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 and it isn t a question of whether it s a good league cr a bad league or what the bell 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 pe le mi t let em i but i mean nice people rats i matter of fact this whole league is a it s like all these other that start off with such a rush and let on they re to change the works and pretty soon they peter out and everybody f gets ab about but if it s the now you think you no i don tl oh please quit me about it i m sick of hearing about the confounded g z 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 as i m a free bom independent american now george you re talking exactly like the german for man oh i am am ii then i won t talk at he longed that evening to see to be strengthened by her when all the family were iq stairs he got as far as to her house but he was agitated about it and when the be iii call later and hung the d n by if had not been about s 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 his waved and died l looked at him deliberately hesitated and gave him a nod more than a direct cut s partner and father in law came in at ten george what s this i hear about some song and dance yoa gave colonel snow about not wanting to join the g what the you trying to do wreck the firm you don t these big guns will stand your them all this liberal you been getting off lately do you oh rats henry t you been reading bum fiction there ain t any such a thing as these plots to keep folks from being liberal this is a free a man can do anything he wants to course th ain t any plots who said was only if folks get an idea you re scatter and you suppose they ll want to do business with you do you one little about your being a would do more to ruin this business than all the plots and stuff that these fool could think iq in a month of sundays that afternoon en the old the a and suggested bis buying a parcel of land in the new section of said hastily too hastily no no	42
don t want lo go into anything new just now a later that the of the street company were planning real estate and that and wing not d n by the con were to handle ft for i figure that is kind of about the folks are talking about you of is a rock old die bard and he probably advised the to get some other george you got to do trembled and in a rush agreed all nonsense the way people him but still he determined to join the good citizens league the next time he vas asked and in resignation be waited he wasn t asked ignored him he did not have the courage to go to the league and beg in and he took refuge in a that he had gotten away with the whole city nobody dictate to turn how he was going to think and act he was as by nothing when the of miss suddenly left him thou ha reasons were she needed a rest her sister was sick she not do any more work for months he was uncomfortable with her successor miss what miss given name was no one in the office ever knew it seemed improbable that she had a given name a lover a powder puff or a she was so in this t pale industrious that it was ir to think of her as going to an ordinary home to eat she was a perfectly and she t evening to have been off and shut in her desk beside her too slim too frail points she took her was but became when he tried to work with her she made hun fed and at his best daily es she looked gently inquiring he longed tor s return and thought of writing to her then he beard that miss had a wed after leaving him gone over to his dangerous and wing he was not he was why did d n by ihe he worried did she have a ay is going on the and it was got the street deal rats sinking gray fear loomed always by him now he watched the young and wondered if be too would leave daily be fancied he noted that be was not asked to speak at the annual of dinner when jones gave a large party and be was not invited be was certain that he had been he was afraid to go to at the and afraid not to go he believed that be was on that when he left the table they about him he heard the rustling whispers in the offices of in the bank when be made a deposit in his own office in his own home he wondered what th were saying of him ah day long in conversations he t them mar why say he s a regular yon got to admire the f x bis tbe way he turned liberal and by just runs his life to suit himself but he s dangerous that s he is and he s got to be shown he was so that he rounded a corner and chanced aa two talking whispering his heart leaped and he stalked by like an embarrassed when he saw his neighbors and jones together he peered at them went to escape their and was miserably certain that they bad been whispering all his fear ran defiance he felt stubborn sometimes he decided that be had been a very devil of a fellow as bold as sometimes he planned to call on and him i t a he was and never got beyond tbe planning but just as often he heard tbe soft him he good lord what lave i done just with the bunch and called down d n by drum about being a never catch me people and trying to make accept my he could stand the strain before long be admitted tbat he would like to flee back lo the security of provided th re was a decent and creditable way to return but he would not be forced back he would not he swore eat dirt only in with his wife did these turbulent rise to the surface she con that he seemed nervous that she couldn t understand why he did not want to drop in at the for the evening he tried but be could not to her the facts of his rebellion and punishment and with paul and lost he bad do one to whom he could talk good lord ii 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 ht had a pale note from him every week he thou t 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 he raged simply can t understand all she sees in life is getting along by being just like other folks but she d ted me i was all ri t 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 ice woman who lot like she said yes george what is it in even and tones and he cr t 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 n by d n by hot give em stir em this old is asleep i down on s lap kissed him her hair against his chin and i think you re than why is it that is	42
such an old the man has a good heart and honestly he s awfully bright but he will to on the gas after all the training i ve him don t you think we could do with him dearest why that isn t a nice way to speak of your papa observed in the best ts manner but he was y for the first time in he pictured himself u the liberal strengthened by the of the generation they went out to rifle the ice box if your mother t us at this we d certainly get our come iq and became maternal scrambled a number of for them kissed oa ear and in the voice of a brooding it beats he devil why like me go on these thus stimulated was reckless he encountered of the ca and choir leader of the road church with one of us dan hands imprisoned s thick be brother we haven t seen you at church very often lately i know you re b ay with a multitude of details but you mustn t forget your dear friends at the old church home shook off the affectionate liked to hold hands for a long time 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 bad the nerve to try to drag me back to the old church home then the holy t must have been doing a lot of talking about me too he them ig dr john d n by o the out rf and he mi the streets afraid of mm cynical and die in of d n by chapter hi tried to e to his wife as they red for bed bow was but all her answer was he has a beautiful spiritual i don t think you t to of him like that just because you can t ai he saw her then as a stranger he 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 to side he pondered of he d been a fool to lose her he had to have he could really talk to he d oh he d bust if he went on about things by and useless to her to understand rats no use the issue dam shame two married people to drift after all these years dam shame but nothing could them together now as long as he refused to let bully him into taking orders and he was by not going to let bully him into anything or him at him he woke at three roused by a and out of bed for a drink of water as he passed the bedroom he heard his wife groan his was ni be was in inquiring what s the trouble bon i ve such a pain down here in oh it just it tears at me bad shall i get yon some oa that would be i funny last evening d n by a ud and it paved i h deep and that woke me her voice laboring like a sh in a he i better the doctor no ith go bat maybe yon mi get ok as he stalked to the for tbe ice ba down to the kitchen for ice he dramatic in e on but aa he the of ice with the dagger like pick he was cool steady mature and the old was ia voice aa he patted the into place on her t there there that ll be better now he retired to bed b t he did not he heard her groan again ha was up her bad yea it me and i can t get to her voice faint knew her dread of and he did not inform her bat he to dr and shivering eyes to read a tm he heard the doctor car hie doctor was and ha came in as thou it were sunny george little trouble di how is she now he said aa with tremendous and rather cheerfulness be tossed us coat on a and warmed his hands at a ra he took charge of the house and u ta nt as he tbe doctor to the and it was the doctor oh just little de peeped her door what is it what la it to mil the doctor with after his kind of a bad ou pain di ih give you something to make you sleep and i think fed better in tbe ill come io ti t after bat to wait the had the doctor al d d n by i don t like the feeling there in her ri ity and some she s never had her out has she um well no use ill be here first thing in the and meantime shell get rest ive given her a good ni t then ms t in the black instantly all the had been him and the through be had ed became pallid and absurd before the ancient and realities the standard and realities of sickness and men death the long ni t and the thousand steadfast of 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 her band abode in his he dr ed in his a pink and white couch cover and sat in a wing the bedroom was in its half t tamed the to lurking robbers the dressing table to a castle it of of linen of sleep he and we ed and a hundred times ha heard her move and si in slumber he	42
if there wasn t some brisk thing he could do for her and before he could form the thou t he was asleep and aching the ni t was infinite when dawn came and the waiting seemed at an end he fell and was to have been t off his guard to have aroused by s entrance and agitated ob what is it his wife was awake her face sallow and lifeless in the li t but now he did not con her with she was not a woman to be with other women hut his own and thou he mi t her and her it was as he mi t and without the of changing or any real de re to the eternal essence d n by with he sounded a in and firm he pointed the excitement of tbe hour by wailing he ordered early breakfast and wanted to look at the and felt heroic and in dot looking at it but there were still and hours of waiting before or returned don t see much change said ill be back and if don t mind i think bring in some world famous for consultation to be on tha safe side now george there s nothing you can do ill have tbe ice bag filled mi t as well leave that on i and you you better beat it to the office instead of standing around her looking as if you were the the nerve of husbands i lot more than the women i always have to horn in and get all tbe credit i x bad their wives are now have another nice cup of coffee and this derision became more matter f fact he drove to the office tried to dictate letters tried to and before tbe call was answered forgot to he was at a quarter after ten he returned home as be left the down town traffic and ed up the car his fact was as grimly as the mask of tragedy his wife greeted him with surprise did you come back dear i think i feel a little better i told to off to her office was it wicked rf me to go and get sick he knew that she wanted and she got it jt they were curiously h q y he heard dr s car in front he looked out of the window he was with was an in man with blade hair and a dr a l the surgeon with tried to conceal it and hurried down to the door dr was don t want to worry d n by old mm but i it mi t be a good to have dr her he toward ai toward a master nodded in his manner and strode q the living room is agony for wife s there had never been a major n in the family and to him was at once a miracle and an of bnt when and came down again be knew tbat everything was all ri t and he wanted to for the two doctors were exactly like the bearded in a musical comedy both of then their hands and looking foolishly sagacious dr spoke old man but it s acute we ought to q of course you most decide but s no as to wliat has to be done did not get all the force of it he w i we could get her ready in a couple o days probably ted ou t to come down from the just in case anything ha dr growled if you don t want to set in well have to ri t away i must advise it strongly if you say go ahead for the st at once and well have her on the table in of an hour i of course i you know what bnt great god man i can t get her clothes and everything in two you and in her state so wrought up and throw ber hair and comb and tooth brush hi a bag that s all shell need for a d w two said dr and went to the galloped up stain he sent the frightened out of the room he said gaily to us wife well thing the thinks m be we better have a little d n by and get ft over just take a few i aa a and be all right in t she his band till the ached she said patiently like a child i in afraid to go into the all maturity was her eyes tb pleading and with met you don t to go to ttie office now do could yon just go down to the ho with me could see me this evening everything all t you won t to go out this evening you he was on bis by the bed while she hair he sobbed be kissed the lawn of ber sleeve and old hon i love you more than in the i ve kind of been worried by business and bat that an over now and ite bad again are you really george i was lying it would be a good thing if i just went i was wondering if anybody needed me or wanted me i was wondering was the use of my ive been getting so ly why yon old for i t to be packing your mc sore vm and handsome and a regular village cut and he could not go he sobbed in found each other as be packed hb brain was dear and he d no more wild be he admitted that be would regret them a he perceived that this had been his last d sing before the of middle age and be grinned it was one good party it how was the c going to ant i oo to have t that	42
on them for art philosophy and to the league most of the pro of they not all of the kind who called regular besides these hearty fellows these f pro there were the that is the men were or had been tar more generations the of banks and of the land owners the lawyers the fashionable doctors and the few old who worked not at all but remaining in ith collected ware and first as they were back in paris all of them agreed that the must be kept in place and all of that american did not imply any equality of wealth but did demand a of thought dress morals and in this they were like the of any country particularly of great britain but they differed in being more vigorous and in actually trying to the ted standards which an classes ev e h er e desire but usually despair of ihe of the good citizens league wm d n by a for the open shop which was a c a it was an with evening classes in en and and daily in the so that mi t learn that the and om b per cent w of settling labor w workmen to trust and love their the league was more than in ap ia g agreed with its aims it b the v ca to raise a two hundred thousand dollar fund a v building ver and e charles told the at an influence manly christianity the good old y i been in their own lives and the and ty colonel r snow owner of the advocate times waa clasping the of of the true that afterward when ed yoa cue of our prayer meetings the what the bell would i do that for i ve got a bar o own but this did not appear fa the the league was of value to the at ft when certain of the and ing that of of the great war one r number of young men the j burned its beat the office staff and md out of the window all of the a e is the advocate and the advocate a but perhaps hasty direct to the then a flying from the good la on the w t and that no could possibly do such a and the saw the retained when lone came home from and was ri aa nm out of town the new m to ttie p e i d n by in ad the and triumphs of the good i took part and won back to and the affection of ills friends bat he to protest i ve done n share in cleaning op lie i to tend to think just kind of np on this g stuff now he had to the church as he bad returned to tht he had endured the lavish greeting gave him he was worried lest during late discontent he had his salvation he was k t quite sure there was a heaven to be attained but dr drew said there was and not to take a chance one evening be was walking past dr drew s he went in and found the in bis study minute getting call said dr drew in host like then to the to lot this and drew where the is tbe proof for sunday s y ou t to have it here well i can t help it if tb te off i got to have it to get an ad t boy and it iq here quick he turned without his brother t c n i do for you i just wanted to ask tell you how it is e here a ago i guess i got kind of slack took a few drinks and so on what i wanted to ask is row is it if a cuts that out and comes ba to his senses does it sort of well yoa t say does it score against him io the long run the reverend dr drew was suddenly interested and brother the other things too women fo yoa ml t s r practically not at all d n by a ont to me that whit vm lor been on joy a ia d iii ten i ve got m the r a joke to we ne n of an ind one tbe unite t a of ten he at b i am take five off and with yon r down by your chair brother don t be a ed to bi god and be to see bat dr had already ed down beside his desk and has had changed from efficient to an sin and with the ty drew ted o lord oar here who is astray by o heavenly his heart to be as pure as a little ob let know again the joy of a manly to from came into tbe at a t of the two men he for patted the shoulder and knelt beside him his arm about h be dr drew with of lord h our brother he was trying to keep his eyes between bis fingers and saw tbe i ance at watch as he concluded with a triumphant and him be afraid to come to us for counsel and tender care and him know that tbe church can lead him as a little dr drew sprang his eyes b tbe t of heaven his into his pocket and tbe come yet t outside answered with equal then caressing to brother if it d n by love to p tbe next room and witb you dr drew is the from the don t make tion a joke no to can t take the toward the dow be was often seen at the f road church but it is that he shaking hands with the at the	42
door if his moral had been so weakened by that he was not quite in tbe more of the good league nor quite of the church yet was no doubt of the joy with which returned to tbe pleasures of his home and of the club ths tbe and were eventually and hesitating married for the wedding was dressed as carefully as was he was into the morning coat he wore to thrice a year and with a certain relief after and had driven away in a be returned to the house removed the morning coat sat his aching feet up on tbe and reflected that his wife and he could have the living room to themselves now and not have to listen to and in a manner about and the league but even thi into peace was less than bis return to being one of the best loved men in the began that by standing quiet and staring at them so unhappily that feared he was about to announce the death of a brother he and d n by boys i hive something to to yo terrible one of oar own several including a knight the a trusted friend of mine made a trip iq and in a certain a spent bis boyhood he found out no longer be concealed in be discovered the nature of a man whom we have as a real and ai one of us i cannot trust my voice to it i have written it down he uncovered a large and on it in huge the l end george oh you hie cheered th tb wept threw at they cried speech ob yon president i that gentlemen is the awful thing been concealing all these we t be waa plain f now i want you to us taking t what always the f stood for they suggested and face and and and and fo e the of their knew that he taken to their hearts and be rose boys ive got to admit it i ve never worn a or parted my name in the middle but i confess to f my only is that old c otherwise he was perfectly sane and packed an awful i when it came to the city at c ine after the old dr e i boys in my not call it iii see to h th x get named something really practical something and yet is good and n fact thk grand old name so familiar to every that overpowering name d n by he knew by tbe tint he again and be that he would bo ui and pop br ing from the of good dashed into tbe big news the bunch are dissatisfied with the way and wing their last deal and tb re willing to with ml was pleased in the that the last of his was healed yet as be drove home he was annoyed by such as bad never weakened bim in bis days of he discovered that be actually did not tbe quite honest he d carry out one more deal for them but as soon aa it was ma as as old died he d break away ab association with them he waa forty ei t in years he d be six be wanted to leave m clean business to his there was a lot of in for the people and a fellow had to look at things in a practical way he he wanted to the be thought of oh be do it not now if be offended them this time they would crush him he was conscious that his line of progress seemed be wondered what he would do bis future he was young was be with all he that he bad been into tlie very net from be had with fury ed and jest of all been made to rejoice in the ve me me to a he the house was peaceful that evening and be enjoyed a game of with wife he told tbe d n by s ter that he was to do things in the good ou way the day after he went to see the of the street and they made plan in the secret purchase of lots along the i road bnt a he drove to his office he struggled i m going to run and figure out thin to suit when i retire ted had come down from the university for the i though he no longer of mechanical and though he was about his opinion of his he seemed no more reconciled to college and his interest was his uie set on saturday evening he took to a dance i at woods had a e of her is i the seat of the car brilliant in a scarlet cloak over a j of silk they two had not returned when the went to bed at half at a indefinite time of late ni t was awakened by the ring of the and gloomily crawled downstairs was george isn t back is ted no at least his door is i they ou t to be home said the dance would be over at midnight what s the name of those e where they re going why tell the truth i know it s j some of ted s out in woods t see we can do wait and ask if she i their name turned on the li t in ted s room it was a room disordered worn books a hi i photographs of basket ball and h ted was decidedly not d n by mn awakened d that she certainly did not know the name of ted s that it was late was but little than a bom fool and that she was sleepy but she awake and oa the porch ed back into through	42
men worked beneath one roof pouring out the honest wares that would be sold up the across the the rolled out in greeting a chorus cheerful as the april dawn the song of labor in a city built it seemed for giants n there was nothing of the giant in the aspect of the man who was beginning to awaken on the porch of a dutch house in that district of known as heights his name was george f he was forty six years old now in april and he made nothing in particular butter nor shoes nor poetry but he was in the calling of selling houses for more than people could afford to pay his large head was pink his brown hair thin and dry his face was in slumber despite his wrinkles and the red on the slopes of his nose he was not fat but he was exceedingly well fed his cheeks were and the hand which lay upon the blanket was slightly he seemed prosperous extremely married and and altogether ai this ing porch which looked on one elm two respectable grass plots a and a iron yet was again dreaming of the fairy child a dream more romantic than scarlet by a silver sea for years the fairy child had come to him where others saw but she discerned gallant youth she waited for him in the darkness beyond mysterious groves when at last he could slip away from the crowded house he darted to her his wife his friends sou t to follow but he escaped the girl j beside him and they crouched together on a shadowy she was so slim so so eager she cried that he was gay and that she would wait for him that they would sail and bang of the milk moaned turned over struggled back toward his dream he could see only her face now beyond misty waters the furnace man the door a dog in the next yard as sank into a dim warm tide the paper went by whistling and the rolled iq advocate the front door roused his stomach with alarm as he relaxed he was pierced by the familiar and rattle of some one a ford snap ah ah snap ah ah snap ah ah himself a pious with the unseen driver with him waited through hours for the roar of the starting engine with him as the roar ceased and again began the infernal patient snap ah ah a round flat sound a shivering cold morning sound a sound and not till the rising voice of the told him that the ford was moving was he released from the panting he g once at his favorite tree elm twigs against the gold of sky and for sleep as for a he who had been a boy very of life was no longer greatly interested in the possible and adventures of each new day he escaped from reality till the alarm clock rang at in it was the best of advertised and alarm with all modern including cathedral alarm and a dial was proud of being awakened by such a rich device it was almost as creditable as buying expensive cord he admitted now that there was no more escape but he lay and detested the grind of the real estate business and disliked his family and disliked himself for them the evening before he had played at s till midnight and after such holidays he was irritable before breakfast it may have been the tremendous home beer of the era and the cigars to which that beer him it may have been resentment of return from this fine bold man world to a region of wives and and of suggestions not to smoke so much from the bedroom beside the ing porch his wife s cheerful time to get up boy and the sound the brisk and sound of hairs out of a stiff brush he he dragged his thick legs in faded baby blue from under the blanket he sat on the edge of the cot running his fingers through his wild hair while his plump feet mechanically felt for his slippers he looked at the blanket forever a suggestion to him of freedom and heroism he had bought it for a trip which had never come off it gorgeous cursing flannel shirts he to his feet groaning at the waves of pain which passed behind his though he waited for their he looked out at the yard it delighted him as always it was the neat yard of a successful business man of that is it was perfection and made him also perfect he regarded the iron for the three hundred and sixty fifth time in a year he reflected no class to that tin have to build me a frame but by it s the only thing on the place that isn t up while he stared he thought of a community for bis development he stepped puffing and his arms w re his sleep swollen face was set in harder lines he suddenly seemed capable an official a man to contrive to direct to get things done on the vigor of his idea he was carried down the hard dean unused looking hall into the though the house was not large it had like all houses on heights an altogether royal of and glazed tile and metal sleek as the rack was a rod of clear glass set in the tub was long enough for a guard and above the set bowl was a exhibit of tooth brush brush soap dish dish and medicine cabinet so glittering and so that they resembled an instrument board but the whose god was modem was not pleased the air of the was thick with the smell of a heathen been at it again i stead of sticking to like i ve re ed ly asked	42
