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who was frightened h wanted to leap from the but all his body was a fire and he groaned too late to quit now and knew that be did not want to quit there was they felt one very humorous incident on the way a from said monarch is a lot than you haven t got any joints like these here raged that s a dirty you can t find in believe me we got more houses and an all kinds o than any in the state he realized they were laughing at him he desired to fight and forgot it in such experiments as he had not known since college in the when he returned to his desire for rebellion was partly satisfied he had to a contentment he was irritable he did not smile when w a complained ow what a head i certainly do feel like the wrath of god this morning say i i know what was the trouble somebody went and put in my last night s excursion was never known to his family nor to any one in save and wing it was not recognized even by himself if it had any consequences they have not been ed chapter xiv this autumn a mr w g of was appointed president of the united states but was less interested in the national campaign than in the local election though he was a lawyer and a of the state university was candidate for mayor of on an alarming labor ticket to oppose him the and united on a with a perfect record for mr was supported by the banks the chamber of commerce all the decent newspapers and george f was leader on heights but his district was safe and he longed 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 weeks now and then a was present at one of his meetings and the though they were not very large indicated that george f had addressed cheering throng and distinguished man of affairs had pointed out the of once in the section of the sunday advocate times there was a photograph of and a dozen other business men with the of and commerce who back he deserved his glory he was an excellent he had faith he was certain that if were alive he would be for mr w g unless he came to and for front he did not by silly re honest industry resented and you could take your choice with his broad shoulders and vigorous voice he was obviously a good fellow and of ah he really liked people he almost liked common workmen 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 high by the discovery that he was a natural orator he was popular with and he raged through the campaign renowned not only in the seventh and ei th wards but even in parts of the sixteenth n crowded in his car they came driving up to hall 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 appreciation of filled all of them including don t know how you keep it up talking to three 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 on the broad stairs up to the hall s party politely edged through 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 by the grand masters and supreme of innumerable the hall was full as pushed through the fringe standing at the back he heard the precious tribute that s the down tbe aisle with an impressive the speaker all ready sir diet s see what was the name sir then slid into a sea of eloquence ladies and gentlemen of the sixteenth ward there is one who cannot be with us here to t a man than whom there is no more in all the political i refer to our leader the honorable standard bearer of the city and county of since he is not here i trust that you will bear with me if as a friend and neighbor as one who is proud to share with you the common blessing of being a resident of the great city of i tell you in all honesty and sincerity how the issues of this critical campaign a ear to one plain man of business to one who brought up to the blessings of poverty and of manual labor has even when fate condemned him to sit at a desk yet never forgotten how it feels by to be up at five thirty and at the factory with the dinner in his hardened when the whistle blew at seven unless the owner in ten minutes on us and blew it early laughter to come down to the and issues of this campaign the great error by there were workmen who young c workmen for the most part foreigners jews but the older men the patient stooped and cheered him and when he worked up to his anecdote of their eyes were wet modestly busily he hurried out of the hall on delicious applause and sped off to his third audience of the evening ted you better drive he said kind of all in after that well	42
paul how d it go did i get em bully i you had a lot of mrs oh it was fine i so clear and interesting and such nice ideas when i hear you i realize i don t appreciate how profoundly you think and what a brain and you have just splendid but was she worried how do you know that public of and so on and so forth will always be a failure mrs i should think you could see and realize that when your father s all out with it s no time to expect him to explain these con subjects i m sure when he s rested hell be glad to explain it to you now let s all be quiet and give papa a chance to get ready for his next speech just think right now they re gathering in temple and waiting for us i m mr and sound business defeated mr and class rule and was again saved was offered several minor to among poor relations but he preferred advance information about the of paved and this a grateful administration gave to him also he was one of only nineteen at the dinner with which the chamber of commerce celebrated the victory of his reputation for established at the dinner of the real estate board he made the annual address the advocate times reported this speech with unusual one of the that has recently been pulled off occurred last night in the annual get together of the real estate board held in the ball room of the house mine host o had as usual done himself proud and those assembled on such an assemblage of plates as could be nowhere west of new york if there and washed down the feed with the cup which inspired but did not in the shape of from the farm of president of the board and who acted as witty and efficient i o as mr was suffering from slight and sore throat g f made the principal talk besides the progress of real estate titles mr spoke in part as follows in rising to address you with my speech carefully tucked into my pocket i am reminded ol the story of the two and pat who were riding on the both of them i forgot to say were sailors in the navy it seems had the lower berth and by and by he heard a terrible from the upper and when he up to find out what the trouble was pat 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 since eight bells now gentlemen standing up here before you i feel a good deal like pat and maybe after i ve along for a while i may feel so small that be able to crawl into a with no trouble at all at all i gentlemen it strikes me that each year at this annual occasion when friend and foe get together and lay down the battle ax and let the waves of good fellowship them up the slopes of it us standing together eye to eye and shoulder to shoulder as fellow citizens of the best city in the world to consider where we are both as re 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 i ll be the first to request any to remove my shirt and to eat the same with the compliments of g f it may be true that new york and philadelphia will continue to keep ahead of us in size but aside from these three cities which are so overgrown that no decent white man i i nobody who loves his wife and and god s good out o doors and likes to shake the hand of his neighbor in greeting would want to live in them and let me tell you right here and now i wouldn t trade a high class development for the whole length and breadth of or state street i aside from these three it s evident to any one with a head for facts that is the finest example of american life and pro to be found anywhere i don t mean to say we re perfect we ve got a lot to do in the way of extending the of for believe me it s the fellow with four to ten thousand a year say and an and a nice little family in a on the edge of town that makes the wheels of progress go round i that s the type of fellow that s ruling america to day in fact it s the ideal type to which the entire world must tend if there s to be a decent well balanced christian future for this little old planet i once in a while i just naturally sit back and size up this solid american citizen with a whale of a lot of satisfaction our ideal citizen i picture him first and foremost as being than a bird dog not wasting a lot of good time in day dreaming or going to or kicking about things that are none of his business but putting the into some store or profession or art at night he lights up a good cigar and into the little old and maybe the and shoots out home he the lawn or in some practice putting and then he s ready for dinner after dinner he tells 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	42
he has a taste for literature 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 happily to bed his conscience clear having i contributed his to the prosperity of the city and to his own bank account in politics and religion this sane citizen is the man on earth and in the arts he invariably has a natural taste which makes him pick out the best every time in no in the world will you find so many of the old masters and of well known paintings on parlor walls as in these united states no country has anything like our number of with not only dance records and comic but also the best such as rendered by tbe world s highest paid singers in other countries art and literature are left to a lot of shabby living in and feeding on and but in america the successful writer or picture painter is from any other decent business man and i for one am only too glad that the man who has the rare skill to season his message with interesting reading matter and who shows both purpose and in handling his literary wares has a chance to drag down his fifty thousand a year to mingle with the biggest on terms of perfect equality and to show as big a house and as swell a car as any captain of industry i but mind you it s the appreciation of the regular who i have been which has made this possible and you got to hand as much credit to him as to the authors themselves but most important our citizen even if he is a bachelor is a lover of the little ones a of the which is the foundation of our civilization first last and all the time and the thing that most us from the decayed nations of europe i have never yet europe and as a matter of fact i don t know that i care to such an awful lot as long as there s our own mighty cities and mountains to be seen but the way i figure it out there must be a good many of our own sort of folks abroad indeed one of the most enthusiastic i ever met the of one hundred per cent in a that o and all ye burns but same time one thing that us from our good brothers the over there is that they re willing to take a lot off the and and while the modem american business man knows how to talk right up for himself knows how to make it good and plenty clear that he to run the works he doesn t have to call in some hired man when it s necessary for him to answer the crooked critics of the sane and efficient life he s not dumb like the old fashioned merchant he s got a and a punch with all modesty i want to stand up here as a business man and gently whisper here s our kind of folks here s the of the american citizen i here s the new generation of americans fellows with hair on their and smiles in their eyes and in their offices we re not doing any but we like ourselves first rate and if you don t us look out better get under cover before the so in my clumsy way i have tried to sketch the real he man the fellow with and bang and it s because has so large a proportion of such men that it s the most stable the greatest of our cities new york also has its thousands of real folks but new york is cursed with foreigners so are and san oh we have a golden of cities and with then renowned with its great and soap and with steel city and and that open their gates on the bosom of the ocean like and countless other magnificent sister cities for by the last there were no less than sixty eight glorious american with a population of over one hundred thousand and all these cities stand together for power and purity and against i foreign ideas and with with with los with with a good live wire from or or is the of every like fellow from or fort worth or but it s here in the home for manly men and womanly women and bright that you find the largest proportion of these regular and that s what sets it in a class by itself that s why will be remembered in history as having set the pace for a that shall endure when the old time killing ways are gone forever and the day of earnest efficient endeavor shall have dawned au round the world i some time i hope folks will quit handing all the credit to a lot of eaten out of date old european and give proper credit to the famous spirit that clean fighting determination to win success that has made the little old city celebrated in every land and wherever milk and are known i believe me the world has fallen too long for these worn out countries that aren t producing anything but and scenery and that haven t got one per hundred people and that don t know a loose leaf from a slip cover and it s just about time for some to get his back up and for a show down i i tell you and her sister cities are producing a new t e of civilization there are many between and these other and i m glad of it i the extraordinary growing and sane of stores offices streets hotels clothes and newspapers throughout the united states shows how strong and enduring a type is ours i always	42
like to remember a piece that wrote for the newspapers about his lecture it is doubtless familiar to many of you but if you will permit me take i s a chance and read it it s one of the classic poems like if by or s the man worth while and i always carry this of it in my note book when i am out upon the road a poet with a s load i mostly sing a hearty song and take a and along a handing out my fine of brand of sweet sunshine and and stable lines of and jokes to and other folks to clubs and feel i like other and then old satan a who s always he gives us tail a lively and gets in quick his dirty work he me up with my hair the backward way he he makes me than a hound on sunday when the folks ain t round and then v i would prefer to never be a a round in cars and smoking fifty cent cigars and never more i want to i simply want to be back home a and ham with folks who whom i am but when i get that lonely spell i simply seek the best hotel no matter in what town i be st paul or k c in washington in or and at that inn it my dome that i again am right at home if i should stand a spell in front of that first class hotel that to the loves to across from some big if i should look around and and wonder in what town i was i swear that i could never tell for au the crowd would be so swell in just the same fine sort of they wear at home and all the queens with on their beans and all the fellows standing round a always be bound the same good jolly kind of bout politics and stuff and players of renown that nice talk in my home town then when i entered that hotel i d look around and say for there would be the same news stand same i magazines and grand same of famous brand find at home fu tell and when i saw the bunch come in for eats at lunch and up in to large of french why then stand right up and never left my home at and all sit me beside some in brown upon a chair of and murmur to him in a rush bill tell me good old how is your stock a out then we d be off two solid a like giddy of weather home and wives lodge brothers then for all our so when sam satan makes you blue good that s what up and do for in these states wherever you you never leave your home sweet home yes sir these other are our true partners in the great game of vital living but let s not have any mistake about this i claim that is the best partner and the growing partner of the whole i trust i may be if i give a few to back up my claims if they are old stuff to any of you yet the tidings of prosperity like the good news of the bible never become tedious to the ears of a real no matter how oft the sweet story is told i every intelligent person knows that more milk and cream more paper boxes and more lighting than any other city in the united states if not in the world but it is not so universally known that we also stand second in the manufacture of butter sixth in the giant realm of and and somewhere about third in cheese leather tar breakfast food and our greatness however lies not alone in prosperity but equally in that public spirit 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 city to announce the facts about our high schools by their con plants and the finest school systems in the country bar none our magnificent new hotels and banks and the paintings and carved marble in their and the second national tower the second highest business building in any inland in the entire country when i add that we have an number of miles of paved streets and all the other signs of civilization that our library and art museum are well supported and in convenient and buildings that our park system is more than up to par with its handsome adorned with grass shrubs and then i give but a hint of the unlimited greatness of i i believe however in keeping the best to the last when i remind you that we have one car for every five and seven persons in the city then i give a rock practical indication of the kind of progress and is with the name i but the way of the righteous is not all roses before i dose i must call your attention to a problem we have to face this coming year the worst menace to sound government is not the but a lot of who work imder cover the long haired entry who call themselves and and non and and god knows how many other trick names and professors constitute the worst of this whole gang and i am ashamed to say that several of them are on the faculty of our great state university i the u is my own and i am proud to be known as an but th e are certain there who seen to think we ought to turn the conduct of the nation over to and those are the to be they and all milk and water i the american business man is generous to a fault	42
but one thing he does demand of all and and if we e going to pay them our good money they ve got to help us by selling and ing it up for prosperity and when it comes to these fault finding cynical university teachers let me tell you that during this golden coming year it s just as much our duty to bring influence to have those fired as it is to sell all the real estate and gather in all the good we can not till that is done will our sons and daughters see that the ideal of american manhood and culture isn t a lot of sitting around the rag about their rights and their wrongs but a god fearing successful two regular who belongs to some church with and piety to it who belongs to the or the or the to the mt or red men or knights of or any one of a score of of good jolly laughing lend a handing royal good fellows who rs hard and works hard and whose answer to his critics is a square boot that ll teach the and smart to respect the he man and get out and root for uncle samuel u sa iv promised to become a recognized orator he entertained a of the men s of the road church with irish and chinese dialect stories but in nothing was he more clearly revealed as the prominent citizen than in his lecture on brass 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 pick up a paper without reading about your known eloquence all this ought ta bring a lot of business into your office good keep it go on quit your said feebly but at this tribute from himself a man of no mean fame he expanded with delight and wondered how before his he could have questioned the joys of being a solid citizen chapter xv his march to greatness was not without disastrous fame did not bring the social advancement which the deserved they were not asked to join the country club nor invited to the dances at the union himself fretted he didn t care a fat for all these but the wife would kind of like to be among those present he nervously awaited his university class dinner and an evening of furious intimacy with such social leaders as charles the the banker the tool and the fashionable interior he was their friend as he had been in college and when he encountered them they still called him but he didn t seem to encounter them often and they never invited him to dinner with champagne and a butler at their houses on royal ridge all the week before the class dinner he thought of them no reason why we shouldn t become real n like all true american and spiritual the dinner of the men of the class of was thoroughly organized the dinner committee like a once a week they sent out no old man are you going to be with us at the friendship feed the of the good old u ever known the of turned out strong are we boys going to be beaten by a bunch of skirts come on fellows let s work up some real genuine enthusiasm and all together for the dinner yet i elegant eats short talks and memories shared together of the brightest days of life the dinner was held in a private room at the union club the club was a dingy building three old dwellings knocked together and the entrance hall resembled a cellar yet the who was free of the magnificence of the club entered with embarrassment he nodded to the an ancient proud negro with brass buttons and a blue tail coat and through the hall trying to look like a member sixty men had come to the dinner they made islands and in the hall they packed the and the comers of the private dining room they tried to be intimate and enthusiastic they appeared to one another exactly as they had in as raw whose present and wrinkles were but jovial put oh for the evening you haven t changed a i they the men whom they could not recall they ad dressed well well great to see you again old man what are you still doing the same thing some one was always starting a 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 group to the other though he was almost frankly out for social conquest he sought first he found him alone neat and silent paul sighed i m no good at this and well look who s here rats now up and be a finest bunch of boys on earth say you seem kind of g um what s matter oh the usual run in with come on i let s in and forget our troubles he kept paul beside him but worked toward the spot where charles stood warming his admirers like a furnace had been the hero of the class of not only captain and hammer but debate and in what the state university considered he had gone on had captured the construction company once owned by the best known family of he built state railway he was a heavy shouldered big man but not there was a quiet humor in his eyes a smooth quickness in his speech which and warned and in his presence the most intelligent or the most sensitive artist felt thin blooded and a little shabby he was particularly when	42
he was or labor very easy and and gorgeous he was he was a peer in the rapidly american aristocracy inferior only to the haughty old families in an old family is one which came to town before his power was the greater because he was not by scruples by either the vice or the virtue of the older tradition was being placidly merry now with the great the and the land owners and lawyers and who had and went to europe 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 felt ponderous and with mc he felt slight and he heard say to the banker yes we ll put up sir s love for titles became a rich relish you know he s one of the big iron men in england horribly well off why old say george is getting than i ami the shouted take your seats fellows shall we make a move said casually to right paul i how s the old planning to sit anywhere special george come on let s some seats come on i read about your speeches in the campaign bully work i after that would have followed him through fire he was busy during the dinner now cheering paul now approaching with hear you re going to build some in now noting how the failures of the class sitting 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 spoke of a dance for which had decorated er house with thousands of they spoke with an excellent imitation of of a dinner in washington at which had met a a princess and an english major general called the princess and let it be known that he 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 bank and who entertained poets he was bright and with say remember in junior year how we a sea going hack and chased down to to the big show madame brown used to put on remember how you beat up that that tried to run us in and we pinched the pressing sign and took and hung it on s door oh those were the those agreed were the days had reached it isn t the books you study in college 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 come to dinner some night yes like to talk to you about the growth of real estate out your i t be able to tip you off to a thing or two possibly we must have dinner together just let me know and it will be a great pleasure to have your wife and you at the house said much less then the s voice that prodigious voice which once had roused them to cheer defiance at from or or come on you i all together in the long felt that life would never be sweeter than now when he joined with paul and the newly recovered hero in ax get an ax ax get who who the u m the invited the to dinner in early de and the not only accepted but after changing the date once or twice actually came the somewhat thoroughly discussed the details of the dinner from the purchase of a bottle of champagne to the number of to be placed before each person did they mention the matter of the other guests to the last held out for giving paul the ben of being with the good old would like paul and better than some boy he insisted but mrs ted his observations with perhaps i think try to get some and when she was quite ready she invited dr j t the and a respectable lawyer named with their wives neither nor to the or to the neither of them had ever called brother or 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 pie face what s the good immediately after lunch mrs b n to set the table for the seven thirty dinner to the and was by order home at four but th didn t find anything for him to do and three times mrs do please try to keep out of the way i he stood in the door of the his lips drooping and wished that or sam or somebody would come along and talk to him he saw ted about the of the house what 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 night and she bit me she says i got to take a bath too but say the men will be some to night i little in a dress suit the men liked the sound of it he put his arm about the boy s he wished that paul had a daughter so that ted t marry her tes your is kind of round all t he said and they laughed together and sighed together and went in to dress the were less than fifteen minutes late hoped that the d q would see the and their waiting in front the dinner was well cooked and plentiful and mrs had brought out her grandmother s silver worked hard he was good he told none of the	42
jokes he wanted to tell he listened to the others he started off 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 inspiration to ambitious youth and mrs an to the social circles of washington new york paris and numbers of other places but he could not stir them it was a dinner without a soul for no reason that was clear to was over them and they spoke laboriously and unwillingly he concentrated on carefully not looking at her lovely shoulder and the silken band which supported her frock suppose be going to europe pretty soon again won t you he invited i d like awfully to run 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 where you get the best in the world oh i yes that must be nice to try that yes at a quarter to ten discovered with profound regret that his wife had a headache he said as helped 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 he had a time and we must lunch said they wanted to have us up to the house for dinner before long she achieved oh it s just been one of those quiet evenings that are often so much more 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 porch he heard her weeping slowly without hope iv for a month they watched the social columns and waited for a return dinner invitation as the hosts of sir the were all the week after the dinner ith received sir who had come to america to buy coal the new him on ireland naval the rate of exchange tea drinking drinking the of american women and daily life as lived by english county families sir seemed to have heard of all those topics the gave him a dinner and miss pearl society editor of the advocate times rose to her highest read aloud at breakfast table the original and oriental the strange and delicious food and the both of the distinguished 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 were privileged to view that fairy and foreign scene nothing at or the sets of foreign could be more lovely it is not for nothing that is in matters social rapidly becoming known as 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 since the ever memorable visit of the earl of not only is 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 of inhabitants and important lace as well as other we like to think that perhaps through his veins runs some of the blood both red and blue of that earlier lord o the good the robin the lovely mrs never was more fascinating than last evening in her black net gown relieved by dainty bands of silver and at her exquisite waist a glowing cluster of ward roses said bravely hope they don t invite us to meet this lord sight rather just have a nice quiet little dinner with and the at the club they discussed it amply i s pose well have to call from now on said it beats all get out meditated that man of k w hard it is for some people to get things straight here th r call this fellow lord en it ought to be sir is that a fact i sir eh that s what you call eh well sir i m glad to know that later he informed his it s n a goat the way some folks that just because they happen to lay up a big go entertaining famous foreigners don t have any more idea n a rabbit how to address em so s to make em fed at that evening as he was driving home he passed s and saw sir a large ruddy pop ed englishman whose of yellow gave him an aspect sad and doubtful drove on slowly oppressed by he had a sudden and horrible conviction that the were at him he betrayed his depression by the violence with which he informed his wife that really tend to haven t got the time to waste on a bunch like the this society stuff is like any other if you devote yourself to it you get on but i like to have a chance to visit with you and the children instead of all this chasing round th did not speak of the again it was a shame at this worried time to have to think about the ed was a of who had been a failure he had a large family and a feeble business out in the of he was gray and thin and unimportant he had always been gray and thin and unimportant he was the person whom 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 wonderful clothes it pleased though it him with a sense of responsibility at the class dinner	42