her she s gone and gotten some confounded stuff that makes you sick the bath mat was wrinkled and the floor was wet his daughter took in the morning now and then he slipped on the mat and slid against the tub he said damn furiously he snatched up his of furiously he with a of the brush furiously he his plump cheeks with a safety it pulled the blade was dull he said damn oh damn it i he hunted through the medicine cabinet for a packet of new blades reflecting as invariably be cheaper to buy one of these and your own blades and when he discovered the packet behind the round box of of he thought ill of his wife for putting it there and very well of for not saying damn but he did say it immediately afterward when with wet and soap slippery fingers he tried to remove the horrible little envelope and crisp paper from the new blade then there was the problem oft never solved of what to do with the old blade which might the fingers of his young as usual he tossed it on top of the with a mental note that some day he must r move the fifty or sixty other blades that were also temporarily piled up there he finished his in a increased by his spinning headache and by the in his stomach when he was done his round face smooth and and his eyes from water he reached for a the family were wet wet and and vile all of them wet he found as he blindly snatched them his own face his wife s s ted s s and the lone bath with the huge of then george f did a thing he wiped his face on the guest i it was a embroidered which always hung there to indicate that the were in the best heights society no one had ever used it no guest had ever dared to guests took a comer of the nearest regular he was raging by here they go and use up all the every one of em and they use em and get all wet and and never put out a dry one for me of course i m the goat and then i want one and i m the person in the house that s got the slightest bit of for other people and and consider there may be others that may want to use the after me and consider he was the chill into the tub pleased by the of that desolate flapping sound and in the midst his wife serenely trotted in observed serenely why dear what are you doing are you going to wash out the why you needn t wash out the oh you didn t go and use the did you it is not recorded that he was able to answer for the first time in ve he was by his wife to look at her iv mrs george f was definitely she had from the comers of her mouth to the bottom of her chin and her neck but the thing that marked her as having passed the line was that she no longer had before her husband and no longer worried about not having she was in a now and which and unaware of seen in she had become so to married life in her full she was as as an she was a good woman a kind woman a but no one save perhaps her ten year ol i was at i ll interested in her or entirely aware that she was alive after a rather thorough discussion of all the domestic and social aspects of she i to for his having an headache and he recovered enough to endure the search for a b which had he pointed out been concealed among his clean he was fairly amiable in the conference on the brown suit what do you think he at the clothes on a in their bedroom while she moved about mysteriously and patting her and to his eye never seeming to get on with her dressing how it shall i wear the brown suit another day it looks awfully nice on you i know but it needs pressing that s so perhaps it does it certainly could stand being pressed all right yes perhaps it wouldn t hurt it to be pressed u but the coat doesn t need pressing no sense in having the whole dam suit pressed when the coat doesn t need it that s so but the certainly need it all right look at them look at those wrinkles the certainly do need pressing that s so oh why couldn t you wear the brown coat with the blue trousers we were wondering what we d do with them good lord did you ever in all my life know me to wear the coat of one suit and the of another what do you think i am a er well why don t you put on the dark gray suit to day and stop in at the tailor and leave the brown trousers well they certainly need now where the devil is thai gray suit oh yes here we are he was able to get through the other of dressing with comparative and calm his first was the b v d in which he resembled a small boy wearing a at a he never put on b v d s without thanking the god of progress that he didn t wear tight long old fashioned like his father in law and partner henry his second was and his hair it gave him a tremendous forehead up two inches beyond the former hair line but most working of all was the of his spectacles there is character in spectacles the	42
the meek of the school teacher the twisted silver framed glasses of the old s spectacles had huge circular of the very best glass the ear pieces were thin bars of gold in them he was the modem business man one who gave orders to clerks and drove a car and played occasional and was in regard to his bead suddenly appeared not but and you noted his heavy blunt nose his straight mouth and thick long upper lip his chin but strong with respect you beheld him put on the rest of his uniform as a solid citizen the gray suit was well cut well made and completely it was a standard suit white on the v of the added a flavor of law and learning his shoes were black boots good boots honest boots standard boots uninteresting boots the only was in his purple with considerable comment on the matter to mrs who the back of her to her skirt with a safety pin did not hear a word he said he chose between the purple and a effect with brown among blown palms and into it he thrust a snake head pin with eyes a event was changing from the brown suit to the gray the contents of his pockets he was earnest about these objects they were of eternal importance like or the republican party they included a fountain pen and a silver pencil always lacking a supply of new leads which belonged in the upper pocket without them he would have felt naked on his watch chain were a gold cigar seven keys the use of two of which he had forgotten and incidentally a good watch depending from the chain was a large s tooth of his in the benevolent and order of most significant of all was his loose leaf pocket note book that modern and efficient note book which contained the addresses of people whom he had forgotten prudent of money orders which had reached their months ago which had lost their of verses by t and of the newspaper from which got his opinions and his notes to be sure and do things which lo he did not intend to do and one curious inscription s d m d f but he had no case no one had ever happened to give him one so he hadn t the habit and people who carried cases he regarded as last he stuck in his the club button with the of great art the button displayed two words i it made feel loyal and important it associated him with good fellows with men who were nice and human and important in business circles it was his v c his of honor ribbon his key with the of dressing ran other complex i feel kind of this morning he said i think i had too much dinner last evening you t to serve those heavy but you asked me to have some i know but i you when a fellow gets past forty he has to look after his there s a lot of fellows that don t take proper care of themselves i tell you at forty a man s a fool or his doctor i mean his own doctor folks don t give attention to this matter of now i think course a man ought to have a good meal after the day s work but it would be a good thing for both of us if we took lighter but here at home i always do have a light lunch mean to imply i make a of myself eating down town yes sure i you d have a swell time if you had to eat the that new steward hands out to us at the but i do fed out of sorts this morning funny got a pain down here on the left side but no that wouldn t be would it last night when i was driving over to s i felt a pain in my stomach too right here it was kind of a sharp shooting pain i where d that go to why don t you serve more at break ii fast of course i eat an apple every evening an a day s the doctor away but you ou t to have more and not all these fancy the last time i had you didn t eat them i didn t fed like eating em i suppose matter of fact i think i did eat some of em anyway i you it s mighty important to i was sa ring to just last evening most le don t take sufficient care of their shall we have the for our dinner next why sure you bet now see here george i want you to put on your nice dinner jacket that evening the rest of em won t want to dress of course they you remember when you didn t dress for the party and all the rest did and how you were embarrassed i wasn t embarrassed everybody knows i can put on as expensive a as anybody and i should worry if i don t to have it on sometimes all a dam nuisance an all right for a woman that stays around the house all the time but when a fellow s worked like the all day he doesn t want to go and his head off getting into the soup and fish for a lot of folks that he s seen in just ordinary that same day you know you enjoy being seen in one the other evening you admitted you were glad i d insisted on your dressing you said you felt a lot better for it and oh i do wish you wouldn t say it s dinner jacket rats what s the odds ell it s what	42
all the nice folks say suppose mc heard you calling it a well that s all right now can t pull anything on her folks are common as mud even if her husband and her are i suppose you re trying to rub in your exalted social position well let me tell you that your paternal henry t doesn t even call it a i he calls it a jacket for a monkey and you couldn t get him into one unless you him i ow don t be horrid george well i don t want to be horrid but lord you re getting as as ever since she got out of college she s been too to live with doesn t know what she wants well i know what she wants all she wants is to marry a and live in europe and hold some preacher s hand and simultaneously at the same time stay right here in and be some blooming kind of a or charity or some damn thing lord and ted is just as bad he wants to go to college and he doesn t want to go to college only one of the three that knows her own mind is simply can t understand how i ever came to have a pair of children like and ted i may not be any or james j shakespeare but i certainly do know my own mind and i do keep right on along in the of ce and do you know the latest far as i can figure out ted s new bee is he d like to be a actor and and here i ve told him a hundred times if he ll go to college and law school and make good set him up in business and just exactly as bad doesn t know what she wants well well come on aren t you ready yet the girl rang the bell three minutes ago before he followed his wife stood at the window of their room this settlement heights was on a rise and though the of the city was three miles away had between three and four hundred thousand inhabitants now he could see the top of the second national tower an building of thirty five its shining walls rose against april sky to a simple like a streak of white fire integrity was in the tower and decision it bore its strength lightly as a tall soldier as stared the was soothed from his face his slack chin lifted in reverence all he was that s one sight but he was injured by the of the city his love of it renewed he beheld the tower as a temple spire of the religion of business a faith passionate exalted surpassing common men and as he down to breakfast he whistled the ballad oh by by by as though it were a melancholy and noble chapter n relieved of s and the soft with which his wife expressed the s she was too experienced to feel and much too experienced not to show their bedroom settled instantly into it gave on the sleeping porch it served both of them as dressing room and on the nights gave up the duty of being manly and retreated to the bed inside to curl his toes in the warmth and laugh at the january gale the room displayed a modest and pleasant color scheme after one of the best standard designs of the who did the for most of the houses in the walls were gray the white the rug a serene blue and very much like mahogany was the furniture the with its great clear mirror mrs s dressing table with toilet articles of almost solid the plain twin beds between them a small table holding a standard electric bedside lamp a for water and a standard bedside book with colored illustrations what particular book it was cannot be ascertained since no one had ever opened it the were firm but not hard triumphant modern which had cost a great deal of money the was of exactly the proper scientific surface for the contents of the room the windows were large and easily opened with the best catches and and holland shades not to crack it was a among right out of cheerful modem houses for medium only it had nothing to do with the is nor with any one else if people ever lived and loved here read at and lain in on a sunday morning there were no signs of it it had the air of being a very good room in a very good hotel one expected the maid to come in and make it ready for people who would stay but one t go without looking back and never think of it again every second house in heights had a bedroom precisely like this the house was five years old it was all as competent and glossy as this bedroom it had the best of taste the best of ine q a simple and architecture and the latest throughout took the place of candles and hearth fires along the bedroom were three for electric lamps concealed by little brass doors in the halls were for the and in the living room for the piano for the electric fan the trim dining room its admirable oak its glass cupboard its plaster walls its modest scene of a salmon upon a of had which supplied the electric and the electric in fact there was but one thing wrong with the house it was not a home often of a morning came and in to breakfast but things were mysteriously to day as he trod the upper hall he looked into s bedroom and protested what s the use of giving the family a high class house when they don t appreciate it and tend	42
to business and get down to brass he marched upon them a brown haired i of twenty two just out of given to about duty sex and god and the of the gray sports suit she was now wearing ted a boy of seventeen still a baby at ten with radiant red hair and a thin skin which hinted of too much and too many ice cream did not show his vague irritation as he in he really disliked being a family tyrant and his was as as it was frequent he shouted at ell it was the only pet name in his except the dear and hon with which he recognized his wife and he flung it at every morning he a cup of coffee in the hope of his stomach and his soul his stomach ceased to feel as though it did not belong to him but began to be conscientious and and abruptly there returned to the doubts regarding life and families and business which had at him when his dream life and the slim fairy girl had fled had for six months been at the leather company offices with a prospect of becoming secretary to mr and thus as defined it getting some good out of your e q college education till you re ready to marry and settle down but now said father i was talking to a of mine that s working for the associated oh there s the sweetest little babies that come to the there and i fed as though i ought to be doing something worth like that what do you mean worth while if you get to be s secretary and maybe you would if you kept up your and didn t go off to and every evening i guess find thirty five or forty bones a week worth i know oh i want to contribute i wish i were working in a settlement house i wonder if i could get one of the department stores to let me put in a welfare department with a nice rest room and and chairs and on and so forth or i could now you look here the first thing you got to understand is that this and and settlement work and is nothing in god s world but the entering for the sooner a man he isn t going to be and he needn t a lot of free and all these free classes and and for his unless he em why the sooner hell get on the job and produce produce produce that s what the country needs and not all this fancy stuff that just the will of the working man and gives his a lot of notions above their class and you if you d tend to business instead of and all the time when i was a young man i made up my mind what i wanted to do and stuck to it through thick and thin and that s why i m where i am to day and what do you let the girl chop the toast up into these little for can t get your fist em half cold an n ted junior in the great east side high school had been making like sounds of interruption he now say you going to whirled ted will you kindly not interrupt us when we re talking about serious matters aw said ted ever since somebody slipped up and let you out of college you been pulling these nut conversations about what and so so are you going to i want to use the car tonight oh you do may want it myself protested oh you do mr i m going to take it myself oh papa you said maybe you d drive us down to and mrs your sleeve is in the butter they red and hurled ted you re a perfect pig about the course you re not a ted could be bland you just want to it off right after dinner and leave it in front of some skirt s house all evening you sit and gas about literature and the you re going to marry if they only propose well t to ever let you have it i you and those jones bo rs drive like the idea of your taking the turn on place at forty miles an aw where do you get that you re so dam scared of the car that you drive up hill with the emergency i do not and you always talking about how much you know about and told me you said the battery fed the you why my good woman you don t know a from a not was ted lofty with her he was a natural a maker and of machines he in for the came that ll do now flung in mechanically as he lighted the satisfying first of the day and tasted the of the advocate times ted honest i don t want to take the old boat but i promised couple o girls in my class i d drive em down to the of the school chorus and i don t want to but a gentleman s got to keep his social engagements well upon my word i you and your social engagements in high school oh ain t we select since we went to that hen college let me tell you there isn t a private school in the state that s got as swell a bunch as we got in this year there s two that are say i oa t to have a car of my own like lots of the almost rose a car of your don t you want a and a house and lot that pretty nearly takes the cake a boy that can t	42
credit to when we were in college together he was just as hard iq as any of us and he s made a million good out of and hasn t been any or bought any more city than was necessary and that s a good house of his thou it ain t any mighty stone walls and it ain t worth the ninety thousand it cost him but when it comes to talking as though and all that set of his are any blooming bunch of of of why it makes me tired i timidly from mrs would like to see the inside of house though it must be lovely i ve never been inside well i have lots of couple o times to see about business in the evening it s not so much i wouldn t want to go there to dinner with that gang of of and i ll bet i make a whole lot more money than some of those tin horns that spend all they got on dress suits and haven t got a decent suit of to their hey what do you think of this mrs was strangely unmoved by the tidings from the real estate and building column of the advocate times street j k to thomas april x and this morning was too to entertain her with from and he rose as be looked at her his c s seemed than usual suddenly es maybe kind of shame to not in touch with folks l e the we might try inviting than to dinner some evening oh thunder let s not waste our good time thinking about our little bunch has a lot liver times than all those just are a real human like you with these birds like all talk and dressed up like a you re a great girl hon i he covered his of softness with a complaining say don t let go and eat any more of that poison for heaven s sake try to keep her from her i tell you most folks don t appreciate how important it is to have a good and regular habits be back bout usual time i guess he kissed her he didn t quite kiss her he laid lips against her cheek he hurried out to the muttering lord what a and now m is going to get pathetic on me because we don t train with this oh lord sometimes i d like to quit the whole game and the office worry and detail just as bad and i act and i don t mean to but i get so dam tired chapter iii to george f as to most prosperous citizens ol his car was poetry and tragedy love and heroism the office was his ship but the car his perilous excursion ashore among the tremendous of each day none was more dramatic than starting the engine it was slow on cold mornings there was the long anxious of the and sometimes he had to into the of the which was so very interesting that at lunch he would chronicle it drop by drop and calculate how much each drop had cost him this morning he was darkly prepared to find something wrong and he felt when the mixture exploded sweet and strong and the car didn t even brush the door and with many by as he backed out of the he was confused he shouted morning i to sam with more cordiality than he had intended s green and white dutch house was one of three in that block on road to the left of it was the residence of mr samuel secretary of an excellent firm of his was a comfortable house with no manners whatever a large wooden box with a tower a broad porch and glossy paint yellow as a of mr and mrs as from their house came midnight music and laughter there were hood of and fast rides they furnished with many ha y evenings of discussion during which he announced firmly i m not and i don t mind seeing a fellow throw in a drink once in a while but when it comes to deliberately trying to get away with a lot of hell raising all the while like the do it s too rich for my blood on the other side of lived d in a strictly modem house whereof the lower part was dark red brick with a the upper part of pale like clay and the roof red was the great scholar of the the authority on everything in the world except babies cooking and he was a of arts of college and a doctor of philosophy in of he was the ment manager and of the street company he could on ten hours notice appear before the board of or the state and prove with figures all in rows and with from and new that the street car company loved the public and over its that its stock was owned by and and that whatever it desired to do would benefit property owners by increasing and help the poor by lowering rents all his acquaintances turned to when they desired to know the date of the battle of the definition of the word the future of the mark the translation of nice or the number of of coal tar he awed by that he often sat up till midnight reading the figures and in government or with amusement at the author s mistakes the latest volumes of and but s great value was as a spiritual despite his strange he was as strict a and as firm a republican as george f he con the business in the faith where they knew only by passionate instinct that their system of industry and manners was perfect dr proved it to them out of history and the of	42
had a good deal of honest pride in being the of such a and in ted s intimacy with at sixteen was interested in no save those regarding the ages and of motion picture stars but as put it she was her father s daughter the between a light man like sam and a really fine character like was revealed in their appearances was young for a man of forty eight he wore his on the back of his head and his red face was wrinkled with laughter but was old for a man of forty two he was tall broad thick his gold spectacles were in the folds of his long face his hair was a tossed mass of greasy black ness he fed and as he talked his key shone against a black he of old he was altogether and and to and the of he added an of this morning he was in front of his house the grass between the and the broad stopped his car and leaned out to shout l over and stood with one foot up on the running board fine morning said early his second cigar of the day yes it s a mighty fine morning said spring coming along fast now yes it s real spring now all right said still cold nights though had to have a couple blankets on the sleeping porch last night yes it wasn t any too last t said but i don t anticipate we ll have any more real cold weather now no but still there was snow at day said the scholar and you the they had out west three days ago thirty inches of snow at and two years ago we bad a snow right here in on the twenty fifth of april is that a say old man what do you think about the republican candidate they for president don t you think it s about time we had a real business administration in my c what the country needs first and foremost is a good sound business like conduct of its affairs what need is a business administration said i m glad to hear you say that i certainly am glad to hear you say that i didn t know how you d fed about it with all your with and so on and i m glad you fed that way what the country s just at this present juncture is a college president nor a lot of with foreign affairs but a good economical business administration that will give us a chance to have something like a decent yes it isn t generally realized that even in china the are giving way to more practical men and of course you can see what that is that a well breathed feeling much calmer and much about the way things were going in the world well it s been nice to stop and a second guess i ll have to get down to the office now and sting a few well so long old man see you tonight so long n they had labored these solid twenty years be fore the hill on which heights was with its bright roofs and turf and amazing t had been a of rank second growth elms and oaks and along the precise streets were still a few wooded vacant lots and the fragment of an old orchard it was brilliant to day the apple boughs were lit with fresh leaves like of green fire the first white of blossoms down a and the earth chuckled at the as he would have chuckled at or at a comic he was to the eye the perfect office going h man in a correct brown soft hat and spectacles smoking a large cigar driving a good along a but in him was some genius of love for his neighborhood his city his the was over the time was come for the building the visible growth which to him was glory he lost his dawn depression he was cheerful when he stopped on smith street to leave the brown trousers and to have the filled the familiarity of the fortified him the sight of the tall red iron pump the hollow tile and the window full of the most agreeable shiny spark with tire chains of gold and silver he was flattered by the friendliness with which moon and most skilled of came out to serve him mr said moon and felt himself a person of importance one whose name even busy remembered not one of these cheap sports flying around in he admired the ingenuity of the dial off by admired the of the sign a fill in time getting stuck gas to day cents admired the of the as it flowed into the and the mechanical regularity with which moon turned the handle how much we to day asked moon in a manner which combined the independence of the great the friendliness of a familiar gossip and respect for a man of weight in the community like george f fill er up who you for for republican candidate mr it s too early to make any yet all there s still a good month and two weeks no three weeks must be almost three weeks well tho e s more than six weeks in all before the republican and i fed a fellow ought to keep an open mind and give all the a show look on all over and size em up and then decide carefully that s a fact mr but tell you and my stand on this is just the same as it was four years ago and eight years ago and it ll be my stand four years from now yes and eight years from now what i tell everybody	42
and it can t be too generally understood is that what we need first last and all the time is a good sound business administration by that s right how do those front look to you fine fine t be much work for if everybody looked after their car the way you do well i do try and have some sense about it paid his bill said oh keep the change and drove off in an ecstasy of honest self appreciation it was with the manner of a good that he shouted at a respectable looking man who was waiting for a car a lift as the man climbed in condescended going clear down town whenever i see a fellow waiting for a i always make it a practice to give him a lift unless of course he looks like a bum wish there were more folks that were so generous with machines said the victim of no tain t a question of generosity hardly fact i always fed i was saying to my son just the other ni t it s a s duty to share the good things of this w n ld with his neighbors and it gets my goat when a fellow gets stuck oa himself and goes around his horn because he s charitable the victim seemed unable to find the right answer on pretty service the any giving us on these car lines nonsense to only run road cars once every seven minutes fellow gets mighty cold on a waiting on a street comer with the wind at his ankles that s right the street car con ny don t care a damn kind of a deal they give us something ought to happen to m was alarmed but still of course it won t do to just keep knocking the company and not realize the difficulties they re under like these want the way these workmen hold up the company for high wages is simply a crime and of course the burden falls on you and me that have to pay a fact there s remarkable service on all their lines considering uneasily dam fine explained spring coming along fast yes it s real ring now the victim had no originality no wit and fell into a great silence and devoted to the game of beating cars to the comer a a tail chase nervous between the huge yellow side of the and the jagged row of shooting past just as the ed a rare game and i h b i a ji l si and all the while he was conscious of the loveliness of for weeks together he noticed nothing but and the to rent signs of rival to day in he raged or rejoiced with equal nervous swiftness and to day the light of spring was so that he lifted his head and saw he admired each district along his familiar route to the the and shrubs and irregular of heights the one story sh on smith street a glare of plate glass and new yellow brick and and stores to supply the more immediate needs of east side the market gardens in dutch hollow their patched with iron and stolen with crimson nine feet tall pipe tobacco and powder the old along ninth street s e like aged in filthy linen wooden castles turned into boarding houses with muddy walks and rusty hedges by fast cheap apartment houses and fruit stands conducted by bland sleek across the belt of railroad tracks with hi perched water and tall producing milk paper boxes li ting es cars then the business the darting traffic the crammed and high of marble and polished granite it was big and respected in anything in mountains jewels muscles wealth or words he was for a spring enchanted moment the and almost unselfish lover of he thought of the factory of the river with its strangely banks of the orchard hills to the north and all the fat land and big and comfortable herds as he dropped his passenger he cried i feel pretty good this morning m as starting the car was the drama of it before he entered his as he turned from avenue round the corner into third street n e he peered ahead for a space in the line of cars he angrily just missed a space as a rival driver slid into it ahead another car was leaving the and up holding out his hand to the cars pressing on him from behind an old woman to go ahead avoiding a which bore flown on him from one side with front wheels the of the car in front he stopped cramped his wheel slid back into the vacant space and with eighteen inches of room to bring the car level with the it was a adventure executed with satisfaction he locked a thief proof steel on the front wheel and crossed the street to his real estate office on the ground floor of the building the building was as as a rock and as efficient as a fourteen stories of yellow pressed brick with clean upright lines it was filled with the offices of lawyers doctors agents for machinery for wheels for wire for stock their gold signs shone on the windows the entrance was too modem to be with pillars it was quiet shrewd neat along the third street side were a western union telegraph office the blue shop shop and the company could have entered his office from the street as customers did but it made him feel an to go through the corridor of the building and enter by the back door thus he was greeted by the villagers the little unknown people who inhabited the building and the doubtful looking lame man who conducted the and stand were in no way they were	42
living in a valley interested only in one another and in the building their main street was the entrance hall with its stone floor severe marble ceiling and the windows of the shops the place on the street was the shop but this was also s one embarrassment himself he the glittering shop in the hotel and every time he passed the shop ten times a day a hundred times he felt to his own village now as one of the greeted with honorable by the villagers he marched into his office and peace and dignity were upon him and the morning s all unheard they were heard again immediately the outside was talking on the with tragic lack of that firm manner which say i think i got just the house that would suit you the house in oh you ve seen it well how d it strike you oh oh i see as marched into his private room a with of oak and glass at the back of the office he reflected how hard it was to find who had his own faith that he was going to make there were nine members of the staff besides and his partner and father in law henry who rarely came to the office the nine were the outside a man given to and the playing of pool old mat genial utility man of rents and of broken silent gray a mystery to have been a crack real estate man with a firm of his own in haughty resident out at the development an enthusiastic person with a and much family miss the swift and rather i miss the thick slow laborious and file and commission as he looked from his own cage into the main room mourned s a good smart s a whip but and all those the zest of the spring morning was smothered in the stale office air he admired the office with a pleased surprise that he should b ve created this sure thing he was stimulated by the clean of it and the air of bustle but to day it seemed flat the floor like a the colored metal the faded maps on the hard plaster the chairs of pale oak the and of steel painted in olive it was a vault a chapel where and laughter were raw sin he t even any satisfaction in the new water cooler and it was the very best of water up to date scientific and right thinking it had cost a great deal of money in itself a virtue it possessed a non conducting a water jar a non and machine painted in two tones of gold he looked down the stretch of floor at the water cooler and assured himself that no tenant of the building had a more expensive one but he could not the feeling of social superiority it had given him he y td like to beat it off to the woods right now and loaf all day and go to s again to ni t and play and as much as i feel like and drink a hundred and nine thousand bottles of beer he sighed he read through his mail he shouted which meant miss and began to dictate this was his own version of his first letter s send it to his office miss yours of twentieth to hand and in reply would say look here i m awfully afraid if we go on like this well just naturally lose the sale i had on carpet day before yesterday and got t down to cases and think i can assure h no change that all my experience he is all t means to do business looked into hit financial record which is fine that sentence seems to be a little up miss make a sentences out of it if you have to period new paragraph he is perfectly willing to pro rate the q and strikes me am dead sure there will be no difficulty in getting him to pay title so now for heaven s sake let s get busy no make that so now let s go to it and get down no that s enough you can tie those sentences up a little better when you type em miss your sin this is the version of his letter which he from miss that afternoon co homes for folks avenue d st n e esq north american building dear mr your letter of the twentieth to hand i must say fm a afraid that if we go on like this we ll just naturally lose the sale i had up on the carpet day before yesterday and got right down to cases all my experience that he means to do business i have also looked into his financial record which is fine he is perfectly willing to pro rate the special and will be no difficulty in getting him to pay for title so go yours sincerely as he read and signed it in his correct hand reflected now that s a good strong letter and dear s a bell now what the i never told to make a third paragraph there wish she d quit trying to improve on my but what i can t understand is why can t or write a letter like that with punch with a kick the most important thing he dictated that morning was the form letter to be and sent out to a thousand prospects it was diligently of the best literary models of the day of heart to heart talk pulling letters on the development of will power and hand shaking house organs as richly poured forth by the new school of poets of business he had painfully written out a first and he it now like a poet delicate and say old man i just	42
want to know can i do you a favor honest no i know you re interested in getting a house not merely a place where you hang up the old bonnet but a love nest for the wife and and maybe for the out be sure and spell that b e y a n t miss the garden say did you ever stop to think that we re here to save you trouble that s how we make a living folks don t pay us for our lovely beauty now take a look sit right down at the handsome carved mahogany and shoot us in a line telling us just what you want and if we can find it well come down your lane with the good tidings and if we can t we won t bother you to save your time just fill out the blank enclosed on request will also send blank regarding store properties in heights silver grove and all east side districts yours for service p s just a hint of some we can pick for you some genuine that came in to day silver grove four room a m i shade tree swell neighborhood handy car line down and balance liberal terms cheaper than rent d a i artistic two family house all oak trim floors lovely gas log big heated all weather a bargain at over with its need of sitting and thinking instead of bustling around and making a noise and really doing something sat back in his revolving and beamed on miss he was conscious of her as a girl of black hair against cheeks a longing which from loneliness him while she waited tapping a long precise point on the desk he half identified her with the fairy girl of his dreams he imagined their eyes meeting with recognition imagined touching her lips with frightened reverence i nd she was any more mist he that winds it up i guess and turned heavily away for all his wandering thou ts they had never been more intimate than this he often reflected forget how old said a wise bird never goes love making in his own c ce or own home start trouble sure but in twenty three years of married life he had peered uneasily at every graceful ankle every soft shoulder in thought he had them but not once had he respectability by now as he calculated the cost of the house he was restless again discontented about nothing and ever ashamed of his and lonely for the fairy chapter iv it was a morning of artistic creation fifteen minutes after the purple prose of s form letter the resident at came in to report a sale and submit an advertisement of who sang in and was merry at home over games of hearts and old maid he had a tenor voice chestnut hair and a like a s hair brush considered it in a family man to growl seen this new picture of the kid little devil eh but s domestic confidences were as as a girl s say i think i got a of an ad for the mr why don t we try something in poetry honest it d have wonderful pulling power listen mid pleasures and palaces wherever you may you just provide the little bride and we ll provide the home do you get it see like home sweet home don t you yes yes yes hell yes of course i get it but oh i think we d better use something more dignified and like we lead others follow or eventually why not now course i believe in using poetry and humor and all that when it turns the trick but with a high class development like the we better stick to the more dignified approach see how i mean well i guess that s all this morning by a tragedy familiar to the world of art the enthusiasm of served only to the talent of the older george f he grumbled to that tan voice of gets on my nerves yet he was aroused and in one he wrote do you respect your loved ones when the last sad rites of are over do you know for certain that you have done your best for the you haven t unless they lie in the beautiful lane the only strictly up to date burial place in or near where exquisitely plots look from dotted hill slopes across the smiling fields of sole agents company building he rejoiced i guess that ll show and his old something about modem m he sent mat to the s office to dig out the names of the owners of houses ch were displaying for rent signs of other he talked to a man who desired to lease a store building for a pool room he ran over the list of which were about to he sent thomas a street car who played at real estate in spare time to call on side street prospects who were unworthy the of but he had spent his ment of creation and these routine details annoyed him one moment of heroism he had in a new way of stopping smoking he stopped smoking at least once a month he went through with it like the solid citizen he was admitted the evils of tobacco made laid out plans to check the vice off his allowance of cigars and the pleasures of to every one he met he did everything in fact except stop smoking two months before by ruling out a noting down the hour and minute of each smoke and increasing the intervals between he had brought himself down to three cigars a day then he had lost the a week ago he had invented a system of leaving his and box in an unused drawer at the	42
bottom of the file in the outer office ill just naturally b ashamed to go in there all day long making a fool of myself before my own he reasoned by the end of three days he was trained to leave his desk walk to the file take out and light a cigar without knowing that he was doing it this morning it was revealed to him that it had been too easy to open the file lock it that was the thing inspired he rushed out and locked up his cigars his and even his box of safety matches and the key to the file drawer he hid in his desk but the passion of it made him so tobacco hungry that he immediately recovered the key walked with forbidding dignity to the file took out a cigar and a match but only one match if cigar goes out it by have to stay out later when the cigar did go out he took one more match from the file and when a and a came in for a conference at eleven thirty naturally he had to offer them cigars his conscience protested why you re smoking with them but he it oh shut up i m busy now of course by and by there was no by and by yet his belief that he had crushed the habit made him feel noble and very happy when he called up paul he was in his moral splendor unusually eager he was of paul than of any one on earth except himself and his daughter they had been in the state university but rs he thought of paul with his dark his precisely parted hair his nose glasses his speech his his love of music as a younger brother to be and protected paul had gone into his father s business after he was now a and small of prepared paper but believed and announced to the world of good fellows that paul could have been a great or painter or writer why say the letters that boy sent me on his trip to the they just absolutely make you see the place as if you were standing there believe me he could have given any of these authors a whale of a run for their money yet on the they said only south no no no i said south south say what the is the trouble can t you get me south why certainly they ll answer oh speak mist mist talking ix paul s george speaking how s old fair to how re you fine well what do you know oh nothing much where you been yourself oh just round what s up how bout lunch s noon be all right with me i guess club meet you there twelve thirty a right thirty s long iv his morning was not sharply marked into divisions with correspondence and advertisement writing were a thousand nervous details calls from clerks who were incessantly and seeking five furnished rooms and bath at sixty dollars a month advice to mat on getting money out of tenants who had no money s virtues as a real estate as the servant of society in the department of finding homes for families and shops for of food were and diligence he was honest he kept his records of and complete he had experience with and titles and an excellent memory for prices his shoulders were broad enough his voice deep enough his relish of hearty humor enough to establish him as one of the ruling caste of good fellows yet his importance to mankind per lessened by his large and complacent ignorance of all architecture save the types of houses turned out by q all landscape save the use of roads grass and six ordinary shrubs and all the commonest of he serenely believed that the one purpose of the real estate business was to make money for george f true it was a good advertisement at and all the varieties of annual to good fellows were invited to speak of unselfish public service the s obligation to keep the trust of his and a thing called whose nature was but if you had it you were a class and if you hadn t you were a a and a fly these virtues awakened confidence and enabled you to handle bigger but they didn t imply that you were to be and refuse to take twice the value of a house if a was such an idiot that he didn t jew you down on the asking price spoke well and often at these of commercial about the s function as a of the future development of the community and as a prophetic engineer clearing the pathway for inevitable changes which meant that a real estate could make money by which way the town would grow this he called vision in an address at the club he had admitted it b at once the duty and the privilege of the to know everything about his own and its where a is a on every vein and cell of the human body and the engineer in all its phases or every bolt of some great bridge o er a mi ty flood the must know his city inch by inch and all its faults and virtues he did know the market price inch by inch of certain districts of he did not know whether the police force was too large or too small or whether it was in alliance with gambling and he knew the means of buildings and the relation of to but he did not know how many there were in the city how they were trained and paid or how complete their apparatus he sang the advantages of of school buildings to homes but he did not know he did not know that	42
it was worth while to know whether the city were properly heated lighted furnished he did not know how the teachers were chosen and thou he one of the of is that we pay s that was because be had read the statement in the advocate times himself he could not have given the average salary of teachers in or anywhere else he had heard it said that conditions in the county jail and the city prison were not very scientific he had with indignation at the criticism of through a report in which the notorious the radical lawyer asserted that to throw boys and young girls into a bull pen crammed with men suffering from delirium and insanity was not the perfect way of them he had the report by growling folks that think a jail ought to be a hotel make me sick if le don t like a jail let em behave and keep out of it besides these reform always that was the beginning and quite completely the end of his into s and an as to the vice districts he brightly expressed it those are things that no decent man with besides fact tell you it s a protection to our daughters and to decent women to have a district where tough nuts can raise keeps em away from our own homes as to conditions however had thought a great deal and his opinions may be as follows a good labor union is of value because it keeps out radical which would destroy property no one ought to be forced to belong to a union however all labor who try to force men to join a union should be hanged in fact just between ourselves there t to be any allowed at all and as it s the best way of fitting the every business man ou t to belong to an association and to the chamber of commerce in union there is strength so any selfish who doesn t join the chamber of commerce ought to be forced to in nothing as the expert on whose advice families moved to new to live there for a generation was more splendidly innocent than in the science of he did not know a bearing from a bat he knew nothing about of drinking water and in the mat of and he was as as he was he often referred to the excellence of the in the houses he sold he was fond of explaining why it was that no european ever bathed some one had told him when he was twenty two that all were and he still them if a wanted him to sell a house which had a always spoke about it before accepting the house and selling it when he laid out the development when he and dipping meadow into a flat with small boards displaying the names of imaginary streets he put in a complete system it made him feel superior it enabled him to sneer at the martin development which had a and it provided a chorus for the in which he announced the beauty convenience and of the only flaw was that the had insufficient outlet so that waste remained in them not very agreeably while the was a the whole of the project was a suggestion that though he really did hate men recognized as was not too honest and prefer that should not be in competition with them as and themselves but attend to their interests only it was supposed that the company were merely agents for serving the real owner but the fact was that and owned sixty two per cent of the the president and agent of the street company owned twenty eight per cent and a gang a small a tobacco old who enjoyed dirty politics business and at bad ten per cent which and the c had given to him for fixing health and fire and a member of the state commission bat was virtuous he though he did not practise the of he praised though he did not obey the laws against he paid his debts he contributed to the church the red cross and the y m c a he followed the custom of his and cheated only as it was by precedent and he never descended ti though as he explained to paul course i don t mean to say that every ad i write is literally true or that i always believe everything i say when i give some a good strong selling you see you see it s like this in the first place maybe the owner of the property exaggerated when he put it into my hands and it certainly isn t my place to go proving my principal a and then most folks are so dam crooked themselves that they expect a fellow to do a little lying so if i was fool enough to never the i d get the for lying anyway in i got to my own horn like a lawyer defending a his duty ain t it to bring out the poor s good points why the judge himself would out a lawyer that didn t even if they both knew the was guilty but even so i don t out the truth like or or the rest of these fact i think a fellow that s willing to deliberately up and profit by lying ought to be shot i s value to his was rarely better shown this morning in the conference at eleven thirty between and was a real estate he was a nervous before he he consulted lawyers and all of their clerks and hers who were willing to be and give him advice he was a bold and he desired nothing more than complete safety in his freedom from attention to details and the thirty or forty per cent profit which according	42
to all authorities a deserves for his risks and t he was a man with a cap like mass of short gray curls and which no matter how cut seemed shaggy below his eyes were hollows as though dollars had been against them and had left an particularly and always consulted and trusted in his slow six months ago had learned that one a in the district known as was talking of opening a butcher shop beside his looking up the of adjoining of land found that owned his present shop but did not own the one available lot adjoining he advised to purchase this lot for eleven thousand dollars though an on a basis of rents did not indicate its value as above nine thousand the rents declared were too low and by waiting ihey could make come to their price this was vision he h d to bully into bu ring his first act as agent for was to increase the rent of the battered store building on the lot the tenant said a number of rude things but he paid now seemed ready to buy and his delay was going to cost him ten thousand extra dollars the reward paid by the community to mr for the virtue of a f who had vision and who understood talking points key situations and the of l e came to the conference he was fond of this morning and called him old the a long man and solemn seemed to care less for and for vision but met him at the street door of the office and guided him toward the private room with affectionate little cries of this way brother he took from the file the entire box of cigars and forced them on his guests he pushed their chairs two inches forward and three inches back which gave an hospitable note then leaned back in his desk chair and looked plump and jolly but he spoke to the with firmness well brother we been having some pretty tempting offers from and a of other folks for that lot next to your store but i persuaded brother that we ought to give you a shot at the property first i said to it d be a rotten shame i said f somebody went and opened a combination and meat market right next door and ruined s nice little business leaned forward and his voice was harsh it would be hard luck if one of these cash and carry chain stores got in there and started cutting prices below cost till they got rid of competition and forced you to the wall snatched his thin hands from his pockets pulled iq his trousers thrust his hands back into his pockets in the heavy oak chair and tried to look amused as he struggled yes they re bad competition but i guess you don t realize the pulling power that personality has in a neighborhood business the great smiled that s so just as you feel old man we thought we d give you first chance all right now look i know f r a fact that t a piece of property bout same size right near sold for less n eighty five hundred n t two years ago and here you fellows are asking me twenty four thousand dollars i why i d have to i wouldn t mind so much paying twelve thousand but why good god mr you re asking more n twice its value and threatening to ruin me if i don t take it i i don t like your way of talking i don t like it one little and i were enough to want to ruin any fellow human don t you suppose we know it s to our own selfish interest to have everybody in prosperous but all this is beside the point tell you what we ll do well come down to twenty three thousand five thousand down and the rest on and if you want to wreck the old and i guess i can get h e to up for a building on good liberal terms heavens man we d be glad to oblige you we don t like these foreign any better n you do but it isn t reasonable to expect us to sacrifice eleven thousand or more just for is it how about it you willing to come down by warmly taking s part persuaded the benevolent mr to reduce his price to twenty one thousand dollars at the right moment snatched from a drawer the agreement he had had miss type out a week ago and thrust it into s hands he shook his fountain pen to make certain that it was flowing handed it to and watched him sign the work of the world was being done had made something over nine thousand dollars had made a and fifty dollar commission had by the sensitive of modern been provided with a business building and soon the happy inhabitants of would have meat upon them at prices only a little higher than those down town it had been a manly battle but after it drooped this was the only really amusing contest he had been planning there was nothing ahead save details of he muttered makes me sick to think of carrying off most of the profit when i did all the work the old and what else have i got to do to day like to take a good long trip something he rang up by die thought of with paul chapter v s for leaving the to its feeble during the hour and a half of his lunch period were somewhat less elaborate than the plans for a general european war he fretted to miss what time you going to lunch well make sure miss is in then explain to her that if calls up	42