be and was what he called a for all these reasons the gold and scarlet banner of his public achieve ao ments was tbe background of office routine lists of pr q to rent the evenings of and and stimulated him like brandy but every morning he was sandy week by week he accumulated he was in open with his outside and once though her charms had always kept him polite to her he at miss for ng his letters but in the presence of paul he relaxed at least once a week fled from maturity on saturday played as a you re a fine or they all sunday afternoon stopping at village to sit on high at a counter and drink coffee from thick sometimes paul came over in the evening with his and even was silent as the lonely man who had lost his way and forever crept down roads spun out his dark soul in music n nothing gave more and than his labors for the sunday school his church the road was one of the largest and richest of the most and in the was the reverend john drew ma d d ll d the ma and the d d were from university the ll d from college he was eloquent efficient and he presided at meetings for the of or the elevation of domestic service and confided to the that as a poor boy he had carried newspapers for the saturday edition of the evening advocate he wrote on the manly man s religion and the dollars and sense value of christianity which were printed in bold type surrounded by a border he often said that he was proud ao to be known as a business man and that he certainly was not going to permit the old satan to all the and punch he was a thin rustic faced young man with gold spectacles and a bang of dull brown hair but when he hurled himself into he glowed with power he admitted that he was too much the scholar and poet to imitate the monday yet he had once awakened his fold to new ufe and to larger by the challenge my brethren the real cheap is the man who won t lend to the lord he had made his church a true it contained everything but a bar it had a nursery a thursday evening supper with a short bright missionary lecture afterward a a motion picture show a library of books for young though unfortunately no young workman ever entered the church except to wash the windows or air the furnace and a sewing circle which made short little for the children of the poor while mrs drew read aloud from earnest novels though dr drew s was his was gracefully as he said it had the most features of those noble monuments of grand old england which stand as of the eternity of faith religious and civil it was built of cheery iron spot brick in an improved style and the main had lighting from in lavish on a december morning when the went to church dr john drew was unusually eloquent the crowd was immense ten brisk young in morning coats with white roses were bringing folding chairs up from the there was an in musical conducted by of the y m ca who also sang the cared less for this because some person had taught young mr to smile smile he was but with all the appreciation of a fellow orator he admired dr drew s sermon it had the intellectual quality which distinguished the road congregation from the on smith street at this abundant harvest time of all the year dr drew when though stormy the sky and laborious the path to the yet the hovering and back o er all the labors and desires of the past twelve months oh then it seems to me there sounds behind all our apparent failures the golden chorus of greeting from those passed happily on and on the dim horizon we see behind clouds the mighty mass of mountains mountains of melody mountains of mirth mountains of might certainly do like a sermon with culture and thought in it meditated at the end of the service he was delighted when the shaking hands at the door oh brother can you wait a want your advice sure doctor drop into my office i think like the cigars there did like the cigars he also liked the office which was distinguished from other offices only by the spirited change of the familiar wall to this is the lord s busy day came in then william w mr was the seventy year old president of the first state bank of he still wore the delicate patches of side whiskers which 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 generation of he could examine make promote or injure a man s business in his presence breathed quickly and felt young ao the reverend dr drew into the room and speech i ve asked you gentlemen to stay so i can put a proposition before you the sunday school needs up it s the fourth largest in but there s no reason why we should take anybody s dust we ought to be first i want to request you if you will to form 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 gives us some attention give the public some really and news instead of all these and excellent said the banker and were enchanted to join him m if	42
you had asked what his religion was he would have answered in club my religion is to serve my fellow men to honor my brother as myself and to do my bit to make life happier for one and all if you had pressed him for more detail he would have announced i m a member of the church and naturally i accept its doctrines if you had been so brutal as to go on he would have protested there s no use discussing and arguing about religion it just up bad feeling actually the content of hb was that there was a supreme being who had tried to e us perfect but had failed that if one was a good man he would go to a place called heaven pictured it as rather like an excellent hotel with a private garden but if one was a bad man that is if he or committed or used or had or sold non real estate he would be punished was uncertain however about what he called this business of hell he e q to ted of course i m pretty liberal i don t exactly believe in a fire and hell stands to reason though that a fellow can t get away with all sorts of vice and not get for it see how i mean upon this he rarely pondered the of his practical religion was that it was respectable and to one s business to be seen going to services that the church kept the worst elements from being still worse and that the s sermons however dull they might seem at the time of taking yet had a power which did a good kept him in touch with higher things his first for the sunday school committee did not inspire him he liked the busy folks bible of mature men and women and addressed by the old school dr t in a sparkling style to that of the more refined after dinner but when he went down to the junior classes he was disconcerted he heard of the y m 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 fellows i m going to have a heart to heart talk evening at my house next thursday we ll get off by ourselves and be frank about our secret you can just tell old anything like all the fellows do at the y i m going to explain frankly about the horrible a falls into unless he s guided by a big brother and about the perils and of sex old beamed the boys looked ashamed and didn t know which way to turn his embarrassed eyes less but also much were the minor classes which were being instructed in philosophy and oriental by earnest most of them met in the highly sunday room but there was an to the which 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 his boyhood he again that polite to be found only in church he recalled the case of sunday school books a humble heroine and a lad of he once more the text cards which no boy wanted but no boy liked to throw away because they were somehow sacred he was tortured by the stumbling of thirty five years ago as in the 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 i please don t if you had 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 remember boys is the words with god all things are possible just of that always please pay attention just say with god all things are possible whenever you fed discouraged and will you read the next verse if you d pay attention you wouldn t lose your place gigantic bees that in a of started from his q 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 he had no suggestions whatever for the reverend dr drew then he discovered a world of sunday school journals an and busy domain of and which were as as practical and forward looking as the io real estate columns or tbe trade magazines he bought half a dozen of them at a book shop and till after midnight he read them and admired he found many tips on appeals for new members and getting prospects to sign up with the sunday school he particularly liked the word prospects and he was moved by the the moral springs of the community s life lie deep in its sunday schools its schools of religious instruction and inspiration neglect now means loss of spiritual vigor and moral power in years to come facts like the above followed by a straight arm appeal will reach folks who can never be laughed or into doing their part admitted that s so i used to skin out of the sunday school at every chance i got but same time i wouldn t be where i am to day maybe if it hadn t been for its training in in moral power and all about the bible great literature have to read some of it again one of these days how the sunday school could be organized he learned from an article in the westminster bible class the second vice president looks after the fellowship of the class she chooses a group to help	42
her these become every one who comes gets a glad hand no one goes away a stranger one of the stands on the and by to come in perhaps most of all appreciated the remarks by william h in the sunday school times if you have a sunday school class without any and get iq and go in it that is without interest that is uncertain in attendance that acts like a fellow with the spring fever let old dr write you a invite the bunch for per the sunday school journals were as well rounded as they f were practical they neglected none of the arts as to music the sunday school times advertised that c known to thousands through his sacred had written a new entitled for you the poem by harry d is one of the you could imagine 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 i heard the voice of say even manual training was considered noted an ingenious way of the of christ model foe to make tomb with rolling door use a square covered box turned iq side down pull the 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 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 teu in their the sunday school journals were thoroughly efficient was interested in a preparation which the place of exercise for men by building up nerve the brain and the system he was to learn that the selling of was a and strictly industry and as an expert on he was pleased by the company s announcement of an improved and satisfactory throughout including highly polished beautiful mahogany tray this tray all noise is lighter and more easily handled than others and is more in keeping with the furniture of the church than a tray of any other material a iv he ed the of sunday school journals he pondered now there s a real he world ashamed i haven t sat in more fellow that s an influence in the community shame if he doesn t take part in a real religion sort of christianity you might say but with all reverence some folks mi t these sunday school are and and so on always some to spring things like that i knocking and and tearing so much easier than building up but me i certainly hand it to these magazines they ve brought george f into can and that s the answer to the critics i the more manly and practical a fellow is the more he ought 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 be in chapter xvii these are but three or four old houses in heights and in heights an old house is one which was built before the largest of these is the residence of william washington president of the first state bank the mansion preserves the memory of the nice parts of as they appeared from i to it is a red brick with gray and a roof of slate in courses of red green and yellow there are two towers one with copper the other crowned with the porch is like an q en tomb it is by granite pillars above which hang frozen of brick at one side of the house is a huge stained glass window in the shape of a but the house has an effect not at all it the heavy dignity of those who ruled the generation between the and the brisk and created a by gaining control of banks mills land mines out of the dozen contradictory which together make up the true and complete none is so powerful and enduring yet none so to the citizens as the small still dry polite cruel of the william and for that tiny the other labor and die most of the castles of the are gone now or decayed into boarding houses but the mansion remains virtuous and aloof of london back bay square its marble steps are daily the brass plate is reverently polished and the lace curtains are ai i as and iq as william washington himself with a certain awe and called on for a meeting of the school committee with uneasy stillness they followed a maid through of reception rooms to the library it was as the library of a solid old banker as s side whiskers were the side whiskers of a solid old banker the books were most of them standard sets with the correct and touch of dim blue dim gold and glossy calf skin the fire was exactly correct and a small quiet steady fire reflected by polished fire irons the oak desk was dark and old and perfect the chairs were gently s inquiries as to the of mrs miss and the other children were softly paternal but had nothing with which to answer him it was to think of using the how s tricks which gratified and and men who tin now had seemed successful and and sat politely and politely did observe opening his thin lips just wide enough to dismiss the words gentlemen we begin our conference you may have felt the cold in coming so good of you to save an old man the journey shall we perhaps have a so well trained was in all the conversation that a good fellow that he almost disgraced himself with rather than make trouble and	42
the quivering green light of a s then the lights of down town cars with tail lights white arched to like frosty mouths of winter electric signs and little dancing men of fire pink shaded and scarlet music in a up stairs dance hall lights of chinese ns painted with cherry blossoms and with hung against of gold and black small dirty lamps in small the smart with rich and quiet light on crystal and and of polished wood in velvet hung windows high above the street an square hanging in the darkness the window of an office where some one was working late for a reason unknown and a man in an ambitious boy an ou man suddenly become rich the air was shrewd the snow was deep in and beyond the city knew were of snow drift among wintry oaks and the ice enchanted river he loved his city with passionate wonder he lost the weariness of business worry and he felt young and he was ambitious it was not enough to be a an jones no they re bully fellows simply lovely but they haven t got any no he was going to be an delicately coldly powerful that s the the in the velvet not let anybody get fresh with you been getting careless about my cut it out i was first rate at in college on an not bad had too much of this and good stuff i why couldn t i a bank of my own some day and ted succeed me ai he drove home and to mrs he was a will washington but she did not notice it m young on the times was appointed press agent of the road sunday school he gave six hours a week to it at least he was paid for giving six a week he had friends on the press and the and he was not known as a press agent he procured a of about and the bible jolly but and the value of the prayer life in financial success the sunday school adopted s system of ranks quickened by this s refreshment it had a boom it did not become the largest school m the central church kept ahead of it by methods which dr drew as ed un american and but it climbed from fourth place to second and there wa rejoicing in heaven or at least in that portion of included in the of dr drew while had much and good he had received the rank of on the general staff of the he was pleased by on the street from unknown small boys his ears were to ecstasy by hearing himself called and if he did not attend sunday school merely to be thus exalted certainly he sought about it all the way there he was pleasant to the press agent he took him to lunch at the club and had him at the house for dinner like many of the young men who about cities in apparent contentment and who express their in was shy aod lonely his shrewd face with joy at dinner and he mrs if you knew how good it is to have home eats again i and liked each other all evening th r talked about ideas they discovered that they were true they were sensible about it they agreed that all were that this was and that while there ought to be universal of course great britain and the united states must on behalf of oppressed small nations keep a navy equal to the of all the rest of the world but they were so that they predicted to s irritation that there some day be a third party which would give trouble to the and shook hands with three times at parting mentioned his extreme fondness for within a week three newspapers presented accounts of s sterling labors for religion and all of them mentioned william washington as his nothing had brought quite so much credit at the the club and the his friends bad always congratulated him on his but in their praise was doubt for even in speeches the city there was something and like i poetry but now jones shouted across the dining room here s the new of the first state the eminent of supplies chuckled wonder you mix with common folks after holding s and the was at last willing to discuss buying a house in iv when the sunday school campaign was finished suggested to say how about doing a little for drew personally grinned tou trust the to do a little for himself y mr there s hardly a week goes by without his ringing up the paper to say if we ll chase a up to his study he ll 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 welfare and the league and the only reason she s got drew beaten is because she has got some brains ell now i don t think you ought to talk that way about the doctor a preacher has to watch his interests hasn t he you remember that in the bible about about being in the lord s business or something all right get something in if you want me to mr but i ll have to wait till the managing editor is out of town and then the city editor thus it came to pass that in the sunday advocate under a picture of dr drew at his with eyes alert jaw as granite and rustic lock i an inscription a wood twenty four hours immortality the rev dr john drew m a of the beautiful road church in lovely heights is	42
running to him she on the semblance of ted was mad as was mad a thousand sarcastic did not check his for a car of his own however he might be about early rising and the of he was in with three other boys he bought a ford an amazing body out of tin and pine went round comers in the perilous craft and it at a profit gave him a and every saturday afternoon with seven and a bottle of in his pockets and perched on the seat he went roaring off to distant towns usually and he were merely neighborhood and with a wholesome and violent lack of but now and then after the color and scent of a dance they were silent together and a little and was worried was an average father he was affectionate ignorant and rather wistful like most parents he enjoyed the game of waiting till the victim was dearly wrong then he justified himself by ell ted s mother spoils him got to be some body who tells him what s what and me i m elected the goat because i try to bring him iq to be a real decent human being and not one of these and of course they all call me a i throughout with the eternal human genius for arriving by the worst possible at tolerable loved his son and warmed to his and have sacrificed everything for him if he could have been sore of proper credit n ted was planning a party for his set in the senior class meant to be and jolly about it from his memory of school measures back in he suggested the games going to boston and with for and word games in which you were an or a quality when he was most enthusiastic he discovered that they weren t paying attention they were him as for the party it was as fixed and as a union hop there was to be dancing in the living room a noble in the dining and in the hall two tables of bridge for what ted called the poor old dumb bells that you can t get to dance hardly more n half the time every breakfast was by on the affair no one listened to s about the mary weather cf to his throat comments on the head lines he said furiously if i may be to interrupt your private conversation hear what i oh don t be a spoiled baby t ted and i have just as much t to talk as you have i mrs on the t of the party he was permitted to look on when he was not helping with tiie ice cream and the he was deeply eight years ago when had given a high school party the children had been now they were men and women of the world very men and the bo rs condescended to they wore evening and with they accepted from silver cases had heard stories of what the club called on at parties of girls their in the dressing room of and and a increase in what was known as to night he believed the stories these children seemed ld to him and cold the girls wore misty coral velvet or cloth of gold and around their dipping hair were shining wreaths he had it upon urgent and secret inquiry that no were known to be upstairs but certainly these eager bodies were not stiff with steel their stockings were of their slippers costly and unnatural their lips and their eyebrows they danced cheek to with the boys and with and unconscious worst of them all was little and of all the boys was ted was a flying demon she slid the length of the room her tender shoulders swayed her feet were as a s she laughed and to dance 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 corner he 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 thirsty there s some ale oh i thanks i they condescended he sought his wife in the and exploded i d like to go in there and throw some of those young out of the house talk down to me like i was the butler i i d like to i know she sighed only everybody says all the mothers tell me unless you stand for them if you angry because they go out to their cars to have a drink they won t come to your house any more 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 things and hurried in to be polite lest ted be left out of things but he resolved if he found that the boys were drinking he would well he d hand em something that would surprise em while he was trying to be agreeable to young he was earnestly at them twice he caught the of time but then it was only twice dr in he had come in a mood of solemn parental patronage to look on ted and were dancing moving together like one body gasped he called there was a whispered and explained to that s mother had a headache and needed her she went off in tears looked after them furiously that little devil getting ted into trouble i and the conceited old gas bag acting like it was ted that was	42
the bad influence later he on ted s breath after the civil farewell to the guests the row was terrific a thorough family scene like an and without thundered mrs wept ted was defiant and in confusion as to whose side she was taking for several months there was coolness between the and the each family their lamb from the wolf next door and still spoke in periods about and the but they kept away from mention of their families whenever came to the house she discussed with pleasant intimacy the fact that she had been forbidden to come to the house and tried with no success whatever to be and with her m all i ted to as they of and an of g ci nuts in the splendor 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 oh 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 any fun going on anywhere i suppose he must do some thinking same as you and i do but there s no way of telling it i don t believe that outside of the office and playing a little bum on saturday he knows there s anything in the world to do except just keep sitting there sitting there every t not wanting to go anywhere not wanting to do anything thinking us are sitting lord iv if he was frightened by ted s was not sufficiently frightened by she was too safe she lived too much in the neat little room of her mind and she were always under foot when they were not at home conducting their cautiously radical courtship over sheets of they were off to lectures by authors and philosophers and to his wife as they walked home from the bridge party it gets me how and that fellow can be so they sit there night after night whenever he isn t working and they don t know there s any fun in the world m talk and discussion sitting there sitting there night after t not wanting to do anything thinking i m because i like to go out and play a fist of cards sitting there then round the bored by struggling the perpetual surf of family life new swelled s father and mother in law mr and mrs henry t old house in the district and moved to the hotel that boarding house filled with red furniture and the sound of they were there and every other sunday evening the had to dine with them on chicken discouraged and ice cream and afterward sit polite and restrained in the hotel while a young woman played songs from the german s own mother came down from to spend three weeks she was a kind woman and she congratulated the on being a nice loyal home body without all 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 his father and all and not going out with the girls all the time and trying to pretend he was a society fellow loved his mother and sometimes he rather liked her but he was annoyed by her christian patience and he was reduced to when she about a quite hero called your father you won t remember it you were such a little f at the time my i remember just how you looked that day with your brown curls and your lace collar you always were such a dainty child and kind of and sickly and you loved pretty things so much and the red on your little and all and your father was taking us to church and a man stopped us and said major so many of the neighbors used to call your father major of com se he was only a private in the war but everybody knew that was because of the jealousy of his captain and he ought lo have been a high officer he had that natural ability to command that so very very few men have and this man came out into the road and held up his hand and stopped the and said major he said there s a lot of the folks around here that have decided to support colonel for and we want you to join us meeting people the way you do in the store you could help us a lot well your father just looked at him and said i certainly shall do nothing of the sort i don t like his politics e said well the man captain smith they used to call and heaven only knows why because he hadn t the shadow or of a t to be called captain or any other title this captain smith said we ll make it hot for you if you don t stick by your friends major well you know how your father was and this smith knew it too he knew what a real man he was and he knew your father knew the political situation from a to z and he ought to have seen that here was one man he couldn t impose on but he went on trying to and and trying till your spoke up and said to him captain smith he said i have a reputation around these parts for being one who is amply qualified to mind his own business and let other folks mind theirs and with that he drove on and left the fellow standing there in the road like	42