she s to him i m already having the title traced and oh b the way remind me to morrow to have trace it now if anybody comes in looking for a cheap house remember we got to that road place off somebody if you need me m be at the hi be back by two he the ashes off his he placed a difficult letter on the pile of unfinished work that he mi t not fail to attend to it that afternoon for three now he had placed the same letter on the unfinished pile he on a sheet of yellow paper the see apt h gave him an agreeable feeling of having already about the apartment house doors he discovered that he was smoking another cigar he threw it away dam it i thought you d quit this dam smoking he returned the cigar box to the file locked it up hid the key in a more difficult place and raged ought to take care of m and need more exercise walk to the club every single noon just what i ll do every noon cut out this all the time the resolution made him fed immediately after it he decided that this noon it was too late to walk it took but little more time to start his car and edge it into the traffic than it would have taken to walk the three and a half blocks to the club ii as he drove he glanced with the fondness of familiarity at the buildings a stranger suddenly dropped into the business of could not have told whether he was in a city of or or or but to every inch was individual and stirring as always he noted that the building across the way was three stories lower therefore three stories less beautiful than his own building as always when he passed the shoe shine parlor a one story hut which beside the granite and red brick of the old building resembled a bath house under a cliff he commented ought to get my shoes this afternoon keep forgetting it at the office furniture shop the national cash register agency he for a for a which would add and as a poet for or a physician for at the men s wear shop he took his left hand ofi the wheel to touch his and thought well of himself as one who bought expensive ties and could pay cash for em too by and at the united cigar store with its crimson and gold he reflected wonder if i need some cigars idiot forgot going t cut down my fool smoking he looked at his bank the and national and considered how clever and solid he was to bank with so an establishment his high moment came in the clash of traffic when he was halted at the corner beneath the lofty second national tower his car was with four others in a line of steel restless as cavalry while the cross town traffic and enormous moving and poured by on the farther comer rang on the sun skeleton of a new building and out of this flashed the inspiration of a familiar face and a fellow shouted h are you george waved in affection and slid on with the traffic as the policeman lifted his hand he noted how quickly his car picked up he felt superior and powerful like a ci polished steel darting in a vast machine as always he ignored the next two blocks decayed blocks not yet from the and of the of while he was passing the five and ten cent store the lodging house hall with its lodge rooms and the offices of fortune and he thou t of how much money he made and he boasted a little and worried a little and did old familiar sums four hundred fifty this morning from the l deal but taxes due let s see i ought to pull out eight thousand net this year and save hundred of that no not if i put up and let s see six hundred and forty clear last month and twelve times six forty makes makes let see six times twelve is seventy two hundred and oh rats an make eight thousand now that s not so bad mighty few fellows pulling down eight thousand dollars a year eight thousand good hard iron dollars bet there isn t more than five per cent of the people in the whole united states that make more than uncle george does by right up at the top of the heap but way expenses are family wasting and always dressed like and sending that eighty a month to mother and all these and me for every cent they can the effect of his scientific planning was that he felt at once triumphantly wealthy and poor and in the midst of these he stopped his car rushed into a small news and shop and bought the electric which he had for a he his conscience by being and noisy and by shouting at the clerk guess this will near pay for itself in matches eh it was a pretty thing a with an almost to be attached to the of his car it was not only as the on the counter observed a little refinement the last touch of class to a gentleman s but a time by him from halting the car to light a match it would in a month or two easily save ten minutes as he drove on he glanced at it nice always wanted one he said wistfully the one thing a needs too then he remembered that he had given up smoking dam it i he mourned oh well i suppose i ll hit a cigar once in a while and be	42
a great convenience for other folks might make just the difference in getting with some fellow that would put over a sale and looks nice there certainly is a mighty clever little gives the last touch of refinement and i by i guess i can afford it if i want to not going to be the only member of this family that never has a single luxury i thus laden with treasure after three and a half blocks of adventure he drove up to the m the club is not and it isn t exactly s but it is in p it has an active and smoke room it is represented by and and in the pool and the a tenth of the members try to reduce but most of its thousand members use it as a in which to lunch play cards tell stories meet customers and entertain out at dinner it is the largest in the city and its chief hatred is the union club which all sound members of the call a rotten dull e q hole not one good in the place you couldn t hire me to join show that no member of the has ever refused election to the union and of those who are elected sixty seven per cent resign from the and are thereafter heard to say in the drowsy of the union the would be a pretty good hotel if it were more exclusive the club building is nine stories high brick with roof garden above and of huge columns below the with its thick pillars of stone its pointed and a brown glazed tile floor like well baked bread crust is a combination of and the members rush into the as they were and hadn t much time for it thus did enter and to the group standing by the he how s the boys how s the boys well well fine day i they the coal dealer the ladies ready to wear for s department store and professor joseph k owner of the business college and in public speaking business english writing and commercial law though admired this and appreciated as a mighty smart and a good liberal it was to that he turned with enthusiasm mr was president of the club a weekly club local chapter of a national organization which promoted business and friendliness among regular fellows he was also no less an official than esteemed leading knight in the benevolent and order f and it was that at election he would be a candidate for exalted ruler he was a jolly man given to tory and to with the arts he called on the famous actors and artists when they came to town gave cigars addressed them by their first names and sometimes succeeded in bringing them to the to give the boys a free entertainment he was a large man with hair en and he knew the latest jokes but be played close to the chest it was at his party that had sucked in the of to day s restlessness shouted how s the old how do you fed the morning after the night before oh boy some head that was a regular party you threw hope you haven t forgotten i took that last little jack pot he was three feet from that s all right now what hand you next time say notice in the paper the way the new york assembly stood up to the you bet i did that was fine eh nice day to day yes it s one mighty fine spring day but nights still cold you re right they are had to have blankets last night out on the sleeping porch say turned to the got something ask you about i went out and bought me an electric cigar for the car this noon and good said while even the learned professor a man with a and salt and a pipe organ voice commented that makes a cigar lighter gives tone to the finally decided i d buy me one got the best on the market the clerk said it was paid five for it just wondering if i got stuck what do they charge for em at the store ass ted that five dollars was not too great a sum not for a really high class lighter which was and provided with connections of the very best quality i always say and believe me i base it on a pretty fairly extensive the best is the in the long run of course if a fellow wants to be a jew about it he can get cheap but in the long run the thing is the best you can get now you take here just th other day i got a new top for my old boat and some and i paid out a hundred and twenty six fifty and of course a lot of fellows would say that was too much lord if the old folks they live in one of these towns iq state and ihey simply can t get the way a city fellow s mind works and then of course they re jews and they d lie ri t down and die if they knew had a hundred and twenty six bones but i don t figure i was stuck george not a bit machine looks brand new now not that it s so old of course had it less n three yea rs but i give it hard service never drive less n a hundred on sunday and oh i don t really think you got stuck george in the long run the best is you mi t say it s unquestionably the that s right said that s tiie way i look at it if a fellow is up to what you might call h	42
the way you get it here in all the and mental activity that s going on with a of live wires like the and here in the c why he s got to save his nerves by having the best nodded his head at every fifth word in the roaring and by the conclusion in s renowned humorous vein he was enchanted still at that george don t know s you can afford it i ve heard your business has been kind of under the eye of the ment since you stole the of park and sold it oh you re a great but when it comes to how about this report that you stole the black marble steps off the post office and sold em for high grade j in delight patted s back arm tbat s all right but what i want to know is who s the real estate that bought that coal for his apartment houses i guess that ll hold you for a while george said i ll tell you though boys what i did hear george went into the wear department at s to buy him some and before she could give his neck size the clerk slips her some how know the size says mrs and the clerk says men that let wives buy for em always wear thirteen madam how s that that s pretty good eh how s that eh i guess that ll about fix you george i i sought for amiable in answer he stepped stared at the door paul was coming in cried see you later boys and hastened across the he was just then neither the sulky child of the sleeping porch the domestic tyrant of the breakfast table the money of the conference nor the good fellow the and regular of the club he was an older brother to paul swift to defend him admiring him with a proud and love passing the love of women paul and he shook hands solemnly they smiled as as though they had been parted three years not three days and they said how s the old horse thief all right i guess how re you you poor i m first rate you second hand o cheese reassured thus of their high fondness re a fine you are ten minutes late snapped well you re lucky to have a chance to lunch with a gentleman they grinned and went into the where a line of men bent over the along a prodigious sl of marble as in religious before own images in the mirror voices thick satisfied along the marble walls bounded from the ceiling of bordered while the lords of the the of and law and and laid down the law for announced that the day was warm indeed of spring that wages were too high and the interest on too low that babe the eminent player of was a noble man and that those two nuts at the climax this week certainly are a pair of actors thou ordinarily his voice was the and most of all was silent in the presence of the slight dark of f td he was awkward he desired to be quiet and firm and the entrance of the club was the roman imperial the spanish mission and the reading room in chinese but the of the was the dining room the of s it was lofty and half with an a somewhat mu gallery and believed to illustrate the of the open beams had been hand at s car body works the hinges were of hand wrought iron the studded wooden and at one end of the room was a and stone fireplace which the club s averted to be not only larger than any of the in european castles but of a draught more it was also much as no fire had ever been built in it half of the tables were which seated twenty or thirty men usually sat at the one near the door with a group including professor his t the poet and agent and jones whose to was in many wa rs the best in they composed a club within the club and merrily called themselves the to day as he passed their table the necks greeted him come on sit in you n paul too proud to feed with poor folks afraid somebody might stick you for a bottle of george strikes me you are getting awful dam exclusive i he thundered you bet i we can t afford to have our ruined by being seen with you i and guided paul to one of the small tables beneath the gallery he felt guilty at the club privacy was very bad form but he wanted paul to himself that morning he had and now he ordered nothing but english mutton chop peas apple pie a bit of cheese and a pot of coffee with cream adding as he did invariably and oh and you might give me an order of french potatoes when the chop came he vigorously it and it he always and his meat and vigorously before it paul and he took up the spring like quality of the spring the virtues of the electric cigar lighter and the action of the new york state assembly it was not till was thick and with mutton that he flung out i wound up a nice little deal with this morning that put five hundred good round in my pocket pretty nice pretty nice and yet i don t know what s the matter with me to day maybe it s an attack of spring fever or staying up too late at s or maybe it s just the winter s work up but i ve felt kind of down in the mouth all day long course i wouldn t beef about it to the fellows at the	42
she plays the perfect lady so well that even i get and get all up in a lot of why did you say s and i didn t mean s ill tell you you know my tastes are pretty fairly simple in the matter of food at least course as you re always complaining i do like deceit cigars those de you re smoking that s all right that s a good two for by the way paul did i tell you i decided to practically cut out yes you at the same time if i can t get what i like why i can do without it i don t mind sitting down to burnt with and store cake for a thrilling little afterwards but i do draw the line at having to with because she s so rotten bad that the cook has quit and she s been so busy sitting in a dirty lace n e all afternoon reading about some brave manly west em hero that she hasn t had time to do any cooking you re always talking about morals meaning i suppose youve been the rock of ages to me all right but you re essentially a you where d you get that little man let me tell you love to look earnest and inform the world that it s the duty of responsible business men to be strictly moral as an example to the community in fact you re so earnest about morality old that i hate to think how essentially you must be underneath all right you can wait wait now what talk about morals all you want to old thing but believe me if it hadn t been for you and an occasional evening playing the to o s and three or four darling girls that let me forget this joke they call respectable life i d ve killed myself years ago and business i the business i roofs for i oh i don t mean i haven t had a lot of fun out of the game out of putting it over on the labor and seeing a big check coming in and the business increasing but what s the use of it you know my business isn t it s principally keeping my from same with you all we do is cut each other s throats and make the public pay for it i look here now you re pretty near talking i oh yes of course i don t really exactly mean that i s pose course competition brings the best of the but but i mean take all these fellows we know the kind right here in the club now that seem to be perfectly content with their home life and their and that and the chamber of commerce and for a million population bet if you could cut into their heads you d find that one third of em are sure satisfied with their wives and and friends and their offices and one third fed kind of restless but won t admit it and one third are miserable and know it they hate the whole go ahead g me and they re bored by their wives and think their families are fools at least when they come to forty or forty five they re bored and they hate and they d go why do you suppose there s so many mysterious why do you pose so many substantial citizens jumped right into the war think it was all patriotism what do you expect think we were sent into the world to have a soft time and what is it float on beds of ease think man was just made to be happy not though i ve never discovered anybody that knew what the deuce man really was made well we know not just in the bible alone but it stands to reason a man who doesn t down and do his duty even if it does bore him sometimes is nothing but a well he s simply a in fact i and what do you advocate come down to cases i if a man is bored by his wife do you seriously mean he has a right to her and take a or even kill himself good lord i don t know what rights a man has i and i don t know the solution of if i did i d be the one philosopher that had the cure for living but i do know that about ten times as many people find their lives dull and dull as ever admit it and i do believe that if we out and admitted it sometimes instead of being nice and patient and loyal for sixty years and then nice and patient and dead for the rest of eternity why maybe possibly we might make life more fun they drifted into a of speculation was uneasy paul was bold but not quite sure about what he was bold now and then suddenly agreed with paul in an admission which contradicted all his of duty and christian patience and at each be had a curious reckless joy he said at last look here old paul you do a lot of talking about kicking things in the face but you never kick why don t you nobody does habit too strong but i ve been thinking of one mild bat oh don t worry old pillar of it s highly prefer it seems to be settled now isn t it though of course ke s for a nice expensive in new york and atlantic city with the bright lights and the and a bunch of to dance with but the and the are going to lake aren t we	42
why couldn t you and i make some excuse say business in new york and get up to four or five days before they do and just loaf by ourselves and smoke and and be natural great i great idea i admired not for fourteen years had he taken a holiday without his wife and neither of them quite believed they could commit this audacity many members of the club did go without their wives but they were to fishing and hunting whereas the sacred and sports of and paul were and bridge for either the or the to have changed their habits would have been an of their self imposed discipline which would have shocked all right thinking and citizens why don t we just put our foot down and we re going on ahead of you and that s all there is to it i nothing criminal in it simply say to you don t say anything to simply why she s almost as much of a as you are and if i told her the truth she d believe we were going to meet some in new york and even she never you the way does but she d worry she d say don t you want me to go to with you i shouldn t dream of going unless you wanted me and you d give in to save her feelings oh the devil i let s have a shot at duck pins during the game of duck pins a form of paul was silent as they came down the s of the not more than half an hour after the time at which had sternly told miss he would be back paul sighed look here old man t to talked about way i did rats old man it lets off steam oh i after spending all noon at the conventional stuff i m conventional enough to be ashamed of saving my life by out with my fool troubles i old paul your nerves are kind of on the bum i m going to take you away i m going to this thing i m going to have an important deal in new york and and sure of course need you to advise me on the roof of the building i and the deal will fall and be nothing for us but to go on ahead to i paul when it comes ri t down to it i don t care whether you bust loose or not i do like having a for being one of the bunch but if you ever needed me i d it and come out for you every time i not of course but what you re course i don t mean you d ever do anything that put that would put a decent position on the but see how i mean i m kind of a clumsy old and i need your fine hand we oh hell i can t stand here all day i on the s long i don t take any wooden money see you soon s long chapter vi he forgot paul in an afternoon of not details after a return to his office which seemed to have staggered on without him he drove a prospect out to view a four flat in the district he was inspired by the customer s admiration of the new cigar lighter thrice its novelty made him use it and thrice he hurled half smoked from the car protesting i got to quit smoking so blame much their ample discussion of every detail of the lighter led them to speak of electric flat irons and bed for being so old fashioned as still to use a hot water bottle and he announced that he would have the sleeping porch at once he had enormous and poetic admiration though very little understanding of all mechanical devices they were his of truth and beauty regarding each new intricate metal two jet machine gun he learned one good sounding phrase and used it over and over with a delightful feeling of being and the customer joined him in the worship of machinery and they came up to the and began that examination of slate roof doors and seven blind nailed began those of hurt surprise and readiness to be persuaded to do something they had already decided to do which would some day result in a sale on the way back picked up his partner and law henry t at his kitchen cabinet works and drove through south a high colored exciting region new of hollow tile with gigantic wire ass windows surly old brick stained with tar high perched water big red like and on a score of side tracks far wandering freight cars from the new york central and le the great northern and wheat the southern pacific and orange groves they talked to the secretary of the company about an interesting artistic project a cast iron fence for lane they drove on to the company and the manager about a on a car for and were fellow members of the club and no felt t if he bought anything from another without receiving a but henry son growled oh t hell with em i i m not going to crawl around not from nobody it was one of the differences between the old fashioned lean yankee rugged stage type of american business man and the plump smooth efficient up to the minute and otherwise modern whenever put your john on that line was as much by the as any proper englishman by any american he knew himself to be of a breeding altogether more and sensitive than s he was a college he played he often smoked instead of cigars and when he went to he took a room with a private bath the whole	42
on him miss staring with head lifted from her t ing miss looking over her mat around at his desk in the dark sullenly as a before the bleak propriety of his butler he hated to expose his back to their laughter and in his effort to be casually merry he stammered and was friendly and out of the door but he forgot his misery when he saw from smith street the charms of heights the roofs of red and green slate the shining new sun and the walls ni he ed to inform his neighbor that though the day had been the evening mi t be cold he went in to shout where are you at his wife with no very definite desire to know where she was he examined the lawn to see whether the furnace man had it with some satisfaction and a good deal of discussion of the matter with mrs ted and he concluded that the furnace man had not it properly he cut two of wild grass with his wife s largest he informed ted that it was all nonsense having a furnace man big fellow like you ought to do all the work around the house and privately he meditated that it was agreeable to have it known throughout the neighborhood that he was so prosperous that his son never worked around the house he stood on the sleeping porch and did his day s exercises arms out for two minutes up for two minutes while he muttered ought take more exercise keep in shape then went in to see whether his collar needed changing before dinner as usual it apparently did not the maid a powerful woman beat the the roast of beef potatoes and string beans were excellent this evening and after an adequate sketch of the day s weather states his four hundred and fee his lunch with paul and the merits of the new cigar lighter he was moved to a sort o thinking about buying a new car don t believe we ll get one till next year but still we t va the older daughter cried oh if you do why don t you get a that would be perfectly l a closed car is so much more than an open one well now i don t know about that i kind of like an open car you get more fresh air that way oh shoot that s just because you never tried a let s get one it s got a lot more class said ted a closed car keep the clothes from mrs you don t get your hair blown all to pieces from it s a lot from ted and from the youngest oh let s have a mary s father has got one ted wound oh everybody s got a closed car now t us i faced them i guess you got nothing very terrible to complain about i an i don t keep a car just to enable you children to look like and i like an open car so you can put the top down on summer evenings and go out for a drive and get some good fresh air besides a car costs more money aw if the can afford a closed car i guess we ted i make eight thousand a year to his seven but i don t blow it all in and waste it and throw it around the way he does don t believe in this business of going and spending a whole lot of money to show off and they went with and some into the matters of bodies hill climbing power wire wheels steel systems and body colors it was much more than a study of it was an for rank in the city of in the barbarous twentieth century a family s indicated its social rank as precisely as the of the determined the rank of an english family indeed more precisely considering the opinion of old county families upon newly created and mill the details of were never there was no court to decide whether the second son of a pierce arrow should go in to dinner before the first son of a but of their respective social importance there was no doubt and as a boy had a to the his son ted a to a twin six and an established position in the gentry the favor which had won from his family by speak ing of a new car as they realized that he didn t intend to buy me this year ted lamented oh i the old boat looks as if it d had and been scratching its off mrs said raged if you re too much of a gentleman and you to the bon tan and so on why you needn t take the car out this evening ted ei i didn t mean and dinner dragged on with normal domestic delight to the inevitable point at which protested come come now we can t sit here all evening give the girl a chance to dear away the table he was what a i d m t know how we all get to this way like to go off some place and be able to hear myself think paul wear old and loaf and he said cautiously to us wife i ve been in correspondence with a man in new york wants me to see him about a real estate trade may not come off till summer hope it doesn t break just when we and the get ready to go to be a shame if we couldn t make the trip there together well no use worrying now escaped after dinner with no discussion save an why don t you ever stay home from in the living room in a comer of the ted down to	42