a on a log was most exasperated when she revealed his boyhood to the children he had it seemed been fond of had worn the loveliest little pink bow in his curls and ted his own name to he heard though he did not hear ted come on now kid stick the pink bow in your curls and beat it down to breakfast or will jaw your head o j s half brother martin with his wife and youngest baby came down from for two days martin bred cattle and ran the dusty general store he was i of being a independent american of the good old yankee stock he was proud of being honest blunt y and disagreeable his favorite remark was how much did you pay for that he regarded s books s pencil and flowers on the table as and said so would have with him but for his wife and the baby whom and fingers at and addressed i think this baby s a bum yes sir i think this little baby s a bum he s a bum yes sir he s a bum that s what he is he s a bum this baby s a bum he s nothing but an old bum that s what he is a all the while and held long inquiries into ted was a disgraced rebel 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 having to carry three generations whole damn bunch lean on me pay half of mother s income listen to henry t listen to s worrying be polite to and get called an old for trying to help the children all of em ending on me and picking on me and not a damn one of em grateful no relief and no credit and no help from anybody and to keep it up for good lord how long he enjoyed being sick in february he was delighted by their consternation that he the rock should give way he had eaten a questionable for two days he was and and esteemed he was allowed to let me he lay od the and watched the sun slide along the turning their ruddy to pale blood red the shadow of the draw rope was dense black in an on the canvas he found pleasure in the curve of it si ed as the fading light it he was conscious of life and a little sad with no before whom to set his face in resolute c he and half admitted that he beheld his way of life as mechanical mechanical business a brisk selling of badly built houses mechanical religion a dry hard church shut o f from the real life of the streets respectable as a top hat mechanical and dinner parties and bridge and conversation save with paul mechanical back and never daring to essay the test of he turned uneasily in bed he saw the years the brilliant winter days and ao the long sweet which were meant for meadows lost in such he thought of about of men he hated of making calls and waiting in dirty hat on knee at fly being polite to office boys i don t hardly want to go back to work he prayed like to i know but he was bade next day busy and of ul temper chapter xix th street company planned to shops in the of but when they came to buy the land they it held on by the company the agent the first vice president and even the president of the company protested against the price they mentioned th ir duty toward they threatened an appeal to the courts though somehow the appeal to the courts was never carried out and the officials found it wiser to compromise with copies of the correspondence are in the company s where they may be viewed by any just after this deposited three thousand dollars in the bank the agent of the street company bought a five thousand dollar car the first vice president built a home in woods and the president was appointed minister to a foreign country to obtain the to tie up one man s land without letting his neighbor know had been an unusual strain on it was necessary to introduce about planning and stores to pretend that he wasn t taking any re to wait and look as bored as a player at a time when the failure to secure a key lot threatened his whole plan to all this was added a nerve quarrel with his secret associates in the deal they did not wish and to have any share in the deal except as rather agreed of the business ought to strictly resent his and not get in on the buying he said to rats i think i m going to see that bunch of holy get away with the and us not climb in old henry i don t like to do it kind of double crossing it ain t it s triple crossing it s the public that gets double crossed well now we ve been and got it out of our systems the question is where we can raise a loan to handle some of the property for ourselves on the q t we can t go to our bank for it might come out could see old he s close as the tomb that s the was glad he said to invest in character to make the loan and see to it that the loan did not appear on the books of the bank thus certain of the q tions which and obtained were on of real estate which they themselves owned though the property did not appear in their names in the midst of closing this splendid deal	42
which stimulated business and public confidence by giving an le of increased real estate activity was overwhelmed to find that he had a person working for him the one was the outside for some time had been worried about he did not keep his word to tenants in order to rent a house he would promise which the owner had not it was suspected that he of furnished houses so that when the tenant left he had to pay for articles which had never been in the house and the price of which put into his pocket had not been able to prove these suspicions and though he had rather planned to discharge he had never quite found time for it now into s private room charged a red faced man panting look here i ve come to raise particular merry hell and unless you have that fellow pinched i will i what s down o man what s trouble here s the sit down and take it they can hear you all the this fellow you got working for you he me a house i was in yesterday and signs the lease all o k and he was to get the owner s signature and mail me the lease last night well and he did this morning i comes down to breakfast and the girl sa rs a fellow had come to the house ri t after the early delivery and told her he wanted an envelope that had been by mistake big long e with in the comer of it sure enough there it was so she lets him have it and she describes the fellow to me and it was this so i to him and he the poor fool he admits he says after my lease was all signed he got a better offer from another fellow and he wanted my lease back now what you going to do about it your name is w k oh yes that was the garrison house sounded the when miss came in he demanded gone out yes sir you look through his desk and see if there is a lease made out to mr on the garrison house to can t tell you how sorry i am this happened needless to say fire the minute he comes in and of course your lease stands but there s one other thing i d like to do tell the owner not to pay us the commission but apply it to your rent straight i want to to be frank this thing shakes me up bad i suppose i ve always been a practical business man probably i ve told one or two fairy stories in my time when the occasion called for it you know sometimes you have to lay things on thick to impress but this is the first time i ve ever had to accuse one of my own of anything more than a few honest it would hurt me if we by it so let me hand you the commission he walked the february city where flung up a of and the sky was dark above dark he came back miserable he who respected the law had broken it by concealing he crime of of the but he could not see go to and his wife suffer worse he had to discharge and this was a part of office routine which he feared he liked people so much he so much wanted them to like him that he could not bear insulting them miss dashed in to whisper with the excitement of an approaching scene he s here i mr ask him to come in he tried to make himself heavy and calm in his chair and to keep his eyes stalked in a man of thirty five eye with a want me said yes sit down continued to stand i suppose that old nut has been in to see you let me explain about him he s a regular and he sticks out for every cent and he practically lied to me about his ability to pay the rent i found that out just after we signed up and then another fellow comes along with a better offer for the house and i felt it was my duty to the firm to get rid of and i was so worried about it i up there and got back the lease honest mr i didn t intend to anything crooked i just wanted the firm to have all the wait now this may all be true but i ve been having a lot of complaints about you now i don t s you mean to do wrong and i think if you just get a good lesson that ll you up a little turn out a yet but i don t see how i can you on leaned against the cabinet his hands in his pockets and laughed so i m well old vision and i m to death i but i don t want you to think you can get away with any than thou stuff sure ive pulled some raw stuff a little of it but how could i help it in this office now by god young man tut tut i the naughty er down and don t because everybody in the outside office hear you 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 off a blind man to keep my wife from starving us married just five months and her the girl living and you keeping us flat broke au the time you damned old so you can put money away for your of a son and your wish fool of a wait now l god take it or so the	42
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 dean pious high up guns well 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 rev oh for s sake don t get virtuous on me i as i gather it i m fired all ri t it s a good thing for me and if i catch you knocking me to any other firm all i know about you and t and the dirty little that you of industry pull off for the bigger and and you ll get chased out of town and me you re right ive been going crooked but now i m going straight d the first step will be to get a job in some office where the doesn t talk about bad luck old dear and you can stick your job up the sat for a long time alternately raging have him arrested and yearning i wonder no ive never done anything that wasn t necessary to keep the wheels of progress moving next day he hired in s place the of his most injurious rival the east side homes and development company and thus at once annoyed his con and acquired an excellent man young was a merry playing he made customers to the office thought of him as a son and in him had much comfort m an abandoned race track on the outskirts of a plot excellent for factory was to be sold and ad ed to bid on it for him the strain of the street deal and his disappointment in had so shaken that he found it hard to sit at his desk and he proposed to his family look here folks i do you know who s going to trot up to for a couple of days just week end won t lose but one day of school know who s going with that celebrated business george f why mr ted shouted and oh maybe the men won t paint that town red and once away from the familiar of home th were two men together ted was young only in his assumption of and the only apparently in which had a larger and more grown up knowledge than ted s were the details of real estate and the phrases of politics when the other of the smoking had left them to themselves s voice did not drop into the playful and otherwise offensive tone in which one addresses children but continued its overwhelming and monotonous and ted tried to imitate it in his tenor you certainly did show up that poor boot when he got about the league of nations well the trouble with a lot of these fellows is they simply don t know what they re talking about they don t get down to facts what do you think of ken ill tell you it strikes me ken is a nice lad no special faults except he too much but slow why if we don t give him a the poor dumb bell will propose i and just as bad slow yes i guess you re right re slow they haven t either one of em got our that s right they re slow i swear i t know how got into our family i i ll bet if the truth were known you were a bad old egg when you were a well i wasn t so bet you weren t bet you didn t 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 they roared together and together lighted cigars what are we going to do with em consulted i don t know i swear sometimes i fed like taking ken aside and putting him over the and saying to him young 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 week when you going to develop a sense of responsibility and get a raise if there s anything that george f or i can do to help you call on us but show a little speed anyway well at that it might not be so bad if you or i talked to him except he might not understand he s one of these high brows he can t come down to cases and ay has cards on tbe table and talk straight out from the shoulder like you or i can that s right he s like all these that s so like all of em that s a fact they sighed and were silent and thoughtful and happy the conductor came in he had once called at s office to ask about houses h are you mr i we going to have you with us to this your boy yes this is son ted well now what do you know about that i here i been thinking you were a yourself not a day over forty hardly and you with this great big fellow forty why brother ih never see forty five is that a fact i wouldn t hardly a thought it i es sir it s a bad give away for the old man when he has to travel with a young whale like ted you re right it is to ted i u q you re in now proudly no not till next fall i m just of giving the rent the once over now as the	42
conductor went on his way huge watch chain against his blue chest and ted gravely considered they arrived at late at night they lay in the morning rejoicing pretty nice not to have to get up and get down to breakfast they were staying at the modest hotel because business men rs stayed at the but they had dinner in the and crystal room of the ordered blue point with a tremendous with a tremendous of french potatoes two pots of coffee apple pie with ice cream for both of them and for ted an extra piece of pie hot stuff some feed young i ted admired you stick around with me old man and show you a good time they went to a musical comedy and each other at the matrimonial jokes and the they the arm in arm between acts and in the glee of his first release from the shame which fathers and ted chuckled did you ever hear the one about the three and the judge when ted had returned to was as he was trying to make alliance between and certain interests which wanted the race track t most of his time was taken up in waiting for calls sitting on the edge of his bed the asking wearily mr not in yet didn he leave any message for me all ri t hold the wire staring at a stain on the wall reflecting that it resembled a shoe and being bored by this twentieth discovery that it resembled a shoe lifting a then bound to die with no in reach wondering what to do with this burning menace and anxiously trying to toss it into the at last on the no message eh all ri t iii call up again one afternoon he wandered through snow streets of which he had never heard streets of small and houses and cottages it came to him that he had nothing to do that there was nothing he wanted to do he was lonely in the evening when he dined by himself at the hotel he sat in the afterward in a chair with the arms lighting a cigar and looking for some one who would come and play with him and save him from thinking in the chair next to him showing the arms of was a half familiar man a large red faced man with pop eyes and a deficient yellow he seemed kind and insignificant and as lonely as himself he wore a suit and a reluctant orange tie it came to with a crash the stranger was sir instinctively rose how re you sir member we met in at s s my name real estate how d you do sir shook hands embarrassed standing wondering how he could retreat well i pose you been having a great trip since we saw you in quite british and and all over the place he said doubtfully looking at how did you find business conditions in british or i suppose maybe you didn t look into em scenery and sport and so on scenery oh capital but business conditions you know mr they re having almost as much as we are sir was speaking warmly now so business conditions not so good no business conditions weren t at all what i d hoped to find them not good eh no not not really good that s a dam shame well i suppose you re waiting for somebody to take you out to some big sir oh no to tell you the truth i was wondering what the deuce i could do this evening don t know a soul in i wonder if you to know whether there s a good in this city good why say they re running grand opera right i guess maybe you d like that eh eh went to the opera once in london s garden of thing no i was wondering if there was a good was sitting down his chair over shouting say sir i supposed of course you had a of waiting to lead you out to some god but if you haven t what do you say you and me go to a there s a of a at the bill in a picture right o just a moment while i get my coat with greatness slightly afraid lest the noble blood of change its mind and leave him at any street comer with sir to the palace and in silent bliss sat beside him trying not to be too enthusiastic lest the knight hb adoration of and at the end sir murmured jolly good picture this so awfully decent of you to take me haven t enjoyed myself so much for weeks all these they never let you go to the i the devil you say i s speech had lost he delicate refinement and all the broad a s with which he had adorned it and become hearty and natural ell i m to death you liked it sir they crawled past the knees of fat women into the aisle they stood in the waving their arms in the of putting on hinted say how about a little something to eat i know a place where we get a swell and we might dig up a little drink that is if you ever touch the stuff rather but why don t you come to my room i ve some scotch not half bad oh i don t 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 yearning oh really now i haven t had a decent evening for so long having to go to all these dances no to discuss and that sort of thing do be a good chap and come along won t you	42
i just thought say it does do a fellow good don t it to sit and visit about business conditions after he s been to these balls and and and all that society stuff i often fed that way in sure you bet iii come that s awfully nice of you they beamed along the street look here old du can you me do american always 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 chap mother and i lady i should say we usually play a hand of and go to bed at ten bless my soul i couldn t keep up your and talking i all your american women they know so much culture and that sort of thing this mrs your old good kid she asked me which of the galleries i liked best in or was it in never been in italy in my and did i like do you know what he deuce a primitive is me i should say not i but i know what a for is rather so do i by george but they laughed with the sound of a luncheon sir s room was except for his ponderous and bags very much like the room of george f and quite in the manner of he disclosed a huge looked proud and hospitable and chuckled say when chap it was after the third drink that sir proclaimed how do you get the notion that writing like and this wells represent us the real business england we think those are both our countries have their comic old aristocracy you know old county families hunting people and all that sort of thing and we both have our wretched labor leaders but we both have a of sound business men who run the whole show you bet here s to the real i i m with you i here s to it was after the fourth drink that sir asked humbly what do you think of north but it was till after the fifth that began to call him and sir confided i say do you mind if i pull os my boots and stretched his feet his poor tired hot swollen feet out on the bed after the sixth arose wed i better be along you re a regular being i wish to thunder we d been better acquainted in can t you come back and stay with me a while so sorry must go to new york to morrow most awfully sorry old boy i haven t enjoyed an evening so much since i ve been in the states real talk not all this social rot i d never have let them give me the title and i didn t get it for nothing eh if i d thought i d have to talk to women about and i thing to have m annoyed the mayor most when i got it and of course the likes it but nobody calls me now he was almost weeping and nobody in the states has treated me like a friend till to tl good by old chap good thanks awfully don t mention it and remember whenever you get to the latch string is always out and don t did boy if you ever come to mother and i will be j d to see you i shall the in your ideas about visions and real s at our next club luncheon iv lay at his hotel imagining the club asking him what kind of a time d you have in and hb answering oh fair ran around with sir a lot himself meeting and her you re all t mrs when you aren t trying to this pose it s just as says to me in oh yes s an old friend of mine the wife and i are thinking of running over to england to stay with in his castle next year and he said to me old i like first rate but you and me george we got to make her get over this way she s got but that evening a thing happened which wrecked his pride at the hotel cigar 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 french kings against of gilded oak he enjoyed the crowd pretty women good solid fellows who were liberal he gasped he stared and turned away and stared again three tables off with a doubtful sort of woman a woman at once and withered was paid and paid was supposed to be in selling tar the woman was his hand at him and felt that he had encountered something involved and paul was talking with the eagerness of a man who is telling his troubles he was concentrated on the woman s faded eyes once he hem her hand and once blind to the other guests he his lips as though he was pretending to kiss her had so strong an impulse to go to paul that he fed his body his moving but he 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 second just say to him he touched paul s shoulder and cried when did you hit town paul glared up at him face oh george thought you d gone back to he did not introduce his companion peeped at her she was a pretty weakly woman of forty two or three in an hat her was thorough but where you staying the woman turned yawned examined her nails she seemed accustomed to not	42
being introduced paul grumbled inn on the south side alone it sounded yes i unfortunately furiously paul turned toward the woman smiling with a fondness sickening to may want to introduce you mrs this is my old acquaintance 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 i ll drop down and see you no better we better lunch together to morrow all ri t but i ll see you to night too paul ill go down to your hotel and wait for you chapter xx he sat smoking with the piano din g to the warm refuge of gossip afraid to venture into thoughts of paul he was the more on the surface as secretly he became more apprehensive felt more hollow he was that paul was in without s knowledge and that he was doing things not at all moral and secure when the yawned that he had to write up his orders left him left the hotel in leisurely calm but savagely he said k inn to the he sat agitated on the slippery leather seat in that chill which of dust and perfume and he did not heed the snowy lake front the dark spaces and bright in the unknown land south of the the office of the inn was hard bright new the night clerk harder and ter y he said to mr paul hare is he in now then if give me his key wait for him can t do that brother wait town here if you had with the deference which all the of good give to clerks now he said with i may to wait some time i m s ill go up to his room d i look like a thief his voice was low and not pleasant with haste the clerk took down the key protesting i never said st you looked like a just of tbe but if you want to od way in the why ic was here t paul be with a respectable married woman why had he lied to the about being he had acted a child he must be careful to way foolish things to paid as he settled down he tried to look and placid then the thought suicide he d been that without knowing it paul would be just the person to do like that he must be out of his head or be t be confiding in that that dried t sha oh z h how he d that of a woman i she d succeeded at last and out ia the lake way out beyond tbe ke along shore it be cold to tbe water o throat cat in ae t flung isle s it was empty be smiled feebly he pulled at his choking collar looked at his the window to stare down at tbe street lo at bs watch tried ta read the paper l ng on the ass again at his watch three had gone by since he had first looked at it and he waited for three hours he was fixed when tbe turned came i g paid been waiting while what just thought i d drop in to see how yoa made out in i did a r what difference does k why paul what are you sore about what are you into my affairs for why paul that s no way to talk i m not into nothing i was so glad to see your ugly old that i just dropped in to say well i m not going to have anybody following me around and trying to me i ve had all of that i m going to stand weu i m i didn t like the way you looked at may or the way you talked well all right then if you think i m a then ni just butt in i don t know who your may is but i know good and well that you and her weren t talking about tar no nor about playing the neither if you haven t got any moral consideration for yourself you ought to have some for your position in the community the idea of your going around places into a female s eyes like a love sick i can understand a fellow slipping once but i don t propose 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 husband i am by god i ve never looked at any woman except since i ve been married practically and i never will i tell you there s nothing to it don t pay can t 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 longer she s made up her mind that i m a devil and lar torture she it it s a game to see how sore she can make me and me either it s find a little any comfort anywhere or else do something a lot worse now mrs she s not so young but she s a fine woman and she understands a fellow and she s had her own troubles yea i i suppose she s one of these whose husband t understand her i i don t know maybe he was killed in the war up stood beside paul patting	42
his shoulder making soft noises honest george she s a fine woman and she s had 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 believe it but it helps a lot to have somebody with whom you can be perfectly simple and not all this and that s as far as you go it say iti well i don t i can t say i like it with a burst which left him large and shining with generosity it s none of my dam business i i ll 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 about my staying away so long she d be perfectly capable of having me and of coming to and into a hotel dining room and me out before everybody i ll take care of i ll hand her a good fairy story when i get back to i don t know i don t think you better try it you re a good fellow but i don t know that is your strong point looked hurt then irritated i mean with women 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 pretty shrewd she d have the story out of you in no time au t was pathetic at allowed to play secret agent paid soothed maybe yoa t tell her you d been in and seen me there why sure you i have to go look at that property in don t i ain t it a shame i have to stop off there when i m so anxious to get ain t it a regular shame say it is m say it s a i but for glory s sake t go putting any fancy on the when men lie they always try to make it too artistic and that s why get suspicious aad let s have a drink i ve got some gin and a little the paul who refused a second took a second now and a third he became red eyed and he was and in the found tears crowding into his ey he had not told paul of his plan but he did at between trains for the of sending to a with had to come here for the day ran into paul la he called m her if for appearances was over over painted and resolutely for private misery she wore a filthy blue dressing gown and torn stockings thrust into pink satin ha face was sunken ie seemed to have but half as much hair as remembered and t half was she sat in a rock amid a of boxes and cheap magazines and she sounded when she did not sound but was exceedingly well old dear having a good loaf while away that s the ideal i ll bet a hat m never got up s till tea i was in say i just dropped in to sec if i could we re going to a part j want to some coffee mu oh did you get my card from saying i d run into paid yes was he how do you he hia overcoat sat on the am of chair you know how i she the pages of a with an i be was trying love to some or or somebody hang it you re always letting on that paul round chasing skirts he doesn t in the first place and if he did it be because you keep af him and t him so much i t meant to but since v vl ie away is i know he has woman thai he writes to in i what e you to do make me out a liar no but i i get so worried now there you that s what gets me here you love paid and yet you plague him and him out a if you him i understand why it that the more some folks love people the harder they try to make em miserable you love ted and i suppose and yet you them oh well that that s different besides i don t em 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 him why you talk to him like a i m surprised you can act so common i she over her linked fingers oh i know i do go and get mean sometimes and i m sorry afterwards but oh paul is so i ve tried awfully hardy last few years to be nice to him but just because i used to be or i seemed so i wasn t really but i used to up and say anything that came into my head and so he made up his mind that everything was my fault everything can t always be my fault can it and now if i get to he just turns silent oh so dreadfully silent and he won t look at me he just me he simply isn t human i and he deliberately keeps it up till i bust out and say a lot of things i don t mean so oh you how wicked you are how wicked they things over and over for half an hour at the end weeping promised to restrain herself paul returned four da rs later and the and went to the and had chop at a chinese as th r walked to the through a street of shops and shops the	42
two wives in front chattering about murmured ta paul seems a lot now yes she has been except once or twice but it s too late now i just i m not going to discuss it but i m afraid of her there s nothing left i don t ever want to see her some day i m going to break away from her somehow chapter xxi the organization of clubs has become a world force for manly and good business chapters are to be found now in thirty countries nine hundred and twenty of the thousand chapters however are in the united states none of these is more ardent than the club the second march lunch of the was the most important of the year as it was to be followed by the annual election of officers there was agitation abroad the lunch was held in the of the house as each of the four hundred entered he took from a a huge button announcing his name his and his business there was a fine of ten cents for calling a fellow by anything but his at a lunch and as checked his hat the air was radiant with shouts of and how re you i and top o the they sat at friendly tables for eight choosing places by lot was with the merchant tailor of the little sweetheart milk company the professor of the business college dr walter the and ben the one of the merits of the club was that only two persons from each department of business were permitted to join so that you at once encountered the of other occupations and realized the of all occupations and painting medicine and the manufacture of s table was particularly happy to day because professor had just had a birthday and was therefore open to let s pump about how old he is i said no let s him with a said ben bolt t mm who had t talk t to that the only lie is a i they tell me lie s a class in tke de at each place was the the the object of the am ood yet they lost sight of the importance of a little after name w the member there were of ia the and on page tbe here so yon to with r fellow but get wise boy s the use of letting ail this good money get of our happy and at each place to day was a present a card printed in artistic red and black service and service finds its finest opportunity and development only in its and deepest application and the consideration of its perpetual action upon reaction i believe the highest ty pe of service like the most of senses and is by active and loyalty to that which is the essential principle of good citizen in all its and aspects compliments of not at s the read mr s and said they understood it perfectly i a a h there t w the h the ot we to celebrated off lovely n hi se aiid i got to admit i right into him f ii l tm room and told him how the i he s w and don t f of the is a and will m r ff im h i and when on top of that w tu f oh his duties at city hall m w v i f selves proud and mr turn y a w l f tbe and by rising die mm it f h h h t and whidi die fi v r the with the regular r was in the his stiff hair l ea hedge voice like a of festival who had brought guests publicly this ted piece of is sporting editor of die said and h h tiie st when you re on a long and finally get to a romantic spot or scene and draw p and to wife this is certainly a place it sends a glow ri up and down y sm well my to day is from a place s virginia in the beautiful with memories of good old general robert e lee and of that brave soul john brown who like every good goes ob there were two e guests ihe man of the bird of paradise company playing this at the and the mayor of the hon when we manage to this celebrated off lovely of and i got to admit i ri t into his and told him how the appreciated the hi artistic performance he s giving us and don t forget that the of the is a and will appreciate our patronage and when on top of that we out of his duties at city hail then i fed we ve done proud and mr will now say a few words about the problems and duties by rising vote the decided which was the and which the guest and to each of was given a bunch of president noted by mother h g the avenue each week in four were privileged to obtain the of generosity and of by goods or services to four fellow members chosen by lot there o was laughter this week when it was announced that one of the was joy the everybody whispered can think of a good to be buried if his is a free all these the were on chicken peas potatoes coffee apple pie and american cheese did not lump the speeches presently he called on the visiting secretary of the club a rival organization the secretary had the distinction of possessing state car license number the secretary admitted that wherever he drove in the state so low a number created a sensation and h it was pretty nice to have the honor yet traffic remembered it only too	42
well and sometimes he didn t know but what he d almost as soon have just plain b or something like that only let any try to get number away from a live next year and watch the fur and if they d permit him he d wind up by calling for a cheer for the and and the all together i sighed to professor be pretty nice to have as low a number as that everybody d say he must be an important i wonder how he got it i ll bet he and dined the of the license to a fare you then addressed them some of you may feel that it s out of place here to talk on a strictly and artistic subject but i want to come out and ask you boys to o k the proposition of a for now where a lot of you make your mistake is in assuming that if you don t like classical music and all that you ought to oppose it now i want to confess that though i m a literary by profession i don t care a rap for all this long haired music i d rather listen to a good band any time 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 to day as ts or bank 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 or or 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 pictures and books are fine for those that have the time to study em but they don t shoot out on the road and this is what little old can put up in the way of culture that s precisely what a does do look at the credit and get an with first class and a swell conductor and i believe we ought to do the thing up brown and get one of the highest 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 class as a town can get in no other way and the who is so short sighted as to this proposition is passing up the chance to impress the glorious name of on some big new york that might that might establish a branch factory here i i could also go into the fact that for our daughters who show an interest in music and may want to teach it having an ai local organization is of great benefit 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 s they applauded to a of proclaimed we wiu now proceed to the of for each of the six offices three bad been by a the second name among the for president was s he was he looked self conscious his he was still more agitated when the l were counted and said it s a pleasure to will be the next assistant i know of no man who stands more common sense and enterprise than good old george come en let s give him our best long as they a hundred men crushed in to slap his back he had never known a higher moment he in a of he into bis office to miss well i guess you better con your t been elected vice resident of the i he was disappointed she answered only yea oh s been to get you oa the but the new said by say that s great that s perfectly i m to congratulations called the house and to his wife heard trying to get me say you got to hand it to thia time i better talk you are addressing the vice president of the bo bt ca oh pretty nice is the new president but when he s away takes the and up and the na matter if they re the governor himself and george i listen t it puts him in solid with big men like george i paul yes sure paul and let him know about it right away listen paul s in he shot his wife he shot this noon she may not live chapter xxii he drove to the city prison not blindly but with unusual care at corners the of an old woman plants it kept him from facing the of fate the attendant said you can t see any of the prisoners till three thirty visiting hour it was three for half an hour sat looking at a and a clock on a wall the chair was hard and mean and people went the office and he thought stared at him he felt a defiance which broke into a fear of this machine which was grinding paul paul exactly at half past three he sent in his name the attendant returned with says he t want to see you you re crazy you didn t give him my name tell him it s george wants to see him george i told him all right au right he said he didn t want to see you then take me in anyway nothing doing if you ain t his lawyer if he don t want to see you that s all there is to	42
it but my god say let me see the tee s busy come on now you reared over him the attendant hastily changed to a you can come back and try to morrow probably the poor is off his nut drove not at all carefully or sliding past the s curses to the city hall s he stopped with a grind of wheels against the and ran up the marble steps to the office of the hon mr the mayor he the mayor s with a dollar he was instantly 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 where 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 spoke slowly be moral on the couch beside him i m not going to be moral i don t care what happened i 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 hasn t had any too easy a time just after i shot her i didn t hardly mean to but she got to me so i went crazy 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 when i was trying to stop the blood it was terrible what it did to her shoulder and she had beautiful skin maybe she won t die i hope it won t leave her skin all but just afterward when i was hunting 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 happy then i can t hardly believe it s me here as s arm about his shoulder paul sighed i m glad you came but i thought maybe you d lecture me and when you ve com a murder and been brought here and there was a big crowd outside the apartment house all aad the took me it oh i m not going to talk about it ai more but he went on in a insane ble to mm why you got a en your yes that s where the hit me i suppose get a of fun out of too he was a big and they wouldn t jet me help carry down to ae quit it listen she won t die and w en all you and go off to again and maybe we can get that may to go along ill i to and ask her good woman by and afterwards fm see that yon get started in business out west somewhere maybe say that s a lovely city p was half smiling it was who w he could not tell whether paul was but he ov till coming of paul p a busy who nodded at and hinted if and i be alone for a moment wrung p s hands and waited in be office came look man what can i do he begged not a thing not just now said sorry got to and try to see him ive had the doctor give a shot of so he ll sleep it seemed somehow wicked to return to the office felt as though he had just come from a he lifted out to the city hospital to inquire about she was not likely to die he learned the bullet from paid s old jf army had smashed her shoulder and torn upward ami out he wandered home and f his wife with the interest we have in the of our friends of course paul isn t altogether to blame but this is what comes of his chasing after other women instead of bearing his cross in a christian way she was too languid to re as he desired he said what was to be said about the christian bearing of crosses and went out to clean the car patiently he scraped from the pan at the mud on the he used up many minutes in washing his hands them with kitchen soap rejoiced in his damn soft hands like a woman s at dinner when his wife began the inevitable he i forbid any of you to say a word about tend to all the talking about this that s necessary hear me there s going to be one house in this scandal town to night that isn t going to spring the than and throw those filthy evening papers out of the house but he himself read the papers after dinner before nine he set out for the house of lawyer he was received without cordiality well said i want to offer n services in the trial i ve got an idea why couldn t i go on the stand and swear i bs there and she pulled the gun first and he with her and the gun went off accidentally and yes i suppose it would be oh would it help but my dear fellow oh don t be a fool excuse me i didn t mean to get your goat i just mean i ve known and you ve known many and many a case of just to some rotten little piece of real estate and here where it s a case of saving paul from going to prison	42
i d myself black in the face no aside from the of the matter i m afraid it i isn t practicable the would tear your testimony to pieces it s known that only and his wife were there at the time then look here let me go on the stand and swear and this would be the god s truth that she him till he kind of went crazy no sorry absolutely refuses to have any testimony reflecting on his wife he on pleading guilty then let me get up and testify something you say let me do i m sorry but the best thing you can do i hate to say it but you could help us most by keeping strictly out of it revolving his hat like a poor tenant so visibly that condescended i don t like to hurt your feelings but you see we both want to do our best for and we mustn t consider any other the trouble with you is that you re one of these fellows who talk too readily you like to hear your own voice if there were anything for which i could put you in the witness box you d get going and give the whole show away sorry now i must look over some papers so sorry n he spent most of the next morning himself to face the world of the club they would talk about paul they would be lip and rotten but at the table they did not mention paul th r spoke with zeal of the coming season he loved them as he never had before m he had doubtless from some story book pictured paul s trial as a long struggle with arguments a crowd and sudden and new testimony actually the trial occupied less than fifteen minutes filled with the evidence of doctors that would recover and that paul must have temporarily insane next day paul was to three years in the state and taken oflf quite not merely in a tired way beside a cheerful and after saying good by to him at the station returned to his to realize that he faced a world which without paul was chapter was from march to june he t from the bewilderment of thinking his wife and the neighbors were generous every evening be played bridge or attended 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 he was not quite sure what all day long after their departure he thought of the house in which he could if he desired go mad and curse the gods without having to keep up a front he considered i could have a lar party to night stay out tin two and not do any explaining afterwards he to to both of them were engaged for the evening and suddenly he was bored by having to take so much trouble to be he was silent at dinner unusually kindly to ted and hesitating but not when stated her opinion of s opinion of dr john drew s opinion of the opinions of the ted was working in a through the summer and he related his daily triumphs how he had found a cracked what he had said to the old what he had said to the about the future of r 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 newspaper comic to read he up to s room sat on her hue and bed humming and in a solid citizen manner as he examined her books s rescue a volume strangely named figures of earth poetry quite irregular thou by and essays by h l essays making fun of the church and all the he liked none of the books in them h felt a of rebellion against and solid these authors and he supposed they were famous ones did not seem to care about a good story which would enable a fellow to forget his troubles he signed he noted a book the three black by ah that was something like it it would be an adventure story maybe about up on the old house at night he tucked the book under his arm he down stairs and began to read under the piano lamp a twilight like blue dust into the shallow fold of the thickly wooded hills it was early but a frost had already stamped the trees with gold the span i oaks were hung with patches of wine red the was brilliant in the darkening a pattern of wild flying low and above the hills wavered against the serene evening penny standing in the comparative clearing of a road decided that the shifting regular flight would not come dose enough for a shot he had no intention of hunting the with the drooping of day his had an habitual indifference 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 steady of the a demanding and he to the window the summer evening was and seen through the wire screen the street lamps were crosses of pale fire the whole world was while he and ted came in and went to bed silence in the sleeping house he put on his hat his respectable lighted a cigar and walked up and down before the house a worthy figure humming silver threads among the gold he casually considered might call up paul then he he saw paul in a s uniform but while he he didn t believe the tale it was	42
part of the of this fog enchanted evening if she were here would be isn t it late he in forlorn and freedom fog hid the house now the world was a chaos without turmoil or desire through the mist came a man at so feverish a pace that he seemed to dance with fury as he entered the of glow from a street at each step he his stick and brought it down with a crash his glasses on their broad ribbon against his stomach saw that it was stopped his vision and ke with gravity there s another fool george lives for know who i am i m traitor to poetry i m i m talking too much i don t care know what i could ve been i could ve been a field or a james maybe a i could ve to this just made it up glittering noise of and and respectable boys hear that i made that i don t know what it means beginning good verse s garden verses and write i cheer iq poems all could have written too he darted on with an alarming plunge seeming always to pitch forward yet never quite falling would have been no more astonished and no had a ghost out of the fog his head he accepted vast thy he i and straightway forgot him he into the house went to the and it when mrs was at home this was one of the major household crimes he stood before the covered eating a chicken leg and half a of and grumbling over a cold boiled 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 very interesting that he hadn t much pleasure out of making money that it was of doubtful worth to rear children merely that they might rear children who would rear children what was it au about what did he want he into the living room lay on the hands behind his head what did he want wealth social position travel servants yes but only incidentally i give it up he sighed but he did know that he wanted the presence of paul ling and from that he stumbled into the admission that he wanted the fairy girl in the flesh if there had been a woman whom he loved he would have fled to her his forehead on her knees he thought of his miss he thought of the prettiest of the girls at the hotel shop as he fell asleep on the he felt that he had found something in life and that he had made a thrilling break with everything that was decent and normal he had f m next morning that he was a conscious rebel but he was irritable in the office and at the eleven o clock drive of calls and he did he had f desired and never dared he left the office without excuses to those slave drivers his and went to the he enjoyed the t to be alone he came out with a vicious determination to do what he pleased as he approached the table at the everybody ell here s the said yes i saw him in his said professor it must be great to be a smart like moaned he s probably stolen all of i d hate to leave a poor little piece of lying around where he could get his hooks on it they had perceived something on him also ihey had their clothes on ordinarily he would have been delighted at the honor implied in being but he was suddenly he sure maybe take you on as office he was impatient as the jest rolled on to its of course he may have been meeting a girl they said and no i think he was waiting for his old sir he exploded oh ring it ring it you what s the great joke i george is while a grin went the table revealed the shocking truth he had seen coming out of a at noon they it up with a hundred variations a hundred they said that he had gone to the during business hours he didn t so much mind but he was annoyed by that brisk lean red headed of jokes he was too by the of in his g of water it was too large it spun round and burned his nose when he tried to drink he raged that was like that of ice but he won through he t up his till they grew tired of the jest and turned to the great of the day he reflected what s the matter with me to day like i ve got an awful only ihey talk so dam much but i better steer careful and keep my mouth shut as they lighted their cigars he got to get back and on a chorus of if you go spending your mornings with lai at the he escaped he heard them g ng he was embarrassed while he was most agreeing with the coat man that the weather was warm he was conscious that he was long g to run with his troubles to the comfort of the fairy child ni he kept miss after he had finished he searched for a topic which would warm her office into friendliness where you going on your he i think go up state to a farm do you want me to have the lease copied this afternoon oh no hurry about it i suppose you have a great time when you get away from us in the office she rose and gathered her oh nobody s here i think i can get it copied after i do the letters she was gone utterly the view that	42
guests let em look out for i couldn t do that she carelessly tapped his 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 all the time and he in to dance with mrs jones and to avoid and chapter xxiv his visit to paul was as unreal as his night of fog and questioning he went through 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 his uniform of gray paul s face was pale and without expression he moved in response to the guard s he meekly pushed s gifts 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 in the tailor shop the stuff hurts my fingers knew that in this place of death paul was already 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 dealer she must have been forty or forty two but he thought her when he saw her in the office that afternoon she had come to inquire about an apartment and he took her away from the girl he was nervously attracted by her she was a slender woman in a black frock dotted with white a cool looking graceful frock a broad black hat shaded her face her eyes were her soft chin of an agreeable and her an even rose wondered afterward if she was made up but no man living knew less of such arts she sat revolving her violet her voice was appealing without being i wonder if you can help me be delighted i ve locked everywhere and i want a little flat just a bedroom or perhaps two and sitting room 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 so 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 couple of hours in the new apartments had a flat which he had been holding for but at the thought of driving beside this agreeable woman he threw over his friend and with a note of gallantry he proclaimed i h let you see what i can do i he the seat of the car for her and twice he risked death in showing os his driving you do know how to handle a car she said he liked her voice there was he thought music in it and a hint of culture not a like s he boasted you know there s a lot of these fellows that are so scared and drive so slow that they get in everybody s way the safest driver is a that knows how to handle his machine and yet isn t scared to speed up when it s necessary don t you think so oh yes i bet you drive like a oh no i not really of course we had a aa i mean before my husband passed on and i used to make drive it but i don t think any woman ever to drive like a man now there s some mighty good woman drivers h of course these women that try to imitate men and play and and ruin their and spoil their that s so i never did like these females i mean of course i admire them dreadfully and i fed io weak and useless beside them oh rats i bet you play the piano like a oh no i not well bet you do he glanced at her smooth hands her diamond and rings she caught the glance ed her 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 any real training mr used to say i would ve been a good if i d had any training but then i guess he was just flattering me i ll bet he wasn t i i ll bet you ve got t do you like music mr you bet i only i don t know s i care so much for all this stuff oh i i just love and all those do you honest well of course i go to k ts of these but i do like a good right np 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 music i love to dance don t you mr sure you bet not that i m very 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 a indeed i would better be careful or be taking you up on that proposition ill be coming iq to your flat and you give me that lesson te es she was not offended but she was non he warned himself have some sense now you don t go making a fool of yourself again and with he wish i could	42
dance like some of these young fellows but tell you i fed it s a man s place to take a full you might say a share in the world s work and conditions and have something to show for his life don t you think so oh i do and so i have to sacrifice some of the things i might like to tackle though i do by play about as good a game of as the next fellow oh i m sure you do are you married yes and of course official duties i m the vice president of the and i m running one of the of the state association of real estate boards and that means a lot of and responsibility and practically no gratitude for it oh i know public men never do get proper credit they looked at each other with a high degree of mutual respect and at the apartments he ha 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 glad i went to you it s such a privilege to meet a man who really understands oh i the people have showed me a he had a sharp instinctive belief that he could put his arm around her but he himself and with excessive politeness he saw her to the car drove her home all the way back to his office he raged glad i had some sense for once curse it i wish i d tried she s a a a lovely eyes and darling lips and that trim waist never get like some women no no no i she s a real lady one of the brightest little women i ve met these many understands about public topics and but dam it why didn t i try m 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 which exhibited her shoulders and her black he went to the for his hair trim as always he felt at his neighbor 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 i don t own the building these got nothing on me i ll well get my hair cut where i well want to don t want to hear anything more about it i m through standing by people unless i want to it do n t get you anywhere i m through the shop was in the of the hotel largest and most modern hotel in marble steps with a rail of polished brass led from the hotel down to the shop the interior a s was of black and white and crimson with a ceiling of gold and a fountain in which a massive h forever en tied a scarlet forty and nine girls worked desperately 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 chairs and a table heaped with magazines s porter was an gray haired negro who did him an honor highly esteemed in the land of greeted him by name yet was unhappy his bright particular girl was engaged she was doing the nails of an man and with him hated him he thought of waiting but to stop the powerful system of the was and he was instantly into a chair about him was luxury rich and delicate one was having a violet ray treatment the next an oil boys wheeled 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 shelf facing the chairs were of and and it was flattering to to have t ra personal slaves at once the and the he would have been completely happy if he could also have had the girl the at his hair and asked his opinion of the de grace races the season and mayor the yoimg negro the camp meeting and polished in to his tune drawing the shiny shoe rag so at each stroke that it snapped like a string the was an excellent he made feel rich and important by his manner of inquiring what is your favorite sir have you time to day sir a for a your is a little t shall i give you a s best thrill was in the the made his hair with thick soap then as bent over the bowl bed in it hot which along his and at last ran the water ice cold at the shock the sudden burning cold on his skull s heart his chest heaved and his was an electric wire it was a sensation which broke the monotony of life be looked about the as he sat up the rubbed his wet hair and bound it in a as in a so that a plump pink on an ingenious and throne the begged in the manner of one who was a good fellow yet was the of the how about a little oil	42