don t intend to suppose anything of the kind i there s plenty of fellows in my profession that stoop and hate their but if you were a little older and understood business instead of always going to the and running around with a lot of fool girls with their dresses up to their knees and powdered and painted and and god knows what all as if they were chorus girls then you d know and you d suppose that if there s any one thing that i stand for in the circles of it is that we ought to always speak of each other only in the terms and a spirit of brotherhood and and so i certainly can t suppose and i can t imagine my any not even tha dirty society and there s no if and or but about it but if i going to somebody i wouldn t require any fancy ducks or swimming strokes before a mirror or any of these and suppose you were out some place and a fellow called you vile names think you d want to box and around like a master you d just lay him out cold at least i certainly hope any son of mine would and then you d dust off your hands and go oa about your business and that s all there is to it and you aren t to have any lessons by mail either well but yes i just wanted to show how many different kinds of correspondence courses there are instead of au the they teach us in the hi but i thought they taught in the school that s different they stick you up there and some big stiff himself the n s out of you before you have a chance to learn not any but any way listen to some of these others the were truly one of them bore the rousing money money money the second announced that mr p r formerly making only eighteen a in a shop writes to bs that since taking our course he is now pulling down as an physician and the third that miss j l recently a in a store is now getting ten real dollars a day teaching our s of breathing and mental control ted had collected fifty or sixty from annual reference books from sunday school fiction magazines and journals of discussion one benefactor implored don t be a be more popular and make more money you can or sing yourself into society by the secret principles of a newly discovered system of music teaching any one man lady or child can without tiresome exercises special training or long drawn out study and out waste of time money or energy learn to play by note piano or drum and learn sight singing the next under the wistful appeal finger big confided you red blooded men and women this is the profession you have been looking tar there s money in it big money and that rapid change of scent that and compelling interest and fascination which your active mind and adventurous spirit think of being the chief figure nd directing in strange mysteries and crimes this profession brings you into contact with influential men on the basis of equality and often calls upon you to travel everywhere maybe to distant lands all expenses paid no education required oh boy i i guess that wins the fire brick wouldn t it be swell to travel everywhere and some famous ed ted well i don t think much of that likely to get hurt still that music study might be pretty fair though there s no reason why if put their minds to it the way they have to in a factory th couldn t figure out some scheme so a person wouldn t have to monkey with all this and exercises that you get in music was impressed and he had a delightful parental feeling that they two the men of the family each other he listened to the notices of mail box which taught short story writing and the memory motion acting and developing the soul power and spanish and and window poultry raising and well well sought for adequate e q of his admiration i m a son of a gun i knew this correspondence school business had become a mighty profitable game makes real estate look like two cents but i didn t realize it d got to be such a lar key industry must rank right up with and always figured somebody d come along with the brains to not leave education to a lot of and but make a big thing out of it yes i can see how a lot of these courses might interest you i must ask the fellows at the if they ever realized but same time ted you know how i mean some i don t know as they d be able to jam you through these courses as fast as they claim they can oh sure of course ted had the immense and joyful maturity of a boy who is respectfully list ed to by his elders concentrated on him with grateful affection i can see what an influence these courses might have on the whole works course i d never admit it publicly fellow like m a state u it s only t and patriotic for him to blow his horn and the but of fact there s a whole lot of valuable time lost even at the u studying poetry and french and subjects that never brought in anybody a cent i don t know but what maybe these correspondence courses might prove to be one of the most important american inventions trouble with a lot of folks is they re so blame material they don t see	42
the spiritual and mental side of american they think that inventions like the and the and no that was a invention but anyway they think these mechanical in are all that we stand for whereas to a real he sees that spiritual and movements like and and and are what compose our deepest and truest wealth and maybe this new principle in education at home may be another may be another i tell you ted we ve got to have vision i think those correspondence courses are terrible the philosophers gasped it was mrs who had made this discord in their spiritual harmony and one of mrs s virtues was that except during parties when she was transformed into a raging hostess she took care of the house and didn t bother the by thinking she went on firmly it awful to me the way they those poor young folks to think they re learning something and nobody round to help them and you two learn so quick but me i rs was slow but just the same attended to her nonsense i get just as much studying at home you don t think a fellow any more because he blows in his father s hard earned money and sits in chairs in a swell with pictures and and table covers and those do you i tell you i m a college man i there is one objection you might make though i certainly do protest against any effort to get a lot of fellows out of shops and into the professions they re too crowded already and what u we do for workmen if all those fellows go and get educated ted was leaning back smoking a without reproof he was for the moment sharing the high thin air of s as though he were paul or even dr he hinted well what do you think then wouldn t it be a good idea if i could go off to china or some place and study or something by mail no and i ll tell you why son i ve foimd out it s a mighty nice thing to be able to say you re a ba some that doesn t know what you are and thinks you re just a business man he gets to shooting off his mouth about or literature or foreign trade conditions and you just ease in something like when i was in course i got my b a in and all that oh it puts an awful in their style but there wouldn t be any class to saying i got the degree of stamp from the mail order university i you see my was a pretty good old but he never had much style to him and i had to work dam hard to earn my way college well it s been worth it to be able to associate with the finest in at the and so on and i wouldn t want you to drop out of the gentlemen the class that are just as red blooded as the common le but still have power and personality it would kind of hurt me if you did that old man i i know au right im stick to it i i forgot all about those i was going to take to the chorus have to duck i but you haven t done all your home work do it first thing in the morning six in the past sixty days had tou will not do it first thing in the morning you ll do it right now i but to night he said well better and his was the rare shy radiance he kept for paul iv ted s a good boy he said to mrs ft who s these girls he s going to pick up are they nice decent girls i don t know oh dear ted never tells me anything any more i don t understand what s over the children of this generation i used to have to teu papa and everything but seems like the children to day have just slipped away from all control i hope they re decent girls course ted s no longer a kid and i wouldn t want him to get mixed up and everything george i wonder if you t to take him aside and tell him about things she blushed and lowered her eyes well i don t know way i figure it m no sense a lot of things to a boy s mind think up by himself but i wonder it s kind of a hard question wonder what little thinks about it ck papa with you he says all this instruction is he says t decent oh he does does he i well let me you that whatever henry t thinks about morals i mean though course you can t beat the old why what a way to talk of simply can t beat him at getting in on the ground floor of a deal but let me tell you whenever he springs any ideas about higher things and education then i know i think just the opposite you may not regard me as any great but believe me i m a regular college president with henry t i yes sir by i m going to take ted aside and tell him why i lead a strictly moral life oh will you when when when what s the use of trying to pin me down to when and why and where and how and when that s the trouble with women that s why they don t make high class they haven t any sense of when the proper opportunity and occasion arises so it just comes in natural why then i ll have a friendly little talk with him and	42
and was that up stairs she ought to been asleep long ago he through the living room and stood in the that glass walled room of chairs and swinging couch in which they on sunday outside only the lights of s house and the dim presence of s favorite elm broke the softness of april night good visit with the boy getting over feeling my i did this morning and restless though by i will have a few days alone with paul in that devil but ted s all right whole family all right and good business not many fellows make hundred and fifty practically half of a thousand dollars easy as i did to day i maybe when we all get to it s just as much my fault as it is theirs t to get like i do but wish i d been a same as my grand but then wouldn t have a house like this i oh he thought of paul of their youth together of the girls they had known when had from the state university twenty four years ago he had intended to be a lawyer he had been a ponderous in college he felt that he was an orator he saw himself becoming governor of the state while he read law he worked as a real estate he saved money lived in a boarding house on egg on the lively paul who was certainly going off to europe to study next month or next year was his refuge till paul was by who laughed and danced and drew men after her plump and gaily finger s evenings were barren then and he found comfort only in paul s second cousin a sleek and gentle girl who showed her capacity by with the ardent young that of course he was going to be governor some day where him as a country boy said indignantly that he was ever so much than the young who had been bom in the great city of an ancient settlement in one hundred and five years old with two hundred thousand population the queen and wonder of all the state and to the boy george so vast and and luxurious that he was flattered to know a girl by birth in of love there was no talk between th n he knew that if he was to study law he could not marry for years and was distinctly a nice girl one didn t kiss her one didn t think about her that way at all unless one was going to her but she was a companion she was always ready to go walking always content to hear his on the great things he was going to do the distressed poor whom he would defend against the unjust rich the speeches he would make at the of popular thought which he would correct one evening when he was weary and soft minded he saw she had been weeping she had been left out of a party given by somehow her head was on his shoulder and he was kissing away the tears and she raised her head to say now that we re engaged shall we be married soon or shall we wait engaged it was his first hint of it his affection for this brown tender woman thing went cold and fearful but he could not hurt ha could not abuse her trust he something about waiting and escaped he walked for an hour trying to find a way of telling her that it was a mistake often in the month after he got near to telling her but it was pleasant to have a girl in his arms and less and less could he insult her by that he didn t love her he himself had no doubt the evening before his marriage was an agony and the morning wild with the desire to flee she made him what is known as a good wife she was loyal industrious and at rare times merry she passed from a feeble disgust at their closer relations into what promised to be ardent affection but it drooped into bored routine yet she existed only for him and for the children and she was as sorry as worried as himself when he gave up the law and on in a of real estate kid she hasn t had much better time than i have reflected standing in the dark sun parlor but i wish i could ve had a whirl at law and politics seen what could do well maybe i ve made more money as it is he returned to the living room but before he settled down he smoothed his wife s hair and she glanced up happy and somewhat chapter vii he solemnly finished the last copy of the american while his wife sighed laid away her and looked at the designs in a women s e the room was very still it was a room which observed the best heights standards the gray walls were divided into artificial by of white pine from the house had come two much carved but the other chairs were new very deep and in blue and gold striped velvet a blue velvet faced the fireplace and behind it was a table and a tall piano with a shade of golden silk two out of every three houses in heights had before the fireplace a a mahogany table real or imitation and a piano lamp or a reading with a shade of yellow or rose silk on the table was a of gold chinese fabric four magazines a silver box containing and three gift books large e of fairy tales illustrated by english artists and as yet by any save in a corner by the front windows was a large cabinet eight out of every nine heights houses had a cabinet among	42
you i he himself and himself and rubbed himself he noted a hole in the and thrust a finger through it and marched back to the bedroom a grave and citizen there was a moment of gorgeous abandon i a flash of such as he found in traffic driving when he laid out a clean collar discovered that it was in front and tore it up with a magnificent sound most important of all was the preparation of his bed and the sleeping porch it is not known whether he enjoyed his sleeping porch because of the fresh air or because it was the standard thing to have a sleeping porch just as he was an a and a member of the chamber of commerce just as the priests of the church determined his every religious belief and the who controlled the republican party decided in little smoky rooms in washington what he should think about and germany so did the large national fix the surface of his life fix what he believed to be his individuality these standard advertised wares hot water were his and proofs of excellence at first the signs then the for joy and passion and wisdom but none of these advertised tokens of financial and social success was more significant than a sleeping porch with a below the rites of preparing for bed were elaborate and un changing the blankets had to be tucked in at the foot of his cot also the reason why the maid hadn t tucked in the blankets had to be discussed with mrs the rag rug was adjusted so that his bare feet would strike it when he arose in the morning the alarm clock was wound the hot water bottle was filled and placed precisely two feet from the bottom of the cot these tremendous yielded to his determination one by one they were announced to mrs and smashed through to accomplishment at last his brow cleared and in his rang power but there was yet need of courage as he sank into sleep just at the first exquisite the car came home he into why the devil can t some people never get to bed at a reasonable hour so familiar was he with the process of putting up his own car that he awaited each step like an able condemned to his own rack the car cheerful on the the car door opened and shut then the door slid open grating on the sill and the car door again the for the climb up into the and once more before it was shut o f a final and of the car door silence then a horrible silence filled with waiting till the leisurely mr had examined the state of his and had at last shut the door instantly for a blessed state of oblivion iv at that moment m the city of was making love to in her drawing room on royal ridge after their return from a lecture by an eminent english was s professional bachelor a slim man of forty six with an voice and taste in flowers and mrs mc was red haired discontented rude and honest tried his invariable first touching her nervous wrist don t be an idiot she said do you mind awfully that s what i he changed to conversation he was famous at conversation he q reasonably of long island and the he had found in she promised to meet him in the coming summer though she sighed it s becoming too dreadfully nothing but americans and english and at that in a and a were drinking in s saloon on front street since national was now in force and since was law abiding were compelled to keep the innocent by drinking them out of tea cups tbe lady threw her cup at the s head he worked his revolver out of the pocket in his sleeve and casually murdered her at that moment in two men sat in a for thirty seven hours now they had been working on a report of their of rubber at that moment in there was a conference of four union officials as to whether the twelve thousand coal within a hundred miles of the city should strike of these men one resembled a and prosperous one a yankee carpenter one a clerk and one a russian actor the russian jew quoted and at that moment a g a r was dying he had come from the civil war straight to a farm which though it was within the city limits of was primitive as the he had never ridden in a car never seen a bath tub never read any book save the bible mc s readers and religious tracts and he believed that the earth is flat that the english are the lost ten tribes of and that the united states is a at that moment the steel and town which composed the factory of the company of was running on night shift to fill an order of for the polish army it like a million bees glared through its wide windows like a along the high wire fences played on lined yards tracks and armed guards on at that moment monday was finishing a meeting mr monday the distinguished the best known in america had once been a prize satan had not dealt justly with him as a prize he gained nothing but his crooked nose his celebrated and his stage presence the service of the lord had been more profitable he was about to retire with a fortune it had been weu earned for to quote his last report rev mr monday the prophet with a has shown that he is the world s greatest of salvation and that by efficient organization the overhead of spiritual may be kept down to an rock bottom basis he has converted over two thousand lost and souls at	42
an average cost of less than ten dollars a head of the larger cities of the land only had hesitated to submit its vices to monday and his expert corps the more of the city had to invite him mr george f had once praised him in a speech at the club but there was position from certain and ministers those whom mr monday so finely called a bunch of go el with dish water instead of blood a gang of that need more dust on the knees of their and more hair on their old this opposition had been crushed when the secretary of the chamber of commerce had reported to a committee of that in every city where he had mr monday had turned the minds of workmen from wages and hours to higher things and thus averted strikes he was immediately invited an expense fund of forty thousand dollars had been out on the county fair grounds a monday had been erected to seat fifteen thousand people in it the prophet was at this moment concluding his message there s a lot of smart professors and tea in this that say i m a and a never and my knowledge of history is not yet oh there s a gang of book that think they know more than almighty god and prefer a lot of hun science and german criticism to the straight and simple word of god oh there s a swell bunch of boys and and pie faces and and beer that love to fire off their filthy mouths and that monday is vulgar and full of those are saying now that i the gospel show that i m in it for the coin well now listen folks i i m going to give those birds a they can stand right up here and tell me to my face that i m a and a liar and a i only if they do if they do don t faint with surprise if some of those rum get one good swift from with all the kick of god f flaming behind the well come on folks who says it who says monday is a four flush and a don t i see anybody standing up well there you are now i guess the folks in this man s town will quit listening to all this from behind the fence i guess quit listening to the that pan and roast and kick and beef and out filthy loo and all of you come in with every grain of and reverence you got and all together for christ and his everlasting mercy and tenderness at that moment the radical lawyer and dr the whose report on the destruction of under had made the name of known in and rome were talking in s s a city with gigantic power gigantic buildings gigantic machines gigantic meditated i hate your city it has all the beauty out of life it is one big station with all the people taking tickets for the best dr said placidly roused i m hanged if it is i you make me sick with your perpetual about don t you pose any other nation is is anything more than england with every house that can afford it having the same ns at the same tea hour and every retired general going to exactly the same at the same gray stone church with a square tower and in sa right you to every other prosperous ass yet i love england and for just look at tlie s in france and the love making in italy is excellent per se when i buy an watch or a ford i get a better tool for less money and i know precisely what i m getting and that leaves me more time and energy to be individual in and i remember once in london i saw a picture of an american in a ad on the back of the saturday evening post an lined snowy street of these new houses some loi of em or with low roofs and the kind of street you d find here in say in heights open trees grass and i was i there s no other country in the world that has such pleasant houses and i don t care if they are it s a standard no what i fight in is of thought and of course the traditions of competition the real of the piece are the clean kind industrious family men who use every known brand of and cruelty to the prosperity of their the worst thing about these fellows is that they re so good and in their work at least so intelligent you can t hate them and yet their minds are the enemy then this i have a notion that is a better place to live in than or or or or it is not and i have lived in most of them murmured dr well matter of taste personally i prefer a city with a future so unknown that it my imagination but what i particularly want said dr are a middle road liberal and you haven t the slightest idea what you want i being a know exactly what i want and what i want now is a drink at that moment in the and henry t were in conference suggested the thing to do is to get your fool son in law to put it over he s one of these patriotic when he a piece of property for the gang he makes it look like we were of love for the dear and i do love to buy respectability reasonable wonder how long we can keep it up we re safe as long as the good little i like george and all the nice respectable labor leaders think you	42