rub sir very to the sir didn t i give you one the last time he hadn t but agreed all right with eagerness he saw that his girl was free i don t know i guess have a after all he and excitedly watched her coming dark haired smiling tender 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 peep at her while she filed his nails and the shaved him and on his burning all the which the pleasant minds of have devised through the revolving ages when the was done and he sat opposite the girl at her table he admired the marble of it admired the sunken set bowl with its tiny silver t s and admired for being able to frequent so costly a place when she with drew his wet hand from the bowl it was so sensitive from the warm water that he was aware of the da of her firm little he delighted in the and ness of her nails her hands seemed to him more than mrs s thin fingers and more elegant he had a certain ecstasy in the pain when she at the of his nails with a sharp knife he struggled not to look at the outline of her young bosom and her shoulders the more apparent under a of pink he was conscious of her as an exquisite thing and when he tried to in his person on her he as awkward as a country boy at bis first party well hot to be working to day oh yes it is hot you cut your own nails last time didn t you i ye es guess i must ve you always ought to go to a yes maybe that s so i there s nothing looks so nice as nails that are looked after good i always think that s the best way to spot a real there was an in here yesterday that claimed you could always tell a fellow s class by the car he drove but i says to him don t be silly i says the a look at a fellow s nails when they want to if he s a or a real yes maybe there s something to that course that is with a pretty r like you a man t help coming to get his done i may be a kid but i m a wise bird and i know nice folks when i see um i can read character at a glance and i d never talk so frank with a fellow if i couldn t see he was a nice fellow she smiled her eyes seemed to him as gentle as april pools with great he informed himself that there were some who would think that just because a girl was a girl and maybe not awful well educated she was no good but as for him he was a and understood people and he stood by the assertion that this was a a good girl but not too good he inquired in a voice quick with i suppose you have a lot of fellows who try to get with you say do ii say listen there s some of these cigar store x that think because a girl s in a shop they can get away with anything the things they but believe me i know how to hop those birds i i just give um the north and south and ask um say who do you think you re talking to and they fade away like love s young nightmare and oh don t you want a box of nail it will the nails as shiny as when first harmless to apply and lasts for days sure i ll try some say say it s funny i ve been coming here ever since the shop opened and with arch surprise i don t believe i know your name i don t you my that s funny i 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 my 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 i guess you mean who s telling this and he said he knew my papa s papa s folks in and they had a big house right on a doubtfully maybe you don t believe it sure no really sure i do why not don t think i m you honey but every time i ve noticed you i ve said to myself that kid has blue blood in her veins did you honest honest i did well well come on now we re what s the darling little name it ain t so much a much of a name i always say to ma i say ma why didn t you name me or something with some class to it ell now i think it s a name i bet i know your name i well now not necessarily of course oh it isn t so specially known aren t you mr that travels the kitchen ko i am not i i m mr the real estate i oh excuse oh of course you mean here in ith with the of one whose feelings have been hurt oh sure i ve read your they re swell um well you might have read about my speeches course i have i i don t get much time to read but i guess you think i m an awfully silly little i think you re a little well	42
there s one nice thing about this job it gives a girl a chance to meet some awfully nice gentlemen and improve her mind with conversation and you get so you can read a s character at the first glance look here please don t think i m getting fresh he was hotly reflecting that it would be humiliating to be rejected by this child and dangerous to be accepted if he took her to dinner if he were seen by friends but he went on don t think i m getting fresh if i suggest it would be nice for us to go out and have a little dinner together some evening i don t know as i ought to but my gentleman friend s always wanting to take me out but maybe i could to night iv there was no reason he assured himself why he shouldn t have a quiet dinner with a poor girl who would benefit by association with an educated and mature person like a but lest some one see them and not understand he would take her to s inn on the outskirts of the city th would have a pleasant drive this hot lonely evening and he might hold her hand no he wouldn t even do that was her bare shoulders showed it only too dearly but he d be hanged if he d make love to her merely she e q it then his car broke down something had hai to the and he to have the car this evening furiously he tested the q ark stared at the his did not seem to stir the sulky car and in disgrace it was hauled off to a with a renewed thrill he thought of a there was something at once wealthy and wicked about a but when he met her on a comer two blocks from the hotel she said a why i thought you owned a do of course i do but it s out of commission tonight oh she remarked as one who had heard that tale before all the way out to s inn he tried to talk as an old friend but he could not pierce the wall of her words with interminable indignation e her to that fresh head and the things she would do to him if he persisted in saying that she was better at than at at s inn they were unable to get an to drink the head waiter refused to understand who george f was they sat steaming before a vast mixed and made conversation about when he tried to hold s hand she said with bright friendliness careful i that fresh waiter is but they came out into a treacherous summer night the air lazy and a little moon above t a her k l i u be t t of h im on i nice ami it ms a m of a all th a w i j he held t j da i at she be wm l i sense of and transition be w she to his kiss they two i tbe her hat and she broke in b ti for it ob let it be i be implored my hat not a he waited tiu she had a tl about her she drew may ii m i i soothing now t be x w j t fit t ck o x ur it is h a good i j m oi m c w f he ou i i i as to her i o ft in he p a a i t s drive some other place where we can get a drink and dance he demanded sure some other night but i promised ma i d be home early to night rats it s too nice to go home i d just love to but ma would give me fits he was trembling she was everything that was young and exquisite he put his arm about her she against his shoulder and he was then she ran down the steps of the inn singing come on well have a nice drive and get cool it was a night of lovers all along the highway into under the low and gentle moon wore and dim figures were in he held out hungry hands to and when she patted them he was grateful there was no sense of struggle and transition he kissed her and simply she responded to his kiss they two behind the stolid back of the her hat fell off and she broke from his embrace to reach for it oh let it be he implored my hat not a he waited till she had pinned it on then his arm sank about her she drew away from it and said with maternal soothing now don t be a silly boy mustn t make just sit back and see what a swell night it is if you re a good boy maybe i ll kiss you when we say night now give me a he was about lighting her and inquiring as to her comfort then he sat as far from her as possible he was cold with failure no one could have told that he was a fool with more vigor precision and intelligence than he himself displayed he reflected that from the of the rev dr john drew he was a wicked man and from the of miss an old bore who had to be endured as the penalty attached to eating a large dinner yon aren t	42
sleep under the stars be a regular man with he like joe paradise a so he came to again stood on the wharf before the can again into the and shivering water while the pines the mountains glowed and a leaped and fell in a sliding circle he hurried to the guides as to his real home his real friends long missed they would be glad to see him they would stand up and shout here s mr he ain t one of these ordinary sports i he s a real in their and rather cabin the guides sat about the greasy table playing with greasy cards half a dozen wrinkled men in old s and easy old felt hats they glanced up and nodded joe paradise the man with the big how do back again silence except for the clatter of stood beside them very lonely he hinted after a period of highly concentrated playing guess i might take a hand joe sure sit in how many you want let s see you were here with your wife last year wa n t you said joe paradise that was all of s welcome to the old home he played for half an hour before he again his head was with the smoke of pipes and cheap cigars and he was weary of pairs and four of the way in which they ignored him he flung at joe working now like to guide me for a few days well soon i ain t engaged till next week only thus did joe recognize the friendship was offering him paid up his losses and left the rather joe raised his head from the of smoke like a seal ri ng from surf come round t morrow and down to his three a in his cabin fragrant with of pine nor along the lake nor in the sunset clouds which presently behind the mountains could find the spirit of paul as a presence he was so lonely that after supper he stopped to talk with an ancient old lady a gasping and steadily old lady by the stove in the hotel office he told her of ted s future triumphs in the state university and of s remarkable till he was for the home he had left forever through the darkness through that northern pine walled silence he down to the lake front and found a there wore 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 hotel and the cottages became yellow a cluster of glow 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 from the of being mr george f of and freed his heart now he was conscious of the presence of paul fancied him rescued from prison from and the brisk of the business playing his at the end of the he vowed i will go on i never go now that paul s out of it i don t want to see any of those damn people again i was a fool to get sore because joe paradise didn t jump up and 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 on the trail i that s real living iv joe reported at s cabin at nine the next morning greeted him as a fellow well joe how d you fed about the trail and getting away from these dam soft and these women and au all right mr what do you say we go over to box car pond th tell me the there isn t being used and camp out well all right mr but it s nearer to pond and you can get just about as good fishing there no i want to get into the real weu all right e u put the old on our backs and get into the woods and really i think maybe it would be easier to go by water through lake we can go all the way by boat boat with an no sir bust up the quiet with a not on your you just throw a pair of in the old pack and tell em what you want for eats ill be ready soon s you are most of the i go by boat mr it s a long walk look here joe are you to walking oh no i guess i can do it but i haven t that far for sixteen years most of the sports go by boat but i can do it if you say so i guess joe walked away in sadness had recovered from his wrath before joe returned he pictured him as warming up and telling the most entertaining stories but joe had not yet warmed up when they took the trail he persistently kept behind and much his shoulders ached from the pack however sorely he panted could hear his guide panting equally but the trail was satisfying a path brown with pine needles and with roots among the the the sudden groves of white he became again and rejoiced in when he stopped to rest he chuckled guess we re it up pretty good for a o old birds eh admitted joe this is a mighty pretty place look you can see the lake down through the trees i tell you joe you don t appreciate how lucky you are to live in woods like this instead of a with rs grinding and and people the life out of you all the i wish i knew the woods like you do say what s	42
the name of that little red flower rubbing his back joe regarded the flower well some folks call it one thing and some calls it another i always just call it pink flower ceased thinking as ing turned into blind he was in weariness his legs seemed to go on by without guidance and he mechanically wiped away the sweat which stung his eyes he was too tired to be glad as after a mile of road through a swamp where flies hovered over 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 erect he lay beneath an ample tree near the guest and felt running his veins he awoke toward dusk to find joe cooking bacon and eggs and for supper and his admiration of the returned he sat on a stump and felt joe what would you do if you had a lot of money you stick to guiding or would you take a back in the woods and be independent of people for the first time joe brightened he his a second and i ve thou t of that if i had the money i d go down to s falls and open a shoe store per joe proposed a game of but refused with and joe went to bed at ei t sat on the stump facing the dark pond save the guide there was no other human being within ten miles he was than he had ever been in his life then he was in he was worrying as to whether miss wasn t paying too much for paper he was at once and missing the persistent at the table he 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 satisfied with just settling down i won t i i won t go back i ll be fifty in three years sixty in thirteen years i m going to have some fun before it s too late i don t care i i will he thought of of of that nice widow what was her name the one for whom he d found the flat he was in imaginary conversations then i can t seem to get away from thinking about folks thus it came to him merely to run away was folly because he could never run away from himself that moment he started for in his journey there was no appearance of flight but he was and four days afterward he 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 his di that he could never run away from and family and office because in his own brain he bore the office and the family and every street and and illusion of but i m going to oh i m going to start he vowed and he tried to make it chapter xxvi as he walked through the train looking for familiar faces he saw only on person whom he knew and that was the lawyer who after the blessings of being in s own class at college and of becoming a had turned had headed farmer labor tickets and with admitted thou he was in rebellion naturally did not care to be seen talking with such a but in all the he could find no other acquaintance and reluctantly he halted was a slight thin haired man rather like except that he hadn t s grin he was reading a book called the way of all flesh it looked religious to and he wondered if could possibly have been converted and turned decent and patriotic why he said looked up his voice was curiously kind oh i how do been away eh yes i ve been in washington washington eh how s the old government making out it s won t you sit down thanks don t care if i do well been quite a while since i ve had a good chance to talk to you i was sorry you didn t turn at the last class dinner thanks how s the coming going to run for mayor again seemed restless he was the pages of his book he said i mi t as though it didn t mean anything in particular and he smiled liked that smile and hunted for conversation saw a bang iq in new york the good morning bunch at the hotel yes they re pretty girls i danced there one oh like dancing naturally i like dancing and pretty women and good food better than anything else in the world most men do but i thought you fellows wanted to take all the good eats and everything away from us no not at all what i d like to see is the meetings of the garment workers held at the with a dance afterward isn t that reasonable mi t be good idea all right shame i haven t seen more of you recent years oh say hope you haven t held it against me my you as going on the stump for you see i m an republican and i kind of there s no reason why you shouldn t fight me i have no doubt you re good for the i remember in college you were an unusually liberal sensitive chap 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 fight the rich and i remember i said i was going	42
to be one of the rich myself and buy paintings and live at i m sure inspired us all well well i ve always aimed to be liberal was shy and proud and self conscious he tried to look like the boy he had been a quarter century ago and he shone upon his old friend as he trouble with a lot of these fellows even the live wires and some of em that think they re forward looking is they aren t broad minded and liberal now i always believe in giving the other fellow a chance and listening to his ideas that s fine tell you how i figure it a little opposition is good for ah of us so a fellow especially if he s a business man and engaged in doing the work of the ought to be liberal i always say a ought to have vision and i guess some of the fellows in my business think i m pretty visionary i just let em think what they want to and go right on same as you do by this is nice to have chance to sit and visit and kind of you might say brush up on our but of course we do rather get beaten doesn t it bother you not a bit i nobody can dictate to me what i think i you re the man i want to help me i want you to talk to 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 preacher that got kicked out of the church isn t he and free love and this explained was indeed the general conception of but he himself saw as a priest of the brotherhood of man of which was an so would keep his acquaintances from and his forlorn little church you bet i call down any of the boys i hear getting funny about said affectionately to his dear friend warmed up and became he spoke of student days in germany of for single tax in washington of labor he mentioned his friends lord colonel professor had always supposed that associated only with the i w w but now he nodded gravely as one who knew lord by the score and he got in two s to sir he felt daring and and suddenly in his new spiritual grandeur he was sorry for and understood her as these ordinary at the never could five hours after he had arrived in and told his wife h hot it was in new york he went to call on he was with ideas and forgiveness he d get paul released he d do things vague but highly benevolent things for he d be as generous as his friend he had not seen since paul had shot her and he still pictured her as high colored lively and a little as he drove up to her boarding house in a back street below the district he stopped in discomfort at an upper window leaning on her elbow was a woman with the features of but she was and aged like a of old paper into wrinkles where had and this woman was dreadfully still he waited half an hour before she came into the parlor fifty times he opened the book of photographs of the world s fair of fifty times he looked at the picture of the court of honor he was startled to find in the room she wore a black gown which she had tried to with a of crimson ribbon the ribbon had been torn and patiently mended he noted this carefully because he did not wish to look at her one shoulder was lower than the other one arm she carried in fashion as though it were and behind a high collar of cheap lace there was a in the neck which had once been shining and softly plump o yes she said well old by it s good to see you again he can send his messages through a lawyer why rats i didn t come just because of him came as an old friend you waited long enough well you know how it is figured you wouldn t want to see a friend of his for quite some time and sit down honey let s be sensible we ve all of us done a of things that we hadn t ought to but maybe we can sort of start over again honest i d like to do something to make you both happy know what i thought to day mind you paul doesn t know a thing about this doesn t know i was going to come see you i got to thinking s a fine big hearted woman and she ll understand that paul s had his lesson now why wouldn t it be a fine idea if you asked the governor to pardon him believe he would if it came from you wait i just think how good you d fed if you were generous yes i wish to be generous she was sitting speaking for that reason i wish to keep him in prison as an example to evil i ve gotten religion george since the terrible thing that man did to me sometimes i used to be unkind and i wished for worldly pleasures for the but when i was in the hospital the of the communion faith used to come to see me and he showed me right from the written in the word of god that the day of judgment is coming and all the members of the older churches are going straight to eternal because th r only do lip service and swallow the world the flesh and the devil for fifteen wild minutes she talked pouring out tions to flee the wrath to come and	42
her face flushed her dead y ice something of the shrill energy of ae old a she wound up with a furious it s the blessing of god himself that paul should be in prison now and torn and by punishment so that he may yet save his soul and so other wicked men these horrible after women and lust may have an le had and twisted as in church he dared not move during the sermon so now he felt that he must seem attentive though her flew past him like birds he sought to be calm and yes i know but it certainly is the essence of religion to be charitable isn t it let me tell you how i figure it what we need in the world is liberality if we re going to get anywhere i ve always believed in being broad minded and liberal you liberal it was very much the old why george you re about as broad minded and liberal as a blade i oh i am am ii well just let me tell you me tell you i m as by liberal as you are religious you religious i i am our says i sustain him in the faith i i u bet you do i with paul s money i but just to show you how liberal i am i m going to send a check for ten to this because a lot of fellows are saying toe poor and free love and they re trying to run him out of town and they re right they ought to run him out of town i why he if you can call it preaching in a in the house of satan you don t know what it is to find god to find peace to behold the that the devil out for our feet oh i m so glad to see the mysterious purposes of god in having paul harm me and stop my wickedness and paul s getting his good and plenty for the things he did to me and i hope he dies in prison was up hat in hand growling well if that s what o you call being at peace for heaven s sake just warn me before you go to war will you in vast is the power of cities to the wanderer more than mountains or the shore devouring sea a city its character cynical holding behind apparent changes its essential purpose though had deserted his family and dwelt with joe paradise in the wilderness though he had become a liberal though he had been quite sure on the night before he reached that neither he nor the city would be the same again ten days after his return he could not believe that he had ever been away nor was it at all evident to his acquaintances that there was a new george f save that he was more irritable imder the incessant at the club and once when 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 delighted by s new red o and announced no class to that iron have to build me a nice frame one appeared really to be engaged in his newspaper had conducted a pure food against commission houses as a result he had been given an excellent job in a commission house and he was making a salary on which he could marry and who wrote stories commission houses without knowing what they were talking about this september ted had entered the state university as s in the college of arts and the was at only fifteen miles from and ted often came down for the week end was worried ted was going in for everything but books he had tried to make the team as a light half back he was forward to the basket ball season he was on the committee for the hop and as a z an among the he was being rushed by two but of his studies could learn nothing save a oh these old of teachers just give you a lot of about literature and one week end ted proposed say why can t i transfer over from the college to the school of and take mechanical you always that i never study but honest i would study there no the school hasn t got the standing the college has fretted i d like to know how it hasn t the can play on any of the i there was much e q of the dollars and cents value of being 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 you always said this was a nut i 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 inspired him just because he s sympathetic 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 laboring men or up to a real fellow like lord and get invited to his house for parties io sighed ted the next week end he came in with say why couldn t i take instead of the course you talk	42
about standing maybe there isn t in mechanical the s they got seven out of eleven in the new to chapter the strike turned into two and red began late in with a walk out of girls and in protest against a of wages the newly formed union of workers went out partly in s and partly in demand for a f ji ty four hour week they were followed by the union industry was tied up and the whole city was nervous with talk of a strike a strike a general strike furious citizens trying to get calls through strike breaking girls danced helplessly every that made its way from the to the freight stations was guarded by a policeman tr to look beside the driver a line of fifty from the z steel and machinery company was attacked by crushing out from the pulling drivers from the seats and while girls cheered from the walk and small boys heaved bricks the national guard was ordered out colonel who in private life was mr secretary of the company put on a long coat and stalked crowds a in hand even s friend drum the shoe merchant a round and merry man who told stories at the club and who strangely resembled a dog was to be seen as a but ferocious captain with his belt tight about his comfortable little belly and his round little mouth as he to chattering groups on corners move on there i can t have any of this every new per in the city save one was against the when the news stands at each was stationed a a young embarrassed citizen soldier with eye glasses or clerk in private life trying to look dangerous while small boys get de tin soldier i and striking drivers inquired tenderly say joe when i was fighting in france was you in camp in the states or was you doing exercises in the y m c a be careful of that now or you ll cut yourself there was no one in who talked of anything but the strike and no one who did not take sides you were either a courageous friend of labor or you were a fearless of the rights of property and in either case you were and ready to any friend who did not hate the enemy a milk plant was set each side 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 ought to be shot he was sorry when his friend defended arrested and he thought of going to and explaining about these but when he read a that even on their former wages the girls had been hungry he was troubled all lies and figures he said but in a doubtful for the sunday after the road church announced a sermon by dr john drew on how the would end strikes had been about church going lately but he went to the service hopeful that dr drew really did have the information as to what the divine powers thought about strikes beside in the large glossy was whispered hope the gives the hell i ordinarily i don t believe in a preacher into political matters let him stick to straight religion and save souls and not sur a lot of discussion but at a time like this i do think he ought to stand right up and out those to a fare you 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 city these past days there has been a great deal of loose talk about scientific of scientific scientific f now let me tell you that the most thing in the world is science take the attacks on the established of the christian creed which were so popular with 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 of his simple faith is just a pitying and now these same want to replace the natural condition of free competition by crazy systems which no matter by what high names they are called are nothing but a naturally i m not labor courts against men to be striking or those excellent in which the men and the get together but i certainly am the s in which the free and of independent labor is to be replaced by cooked iq scales and and government and labor and all that what is not generally understood is tbat this ii trial matter isn t a question of it s essential and a matter of love and of the practical application of the christian imagine a factory instead of of workmen the the goes among them smiling and they smile back the elder brother and the younger brothers that s what they must be loving brothers and then strikes would be as inconceivable as hatred in the it was at this point that muttered oh said c he doesn t know what he s talking about it s just as dear as mud it doesn t mean a dam thing maybe looked at him doubtfully through all the service kept at him till was nervous the had announced a parade for tuesday morning but colonel had forbidden it the newspapers said when drove west from his at ten that morning	42