an an extra girl for the feed could perfectly well and i have to go out and buy the flowers and fix them and set the table and order the and look at the chickens and arrange for the children to have their supper upstairs and and i simply must depend on you to go to s for the ice cream all i m going to get it all you have to do is to go in and say you want the ice cream that mrs ordered yesterday by and it will be all ready for you at ten thirty she to him not to forget the ice cream from s he was surprised and then by a thought he wondered whether heights dinners were worth the hideous toil involved but he the in the excitement of buying the materials for now this was the manner of obtaining under the reign of and he drove from the severe of the modern business into the tangled of old town jagged blocks filled with and on into the once a pleasant orchard but now a of lodging houses and exquisite chilled his and stomach and he looked at every policeman with intense innocence as one who loved the law and admired the force and longed to stop and play with them he his car a block from s saloon worrying well rats if anybody did see me they d think i was here on business he entered a place curiously like the of days with a long greasy bar with in front and mirror behind a pine table at which a dirty old man dreamed over a glass of something which resembled and with two men at the bar drinking something which resembled beer and giving that in of forming a large crowd which two men always give in a saloon the a tall pale with a diamond in his stared at as he stalked up to the bar and whispered i d friend of s sent me here like to get some gin the gazed down on him in the manner of an outraged bishop i guess you got the wrong place my friend we sell nothing but soft drinks here he cleaned the bar with a rag which would itself have done with a little cleaning and glared across his mechanically moving elbow the old at the table the say listen did not listen x aw say listen will say lis the decayed and drowsy voice of the the agreeable of beer threw a of over the moved grimly toward the crowd of two men followed him as delicately as a cat and say i want to speak to mr see him for i just want to talk to him here s my card it was a beautiful card an engraved card a card in the black and the red announcing that mr george f was estates rents the held it as though it weighed ten pounds and read it as though it were a hundred words long he did not bend from his dignity but he growled see if he s around from the back room he brought an old young man a quiet sharp eyed man in tan silk shirt checked hanging open and burning brown trousers mr mr said only but his and contemptuous eyes s soul and he seemed not at all impressed by the new dark gray suit for which as he had admitted to every acquaintance at the club had paid a hundred and twenty five dollars glad meet you mr say i m george of the company i m a great friend of s well what of it say i m going to have a party and told me you d be able to fix me up with a little gin in alarm in as s eyes grew more you to about me if you want to answered by his head to indicate the entrance to the back room and strolled away crept into an apartment containing four round io tables eleven chairs a and a smell he waited thrice he saw through humming hands in pockets him by this time had modified his morning vow i won t pay one cent over seven dollars a to i might pay ten on s next weary entrance he could you fix that up and just a minute s sake just a in growing went on waiting till casually reappeared with a of gin what is known as a in his long white hands twelve he snapped say but say cap n thought you d be able to fir me up for eight or nine a bottle twelve this is the real stuff from canada this is none o your spirits with a drop of extract the honest merchant said twelve bones if you want it course y understand i m just doing this an n ay as a friend of s sure i sure i understand gratefully held out twelve dollars he felt honored by contact with greatness as yawned stuffed the bills into his radiant and away he had a number of out of concealing the under his coat and out of hiding it in his desk all afternoon he and chuckled and over his ability to give the boys a real shot in the arm to night he was in fact so that he was within a block of his house before he remembered that there was a certain matter mentioned by his wife of ice cream from s he explained well it and drove back was not a he was the of most coming out parties were in the white and gold of the at all nice the guests five kinds of and the seven kinds of cakes and all really smart dinners ended as on a in ice cream in one of the three th the round	42
like a cake and the long brick s shop had pale blue of plaster roses in and glass shelves of kisses with all the refinement that in of eggs felt heavy and thick amid this professional and as he waited for the ice cream he decided with hot at the back of his neck that a girl customer was at him he went home in a temper the first thing he heard was his wife s agitated george did you remember to go to s and get the ice cream say i look here do i ever forget to do things yes often well now it s seldom i do and it certainly makes me tired after going into a pink tea joint like s and having to stand around looking at a lot of half naked young girls all up like they were sixty and eating a lot of stuff that simply ruins their oh it s too bad about you i ve noticed how you hate to look at pretty is with a jar realized that his wife was too busy to be impressed by that moral indignation with which rule the world and he went humbly up stairs to dress he had an impression of a dining room of cut glass candles polished wood lace silver roses with the awed swelling of the heart suitable to so grave a business as giving a dinner he the temptation to wear his dress shirt for a fourth time took out an entirely fresh one his black bow and rubbed his patent leather with a handkerchief he glanced with pleasure at his and silver he smoothed and patted his ankles transformed by silk from the sturdy of george to the elegant limbs no of what is called a he stood before the pier ass his trim dinner coat his beautiful triple trousers and murmured in by i don t look so bad i certainly don t look like if the back home could see me in this they d have a fit i he moved down to mix the as h ice as he squeezed as he collected vast stores of bottles glasses and at the sink in the he felt as as the at s true mrs said he was under foot and and the maid hired for the evening brushed by him him shrieked door as they through with but in this high moment he ignored them besides the new bottle of gin his cellar consisted of one half bottle of a quarter of a bottle of italian and one hundred drops of orange he did not possess a a was proof of the symbol of a and disliked being known as a even more than he liked a drink he mixed by pouring from an ancient boat into a he poured with a noble dignity holding his high beneath the powerful globe his face hot his shirt front a glaring white the copper sink a red gold he tasted the sacred essence now by if that isn t pretty near one fine old kind of a and yet like a hey want a little before the folks come bustling into the dining room moving each glass a quarter of an inch rushing back with resolution on her face her gray and silver lace party frock protected by a mrs glared at him and him certainly not well in a loose manner i think tlie old man will iii the filled him with a whirling behind which he was aware of desires to rush places in fast to kiss girls to sing to be witty he sought to regain his lost dignity by announcing to i m going to stick this of in the be sure you don t upset any of em well be sure now don t go putting anything on this top shelf well be he was his voice was thin and distant wheel with enormous he commanded well be sure now and into the safety of the he wondered whether he could persuade as slow a bunch as and the to go some place aft dinner and raise and maybe dig up he perceived that he had gifts of which had been neglected by the time the guests had come including the inevitable late couple for whom the others waited with painful a great gray had replaced the purple in s head and he had to force the tumultuous greetings suitable to a host on heights the guests were the doctor of philosophy furnished and comforting to the street company the coal dealer equally powerful in the and in the club the agent for the car who lived across the street and jones owner of the lily white which justly announced itself the biggest in but naturally the most distinguished of all was t who was not only the author of which daily in sixty seven leading newspapers gave him one of the largest of any poet in the world but also an and the creator of that add despite the search ing philosophy and high morality of his verses they were humorous and easily understood by any child of twelve and it added a neat air of to them that they were set not as verse but as prose mr was known from coast to coast as with them were six wives more or less it was hard to tell so early in the evening as at first glance they all looked alike and as they all said oh isn t this nice in the same tone of determined to the eye the men were less similar a hedge scholar tall and horse faced a trifle of a man with soft and mouse like hair his profession as poet by a silk cord on his eye glasses broad with coarse black hair en a bald and young man who showed his taste for elegance by an evening waistcoat of	42
figured black silk with glass buttons jones a steady looking not very memorable person with a colored yet they were all so well fed and clean they all shouted with such that seemed to be cousins and the strange thing is that the longer one knew the women the less alike they seemed while the longer one knew the men the more alike their bold patterns appeared the drinking of the was as a as the mixing the company waited uneasily agreeing in a strained manner that the weather had been rather warm and slightly cold but still said nothing about drinks they became but when the late couple the had arrived hinted well folk do you think you stand breaking the law a little they looked at the recognized lord of language pulled at his eye glass cord as at a bell rope he cleared his throat and said that which was the custom ni tell you george i m a law abiding man but they do say is a regular and of course he s bigger n i am and i just can t figure out what i d do if he tried to force me into anything criminal was roaring well take a chance when held up his hand and went on so if and you insist i ll park my car on the wrong side of the street because i take it for granted that s the crime you re at i there was a great deal of laughter mrs jones asserted mr is simply too killing you d think he was so innocent how did you guess it well you all just wait a moment i go out and get the keys to your cars through a of merriment he brought the shining promise the mighty tray of glasses with the cloudy yellow in the glass in the the men oh have a look and this gets me t where i live and let me at it but a man and not unused to woes was stricken by the thought that the might be merely fruit with a little spirits he looked as a moist and held out a glass but as he tasted it he oh man let me dream on it ain t true but don t me slumber two hours before had completed a newspaper beginning sat alone and and and scratched my head and sighed and and groaned there are who d like the old time gin back that den that makes a sage a the vile and old saloon never miss their poison whilst i the spring can use that leaves my head at merry mom as clear as any babe new born drank with the others his moment s was gone he perceived that these were the best fellows in the world he wanted to give them a thousand think you could stand another he cried the wives refused with but the men q in a wide elaborate manner well sooner than have you get sore at me you got a little coming said to each of them and each squeeze it squeeze when beyond hope the was empty they stood and talked about the men leaned back on their heels put their hands in their trousers pockets and proclaimed their views with the of a prosperous male repeating a thoroughly statement about a matter of which he knows nothing whatever now tell you said way i figure it is this and i can speak by the book because i ve talked to a lot of doctors and fellows that ought to know and the way i see it is that it s a good thing to get rid of the saloon but they ought to let a fellow have beer and light observed what isn t generally realized is that it s a dangerous to the rights of per liberty now take this for instance the king of i think it was yes it was in march he issued a against public of live stock the had stood for without the slightest complaint but when this came out they or it may have been but it just goes to show the dangers of the rights of per liberty that s it no one got a right to personal liberty said jones just the same you don t want to forget is a mighty good thing for the working classes keeps em from wasting their money and lowering their said yes that s so but the trouble is the manner of insisted didn t understand the right system now if i d been running the i d have arranged it so that the himself was and then we could have taken care of the workman kept him from drinking and yet not ve interfered with the rights with the personal liberty of fellows like ourselves they their heads looked at one another and stated that s so that would be the the thing that me is that a lot of these will take to sighed they more violently and groaned that s so there is a danger of that oh say i got hold of a swell new receipt for home made beer the other day you take interrupted wait let me tell you mine i beer i thing to do is to jones insisted i ve got the receipt that does the business begged oh say tell you the story but went on resolutely you take and save the shells from peas and pour six of water on a of shells and boil the mixture till mrs turned toward them with yearning hastened to finish even his best beer and she said gaily dinner is served there was a good deal of friendly argument among the men bs to which should go in last and while they were crossing the hall from the living	42
room to the dining room made them laugh by thundering if i can t sit next to m and hold her hand under the table i won t play i m goin home in the dining room they stood embarrassed while mrs fluttered now let me see oh i was going to have some nice hand painted place cards for you but let me see mr you sit there the dinner was in the best style of women s magazine whereby the was served in apples and everything but the invincible chicken resembled something ii ordinarily the men found it hard to talk to the women was an art unknown on heights and the of offices and of had no but under the inspiration of the conversation was violent each of the men still had a number of important things to say about and now that each had a loyal listener in his dinner partner he burst out i found a place where i can get all the i want at a did you read about this fellow that went and paid a thousand dollars for ten cases of red eye that proved to be nothing but water seems this fellow was standing on the corner and fellow comes up to him they say there s a whole of stuff being across at what i always say what a lot of folks don t realize about and then you get all this awful poison stuff wood and everything course i believe in it on principle but i don t propose to have anybody telling me what i got to think and do no american ever stand for that but they all felt that it was rather in bad taste for jones and he not recognized as one of the wits of the occasion anyway to say in fact the whole thing about is this it isn t the cost it s the not till the one required topic had been dealt with did the conversation become general it was often and said of that can get away with murder why he can pull a raw one in mixed company and all the ladies ii laugh their heads off but me if i crack anything that s just the least bit off color i get the for fair now delighted them by to mrs youngest of the women i managed to pinch s out of his pocket and what say you and me across the street when the folks aren t looking got something with a gorgeous awful important to tell you the women and was stirred to like say folks i wished i dared show you a book i borrowed from now george i the ideal mrs warned him this book isn t the word it s some kind of report about about customs in the south seas and what it doesn t say i it s a book you can t buy i ll lend it to you me first insisted i jones announced say i heard a good one the other day about a and their wives and in the best accent he resolutely carried the good one to a slightly ending it but the the dropped back into cautious reality had recently been on a lecture tour among the small towns and he chuckled awful good to get back to civilization i certainly been seeing some towns i mean course the folks there are the best on earth but those main street are slow and you fellows can t hardly appreciate what it means to be here with a bunch of live ones you bet jones they re the best folks on earth those small town folks but oh what conversation why say they can t talk about anything but the weather and the ne ford by that s right they all talk about just the same things said don t they though they just say the same things over and over said yes it s really remarkable they seem to lack all power of looking at things they simply go over and ever the same talk about and the weather and so said ii still at thai you can t blame they haven t got any intellectual such as you get up here in the city said that s right said i don t want you to get stuck on yourselves but i must say it keeps a fellow right up on his toes to sit in with a poet and with the that put the con in i but these with nobody but each other to talk to no wonder they get so and in their speech and so up in their thinking jones commented and then take our other advantages the these sports think they re all get out if they have one change of bill a week where here in the city you got your choice of a dozen rent any evening you want to sure and the inspiration we get from rubbing up against class every day and getting jam full of said same time said no sense these too easy fellow s own fault if he doesn t show the to up and beat it to the city like we done did and just speaking in confidence among friends they re jealous as the devil of a city man every time i go up to i have to go around to the fellows i was brought up with because i ve more or less succeeded and they haven t and if you talk natural to em way we do here and show and what you might call a broad point of view why think you re putting on side there s my own martin the little general store my used to keep say i ll bet he don t know there is such a thing	42
as a as a dinner jacket if he was to come in here now he d think we were a bunch of of why i swear he wouldn t know what to think yes sir they re jealous i agreed that s so but what i mind is their lack of culture and appreciation of the beautiful if u excuse me for being now i like to give a high class lecture and read some of my best poetry not the new stuff but the magazine things but say when i get out in the tall grass there s nothing will take but a lot of old stories and and that if any of us were to indulge in it here he d get the gate so fast it would make his head swim it tact is we re mighty lucky to be living among a bunch of city folks that recognize artistic things and business punch equally we d fed pretty if we got stuck in some main street and tried to wise up the old to the kind of ufe we re used to here but by there s this you got to say for em every small american town is trying to get population and modem and dam if a lot of em don t put it somebody starts a telling how he was there in and it consisted of one muddy street count em one and nine human well you go back there in and you find and a swell little hotel and a first class ladies ready to wear shop real perfection in fact i you don t want to just look at what these small towns are you want to look at what they re to become and they all got an ambition that in the long run is going to make em the finest spots on earth they all want to be just like m however intimate they might be with t as a neighbor as a of lawn and monkey they knew that he was also a famous poet and a distinguished agent that behind his w e literary mysteries which they could not penetrate but to night in the gin confidence he admitted them to the got a literary problem that s worrying me to death i m doing a series of for the car and i want to make each of em a real little stuff i m all for this theory that perfection is the or nothing at ally and these are as tou things as i ever you might think it d be harder to do my poems all these heart topics home and fireside and happiness but they re you can t go wrong on em you know what sentiments any decent go ahead fellow must have if he plays the game and you stick right to em but the poetry of now there s a literary line where you got to open up new territory do you know the fellow who s really the american genius the fellow who you don t know his name and i don t either but his work ought to be preserved so s future generations can judge our american thought and originality to day why the fellow that writes the prince tobacco i just listen to this it s pa that such joy in pipes say f et you ve often bent an ear to of speech about from five to f i f t y p e r by stepping on her a bit i guess that s going some all but just among ourselves you better start a system to keep as to how fast you ll from low smoke spirits to tip top high once you line up behind a pipe that s all with that of prince is john on the job always joy more in flavor always delightfully cool and fragrant for a fact you never such copper two enjoyment go to a pipe speed o quick like you light on a good thing i packed with prince you can play a joy us straight across the boards and you know what that means now that the agent that s i call he literature i that prince though lai there can t be just one fellow that writes em must be a big board of ink in conference but an now him he doesn t write for long haired he writes for regular he writes for me and i tip my to him the only thing is i wonder if it the goods course like all these poets this prince fellow lets his idea run away with him it makes elegant reading but it don t say nothing i d never go out and buy prince tobacco after reading it because it doesn t tell me anything about the stuff it s just a of faced him oh you re crazy have i got to sell you the idea of style anyway that s the kind of stuff i d like to do for the but i simply can t so i decided to stick to the straight poetic and i took a shot at a ad for the how do you like this the long white trail is calling and it s over the hills and far away for every man or woman that has red blood in his veins and on his lips the ancient song of the it s away with dull and a fig for care speed glorious speed it s more than just a moment s it s life for you and me this great new truth the makers of the car have considered as much as price and style it s fleet as the smooth as the glide of a swallow yet powerful as the charge of a bull	42
elephant class breathes in every line listen brother you ll never know what the high art of is till you try life s the mused that s got an elegant color to it if i do say so but it ain t got the originality of of speech the whole company sighed with sympathy and admiration chapter ix was fond of his friends be loved the importance of being host and shouting certainly you re going to have the ideal and he appreciated the genius of t but the vigor of the was gone and the more he ate the less joyful he felt then the of the dinner was destroyed by the of the sons in heights and the other prosperous sections of especially in the young married set there were many women who had nothing to do though they had few servants yet with gas electric and dish and and kitchen walls their houses were so convenient that they had little and much of their food came from and they had but two one or no children and despite the that the great war had made work respectable their husbands objected to their wasting time and getting a lot of ideas in social work and still more to their causing a by earning money that they were not supported they worked perhaps two hours a day and the rest of the time they ate went to the motion pictures went window went in and to read magazines thought of the lovers who never appeared and accumulated a splendid restlessness which they got rid of by their husbands the husbands back of these the were perfect specimens throughout the dinner had been publicly about his wife s new frock it was he too short too low too thin and much too he appealed to honest george what do you think of that rag went and bought don t you think it s die limit what s eating you i call it a swell little dress oh it is mr it s a sweet frock mrs protested there now do you see you re such an author on clothes raged while the guests and peeped at her shoulders that s all right now said i m authority enough so i know it was a waste of money and it makes me tired to see you not wearing out a whole of clothes you got already i ve expressed my idea about this before and you know good and well you didn t pay the least bit of i have to camp on your trail to get you to do anything there was much bore of it and they all assisted all but everything about him was dim except his stomach and that was a t scarlet disturbance had too much t to eat this stuff he groaned while he went on eating while he down a chill and of the ice cream brick and cake as as cream he felt as though he had been stuffed with clay his body was bursting his throat was bursting his brain was hot mud and only with agony did he continue to smile and shout as became a host on heights he would except for his guests have fled and walked off the of food but in the haze which filled the n they sat forever talking talking while he dam fool to be eating all this not mouths and discovered that he was again the sickly of melted ice cream on his plate there was no magic in his friends he was not uplifted when produced his treasure house of the information that the for raw rubber is which turns into or suddenly without precedent was not merely bored but admitting that he was bored it was ecstasy to escape from the table from the torture of a straight chair and on the in the living room the others from their fitful talk their expressions of being slowly and painfully smothered seemed to be suffering from the toil of social life and the horror of good food as much as himself all of them accepted with relief the suggestion of bridge recovered from the feeling of being boiled he won at bridge he was again able to endure s inexorable but he pictured with paul beside a lake in it was as overpowering and imaginative as he had never seen yet he beheld the mountains the tranquil lake of evening that boy paul s worth all these put together he muttered and i d like to get away from everything even did not rouse him mrs was pretty and was not an of women except as to their tastes in furnished houses to rent he divided them into real ladies working women old and fly chickens he over their charms but he was of opinion that all of them save the women of his own family were different and mysterious yet he had known by instinct that could be approached her eyes and lips were moist her face from a broad forehead to a pointed chin her mouth was thin but strong and and between her brows were two and passionate wrinkles she was thirty perhaps or younger gossip had never touched her but every man naturally and instantly rose to when he to her and every woman watched her with between games sitting on the spoke to her with the requisite gallantry that heights gallantry which is not but a terrified flight from it you re looking like a new fountain to night am i kind of on the yes i get so sick of it well when you get tired of you can run off with uncle george if i ran oh anybody ever tell you your hands are awful pretty she looked down at them she pulled the lace of her sleeves over them but otherwise she did not heed him she was lost	42