he saw a drove of shabby men heading toward the tangled dirty district beyond court house square he hated them because they were poor because they made him fed damn i wouldn t be common workmen if they had any he con he wondered if there was going to be a riot he drove toward the starting point of the parade a of limp and faded grass known as street park and halted his car the park and streets were with young men in blue shirts old men with caps through them them stirred like a boiling pot moved the could hear the soldiers monotonous orders keep moving move on keep your feet admired their stolid good temper the crowd shouted tin and dirty dog servants of the r but the grinned and answered only sure that t keep moving i over the soldiers hated the were the pleasant ways of admired s contempt for the crowd and as c q tain drum that rather shoe dealer came raging by re great work captain don t let em he watched the the park of them bore with they can t our walking the tore away the but the in behind their leaders and strayed off a thin between lines of soldiers saw with that there wasn t going to be any violence nothing interesting at all then he among the beside a workman was smiling content in front of him was professor head of the history department in the state university an old man and bearded known to come from a distinguished family why a swell like him in with the and good they re to get mixed iq with this bunch they re parlor but they have got nerve and nothing in it for them not a cent and i don t know s off the look like such tough nuts look just about like anybody else to me the were turning the parade down a side street they got just as much right to march as anybody they own the streets as much as drum or the american does grumbled of course they re they re a bad element but oh rats i at the was silent during lunch while the others fretted i don t know what the world s coming to or their spirits with captain drum came swinging by splendid in how s it going captain inquired oh we got em stopped we worked em off on side streets and separated em and they got discouraged and went home fine work no violence fine work groaned mr drum if i had my way there d be a whole lot of violence and i d start it and then the whole thing would be over i don t believe in standing back and wet nursing these fellows and letting the drag on i you these are nothing in god s world but a lot of throwing and and the only way to handle em is with a i that s what i d do beat up the whole lot of em heard himself saying oh rats they look just about like you and me and i certainly didn t notice any drum complained oh you didn t eh well maybe you d like to take charge of the strike just tell colonel what the are he d be glad to hear about it drum strode on while all the table stared at what s the idea do you want us to give those love and kisses or what said jones do you defend a lot of that are trying to take the bread and butter away from our families raged professor said nothing he put on st n like a mask his jaw was hard his short hair seemed cruel his silence was a ferocious thunder while the others assured that they must have misunderstood liim looked as though he had understood only too a judge he listened to s no sure course 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 fine italian hand and that s why he s colonel drum is jealous of him well said professor you hurt s feelings 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 watched and knew that he was being watched ni as he was leaving the heard protesting to on 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 vaguely frightened iv he saw a crowd listening to a man who was talking from the of a kitchen chair he stopped his car from newspaper pictures he knew that the speaker must be the notorious preacher of whom had spoken was a gaunt man with hair weather beaten cheeks and worried eyes he was pleading if those girls can hold out living on one meal a day doing their own washing starving and smiling you big men ought to be able saw that from the was watching him in vague he started the car and me i drove on while s hostile eyes seemed to follow him all the way there s a lot of these fellows was complaining to his wife that think if workmen go on strike they re a regular 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 why we can t fight like gentlemen and not go calling em dirty dogs and saying they ought to be shot down why george she said placidly i thought you always insisted that	42
all to be put in jail i never did well i mean some of em of course leaders but i mean a fellow ou t to be and liberal about things like but i thought you always said these so called liberal people were the worst of rats i woman never can understand the different of a word depends on how you mean it and it don t 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 for profits george if people were to hear you talk like that of course i know you i what a wild y boy you were i know you don t mean a word you say but if people that didn t understand you were to hear you talking they d think you were a regular i what do i care what anybody thinks and let me you right now i want you to distinctly understand i never was a wild crazy kid and when i say a thing i mean it and i 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 up to bed now have you enough covers for to night on the sleeping porch he puzzled she doesn t understand 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 things over with him suppose saw me going in there i wish i knew some really smart woman and nice that would see what i m to get at and let me talk to her and i wonder if s ri t could the fellows think i ve gone just because i m broad minded and liberal way looked at chapter miss came into his private office at three in the afternoon with mr there s a mrs on the wants to see about some and the are all out want to talk to her au right the voice of was clear and pleasant the black of the seemed to hold a tiny animated image of her eyes delicate nose gentle chin this is mrs do you remember me you drove ne up here to the apartments and helped me find a nice flat bet i remember what can i do for you why it s just a i don t know that i ought to bother you but the doesn t 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 glad sure ill come up and take a look at it nervously when do you expect to be in why i m in every morning be in this afternoon in an hour or so ye es perhaps i could give you a of tea i think i ought to after all your trouble fine ill run up there soon as i can get away he meditated now there s a woman that s got refinement class after all your trouble give you a cup of tea she d appreciate a fellow i m a fool but i m not such a bad get to know me and not so much a fool as they think the great strike was over the beaten except that seemed less cordial there were no visible effects of s treachery to the dan the oppressive fear of criticism was gone but a loneliness remained now he was so that to prove he wasn t he about the office for fifteen minutes looking at blue prints e q to miss that this mrs scott wanted more money for 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 house raise when he had thus established himself as a person and interested only in business he sauntered out he took a particularly long time to start his car he kicked the the glass of the and the holding the wind shield spot light he drove happily off toward the district conscious of the presence of mrs as of a brilliant light on the horizon the leaves had fallen and th lined the of the 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 lots needs up needs the touch that people like mrs could give a place he as he rattled through the long crude airy streets the wind rose keen and in a blaze of well he came to the flat of she was wearing when she admitted him a frock of black cut modestly round at the base of her pretty throat she seemed to him immensely he glanced at the and colored prints in living room and you ve fixed the place nice takes a clever woman to know how to make a home all right i you really like it i m so g but you ve neglected me you promised to come some time and learn to dance rather but you didn t mean it seriously i s not but you might have tried well here i ve come for my lesson and you just as wed prepare to have me stay for they both laughed in a manner which	42
indicated that of course he didn t mean it but first i guess i better look at that she with him to the flat roof of the a detached world of wooden walks water in a he at things with his toe and sought to impress her by being learned about copper the of passing pipes through a lead and sleeve and flashing them with copper and the advantages of over iron for you have to know so much in real estate she admired he promised that the roof should be repaired within two days do you mind my from your apartment he asked heavens he stood a moment at the looking over a land of hard little with large and new apartment houses small but brave with brick walls and beyond them was a hill with a of yellow clay like a vast wound behind every apartment house beside each dwelling were small it was a world of good little people comfortable industrious in the light the flat was and the air was a sun tinted pool it s one fine afternoon you get a great view here right up s hill said yes isn t it nice and q en so dam few people ai a view don t you go raising my rent on that account oh that was naughty of i was just seriously though there are so few who nd who to views i mean ihey haven t any feeling of poetry and beauty that s a fact th r haven t he breathed admiring her and the absorbed airy way in which she looked toward the hill chin lifted lips smiling well guess i d better the so they ll get on the job first thing in the morning when he had making it and and masculine he looked doubtful and sighed s pose i d better oh you must have that cup of tea first i well it would go pretty good at that it was luxurious to in a deep green chair his legs thrust out before him to glance at the black chinese stand and the colored photograph of mount which he had always liked so much while in the tiny kitchen so near mrs sang my queen in an intolerable sweetness a contentment so deep that he 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 up at her this is awfully nice for 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 were so kind helping me to find this little home they agreed that the weather would soon turn cold agreed that was they a 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 they were not shocked by such frank speaking ventured i know you ll i i don t quite know how to say it but i do think that girls who pretend they re bad by the way they dress never go any farther th give away the fact that they haven t the instincts of a womanly woman remembering the girl and how ill she had used him agreed with enthusiasm remembering how ill all the world had used him he 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 no reason for not seeing their side for a fellow s own sake he s got to be broad minded and liberal don t you think so oh i do sitting on the hard little couch she ed her hands beside her leaned toward him absorbed him and in a glorious state of being appreciated he proclaimed so i up and said to the fellows at the club look here i do you belong to the union club i think it s no the tell you course th re always asking me to join the union but i always say no sir nothing doing i don t mind the expense but i can t stand all the old oh yes that s so but tell me what did you say to them oh you don t want to hear it i m probably you to death with my troubles you wouldn t hardly think i was an old i sound like a kid oh you re a boy yet i mean you can t be a day over forty five well i m not much but by i begin to fed middle aged sometimes all these and all oh i know her voice him it him like warm silk and i feel lonely so lonely some days mr s we re a sad pair of birds but i think pretty dam nice yes i we re lots than most people i they smiled but please tell me what you said at the it was like this course is a friend of mine they can say what they want to they can call him anything they please but what most folks here don t know is that is the bosom of some of the biggest in the world lord you know this big british nobleman my friend sir told me that lord is one of the biggest guns in england well or somebody told me do you know sir the one that was here at the him well say i know him just well enough so we call each other george and and we got so together in	42
wife without the fact being known before nightfall in every house in your circle but was beautifully discreet however she might turn to him when they were alone she was gravely detached when they were abroad and he hoped that she would be taken for a jones once saw them emerging from a and let me make you with mrs now here s a lady who knows the right to come to mr jones though he was a man of morals and of machinery seemed satisfied his fear not from any especial fondness for her but from the habit of propriety was that his wife would learn of the a fair he was certain that she knew nothing specific about but he 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 sight of his wife s slack by her and of flesh by the tattered which she was meaning and always forgetting to throw away but he was aware that she so long to him caught all his he heavily tried to check them he couldn t they had a tolerable christmas 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 suspiciously he wondered what the boy was planning and was too shy to ask himself slipped away on christmas afternoon to take his present a box to when he returned mrs asked much too did you go out for a little fresh air yes just drive he after new year s his wife proposed i heard from my sister to day george she isn t well i think perhaps i ought to go stay with her for a few weeks now mrs was not accustomed to leave home during the winter except on violently demanding occasions and only the summer before she had been gone for weeks nor was one of the husbands who take casually he liked to have her there she looked after his clothes she knew how his t to be cooked and her made him feel secure but he could not drum up even a dutiful oh she doesn t really need you does she while he tried to look he felt that his wife watching him he was filled with visions of do you think i d go she said you ve got to decide honey i can t she turned away g and his forehead was she went four days later she was curiously still he affectionate her train left at noon as he saw it grow small beyond the train shed he longed to hurry to wo by i won t do that he vowed t won t go near her for a but he was at her flat at four in he who had once controlled or seemed to control his life in a progress but and sane was for that t borne on a current of desire and very bad and all the of new acquaintances those furious new who demand so much more attention than old friends each morning he gloomily recognized his of the evening before with his head throbbing his tongue and lips from he counted the number of drinks he had taken and groaned i got to he had ceased sa i quit i for however resolute he t be at dawn he could not for a single 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 adopted as a member of her which they called the bunch he first met them after a day when he had worked particularly hard and when he hoped to be quiet with and slowly her admiration from down the hall he could hear and the grind of a as opened the door he saw fantastic figures dancing in a haze of smoke the tables and chairs were against the wall oh isn t this i she at him had the loveliest idea she decided it was time for a party and she the bunch and told em to gather round george this is was in the less desirable a of both at once and she was perhaps forty her hair was an ash and if her chest was flat her were ponderous she greeted with a welcome to our little midst sa r you re a real sport he was apparently e q to dance to be boyish and g y with and he did his best he h about the room into other couples into the into chair legs as he danced be surveyed the rest of the bunch a thin young woman who looked capable conceited and sarcastic another woman whom he could never quite remember three and slightly young men fountain clerks or at least bom for that profession a man of his own age immovable self satisfied of s presence when he had finished his dutiful dance took him aside and begged dear wouldn t you like to do something for me i m all out of and the bunch want to couldn t you just down to s and get sure he said not to sound sullen tell you get to drive down with you was pointing to the thin sarcastic young woman miss greeted him with an how d you do mr tells me you re a very prominent man and vm honored by being allowed to drive with you of course i m not accustomed to with society people you so i don t know how to act in such exalted circles i thus miss	42
was an eternal their life was by t of and kisses they and their set worked all the week and all week looked forward to saturday night when they would as they expressed it throw a party and the thrown party grew and no ia up to sunday dawn and usually included an extremely rapid x expedition to nowhere in particular one evening when was at the found himself being lively with the with men whom he had for years to mrs as a rotten bunch of tin that i wouldn t go out with not if they were the last people on earth evening he had come home and about in front of the house off the walk the ice like made by the steps of by during the recent snow tame up still a george cold again to ni t what do you hear from the she s fine but her sister is still pretty sick say better come in and have dinner with us to t george oh oh thanks have to go out suddenly he could not endure s of the more interesting about totally uninteresting problems he scraped at the walk and sam appeared working hard exercise cold enough for you to night just about still a say while she s away i know you don t care much for fights but the and i d be awfully glad if you could come in some night think you could stand a good for once stand it young i bet old george can mix the best in these united states i that s the way to look here there s some folks coming to the house to night and some other live ones and i m going to open up a bottle of pre war gin and maybe well dance a while why don t you drop in and it up a little just for a change 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 mr sam old at they all 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 merely made love and dropped her head on his shoulder told him what a was and accepted as a decent and well trained with the assistance of s the and other companions in there was not an evening for two we when he did not return home late and with his other faculties he yet had the s gift of being able to drive when he could scarce walk of down at comers and allowing for approaching cars he came into the house if and were about he got past them with a hasty greeting horribly aware ef their level young glances and hid himself up stairs he found when he came into the warm house that he was than he had believed his head whirled he dared not lie down he 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 soap dish with a clatter which he feared would betray him to the children chilly in his dressing gown he tried to read the evening paper he could follow word he seemed to take in the sense of things but a minute afterward he could not have told what he had been reading when he went to bed his brain flew in circles and he hastily sat up struggling for self control at last he was able to lie still feeling only a little sick and and ashamed to hide his condition from his own children to have danced and shouted with whom he despised to have said foolish things sung songs tried to kiss silly girls he re that he had by his roaring familiarity with them laid himself open 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 women as it came back to him he i hate myself god how i hate myself but he raged vm through no more had enough plenty he was even about it the morning after when he was trying to be grave and paternal with his daughters at break s a fast at he was less sure he did not deny that he had been a fool he saw it almost as clearly as at mid t but anything he struggled was better than going back to a life of barren at four he wanted a drink he t a in his desk now and after two minutes of battle he had his drink three drinks later he began to see the bunch as tender and amusing friends and by six he was with than and the tale was to be told all over each morning his head ached a little less a bad head fm drinks had been his but the was presently he could be drunk at dawn yet not fed par wretched in his conscience or in his stomach he awoke at t no regret no desire to escape the toil of ing up with the merriment of the bunch was so great as his feeling of social inferiority when he failed to keep up to be the of them was as much his ambition sow as it had been to at making money at at driving at at climbing to the set but occasionally he failed he foimd that and the other young men considered the bunch too polite and the who kissed behind doors too as from heights down to the bunch so the young from the of the bunch off to with young	42
sound thinking to make a conscious effort to keep these fellows some back east has organized a society called the good citizens league for just that pose of course the of commerce and the and ao on do a fine work in the decent people ib the saddle but th re devoted to so many other causes that they can attend to this one problem properly but the good league the g c l they stick right to it oh the g c l has to have some other purposes f here in i think it ought to support the park extension project and the city planning committee and then too it should have a social aspect being made up of the best people have dances and so on especially as one of the best ways it can put the on is to apply this social business to folks big enough so you can reach em otherwise then if that don t work g c l can finally send a little around to inform folks that get too that got to to decent standards and quit shooting off their mouths so free don t it sound like the organization do a great we ve already got some of the strongest men in town and of course we want you in how about it was uncomfortable he felt a back to the standards he so yet so desperately been he i suppose you d especially light on fellows like and try to em you bet your sweet life we would look here old e i ve never for one moment believed you meant it when you ve defended and the and so on at the club i knew you were sin ly those poor like at least i c you were oh well sure course you might say was conscious of how feeble he sounded conscious of s mature and eye you know where i i m no labor i m a business man first last and all the time but but honestly i don t means so badly and you got to remember he s an old friend of mine george when it right down to a struggle between decency and the security of our homes on the one hand and red ruin and those lazy dogs for free beer on the other you got to give up even old he that is not with me is against me ye es i suppose how about it going to join us in the good league ill have to think it over all right just as you say was relieved to be let off so easily but went on george i don t know what s come over you none of us do and we ve talked a lot about you for a while we figured out you d been upset by what happened to poor and we forgave you for any fool things you said but that s old stuff now george and we can t make out what s got into you personally i ve always defended you but i must say it s getting too much for me all the boys at the club and the are sore the way you go on deliberately and his bunch of hell hounds and talking about being liberal which means being and even saying this preacher isn t a professional free love artist and then the way you been carrying on personally i joe says he saw you out the other night with a gang of all to the and here to day coming right into the with a well she may be all ri t and a perfect lady but she certainly did look like a pretty gay skirt for a fellow with his wife out of town to be taking to didn t look well what the devil has come over you george strikes me there s a lot of fellows that know more about my personal business than i do m now don t go getting sore at me because i come out like a friend and say what i think instead of behind your back the way a whole lot of em do i tell you george you got a position in the community and the community expects you to live up to it and better think over good league see you about it later he was gone that evening dined alone he saw all the of good peering through the window on him fear sat beside and he told that to t he would not go to s flat and he did not go till late xxx ths summer before mrs s letters had with desire to return to now they said nothing of returning but a wistful suppose everything is going on all right without me among her dry 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 on raising like i been doing she d have a fit i got to get hold of myself i got to learn to play around and yet not make a fool of myself i can do it too if folks like let me alone and stay away but poor kid she sounds lonely lord i don t want to hurt he wrote that they missed her and her next letter said ha that she was coming home he persuaded himself that he was eager to see her he bought roses for the house he ordered for dinner he had the car cleaned and polished all the way home from the station with her he was adequate in his 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 felt the	42
force of her wondered whether he could remain a good husband and still out of the house this evening for half an hour with the bunch when he had the car he upstairs into the familiar warmth of her presence help you your bag no i can do it slowly she turned holding up a small box and slowly she so said i brought you a present just a new cigar case i don t know if you d care to have it she was the lonely girl the brown appealing whom he had married and he almost wept for pity as he kissed her and t oh honey honey care to have it of course i do i m awful proud you brought it to me and i needed a new case badly he wondered how he would get of the case he had bought the week before and you really are to see me back why you poor what you been worrying about well you didn t seem to miss me very much by the time he had finished his of lying they were firmly bound again by ten that evening it seemed in that she had ever been away there was but one difference the problem of remaining a respectable husband a heights husband yet seeing and the bunch with he had promised to to that evening and now it was in he about the in thrusting out a hand to lift the but never quite to risk it nor could he find a reason for slipping down to the store on smith street with its he was laden with till he threw it off with the speculation why the deuce should i fret so about not able to she can get along without me i don t owe her anything she s fine girl but i ve given her just as much as she has me oh damn these women and the way they get you all tied iq in n for a week he was attentive to his wife took her to the to dinner at the then the old weary and shifting began aiid at least two evenings a he spent with the bunch he still ma e of going to the and to committee meetings but less and less did he trouble to have his excuses interesting less and less did she affect to believe them he was certain that she knew he was with what heights called a crowd yet neither of th m acknowledged it in matrimonial t 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 accepting her as a comparatively part of the furniture and he 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 of and the birth of their of this new house planned to comfort them through a happy old age they had said that it might be the last home either of them would ever have yet his most softening remembrance of these dear moments did not him from barking at dinner going out v few don t sit up for me he did not dare now to come home drunk and though he rejoiced in his return to high morality and spoke with gravity to and about their drinking he at s and meditated that a fellow couldn t ever learn to handle himself if he was always by a lot of women he no longer wondered if wasn t a bit worn and sentimental in contrast to the complacent he saw her as swift and air borne and radiant a fire spirit tenderly stooping to the hearth and however he on wife he longed to be with then mrs tore the decent from her and the astounded male discovered that e was having a small rebellion of her own m they were beside the fire place in the evening she said you haven t given me the list of your household expenses while i was away no i haven t made it out yet very we must try to down expenses this year that s so i don t know where all the goes to i try to but it just seems to i suppose i t to spend so much on cigars don t know but what cut down my smoking maybe cut it out entirely i was thinking of a good way to do it the other day start on these and they d kind of dis gust me with smoking oh i do wish you would it isn t that i care but honestly george it is so bad you to smoke so much don t you think you could reduce the amount and george i notice now when you come home from these and all that sometimes you smell of you know i don t worry so much about the moral side of it but you have a weak stomach and you can t stand all this drinking stomach hell i guess i can carry my about as well as most folks well i do think you ought to be careful don t you see dear i don t want you to sick sick rats i i m not a baby i i guess i ain t going to get sick just because maybe once a week i shoot a i that s the trouble with women they always so george i don t think you ought to talk that way when i m just speaking for your own good i know	42