in was too languid evening to pursue his duty of being a though strictly moral male he back to the bridge tables he was not much thrilled when mrs a small woman proposed that they try and do some and table you know can make the spirits come honest be just me the ladies of the party had not emerged all evening but now as the sex given to things of the spirit while the men against base things material they took command and cried oh let s in the the men were rather solemn and foolish but the quivered and adored as they sat about the table they laughed now you be good or tell when the men took their hands in the circle with a slight return of interest in as s hand closed on his with quiet firmness all of them over intent they startled as some one drew a strained breath in the dusty light from the hall they looked unreal they felt mrs and they ed with unnatural but at s hiss they sank into subdued awe suddenly they heard a knocking stared at s half revealed hands and found them lying still they and not to be impressed with gravity is some one there a l one knock to be the sign for es a and two for no a ladies and gentlemen shall we ask the guide to put us into communication with the spirit of some great passed over mrs jones begged oh let s talk to we studied him at the reading circle you know who he was certainly i know who he the poet where do you think i was raised from her insulted husband the fellow that took the cook s tour to hell i ve never through his po try but we learned about him in the u said mr you ought to get him easy mr you and he poets said fellow poets rats where d you get that i suppose showed a lot of speed for an old not that i ve actually read him of course but to come right down to hard facts he wouldn t stand three if he had to down to practical literature and turn out a poem for the newspaper every day like does that s so from those old birds could take their time priest i could write poetry myself if i had a whole year for it and just wrote about that old like wrote about demanded hush now ill call him o ing eyes forth into the the and bring hither the spirit of that we mortals may list to his words of wisdom you forgot to give um the address fiery heights hell chuckled but the felt that this was and besides probably it was j u t making the but if there did happen t be something to all this be exciting to talk to an old belonging to way back in early times a the i of had come to ae park r of george f he was it seemed ready to answer their questions he was glad to be with them this evening out the messages by running through the till the spirit knocked at the right letter asked in a learned tone do you like it in the re we are very hai y on the higher plane we are s ad that you are studying this great truth of replied the circle moved with an awed creaking of stays and suppose suppose there were something to this had a different worry suppose was really one of these had for a literary fellow always seemed to be a regular he belonged to the road church and went to the and liked cigars and and stories but suppose that secretly after all you could about these and to be an out and out would be almost like being a i no one could long be serious in the presence of ask how jack shakespeare and old the they named after me are along and don t they wish they could get into the game i he and instantly all was mirth mrs jones shrieked and desired to know whether didn t catch cold with nothing on but his wreath the pleased made humble answer but the discontent was him again and heavily in the darkness he pondered i don tn we re all so and think we re so smart there d be a fellow like i wish i d read some of his pieces i don t suppose i ever will now he had without explanation the impression of a cliff and on it in against menacing clouds a lone and austere figure he was dismayed by a sudden contempt for his friends he grasped swan on s hand and found the comfort of warmth habit came a warrior and he shook himself what the deuce is the matter with me this evening he patted s hand to indicate that he hadn t meant anything improper by it and demanded of say see if you can get old to s some of his poetry talk up to him tell him com sa va s a little the lights were on the women sat on the fronts of their chairs in that determined whereby a wife that as soon as the present speaker has finished she is going to remark to her husband well dear i think pet it s about time for us to be saying good night for once did not break out in efforts to keep the party going he had there was something he wished to think out but the had started them off again why didn t they go home why didn t they go home though he was impressed by the of the statement he was only half enthusiastic	42
when the united states is the only nation in which the government is a moral ideal and not just a social arrangement true true weren t they ever going home he was usually delighted to have an inside view of the world of but to night he scarcely listened to s revelation if you want to go above the class the is a mighty good buy couple weeks ago and mind you this was a fair square test they took a stock car and they slid up the hill on high and fellow told me good boat but were they planning to stay all night they really were going with a flutter of we did have the best time most friendly of all was yet as he he was reflecting i got through it but for a while there i didn t hardly think i d last out he prepared to taste that most delicate pleasure of the host making fun of his guests in the of midnight as the door closed he yawned chest out shoulders and turned to his wife she was beaming oh it was nice wasn t it i know they enjoyed every minute of it don t you think so he t do it he couldn t mock it would have been like at a happy child he lied you bet best party this year by a long shot wasn t the dinner good and honestly i thought the chicken was delicious you bet to the queen s taste best chicken i ve tasted for a s age didn t it beautifully and don t you think the soup was simply delicious it certainly was it was best soup i ve tasted since was a but his voice was away they stood in the hall under the electric light in its square box like shade of red glass bound with she stared at him why george you don t sound you as if you hadn t really enjoyed it sure i did course i did george what is it oh i m kind of tired i guess been pretty hard at the office need to get away and rest iq a little we re going to in just a few dear then he was pouring it out robbed of i think it d be a good thing for me to get up early but you have this man you have to meet in new york about business what man oh sure him oh all o f but i want to hit early get in a little fishing catch me a big by a nervous artificial well why don t we do it and can run the house between them and you and i can go any time if you think we can afford it but that s i ve been feeling so lately i thought maybe it might be a good thing if i kind of got off by myself and sweat it out of me don t you want me to go along she was too in earnest to be tragic or insulted or anything save and and flushed to the red of a boiled of course i do i just meant remembering that had predicted this he was as desperate as she t mean sometimes it s a good thing for an old like me to go off and get it out of his system he tried to sound paternal then when you and the arrive i figured maybe i i to just a few da rs ahead of you i d be ready for a real bat see how i mean he her with large sounds with smiles like a popular preacher blessing an congregation like a humorous his of eloquence like all of masculine she stared at him the joy of festival drained from her face do i bother you when we go on don t i add anything to your he e suddenly dreadfully he was hysterical he was a baby yes yes yes but can t yon chapter x apartment house in had more resolutely in than the arms in which paul and had a flat by sliding the beds into low the were converted into living rooms the were each containing an electric range a copper sink a glass and very a maid everything about the arms was excessively modern and everything was compressed except the the were calling on the at the arms it was a venture to call on the interesting and sometimes was an active full blown high when she condescended to be good she was nervously amusing her comments on people were and of accepted that s so you said and looked she danced wildly and called on the world to be merry but in the midst of it she would turn indignant she was always becoming indignant life was a plot against her and she exposed it furiously she was to night she merely hinted that jones wore a that mrs t s singing resembled a ford going into high and that the hon mayor of and candidate for was a fool which was quite true the and sat doubtfully on hard chairs in the small living room of the flat with its mantel with a fireplace and its strip of heavy gilt fabric upon a glaring new player piano till mrs shrieked come let s put some in it get out your fiddle and try to make dance decently the were in earnest they were for the escape to but when mrs hinted with plump does paul get as tired the winter s work as does then remembered an injury and when remembered an injury the world stopped till something had been done about it does he get tired no he t get tired he just goes crazy that s all you think paul is so reasonable oh yes	42
his mouth they all read newspapers or trade boot and shoe journals journals and waited for the joys of conversation it was the very young man now making his first by who began it say i had a wild old time in i he say if a fellow knows the ropes there he can have as wild a time as he can in new i bet you simply raised the old ned i figured you were a bad man when i saw you get on the train chuckled the fat one the others laid down their papers well that s all right now i guess i seen some things in the you never seen complained the boy oh bet you did i bet you up the milk like a little devil then the boy having served as introduction they ignored him and charged into real talk only paul sitting by himself reading at a story in a newspaper failed to join them and all but regarded him as a an eccentric a person of no spirit which of them said which has never been determined and does not matter since they all had the same ideas and expressed i them always with the same ponderous and assurance if it was not who was delivering any given verdict at least he was beaming on the who did deliver it at that though announced the first they re selling quite some in guess they are everywhere i don t know how you fellows feel about but the way it strikes me is that it s a mighty thing for the poor that hasn t got any will power but for fellows like us it s an of personal liberty that s a fact has got no right to interfere with a fellow s personal liberty the second a man came in from the car but as all the seats were full he stood up while he smoked his he was an he was not one of the old families of the they looked upon him and after trying to appear at ease by examining his chin in the mirror he gave it up and went out in silence just been making a trip through the south business conditions not very good down there said one of the council that a fact not very good eh no didn t strike me they were up to normal not up to normal eh no i wouldn t hardly say they were the whole council nodded and decided not hardly up to snuff well business conditions ain t what they ought to be out west neither not by a long shot that s a fact and i guess the hotel business feels it that s one good thing though these hotels that ve been charging five a day yes and maybe six seven for a rotten room are going to be dam glad to get four and maybe give you a little service that s a fact say hotels i hit the st francis at san for the first time the other day and say it certainly is a first class place you re right brother the st francis is a swell place absolutely ai that s a fact i m right with you it s a first class place but say any of you fellows ever stay at the in i don t want to knock i believe in wherever you can but say of all the rotten that pass os as first class hotels that s the worst i m going to get those one of these days and i told em so you know how i am well maybe you don t know but i m accustomed to first class and i m perfectly willing to pay a reasonable price i got into late the other night and the s near the station i d never been there before but i says to the driver i rs believe in taking a when you get in late may cost a little more money but it s worth it when you got to be up early next morning and out selling a lot of and i said to him oh just drive me over to the ell we got there and i up to the desk and said to the clerk well brother got a nice room with bath for cousin bill you d a thought i d sold him a second or asked him to work on he hands me the cold boiled stare and i friend see and he ducks behind the they keep track of the rooms on well i guess he called up the credit association and the american security league to see if i was all right he certainly took long enough or maybe he just went to sleep but finally he comes out and looks at me like it hurts him and i think i can let you have a room with bath well that s awful nice of you sorry to trouble you how much it set me back i says real sweet cost you seven a day friend he says well it was late and anyway it went down on my if i d been paying it instead of the firm i d a the streets all night before i d a let any tavern stick me seven great big round dollars believe so i lets it go at that well the clerk wakes a nice young fine lad not a day over seventy nine years old fought at the battle of and doesn t know it s over yet thought i was one of the i guest from the way he looked at me and van took me up to some thing i found out afterwards they called it a room but first i thought there	42
d been some mistake i thought they were putting me in the salvation army collection box at seven per each and every i i ve heard the was pretty now when i go to i always stay at the or he la first class places say any of you fellows ever stay t the at how is it oh the is a first class hotel twelve minutes of conference on the state of hotels in south bend flint fort worth and jaw prices the man in the hat observed the tooth on his heavy watch chain i d like to know where they get this stuff about clothes coming down now you take this suit i got on he pinched his four years ago i paid forty two fifty for it and it was real sure value well here the other day i went into a store back home and asked to see a suit and the fellow out some hand me downs that honest i wouldn t put en a hired man just out of curiosity i asks him what you charging for that he says what d you mean that s a swell piece of goods all wool like hell i it was nice vegetable wool right off the plantation it s all wool he says and we get sixty seven ninety for it oh you do do you i i says not from me you don t i says and i walks right out on him you i says to tha wife well i said as long as your strength holds out and you can go on putting a few more patches on papa s we ll just p iq buying clothes that s right brother and just look at wait i the fat man protested what s die matter with i m selling d you realize the cost of labor on is still two hundred and seven per cent above th that if their old friend the fat man sold then the price of was exactly what it should be but all other clothing was too expensive they admired and loved one another now they went profoundly into the science of business and indicated that the purpose of a or a brick was so that it might be sold to them the romantic hero was no longer the knight the wandering poet the the nor the brave young district attorney but the great manager who had an analysis of problems on his glass desk whose title of nobility was go and who devoted him self and all his young to the purpose of selling not of selling anything in particular for or to anybody in particular but pure selling the shop talk roused paul though he was a player of and an unhappy husband he was also a very able of tar he listened to the fat man s remarks on the value of house organs and as a method of up the boys out on the road and he himself offered one or two excellent thoughts on the use of two cent on then he committed an against the holy law of the of good fellows he became they were entering a city on the outskirts they passed a steel mill which in scarlet and orange flame that licked at the at the iron walls and sullen my lord look at beautiful said paul you bet it s beautiful friend that s the steel plant and they tell me old john made a good three million bones out of during the war the man with the hat said reverently i didn t mean i mean it s lovely the way the light that picturesque yard all with right out of the darkness said paul they stared at him while paul there has certainly got one great little eye for picturesque places and quaint sights and all that d of been an author or something if he hadn t gone into the line paul looked annoyed sometimes wondered if paul appreciated his loyal the man in the hat well personally i think keep their works awful dirty bum but i don t suppose there s any law against calling em picturesque if it gets you that way paul returned to his newspaper and the conversation moved on to trains what time do we get into asked i think we get in at no that was last year s wait a minute let s see got a time table right here i wonder if we re on time sure we must be just about on time no we aren t we were seven minutes late last station were we straight why i thought we were right on time no we re about seven minutes late that s right seven minutes late the porter entered a negro in white jacket with brass buttons how late are we george growled the fat man deed i don t know sir i think we re about on time said the porter folding and tossing them up on the rack above the the council stared at him gloomily and when he was gone they i don t know what s come over these nowadays they never give you a civil answer that s a fact they re getting so they don t have a single bit of respect for you the old fashioned was a fine old he knew his place but these young don t want to be or cotton oh no they got to be lawyers and professors and lord knows what all i tell you it s becoming a pretty serious problem we ought to get together and show the black man yes and the yellow man his place now i haven t got one of race prejudice i m the first to be glad when a so long as he stays	42
where he belongs and doesn t try to the authority and business ability of the white man that s the i l and another thing we got to do said the man with the hat whose name was is to keep these damn foreigners out of the thank the lord we re putting a limit on these and have got to learn that this is a white man s and they ain t wanted here when we ve the foreigners we got here now and learned em the principles of and turned em into regular folks why then maybe we ll let in a few more you bet that s a fact they observed and passed on to lighter topics they rapidly car prices oil stocks fishing and the prospects for the in but the fat man was impatient at this waste of time he was a and free of illusions already he had asserted that he was an old he one he leaned forward gathered in their attention by his expression of sly humor and grumbled oh hell boys let s cut out the formality and get down to the stories i they became very lively and intimate paul and the boy vanished the others slid forward on the long seat their thrust their feet up on the chairs pulled the stately brass nearer and ran the green window shade down on its little to shut them in from the strangeness of night after each bark of ter they cried say hear the one about was and when the train stopped at an important station the four men walked up and down the platform under the vast smoky train shed roof like a stormy sky under the elevated beside of ducks and sides of beef in the m of an unknown city th strolled abreast old friends and well content at the long drawn like a mountain call at dusk they hastened back into the smoking and till two of the morning continued the droll tales their eyes damp with cigar smoke and laughter when they parted they shook hands and chuckled well sir it s been a great sorry to bust it up mighty glad to met you lay awake in the close hot tomb of his berth shaking with remembrance of the fat man s about the lady who wished to be wild he raised the shade he lay with a arm tucked between his head and the pillow looking out on the sliding of trees and village lamps like exclamation points he was very happy chapter xi they had four hours m new york between trains the hie thing wished to see was the hotel which had been built since his last visit he stared up at it muttering twenty two hundred rooms and twenty two hundred that s got everything in the world beat lord their must be well suppose price of rooms is four to eight dollars a day and i suppose maybe some ten and four times twenty two hundred say six times twenty two hundred well with and everything say between eight and fifteen thousand a day every day i i never thought i d see a thing like some town i of course the average fellow in has got more individual than the here but i got to hand it to new york yes sir town you re all right some ways well old i guess we ve seen everything that s worth while we kill the rest of the time but paul desired to see a always wanted to go to europe and by thunder i will too some day before i pass out he sighed from a rough wharf on the north river they stared at the stem of the and her and lifted above the dock house which shut her in by wouldn t be so bad to go over to the old country and take a at all these ruins and the place where shakespeare was born and think of being able to order a drink whenever you wanted just range up to a bar and out loud a and dam the police not bad at all what like to see over th e paul did not answer turned paul was standing with clenched fists bead drooping staring at the as in terror his thin body seen against the summer glaring the wharf was again what would you hit for on the other side paul at the steamer his breast heaving paul whispered oh my god i while watched him anxiously he snapped come on let s get out of this and hastened down the wharf not looking back that s funny considered the boy didn t care for seeing the ocean boats after all i thought he d be interested in em n though he and made sage speculations about horse power as their train climbed the and from the summit he looked down the shining way among the pines though he remarked well by when he discovered that the station at the end of the line was an aged freight car s moment of impassioned release came when they sat on a tiny wharf on lake awaiting the from the hotel a had floated down the lake between the logs and the shore the water was transparent thin looking flashing with a guide in black felt hat with flies in the band and flannel shirt of a peculiarly daring blue sat on a log and and was silent a dog a good country dog black and gray a dog rich in leisure and in meditation scratched and and slept the thick sunlight was lavish on the bright water on the rim of gold green boughs the silver and and across the lake it burned on the sturdy shoulders of the mountains over everything was a holy peace silent they on the edge of the wharf swinging	42
their legs above the water the immense tenderness of the place sank into and he murmured i d just like to sit here the rest of my life and and sit and never hear a or in the or and ted just sit i he patted paul s shoulder how does it strike you old oh it s dam good there s something sort of eternal about it for once understood him m their rounded the bend at the head of the lake imder a mountain slope they saw the little central of their hotel and the of cottages which served as they landed and endured the critical examination of the who had been at the hotel for a whole week in their cottage with its high stone fireplace they hastened as expressed it to get into some regular he they came out paul in an old gray suit and soft white shirt in shirt and vast and flapping trousers it was excessively new his spectacles belonged to a city office and his face was not but a city pink he made a noise in the place but with infinite satisfaction he his legs and say this is getting back home eh they stood on the wharf before the hotel he winked at paul and drew from his back pocket a of tobacco a forbidden in the home he took a beaming and his head as he at it um maybe i haven t been hungry for a of eating tobacco have some they looked at each other in a grin of understanding paul took the at it they stood quiet their jaws working they solemnly one after the other into the placid water they stretched with lifted arms i and arched backs from beyond the mountains came the shuffling sound of a far off train a leaped and fell back in a silver circle they sighed together iv they had a week before their families came each evening they planned to get up early and fish before breakfast e ch morning they lay till the breakfast bell pleasantly conscious that there were no efficient wives to rouse them the mornings were cold the fire was kindly as they dressed paul was clean but in a good sound in not having to till his spirit was moved to it he every spot and fish scale on his new trousers all morning they or ed the dim and lighted among rank and moss sprinkled with crimson bells they slept all afternoon and till midnight played with the guides was a serious business to the guides they did not gossip they the thick greasy cards with a ferocity menacing to the sports and joe paradise king of guides was sarcastic to who halted the game even to scratch at midnight as paul and he to their cottage over the wet grass and pine roots in the darkness rejoiced that he did not have to explain to his wife where he had been all evening they did not talk much the nervous and of the club dropped from them but when they did talk they slipped into the intimacy of college days once they drew their up to the bank of water a stream walled in by the dense green of the the sun roared on the green but in the shade was sleepy peace and the water was golden and rippling drew his hand through the flood and mused we never thought we d come to together no we ve never done anything the way we thought we would i expected to live in g many with my s people and study the fiddle that s so and remember how i wanted to be a lawyer and go into politics i still think i mi t have made a go of it i ve kind of got the gift of the anyway i can think on my feet and make some kind of a on most anything and of course that s the thing you need in politics by ted s going to law school even f i didn t i well i guess it s worked out all right s been a fine wife and means well yes up here i figure out all sorts of plans to keep her amused i kind of feel life is going to be now that we re getting a good rest and can go back and start over again i hope so old boy say it s been awful nice to sit around and loaf and and act regular with you along you old horse thief well you know what it means to me saved mj life the shame of notion overpowered them they curse little to prove they were good rough fellows and in a mellow silence whistling while paul they back to the hotel though it was paul who had seemed who had been the protecting big brother paul became and merry while sank into he uncovered on of hidden weariness at first he had played to paul and for him sought amusements by the end of the week paul was nurse and accepted with the condescension one always shows a patient nurse the day before their families arrived the women guests at the hotel oh isn t it nice i you must be so excited and the compelled and paul to look excited but they went to bed early and when appeared she said at once now we want you boys to go on playing around just as if we weren t here the first evening he stayed out for with the guides and she said in placid merriment my i you re a regular bad the second evening she groaned good heavens are you going to be out every single night the third evening he didn t play he was tired now in every cell funny doesn t seem to have done me a bit	42