but all that s the trouble with women i they re always and and bringing things up and then they say it s for 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 as if i was a not able to one without calling for the st mary s a fine idea you must have of 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 late don t forget to give me those household accounts for the time while i was away oh thunder what s the use of taking the trouble to make em out now let s just em for that period why george in all the years we ve been married we ve never failed to keep a complete account of every penny we ve spent no maybe that s the trouble with us what in the world do you mean oh i don t mean anything only sometimes i get so dam sick and tired of all this routine and the at the office and at home and and and and wearing myself out worrying over a lot of that doesn t really mean a thing and being so careful and good lord what do you i m made for i could have been a dam good orator and here i fuss and fret and worry don t you suppose i ever get tired of i get so bored with ordering three meals a day three hundred and sixty five days a year and my eyes over that horrid sewing machine and looking after your clothes and s and ted s and s and everybody s and the and and going down to the wig y to market and bringing my basket to save money on the and with a certain astonishment i suppose maybe you but talk about here i have to be in the office every single day while you can go out all afternoon and see folks 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 you have all sorts of interesting people coming in to see you at the office interesting old that want to know why i haven t their dear precious homes for about seven times their value and bunch of old the everlasting out of me because they don t receive every cent of their by three g m on the second of die sure interesting just as interesting as the small ow george i will not have you shouting at me that way ell it gets n goat the way women figure out that a man doesn t do a dam thing but sit on his chair and have o with a lot of and give em the glad eye i guess you manage to give them a glad eye when they do come in what do you mean i m chasing i should hope not at your age now you look here you may not believe it of com e all you see is fat little sure handy man around the house the furnace when the furnace man doesn t show iq and pays the bills but dull awful dull you may not believe it but there s some women that think old george isn t such a bad they think he s not so bad looking not so bad that it hurts anyway and s he s got a pretty good line of and some even think be shakes a wicked at dancing yes she spoke slowly i haven t much doubt that when i m away you manage to find le who properly you well i just mean he protested with a sound of denial then he was into semi honesty you bet i do i i find ty of folks and nice ones that don t think i m a weak that s exactly what i was saying you can run around with anybody you please but i m supposed 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 is way i didn t mean to sound but it certainly makes me sore to get the blame because you don t keep up with things i m going will you help mc an thing i can do to help you in the culture line yours to oblige g f very well then i want you to go to mrs s new thought meeting with me next sunday afternoon mrs who s which mrs the field for the american new thought league she s going to speak on the sun spirit before the league of the higher illumination at the oh i new thou tl thought with a the it sounds like why is a mouse when it that s a fine for a good to be going to when you can hear drew i s reverend drew is a and a pulpit orator and all that but he hasn t got the inner as mrs calls it he hasn t any inspiration for the new era women need in now so i want you to come as you promised iv the of the league of the higher met ip the smaller at the hotel a refined	42
apartment with pale green walls and plaster wreaths of roses refined and refined frail gilt chairs here were gathered sixty five women and ten men most of the men in their chairs and ed wives sat rigidly at attention but two of them men were as devout as their wives they were newly rich who having bought houses hand painted pictures and were now buying a refined ready made it had been a with them to buy new thought christian science or a good standard high church model of in the flesh mrs fell somewhat short of a aspect she was pony built and plump with the face of a haughty a button of a nose and arms so short that despite her most indignant she could not clasp her hands in front of her as she sat on the platform waiting her frock of and green velvet with three strings of glass beads and large folding eye glasses dangling from a black ribbon was a triumph of refinement mrs was introduced by the president of the league of the higher illumination an young woman with a yearning voice white and a she said that mrs would now make it plain to the simplest intellect how the sun spirit could be and they who had been about one would do well to treasure mrs s words because even and everybody knew that stood in the van of spiritual and new thought progress didn t have the opportunity to sit at the feet of such an inspiring and as mrs who had lived the life of wider usefulness through and in the silence found those secrets of mental control and the inner key which ware immediately going to and bring peace power and prosperity to the unhappy nations and so friends would they for this precious studded forget the illusions of the seeming real and in the of the deep lying pass long with mrs to the realm if mrs was rather than one would like one s and yet her voice had the real professional note it was refined and it was calm it flowed on without one was her favorite word was which she pronounced ways her principal gesture was a but thoroughly blessing with two fingers she explained about this of spiritual there are those of those she made a linked sweetness long drawn out a far off delicate call in a twilight minor it the restless husbands yet brought them a message of healing there are those who have seen the rim and outer seeming of the there are those who have and in enthusiasm possessed themselves of some and portion of the there are those who thus but not penetrated and by the d go always to and fro that they possess and are possessed of the and the but this word i you this s t i that those that are not utter are even and that is in its essence rs always always whole and it proved that the essence of the sun spirit was truth but its and were 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 glad it went on for about an hour and seven minutes at the end mrs spoke with more vigor and now let me suggest to all of the advantages of the and oriental reading circle which i represent our object is to unite all the of the new era into one whole new thought christian science hy and the other from the one new the is but ten dollars a year and for this mere the members receive not only the monthly magazine pearls of healing but the privilege of sending right to the president our mother any questions regarding spiritual progress matrimonial health and well being questions financial difficulties they listened to her with attention they looked genteel they looked out they politely and crossed their legs with and in expensive linen handkerchiefs they blew their noses with a delicacy altogether and refined as for he sat and suffered when they were out in the air again when they drove home through a wind smelling of snow and honest sim he dared not i they had been too near to these days mrs forced it did you enjoy mrs s talk weu i what did you get out of it ob it starts a person thinking it gets you out of a routine of ordinary thoughts hand it to she isn t ordinary but honest did that stuff mean an to you of course i m not trained in and there was lots i couldn t quite grasp but i did feel it was inspiring and she speaks so readily i do think you ought to have got something out of it i didn t i swear i was simply astonished the way those women it why the they v ant to put in their time listening to all that when they it s certainly better for them than going to and smoking and drinking i don t know whether it is or personally i don t see a whole lot of difference in both cases they re trying to get away from themselves 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 spit and listening to her words i m sure you do i you re very fond of no doubt you saw a lot of them while i was away 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	42
damn sick of it and i don t want to hear anything more about it why george do you realize what you re saying why george in all our years together you ve never talked to me like that it s about time then lately 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 shudder o oh rats quit i wasn t shouting or swearing i wish you could hear your own voice maybe you don t realize how it sounds but even so you never used to talk like that you simply talk this way if something dreadful hadn t happened to you his mind was hard with amazement he found that he particularly sorry it was only with an effort that he made himself more agreeable ell i didn t mean to get sore george do you realize that we can t go on like this getting farther and farther apart and you and to me i just don t know what s going to happen he had a moment s pity for her bewilderment he thought of how many and tender things would be hurt if they really couldn t go on like this but his pity was and he was wondering wouldn t it maybe be a good thing if not a divorce and all that o course but kind of a little more independence while she looked at him he drove on in a dreadful silence chapter when he was away from her while he kicked about the and swept the snow the running board and examined a cracked connection he repented he was alarmed and astonished that he could have out at his wife and thought fondly how much more lasting she was than the bunch he went in to that he was sorry didn t mean to be and to inquire as to her in but in tbe darkness of the he that he d gone and tied himself up to all over again he had some satisfaction in taking it out on hang an why d she gone and got him into these mix and made him all and nervous and too many cut em he wanted peace for ten days he did not see nor 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 you some was quick and quiet mr oh george this is i t seen you for weeks days anyway you aren t sick are you no just been terribly rushed i i think there ll be a big revival of building this year got to got to work hard x a of course my man i i want you to you know i m ambitious for you much more than i am for myself i just don t want you to forget poor will you call me soon you bet i do i sha n t call you again he meditated kid but she t ta me at the office she s a wonder sympathy ambitious for me but i won t be made and compelled to call her up till i get ready dam these women the way they make demands i it ll be one long old time before i see her but i d like to see her to ni t sweet little oh cut that son i now you ve broken away be she did not again nor he but after five more days she wrote to him have i offended you you must know dear i didn t mean to i m so lonely and i need somebody to cheer me up why didn t you come to the nice party we had at s last evening i remember she invited you can t you come around here to morrow evening i shall be alone and hope to see you his reflections were numerous it why can t she let me alone why can t women ever learn a fellow hates to be and they always take advantage of you by yelling how 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 swell hand nice looking plain refined i guess i ll have to go see her well thank god i got till to morrow night free of her she s nice but hang it i won t be made to do things i m not married to her no nor by going to oh rats i suppose i better go see her n the to morrow of s note full of at tbe table at die club 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 his wife was sick and he had with his brother in law also had troubles and since was one of his best had to listen to them mr it appeared was su ring from a peculiarly interesting and the had him when came home ever had troubles his wife was simultaneously thinking about the impudent new maid and worried lest the maid leave and desired to her teacher h quit you never hear me about my troubles and yet if yon had to ran a office why to day i found miss was two days behind with ha accounts and i pinched my finger in my desk and was in and just as as ever he was so vexed that after dinner when	42
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 again what do you mean s n i haven t hardly been out of the house for a week are you are you going to the got to see some 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 relieved to find cheerful and brilliant in a frock of brown net over gold ton poor man having to come out on a t like it s terribly cold don t you think a small be nice by y there s a woman with i i think we could more or less stand a if it wasn t too long a one dot over a foot he kissed her with he forgot the of her demands he stretched in a large chair and that he had beautifully come home he was suddenly he told her what a noble and misunderstood man he was and how superior to and the men of their acquaintance and she forward chin in charming hand brightly agreed but when he forced to ask honey how s things with she took his duty question seriously and he discovered that she too had troubles oh all t but i did get so angry with she told that i told her that was an awful and told me had told her and of course i told her i hadn t said anything of the kind and then found had told me and she was simply furious because had told me and of i was just boiling because had told her i d told her and then we all met up at s his wife is away thank heavens oh there s the floor in his house to dance on and we were all of us simply furious at each other and oh i do hate that kind of a mix up don t you i mean it s so lacking in refinement but and mother wants to come and stay with me for a whole month and of course i do love her i pose i do but honestly shell my style something dreadful she can learn not to comment and she always wants to know e i m going when i go out evenings and if i lie to her she always around and around and finds out where i ve been and then she looks like on a monument till i could just scream and oh i s you you know i never talk about myself i just hate people who do don t you but i feel so stupid to t and i know i must be you with all this but what would you do about mother he gave her masculine advice she was to put off her mother s stay she was to tell to go to th deuce for these valuable revelations she thanked him and they into the familiar gossip of the bunch of what a sentimental fool was of what a lazy was of how nice could be course lots of le think he s a regular old when they meet him because lie 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 these 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 topics interested only when 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 gray presence and hovered between them i he labored it strikes me it strikes me that is maybe will get a decent job then silence desperately he what s the trouble old honey you seem kind of quiet to night am i oh i m not do you really care whether i am or not care sure course i do you really she on him sat on the arm of his chair he hated the drain of having to appear fond of her he ber hand up at her and flank b george i wonder if you really like me at all course i do silly do you really precious do you care a bit certainly you don t i d be here if i didn tl ow see here young man i won t have you speaking to me in that i didn t mean to sound i just in injured and rather childish tones almighty it makes me tired the way everybody says i sound when i just talk do they expect me to sing it or something who do you mean by everybody how many other ladies have you been look ha e now i won t have this humbly i know dear j was only i know it didn t mean to talk it was just forgive bad but say you love me say it i i love you course i do yes you do i oh darling i don t mean to be rude but i get so lonely 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 i m not old and stupid am i he had to assure her she his hair and	42
he had to look pleased under that touch the more demanding in its softness he was impatient he wanted to flee out to a hard sure man world through hear delicate and caressing fingers she may have caught something of his she left him he was for the moment relieved she dragged a to his feet and sat up at him but as in many mm the of a dog the of a frightened child rouse not pity but a surprised and cruelty so her humility only annoyed and he her now as middle aged as to be old even while be detested his own thou ts they rode him she was old he he noted how the soft flesh was into folds beneath her chin her eyes at the base of her wrists a patch of her had a minute ess like the from a rubber old she was younger in years than yet it was sickening to have her yearning up at him with rolling great eyes as if he shuddered his own aunt were making love to him he fretted inwardly i m with this around i m going to cut her out she s a dam decent nice woman and i don t want to hurt her but hurt a lot less to cut her right out like a good clean operation he was on his feet he was speaking by every of self esteem he had to prove to her and to himself that it was her 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 and everything and figure out where i was at you ought to have been and waited till i came back can t you see dear when you made me come i being about an average bull headed my tendency was to resist listen dear i m going now not for a while precious no right now and then sometime well see about the future what do you mean dear about the future have i done something i t to oh i m so dreadfully sorry he resolutely put his hands behind him not a thing god bless 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 got a business to attend to and you might not believe it but i ve got a wife and that i m awful fond of then only during the murder he was committing was he able to feel nobly virtuous i want us to be but i can t go on this feeling i got to come up here so often oh darling darling and i ve always told you so carefully that you were absolutely free i just wanted you to come around when you were tired and wanted to talk to me or when you could enjoy our parties she was so reasonable she was so gently right it took him an hour to make his escape with nothing settled and everything horribly settled in a barren freedom of icy northern wind he signed thank god that s over i poor poor darling decent i but it is over absolute i i m f chapter his wife was when he came in did you have a good time she did not i had a rotten time i anything else i got to explain george how can you speak like oh i don t know what s come over good lord there s nothing come over why do you look for trouble all the time he was warning himself careful stop being so disagreeable course she feels it being left alone here all evening but he forgot his warning as she went on why do you go out and see all sorts of strange people i suppose say you ve been to another committee meeting this evening i i ve been calling on a woman we sat by the fire and each other and had a whale of a good time if you want to well from the way you say it i suppose it s my you went there i i probably sent you well upon my word you hate strange le as you call em if you had your way i d be as much of an old stick in the mud as you never want to have anybody with any to em at the house you want a bunch of old that sit around and gas about the weather you re doing your level best to make me old well let me tell you i m not going to have she bent to his and in answer she mourned oh dearest i don t think that s true i don t mean to make you old i know perhaps you re partly right s i am slow about getting acquainted with new people but when you think of all the dear good times we have and the supper parties and the a d all with true masculine he not only convinced himself that she had injured him but by the of his voice and the of his attack he convinced her also and presently he had her for his having spent the evening with he went up to bed well pleased not only the master but the of the household for a distasteful moment after he had lain down he wondered if he had been altogether just t to be ashamed her maybe there is her side to things maybe she hasn t had such a time but i don t good for her to get up a little and i m going to keep free of her and and the at the and	42
everybody i m to run my own in this mood he was particularly objectionable at the ers club lunch next day they were addressed by a man who had just returned from an three months study of the political systems divisions resources and of germany france great britain italy and he told them all about those subjects together with three funny stories about european of america and some spirited words on the necessity of ing ignorant foreigners out of america say that was a talk real he stuff said but the grumbled tour bunch of hot and what s the matter with the they aren t all ignorant and i got a we re all descended from oh you make me tired said mr was aware that dr a i was sternly listening from across the table dr was one of the most important men in the he was not a physician but a surgeon a more romantic and sounding occupation he was an intense large man with a of black hair and a thick black the newspapers often his operations he was professor of in the state university he went to dinner at the very best houses on royal ridge and he was said to be worth several hundred thousand dollars it was to to have such a person at him he praised the s wit to but for dr s benefit m that afternoon three men shouldered into s office with the air of committee in frontier da rs they were large resolute big men and they were all high lords in the land of dr the surgeon charles the and most ring of all the white bearded colonel snow owner of the times in their presence felt small and insignificant well well great pleasure have chairs what c n i do for you he they neither sat nor offered observations on the weather said colonel snow we ve come from the good citizens league we ve decided we want you to join says you don t care to but i think we can show you a new li t the league is going to combine with the chamber of commerce in a for the open shop so it s time for you to put your name down in his embarrassment could not recall his reasons for not wishing to join the league if indeed he had ever definitely known them but he was passionately certain that he did not wish to join and at the thought of their forcing him he felt a stirring of against even these princes of commerce sorry colonel have to think it over a little he that means you re not going to join george something black and and ferocious spoke from now you look here i m damned if i m going to be into joining anything not even by you we re not anybody dr began but colonel snow thrust him aside with certainly we are we don t mind a little if it s necessary the g has been talking about you a good deal you re supposed to be a sensible clean responsible man you always have been but here lately for god knows what reason i hear from all sorts of sources that you re running around with a loose crowd and what s a whole lot worse you ve actually been and supporting some of the most dangerous elements in town like this fellow colonel that strikes me as my private business possibly but we want to have an understanding you ve in you and your father in law with some of the most substantial and forward looking in town like my friends of the street company and my papers have given you a lot of well you can t expect the decent citizens to go on you if you intend to side with the people who are tr ring to us was frightened but he had an instinct that if he in this he would yield in everything he protested you re colonel i believe in being and liberal but of course i m just as much the and and labor and so on as you are but fact is i belong to so many now that i can t do em justice and i want to think it over before i decide about coming into the g colonel snow condescended oh no i m not why the doctor here heard you out and one of the finest types of just this noon i and you have entirely the wrong idea about thinking over joining we re not begging you to join the g c l we re permitting you to join i m not sure my boy but what if you put it off be too late i m not sure well want you then better think quick better think quick the three formidable in their stared at him in a silence waited through he thought nothing at all he merely waited while in his echoing head i don t want to join i don t want to join i don t want to all right sorry for you i said colonel snow and the three men abruptly turned their backs iv as went out to his car that evening he saw coming down the block he raised his hand in salutation but ignored it and crossed the street he was certain that had seen him he drove home in sharp discomfort his wife attacked at once dear was in this afternoon and she says that says the committee of this good citizens especially asked you to join and you wouldn t don t you think it would be better you know all the le belong and the league stands i know the league stands it stands for the of free speech and free thought and i don t propose to be and rushed into anything and it isn	42
t a question of whether it s a good league or a bad league or what the hell kind of a league it is it s just a question of my refusing to be told i got to but dear if you don t join people t you let em but i mean nice people rats i matter of this whole l is just a it s like all these other that start off with such a rush and let on re going to change the whole and pretty soon they peter out and everybody forgets all about em i but if it s now don t you think you no i don t oh please quit me about it i m sick of hearing about the confounded g c l i almost wish i d joined it when first came around and got it over add maybe i d ve come in to day if the committee hadn t tried to me but by god as long as i m a free bom american now george you re talking exactly like the german furnace man oh i am am ii then i won t talk at all he longed that evening to see to be strengthened by her sympathy when all the family were up stairs he got as far as to her a house but be was agitated about it and when the answered he mind i ll call later and hung up the ii had not been certain about s avoiding him there could be little doubt about william washington next morning when was driving down to the office he overtook s car with the great banker sitting in solemnity behind his waved and cried r e looked at him deliberately hesitated and gave him a nod more contemptuous than a direct cut s partner and father in came in at ten george what s this i hear about some song and dance you gave colonel snow about not wanting to join the g c l what the you trying to do wreck the firm you don t suppose these big guns will stand your them and q ringing all this liberal cock you been getting off lately do you i 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 country a man can do anything he wants to course th ain t any plots who said they was only if folks get an idea you re scatter and you don t suppose th 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 up in a month of sundays that afternoon when the old the merry appeared and suggested his a parcel of land in the new section of said hastily too hastily no no don t want to go into an new just now a week later learned through h ry that the officials of the street company were planning another real estate and that and wing not the company were to handle it for t figure that is kind of about the way folks are talking about you of course is a rock old die hard and he probably advised the fellows to get some other george you got to do something 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 was asked and in furious resignation he waited he wasn t asked they ignored him he did not have the courage to go to the league and beg in and he took refuge in a boast that he had gotten away with the whole nobody could dictate to him how he was going to think and act i he was as by nothing else when the of miss suddenly left him though her reasons were excellent she needed a rest her sister was sick she might not do any more work for six months he was uncomfortable with her successor miss what miss s given name was no one in the office ever knew it seemed improbable that she had a given name a lover a puff or a she was so this slight pale industrious that it was vulgar to think of her as going to an ordinary home to eat she was a perfectly and machine and she ought each evening to have been off and shut in her desk beside her too slim too frail pencil points she took swiftly her t ing was perfect but became when he tried to work with her she made him feel and at his best beloved daily jokes she looked gently inquiring he longed for miss s return and thought of writing to her then he heard that miss had a week after leaving him gone over to his and wing he was not merely annoyed he was frightened why did the quit then he worried did she have a n business is going on the rocks and it was got the street deal rats sinking ship gray fear loomed always by him now he watched the young and wondered if he too would leave daily he fancied he noted that he was not asked to speak at the annual chamber of commerce dinner when jones gave a large party and he was not invited he was certain that he had been he was afraid to go to lunch at the and afraid not to go he believed that he was on that when he left the table they whispered about hun everywhere he heard the rustling whispers in the offices of in the bank when he made a deposit in his own office in	42