of good he lamented paul s as a but i swear i m and than when i came up here he had three weeks of at the end of the second week he began to feel calm and interested in life he planned an expedition to climb and wanted to camp at box car pond he was curiously weak yet cheerful as though he had his veins of poisonous energy and was filling them with wholesome blood he ceased to be irritated by ted s with a his seventh tragic affair this year he played catch with ted and with pride taught him to cast a fly in the pine silence of pond at the end he sighed hang it i m just beginning to enjoy my but well i feel a lot better and it s going to be one great year maybe the real estate board will elect me president instead of some old fashioned like on the way home whenever he went into the he felt guilty at his wife and angry at being expected to feel guilty but each time he oh this is going to be a great year a great old year i chapter xii all the way home from was certain that he was a changed man he was converted to serenity he was going to cease worrying about business he was going to have more interests public affairs reading and suddenly as he finished an especially heavy cigar he was going to stop smoking he invented a new and perfect method he would buy no tobacco he would depend on it and of course he would be ashamed to borrow often in a of he flung his cigar case out of the smoking window he went back and was kind to his wife about nothing in particular he admired his own purity and decided absolutely simple just a matter of will power he started a magazine about a scientific ten miles on he was conscious that he desired to smoke he his head like a going into its shell he appeared he two pages in his story and didn t know it five miles later he leaped up and sought the porter say george have you got a the porter looked patient have you got a time table finished at the next stop he went out and bought a cigar since it was to be his last before he reached he finished it down to an inch four days later he again remembered that he had stopped smoking but he was too busy catching up with his to keep it remembered n he determined would be an excellent no sense a man s working his fool head off i m going out to the game three times a we besides fellow ought to support the home team he did go and support the team and the glory of by yelling and rotten he performed the he wore a cotton handkerchief about his collar he became he opened his mouth in a wide loose grin and drank out of a bottle he went to the game three times a week for one week then he on watching the advocate times board he stood in the and of the crowd and as the boy up on the lofty platform recorded the achievements of big bill the remarked to complete strangers pretty good and hastened back to the office he honestly believed that he loved it is true that he hadn t in twenty five years himself played any except back lot catch with ted very gentle and strictly limited to ten minutes but the game was a custom of his and it gave outlet for the and sides taking instincts which called patriotism and love of sport as he approached the office he walked faster and faster muttering guess better all about him the city was for bustling s sake men in were to pass one another in the traffic men were to catch with another a minute behind and to leap from the to gallop across the to themselves into buildings into express men in were to down the food which had to men in shops were snapping me once over men were getting rid of visitors in offices adorned with the signs this is my busy day and the lord created the world in six days you can all you got to say in six minutes men who had made five thousand year before last and ten thousand last year were urging on nerve bodies and brains so that they might make twenty thousand this year and the men who had broken down after making their twenty thousand dollars were to catch trains to the which the doctors had ordered among them back to his office to sit down with nothing much to do except see that the staff looked as though they were m every saturday afternoon he out to his country club and through nine holes of as a rest after the week s in it was as necessary for a successful man to belong to a country club as it was to wear a linen collar s was the and country club a pleasant gray building with a broad porch on a cliff above lake there was another the country club to which belonged charles and the other rich men who not at the but at the union club explained with you couldn t hire me to join the even if i did have a and eighty to throw away on the fee at the we ve got a bunch of real human fellows and the finest lot of little women in town just as good at as the men but at the there s nothing but these would be s in new york get drinking tea too much dog altogether why i wouldn t join the even if they i wouldn	42
t join it on a bet when he had played four or five holes he relaxed a bit his tobacco fluttering heart beat more and his voice to the of his hundred generations of peasant ancestors iv at least once a week mr and mrs and went to the their favorite motion picture was the which held three thousand spectators and had an of fifty pieces which played arrangements from the and a day on the farm or a fire in the stone decorated with velvet chairs and almost sat on gilded columns with exclamations of well by and you got to go some to beat this admired the as he stared across the thousands of heads a gray plain in the as he good clothes and mild perfume and he felt as when he had first seen a mountain and realized how very very much earth and rock there was in it he liked three kinds of pretty bathing girls with bare legs or and an industrious shooting of and funny fat men who ate he chuckled with immense moist eyed at and babies and he wept at and old mothers being patient in cottages mrs preferred the pictures in which handsome young women in elaborate moved through sets as the drawing rooms of new york as for she preferred or was believed to prefer whatever her parents told her to all his bridge long talks with paul at the club or at the good red beef and old english chop house were necessary to for he was entering a year of such activity as he had never known chapter xiii it was by accident that had his to address the s a r b the s a r e b as its members called it with the universal passion for mysterious and important sounding was the state association of real estate boards the organization of and it was to hold its annual at monarch s chief rival among the cities of the state was an official another was whom admired for his building and hated for his social position for being present at the dances on royal ridge was of the committee had growled to him makes me tired the way these doctors and and put on about being professional men a good has to have more knowledge and than any of em right you are i i say why don t you put that into a paper and give it at the s a r e b suggested well if it would help you in making up the tell you the way i look at it is this first place we ought to insist that folks call us and not real estate men sounds more like a profession second place what is it a profession from a mere trade business or occupation what is it why it s the public service and the the trained skill and the knowledge and all that whereas a fellow that merely goes out for the jack he never considers the public service and trained skill and so on now as a professional rather i that s perfectly bully perfectly now you write it in a paper said as he rapidly and firmly moved away n however accustomed to the literary labors of and correspondence was dismayed on the evening when he sat down to prepare a paper which would take a whole ten minutes to read he laid out a new fifteen cent exercise book on his wife s sewing table set up for the event in the living room the household had been into silence and ted requested to disappear and threatened with if i hear one sound out of you if you for a glass of water one single solitary time you better not that s all i mrs sat over by the piano making a and gazing with respect while wrote in the book to the and of the sewing table when he rose damp and y and his throat dusty from she i don t see how you can just sit down and make up things right out of your own head i oh it s the training in imagination t fellow gets in modern business life he had written seven pages whereof the first page set t l the other six pages were rather like the first for a week he went about looking important every morning as he dressed he thought aloud ver stop to consider that before a town can have buildings or prosperity or any of those things some has got to sell em the land all civilization starts with him realize that at the club he led unwilling men aside to inquire say if you had to read a paper before a big would you start in with the funny stories or just kind of scatter em all through he asked for a set of about real estate something good and impressive and provided something exceedingly good and impressive but it was to t that most often turned he caught at the every noon and while looked hunted and say you re a on this writing stuff how would you put this sentence see here in my manuscript manuscript now where the deuce is that oh yes here would you say we ought not also to alone think or we ought also not to think alone or one evening when his wife was away and he had no one to forgot about style order and the other mysteries and off what he really thought about the real estate business and about himself and he found the paper written when he read it to his wife she why dear it s splendid beautifully written and so clear and interesting and such splendid ideas i why it s just it s just splendid next day he and	42
well old son i finished it last evening just it out i to think you writing must have a hard job making up pieces but lord it s a pretty soft for you you certainly earn your money easy i some day when i get ready to retire guess i ll take to writing and show you boys how to do it i always used to think i could write better i o stuff and more punch and originality than all this stuff you see printed and now i m sure of he bad four copies of the paper in black with a gorgeous red title had them bound in pale blue and presented one to old the managing editor of the advocate times who said yes indeed yes he was very glad to have it and he certainly would read it all through as soon as he could find time mrs could not go to monarch she had a women meeting said that he was very sorry m besides the five official to tlie w a and win there were fifty most of them with their wives they met at the union station for the midnight train to monarch all of them save who was such a that he never wore displayed buttons the size of dollars and e for the official were magnificent with silver and ribbons martin s little boy carried a banner inscribed the city zeal zest and in as the arrived not in but in the family driven by the oldest son or by cousin they formed through the station waiting room it was a new and enormous waiting room with marble and the of the river valley by in the benches were shelves of ponderous mahogany the news stand a marble with a brass down the echoing spaces of the hall the after s banner the men waving their cigars the women conscious of their new i i and strings of beads all singing to the tune of the c city song written by good old our kin and wherever we may be hats in the ring we sing of thy prosperity the who had a gift of verse for and had added to s city song a special verse for the oh here we come the fellows from the we wish to in real estate there s none so live as we was stirred to patriotism he leaped on a bench shouting to the crowd what s the matter she s all what s best town in the u s a the patient poor people waiting for the midnight train stared in wonder italian women with old weary men with broken shoes road wise boys in suits which had been when they were new but which were faded now and wrinkled perceived that as an official he must be more dignified with wing and he up and down the platform beside the waiting driven baggage and red carrying bags sped down the platform with an agreeable effect of activity arc lights glared and stammered overhead the glossy i yellow ing shone made his voice to be measured and he thrust out his and we got to see to it that the lets the understand just where they get off in this matter of wing uttered improving and the blind of a was raised and looked into an world the of the was the pretty wife of the possibly thrilled she was going to europe on the seat beside her was a bunch of and and a yellow paper book which seemed foreign while he stared she picked up the book then glanced out of the window as though she was bored she must have looked straight at him and he bad met her but she gave no sign she languidly pulled down the blind and he stood still a cold feeling of in his heart but on the train his pride was restored by meeting from and other smaller cities of the state who listened respectfully when as a from metropolis of he explained politics and the value of a good sound business administration they fell joyfully into shop talk the purest and most form of conversation how d this fellow make out with this big apartment hotel he was going to put up do get out bonds to it asked a weu i ll tell you said now if td been handling it so wing was i hired this shop window for a week and put up a big sign toy town for tiny and stuck in a lot of doll houses and some little trees and then down at the bottom baby likes this but papa and will prefer our beautiful and you know that certainly got folks talking and first week we sold the sang as the train ran through the factory district flame and power were red lights green lights furious white lights rushed past and was in again and eager iv he did a thing he had his clothes pressed on the train in the morning half an hour before they reached monarch the porter came to his berth and whispered there s a drawing room vacant sir i put your suit in there in tan autumn overcoat over his slipped down the green curtain lined aisle to the glory of his first private the porter indicated that he knew was used to a man servant he held the ends of s trousers that the beautifully garment might not be soiled filled the bowl in the private and waited with a to have a private was luxurious however a smoking was by night even to it was in the morning it was with fat men in every hook filled with wrinkled shirts the leather seat piled with dingy toilet and the air with the smell of soap and did not ordinarily think much of privacy but now he in it	42
in his and with pleasure as he gave the man a tip of a dollar and a half he rather hoped that he was being noticed as in his newly pressed clothes with the porter carrying his suit case he at monarch he was to share a room at the hotel with w a that shrewd rustic looking dealer in farm lands together they had a noble breakfast with and coffee r not in but in large pots grew and told about the art of writing he gave a a quarter to fetch a morning newspaper from the and sent to a post card wishes you were here to bat round with him the meetings of the were in the of the house in an was the office of the of the committee he was the man in the he was so busy that he got nothing done whatever he sat at a table in a room with paper and all day long town and and who wished to lead came and whispered to him whereupon he looked vague and said rap idly yes yes that s a fine idea well do that and instantly forgot all about it lighted a cigar and forgot that too while the rang and about him men kept say mr say mr without penetrating his exhausted hearing in the exhibit room were plans of the new of pictures of the new state at de and large ears of com with the nature s gold from county the garden spot of god s own country the real consisted of men muttering in hotel or in groups amid the spotted crowd in the hotel but there was a show of public meetings the first of them opened with a welcome by the mayor of monarch the of the first christian church of monarch a large man with a long damp lock informed god that the real estate men were here now the venerable major read a paper in which he stores a of gave a comforting of tbe prospects for increased construction and reminded them that plate glass prices were two points lower the was on the were entertained incessantly and firmly the monarch chamber of commerce gave them a banquet and the association an afternoon reception at which a was presented to each of the ladies and to each of the men a leather bill fold inscribed monarch the mighty mrs wife of the of opened her celebrated italian garden and served tea six hundred real estate men and wives down the paths perhaps three hundred of them were quietly perhaps three hundred vigorously exclaimed this is pretty eh picked the late and concealed them in their pockets and tried to get near enough to mrs to shake her lovely hand without request the except gathered round a marble dancing and sang here we come the fellows from the it chanced that all the from belonged to the b and order of and ihey produced an enormous banner b p e best people on earth oh nor was de the state capital to be the leader of the de was a large man but active he took os his coat hurled his broad black felt hat on the ground rolled up his sleeves climbed upon the and well tell the world and the good lady who s giving the show this afternoon that the in this man s state is de you boys can talk about your but murmur that old has the largest proportion of home citizens in the state and when folks own their homes they ain t starting labor troubles and they re raising i instead of raising de the town for folks i the town that eats em alive oh the guests drove off the garden shivered into quiet but mrs signed as she looked at a marble seat warm from five hundred of on the face of a winged which supported it some one had drawn a in lead pencil paper were among the on the walk like lovely flesh were the of the last gallant rose floated in the pool trailing an evil stain as they swelled and and beneath the marble seat the fragments carefully put together was a smashed vi as he rode back to the hotel reflected would have enjoyed all this social agony for himself he cared less for the garden party than for the which the monarch chamber of commerce had arranged he viewed water stations and he devoured the which were given to him and to his w a of course this town isn t a patch on it hasn t got our outlook and natural resources but did you know i did till to day that they seven hundred and sixty three million feet of lumber last year what d you think of he was nervous as the time for reading his paper approached when he stood on the low platform before the he trembled and saw only a purple haze but he was in earnest and when he had finished the formal paper he talked to them his hands in his pockets his face a flashing like a plate set up on edge in ihe tbey shouted that s the stuff i and in the sion afterward they referred with to our friend and brother mr george f he had in fifteen minutes changed from a minor to a personage almost as well known as that of business after the meeting from all over the state said you brother sixteen complete strangers called him george and three men took him into corners to confide mighty glad you had the courage to stand up and give the profession a real now ive always maintained next morning with tremendous asked the girl at the hotel news stand for the new ers from there was nothing in the press but in the advocate times on the third	42
page he gasped they had printed picture and a half column account the heading was sensation at annual land men s g f prominent in fine address he murmured reverently i guess some of the folks on heights will sit up and take notice now and pay a little tion to old vn it was the last meeting the ware presenting the claims of their several cities to the next year s were announcing that de the capital city the site of college and of the knitting works is the recognized of culture and high class enterprise and that the big little city with the logical where every man is open handed and every woman a heaven hostess throws wide to you her hospitable gates in the midst of these more invitations the golden doors of the opened with a of trumpets and a parade rolled in it was composed of the i dressed as at the head was big in the and gold and crimson coat of a drum major behind him as a down beating a bass drum happy and noisy was leaped on the platform made merry play with his and observed and the time has came to get down to cases a in the wool sure loves his neighbors but we ve made up our minds to this ob our neighbor like we ve the milk business and the per box business and j harry the hinted we re grateful to you mr but you must give the other boys a chance to hand in their bids now a fog horn voice in well promise free rides through the prettiest country running down the aisle clapping his hands a lean bald young man cried i m from our chamber of commerce has me they ve set aside t thousand dollars in real money for the entertainment of the a looking man rose to money talks move we accept the bid from it was accepted the committee on resolutions was they said that whereas almighty god in his beneficent mercy had seen fit to remove to a sphere of higher usefulness some thirty six of the state the past year therefore it was the sentiment of this assembled that they were sorry god had done it and the secretary should be and was instructed to spread these resolutions on the minutes and to console the families by sending them each a copy a second resolution the nt of the sa b to fifteen thousand dollars in for sane tax measures in the state this resolution had a ood deal to say about to sound business and clearing the wheels of progress from ill advised and obstacles the committee on reported and with startled awe learned that he had been appointed a member of the committee on titles he rejoiced i said it was going to be a great year old son you got big things ahead of you re a orator and a good and ix there was no formal entertainment provided for the last evening had planned to go home but that afternoon the of suggested that and w a have tea with them at the inn were not unknown to his wife and he earnestly attended them at least twice a year but they were sufficiently to make him feel important he sat at a glass covered table in the art room of the inn with its painted on bark and being artistic in dutch caps he ate insufficient and was lively and naughty with mrs who was as smooth and large eyed as a cloak model and he had met two days before so they were calling each other and said say boys before you go seeing this is the last chance i ve got it up in my room and here is the best little in the like us say with wide flowing gestures and followed the to their room mrs shrieked oh how terrible i when she saw that she had left a i of sheer pe on the bed she tucked it into a bag while t mind us we re a couple o for ice and the bell boy who brought it said and glasses or mixed the in one of those dismal white water which exist only in hotels when ihey had finished the first round she proved by think you boys could stand another you got a coming that though she was but a woman she knew the complete and po of drinking outside hinted to say w a old it comes over me that i could stand it if we didn t go back to the wives this handsome but just kind of stayed in monarch and threw a party george you speak with the tongue of wisdom and wing s wife has gone on to let s see if we can t gather him in at half past seven they sat in their room with wing and two up state their coats were off their their faces red their voices emphatic they were finishing a bottle of and imploring the bell boy say son can you get us some more of this they were smoking large cigars and dropping ashes and on the carpet with windy they were telling stories they were in fact in a happy state of nature sighed i don t know how it strikes you but personally i like this loose for a change and kicking over a couple of and climbing up on the north pole and waving the around the man from a grave intense say i guess i m as good a husband as the run of the mill but god i do get so tired of going home every evening and nothing to see but the that s why i go out and the national guard i guess i got the little wife in my but say i what	42
i wanted to do as a kid know what i wanted to do wanted to be a big tha s what i wanted to do but chased mt out on the road and here i m settled down settled for life not a oh who the devil started this funeral talk how bout drink and a drink wouldn do s ny yea cut the sob f said w a you boys know i m the village g me on now up said the old to the young i am dry i am dry said the young to the old so am i so am i they had dinner in the of the hotel somewhere somehow they seemed to have gathered in two other comrades a of fly paper and a they all drank from tea cups and th r were humorous and never listened to one another except when w a the italian waiter say he said innocently i want a le o ears sorry sir we haven t any no ears what do you know about that turned to says the ears are all out i well i ll be said the man from with hiding his laughter well in that case just bring me a o and a o o french potatoes and some peas went on i suppose back in dear old sunny it the get their fresh garden peas out of the can no sir we have very nice peas in italy is that a fact do you hear that they get their fresh garden peas out of the garden in italy by you live and learn don t you you certainly do live and learn if you live long enough and keep your strength all right just shoot me in that with about two of french on the deck afterward wing admired you certainly did have that poor going w a he couldn t make you out at all in the monarch herald found an advertisement which he read aloud to applause and laughter old colony theatre shake the old dogs to the the of bathing in and his oh this is the straight steer the of the are the bunch that ever hit town steer the feet get the card board and twist the pupils to the show ever you will get on your in this fun the sisters are sure some and will give you a run for your is one of the lads and slips you a dose of real laughter shoot the up and down to and west for graceful they run under the wire and will blow the in their laugh something doing boys listen to what the bird sounds like a show to me let s all take it in said but they put os as long as they could they were safe while they sat here legs firmly crossed undo the table but they felt unsteady they were afraid of the long and slippery floor of the under the eyes of the other guests and the too attentive when they did venture tables got in their way and they sought to cover embarrassment by heavy at the as the girl handed out their hats they smiled at her and hoped that she a cool and expert judge would feel that they were gentlemen they at one another who owns the bum lid and you take a good one george i ll take what s left and to the check girl they stammered better come along sister high wide and fancy evening ahead all of them tried to tip her urging one another no wait here i got it right here among them th r gave her three dollars xi smoking cigars they sat in a box at the show their feet up on the rail while a chorus of twenty worried and respectable swung their legs in the more chorus and a made vicious fun of jews in the they met other lone a dozen of them went in out to bright blossom inn where the blossoms were made of dusty paper along a room low and like a cow stable no longer wisely used here was served openly in glasses two or three clerks who on pay day longed to be taken for danced with girls and girls in the narrow space between the tables whirled the a young man in sleek evening clothes and a slim mad girl in silk with hair flung up as as flames tried to dance with her he along the floor too to be guided his s to the of the music and in his staggering he would have fallen had she not held him with kindly strength he was blind and deaf from era he could not see the tables the faces but he was overwhelmed by the girl and her young warmth when she had firmly returned him to his group he by a connection quite that his mother s mother had been scotch and with head thrown back eyes closed wide mouth indicating ecstasy he sang very slowly and richly but that was the last of his and jolly companionship the man from said he was a bum singer and for ten minutes with him in a loud unsteady heroic indignation they called for drinks till the manager insisted that the place was closed all the while felt a hot raw desire for more brutal amusements when w a what say we go down the line and look over the girls he agreed savagely before they went three of them secretly made with the professional dancing girl who agreed yes yes sure darling to they said and forgot them as they drove back through the outskirts of monarch down streets of small brown wooden cottages of workmen as as they rattled across districts which by drunken night seemed vast and perilous as they were borne toward the red lights and violent and the women	42

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