dam shame for two married people to drift apart after all these years rotten shame but nothing could bring them together now as long as he refused to let bully him into taking orders and he was by not going to let anybody bully him into an or him or him either he woke at three roused by a passing and struggled out of bed for a drink of water as he passed through the bedroom he heard his wife n his resentment was he was in inquiring what s the trouble hon i ve got such a pain down here in my side oh it s just it tears at me bad shall i get you some don t that would help i felt funny last evening i a and and it passed away and i got fo deep and that woke me up her voice was laboring like a ship in a he was alarmed i call the doctor no it ll go away but maybe might get me an ice bag he stalked to the for the ice bag down to the kitchen for ice he dramatic in this late night but as he the of ice with the dagger like pick he was cool steady and the old friendliness was in his voice as he patted the ice bag into place on her t re there be better now he retired to bed but he did not sleep he heard her groan again instantly he was up soothing her still pretty bad honor yes it just me and i can t get to sleep her voice was faint he knew her dread of doctors and he did not inform her but he down stairs to dr earl and waited shivering trying with eyes to read a magazine till he heard the doctor s car the doctor was and he came in as though it were sunny george little trouble how is she now he said busily as with tremendous and rather cheerfulness he tossed his coat on a chair and warmed his hands at a he took charge of the house felt and unimportant as he followed the doctor up to the bedroom and it was the doctor who chuckled oh just little stomach ache when peeped through her door begging what is it what is it to mrs the doctor said with amiable after hi examination kind of a bad old pain eh give you something to make you sleep and i think you ll fed better in the morning come in ri t after breakfast but to lying in wait in the lower hall the doctor sighed t don t like the feeling there in her belly there s some and some she s never had her out has she um well no use worrying i ll be here first in the morning and meantime she ll get some rest i ve given her a good night then was caught up in the black tempest instantly all the which had been him and the spiritual through which he had struggled became pallid and absurd before the ancient and overwhelming realities the standard and realities of sickness and menacing death the long night and the thousand steadfast of married life he crept back to her as she away in the languor of he sat on the edge of her bed holding her hand and for the first time in many week her hand abode in his he draped himself in his and a pink and white couch cover and sat in a wing chair the bedroom was in its half light which turned the curtains to lurking robbers the dressing table to a castle it of of linen of sleep he and woke and woke a hundred times he heard her move and sigh in slumber he wondered if th e wasn t some brisk thing he could do for her and before he could quite form the thought he was asleep and aching the night was infinite when dawn came and the waiting seemed at an end he fell asleep and was vexed to have been caught off his guard to have been aroused by s entrance and her agitated what is it his wife was awake her face sallow and lifeless in the morning light but now he did not compare her with she was not merely a woman to be contrasted with other women but his own self and though he might her and her it was only as he might and himself without the expectation of or any real desire to change the eternal essence with he sounded again and firm he who satisfactorily pointed the excitement of the hour by wailing he ordered early breakfast and wanted to look at the newspaper and felt somehow heroic and useful in not looking at it but there were still crawling and totally hours of waiting before dr returned don t see much change said ill be back about eleven and if you don t mind i think bring in some other world famous for consultation just to be on the safe side now george there s nothing you can do ill have keep the ice bag filled might as well leave that on i guess and you you better beat it to the office instead of standing around her looking as if you were the patient the nerve of husbands lot more than the women they always have to horn in and get all the credit for feeling bad when their wives are now have another nice cup of coffee and under this derision became more matter of fact he drove to the office tried to dictate letters tried to and before the call was answered forgot to whom he was at a quarter after ten he returned home as he left the down town traffic and sped up the car his face	42
the instruments for an operation to save her life it was she who consoled him and kissed the place to make it well and though he tried to be and mature he to her and was glad to be the whirled under the carriage entrance of the hospital and instantly he was reduced to a in the nightmare succession of cork halls endless doors op on old women sitting up in bed an the room a young contemptuous of husbands he was to kiss his wife he saw a thin dark nurse fit the over her mouth and nose he at a sweet and treacherous then he was driven out and on a high stool in a he sat dazed longing to see her once again to insist that he had always loved her had never for a second loved anybody else or looked at anybody else in the he was conscious only of a decayed object preserved in a bottle of it made him very sick but he could not take his eyes from it he was more aware of it than of waiting his mind floated in coming back always to that horrible bottle to escape it he opened the door to the right hoping to find a sane and business like office he realized that he was looking into the room in one glance he took in dr strange in white gown and head bending over the steel table with its and wheels then nurses holding and cotton and a thing just a lifeless chin and a mound of white in the midst of which was a square of sallow flesh with a a little bloody at the edges from the a of like clinging he shut the door with haste it may be that his repentance of the night and morning had not eaten in but this of her who had been so human shook him utterly and as he crouched again on the high stool in the he swore faith to his wife to to business to the club to every faith of the of good fellows then a nurse was soothing all perfect success shell come out fine shell be out from under the soon and you can see her he found her on a curious bed her face an yellow but her lips moving slightly then only did he really believe that she was alive she was muttering he bent and heard her sighing hard get real s for he laughed he beamed on the nurse and proudly confided think of her talking about s i by i m going to go and order a of it right from n she was out of the hospital in seventeen days he went to see her each afternoon and in their long talks they drifted back to intimacy once he hinted something of his relations to and the bunch and she was by the view that a wicked woman had her poor george if once he had doubted his neighbors and the supreme charm of the good fellows he was convinced now you didn t he noted see coming around with any flowers or dropping in to chat with the but mrs brought to the hospital her wine with real wine jones spent hours in picking out the kind of novels mrs liked nice love stories about new york and a pink bed jacket and his merry brown eyed of a wife selected the prettiest in all the stock of and all his friends ceased whispering about him suspecting him at the club they asked after her daily club members who e names he did not know stopped him to inquire how s your good lady getting on felt that he was swinging from bleak down into the rich warm air of a valley pleasant with cottages one noon suggested you planning to be at the hospital about six the wife and i thought we d drop in they did drop in was so humorous that mrs said he must stop making her laugh because honestly it was her as they passed down the hall demanded george old you were about something here a while back i don t know why and it s none of my business but you seem to be feeling all again and don t you come join us in the good citizens league old man we have some times together and we need your advice then did almost tearful with joy at being instead of at being permitted to stop fighting at being able to desert without his opinion of himself cease utterly to be a domestic he patted s shoulder and next day he became a member of the good citizens league within two weeks no one in the league was more violent regarding the of the crimes of labor the perils of and the delights of mo ity and bank accounts than was george f chapter the good citizens league had spread through the country but nowhere was it so effective and well esteemed as in cities of the type of commercial cities of a few hundred thousand inhabitants most of which though not all lay inland against a background of and mines and of small towns which depended upon them for art social philosophy and to the league belonged most the prosperous citizens of they were not all of the kind who called themselves regular besides these hearty fellows these of prosperity there were the that is the men who were richer or had been rich for more generations the of banks and of the land owners the lawyers the fashionable doctors and the few young old men who worked not at all but reluctantly remaining in collected ware and first as though they were back in paris all of them the must be kept in their place and all of them perceived that american did not imply any of wealth but did	42
his door is open they ought to be home said the dance would be over at midnight what s the name of those people where they re going why tell the truth i don t know it s some of ted s out in woods don t see what we can do wait up and ask i if she knows their name turned on the light in ted s room it was a brown boyish room disordered worn books a high photographs of basket ball and ted was not c mrs awakened observed tbat she certainly did not know the name of ted s host that it was late that was but little better than a bom fool and that she was sleepy but she remained awake and worrying while on the sleeping f struggled back into sleep through the nt soft rain of her remarks it was after dawn when he was aroused by her shaking him and calling george in something like horror what is it come here quick and see be quiet she led him down the hall to the door of ted s room and pushed it gently open on the worn brown rug he saw a df rose colored on the chair a girl silver and on the pillows were two y ted s and s ted woke to grin and to with defiance good morning let me introduce my wife mrs little good god from and from his wife a you ve gone and e got married last wife sit up and a pretty good morning to mother in law but hid her shoulders and her charming wild hair under the pillow by nine o clock the assembly which was gathered about ted and in the living room included mr and mrs george dr and mrs mr and mrs mr and mrs henry t and who was the only pleased member of the a shower of phrases filled the at their ought to be never heard of such a thing fault of both of them keep it out of the papers ought to be packed off to do something about it at once and what i say damn good old fashioned worst of them all was some way must be found to make you how dreadfully serious this is instead of standing around with that silly foolish smile on your face he began to revolt you got married didn t you that s entirely you bet it is they didn t have to work on and me with a chain and tackle to get us to hold hands now young man well have no more old henry son ordered you listen to me you listen to grandfather said yes listen to your grandfather said mrs ted you listen to mr tho son said for the love o i am listening ted shouted but you look here all of you i m getting sick and tired of being the corpse in this post if you want to kill somebody go kill the preacher that married us why he me five dollars and all the money i had in the world was six dollars and two bits i m getting just about enough of being at a new voice the room it was s too dam many putting in their oar you dry up and i are still pretty strong and able to do our own ted come into the and well talk this over in the dining room the door firmly walked to his son put both hands on hb shoulders you re more or less ri t they all talk too much now what do you plan to do old man arc you really going to be human well i remember one time you called us the men and said we ought to stick i want to i don t pretend to think this isn t serious the way the cards are against a fellow to i can t say i approve of early marriages but you couldn t have married a better girl than and way i figure it is dam lucky to get a for a son in but what do you plan to do course you could go right ahead with the u and when you d finished i can t stand it any more maybe it s all ri t for some fellows maybe want to go back some day but me i want to get into i think i d get to be a good there s a fellow that would give me twenty dollars a week in a factory right now well crossed the floor slowly seeming a little old i ve always wanted you to have a college degree he stamped across the floor again but i ve never now for heaven s sake don t repeat this to your mother or she d remove what little hair i ve got left but practically i ve never done a single thing i ve wanted to in my whole i don t know s i ve accomplished anything just get along i figure out i ve made about a quarter of an inch out of a possible hundred rods well maybe you ll carry things on further i don t know but i do get a kind of pleasure out of the fact that you knew what you wanted to do and did it well those folks in there will try to bully you and tame you down tell em to go to the devil i m back you take your factory job if you want to don t be scared of the family no nor all of nor of yourself the way i ve been go ahead old man the world is yours arms about each s shoulders the men marched into the living room and faced the family there s more to follow more stories	42
that would be sold up the and across the the rolled out in greeting a chorus cheerful as the april dawn the song of labor in a city it seemed for giants there was nothing of the giant in the aspect of the man 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 m now in april and he made nothing in particular neither butter nor shoes nor poetry but he was in the calling of 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 spectacle on the slopes of his nose he was not fat but he was exceedingly well fed his cheeks were and the hand which lay helpless i n the blanket was slightly he seemed pro extremely married and and ther this sleeping 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 aw but she discerned gallant youth she waited for him in the darkness beyond mysterious groves when at last he could sl away from the crowded house he v to her hu wife his friends sought to follow but he ed the girl fleet beside him and they together on a shadowy she was so slim so white so eager she cried that he was gay and that she would wait for him that they would sail and bang of e milk moaned turned over struggled back toward his he could see only her face now beyond misty waters the man the door a dog in the next yard as sank into a dim warm tide the paper went by whistling and the rolled up advocate ed the front door roused his stomach with alarm as he relaxed he was pierced by the familiar and rattle of some one a ford ah snap ah ah snap ah ah himself a pious with the unseen driver with him waited through hours for the roar of the engine with him as the roar ceased and again began the infernal patient snap ah ah a round flat sound a shivering cold 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 glanced once at his favorite tree elm twigs against the gold of sky and for sleep as for a he who bad been a boy very of life was no longer greatly interested in the possible and improbable adventures of each new day he from reality till the alarm clock rang at seven it was the best of advertised and produced alarm with all modern including cathedral alarm and a dial was proud of being awakened by such a device it was almost as creditable as es pensive cord he admitted now that there was no more escape but be and detested tbe grind of the real estate business and disliked bis family and disliked himself for them the evening before be had played at a till t and after such holidays be was irritable before breakfast it may have been tbe tremendous home of tbe era and tbe cigars to t that beer him it may have been resentment of return this fine bold man world to a re on of wives and and of suggestions not to smoke so much from tbe bedroom de tbe sleeping porch bis wife s cheerful time to get up boy and tbe sound the brisk and sound of out of a stiff brush he be 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 bis plump feet mechanically felt for bis ers he looked re at the blanket forever a suggestion to him of freedom and he had bought it for a can ing trip which bad never come off it gorgeous gorgeous cursing flannel shirts he to his feet groaning at tbe waves of pain which passed his though he waited for their be 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 tbe com ted iron for the hundred and time in a year he reflected no i class to that tin have to build me a frame but l it s the only thing on tbe place that isn t up while he stared he thought of a community for bis development he stopped puffing and n on j v hb arms were his sleep 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 bard clean unused looking hall into the thou the house was not large it had like all houses on heights an altogether royal of and glazed tile and metal sleek as silver the rack was a rod of dear glass set in the tub was long for a guard and above the set bowl was a exhibit of tooth brush soap dish dish and medicine cabinet so and so ingenious 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 stead of sticking to like i ve re ed iy asked her she s gone and gotten some confounded stuff that makes you the	42
bath mat was wrinkled and the floor was wet his ter took in the morning now and then he slipped on the mat and slid against the tub he said furiously he snatched up his of cream furiously he with a of the brush furiously he his plump with a safety it pulled the blade was dull he said oh oh damn iti he through the medicine cabinet for a packet of new blades reflecting as invariably be er 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 himself for not saying damn but he did say it immediately afterward when with wet and sl fingers he tried to the horrible little n on j v e and ng papa from the new then there was the problem oft ed never solved or what to do with the old blade which ml t the of his young as usual he tossed it on top of the with a mental note that some day he must remove the fifty or ty other blades that w also temporarily piled up there he finished bis in a growing 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 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 it was a pan trifle which always hung to indicate that the were in the best society no one had ever used it no guest had ever dared to guests a of the nearest regular he was raging by they go and use up all the every one of em and use em and get em all wet and so ing and never put out a dry one for me of course i m the goat i and then i want one and i m the only person in the house that s got the slightest bit of tion for other people and and there may be others that may want to use the after me and he was the chill into the bath tub pleased by the of that desolate 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 n on j v it is not recorded that he was able to answer fm the first time in wed s he was sufficiently roused his wife to look at her mrs george f was definitely tore she bad from the comers of her mouth to the bottom of chin and her neck bags ed 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 of being seen in she bad become so to married life that in her full she was as as an she was a good woman a kind woman a woman but no one save her old was at all interested in h a or entirely aware that she was alive a thorough discussion of all the domestic and social sheets of she to for his having an headache and be recovered to endure the search for a b which had he pointed out t een concealed among his clean he was fairly amiable in the conference on the brown suit what do think he at the clothes on a chair in bedroom she moved about mysteriously and patting her and to his e never seeming to get on with her dressing how about it shall i wear the brown suit day it looks awfully on you i know but it needs pressing that s so perhaps it does it certainly could stand being pressed all right s it wouldn t hurt it to be pressed but the coat doesn t ng no sense in hav ing 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 the certainly do need pressing that s so oh why couldn t you wear the brown coat with the blue trousers we were what we d do them good did you ever in all my life know me to wear the coat of one suit and the of what do you think i am a well why 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 what the devil is that 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 whidi be resembled a small boy wearing a at a he never put on b s without thanking the god of progress that he didn t wear tight long old fashioned like hit father in law and partner henry his second was and back 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 the the meek of the school the silver framed glasses of the old s spectacles had huge circular of the very best glass the ear pieces w e thin bars	42
d d are i pose you n on j v to rub in your exalted social position well let me tell you that paternal henry t doesn t even call it a he calls it a jacket for a monkey and you couldn t get him into one unless you now don t be horrid george well i don t want to be horrid but 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 wed 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 some damn 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 ber 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 office 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 bell 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 three ago before be followed his wife stood at the window of then room this settlement heights was on a rise and though the of tt was three miles away had between three and hundred thousand inhabitants now be could see the top ok ij die second national tower an building five stories its shining walls rose against ril 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 lovely si tl but he was inspired by the of the his love of it renewed he the tower as a temple spire of the of business a faith passionate exalted surpassing common men and as he down to he whistled the ballad oh by by by as though it were a hymn melancholy and noble chapter n of s and the soft which bis wife expressed the sympathy she was too e q to feel and much too experienced not to show their bedroom settled instantly into it gave the sleeping porch it served both ol them as dressing room and on the nights gave up the duty of being manly and retreated to the bed inside to curl bis toes in the warmth and laugh at the january gale the room di 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 was the furniture the with its great dear mirror mrs s dressing table with toilet articles of almost solid silver the plain twin beds between them a small table holding a standard bedside lamp a glass for water and a standard bedside book with colored illustrations what particular book it was cannot be ascertained since no one bad 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 t out of cheerful modern houses for only it had nothing to do with the ji nor with any one if people had ever lived and loved here read at midnight and lain in beautiful on a sunday there were no signs of it it had the air of being a very good room in a very good one expected the to come in and make it ready for people who would stay but one night go without looking back and never think of it again every second house in heights had a bedroom 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 a 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 balls were for the and in tbe living room for the piano for the electric fan the trim dining room with its admirable oak its glass cupboard its plaster walls its modest scene of a salmon upon a of bad 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 be 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 to business and get down to brass he marched upon them a brown l of twenty two just out of given to about duty and sex and god and the of the gray sports suit she was now wearing ted a boy of seventeen still a	42
baby at ten with radiant red hair and a thin skin which hinted of too much and too mai 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 well it was the only pet name in his t the dear and hon with which he recognized his wife and he flung it at every 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 bad at him when his dream life and the slim fairy had had for six months been clerk at the leather company offices with a prospect of becoming secretary to mr and thus as defined it getting some good out of your expensive college education till you re ready to marry and settle down but now said 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 feel as though i ought to be doing something worth while like that what do you mean worth while if you get to be s secretary and maybe you would if you k t up your and didn t go ob to and every i guess you ll find thirty five or bones a week worth while i know but oh i want to contribute i wish i were v working in a house i wonder if i could get one of the department stores to let me put in a welfare department with nice rest room and and chairs and so on and so forth or i could now you look here the first thing you got to understand is that all 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 he and be needn t expect a lot of free and all these free classes and and for bis unless be 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 power of the man and gives bis a lot of notions above their class and you if you d tend to business instead of and all the when i was a young man i made my mind what i wanted to do and stuck to it thick and thin and that s why i m where i am to day what do you let the girl chop the toast up into these little for can t get your fist em half cold anyway i ted junior in the great east side high school had been making ike sounds of interruption he now say you going to whirled will you kindly not interrupt us when we re talking about serious matters aw said ted ever somebody up and let you out of college you been these nut conversations about what and so on so are you going to i want to use the car tonight oh you dot may want it myself i oh you do mr i m going to take it n oh papa you said you d drive us down to and mrs care n is fill your sleeve is in the butter th r glared hurled ted you re a pig about the course you re not not a ted could be bland you just want to it o ri t after dinner and leave it in front of some skirt s all evening you sit and gas about literature and the you re going to marry if they only well t to ever let you have ill you and those jones boys 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 hill with the emergency i do not i and you always talking about bow much you know about and little told me you said battery fed the you why my good woman you don t know a from a not was ted with ha he was a natural a maker and of machines be in for the came that ll do flung in mechanically as he lighted the satisfying first cigar 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 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 well iq on my you and your social engagements in hi ob ain t we select since we went to that hen college i let me tell you there isn t a private school in the state that s got as swell a as we got in this year there s two fellows that are say n on j v i oa t to have a car of my own like of the fellows almost rose a car of your don t you want a and a house and lot that pretty nearly takes the a boy that can t pass bis latin like any other boy ought to and he expects me to give him a car and i suppose a and an maybe as a reward for the hard work he puts in going to the with well when you see me giving you somewhat later after ted persuaded to admit that e was	42
merely going to the that evening to see the dog and cat show she was then ted planned to park the car in of the store across from the and be would pick it up were arrangements leaving the key and having the filled and passionately of the great god th the patch on the spare inner and the lost ted served that her friends were a scream of a bunch stuck up four his friends she indicated were disgusting imitation sports and little ignorant girls further it s disgusting of you to smoke and so on and so forth and those clothes you ve got on this morning they re too utterly ridiculous honestly disgusting ted balanced over to the low mirror in the bis and his suit the latest thing in old was skin ti t with to the tops of his glaring tan boots a man pattern of an agitated check and across the back a belt which nothing his was an enormous black silk his hair was ice smooth back without parting when he went to school he would add a cap with a long like a blade of all was his waistcoat saved for b for a real fancy of with of a decayed red the points loi n on j v on tbe lower e of it be wore a high button a button and a pin and none of it mattered he was ie and swift and flushed bis eyes which he believed to be cynical were candidly eager but he was not over gentle he waved his band at poor and yes i guess we re pretty ridiculous and and i rather guess new is some it and while you re admiring your e f let me tell you it might add to your manly beauty if yon wiped some of that egg off your momentary victor in tbe greatest of great wars which is the family war ted looked at ber hopelessly then shrieked at for tbe love o quit pouring the whole sugar bowl on your corn when and ted were gone and upstairs groaned to his wife nice family i must i don t pretend to be any and maybe i m a little at breakfast sometimes but tbe way they go on i simply can t stand it i swear i feel like going off some place where i can get a little peace i do think after a man s spent bis lifetime trying to give bis a chance and a decent education it s pretty to hear them all the time ing like a bunch of and never and never curious here in the paper it says never silent for one mom seen the morning paper yet no dear in twenty three years of married life mrs had seen the paper before her husband just times lots of news terrible big in the south hard luck all right but this say this is beginning of the end for those fellows i new york assembly has passed some bills that ought to completely the and there s an strike in new york and a lot of co boys are taking their places that s the stuff and it mass in s that this this de be dead right by all these paid with german gold anyway and we got no business interfering with the irish or any foreign government keep our hands strictly off and there s another well from russia that is dead that s fine it s beyond me why we don t step in there and kick those out that s so said mrs and it says here a fellow was mayor in a preacher tool what do you of he searched for an attitude but neither as a republican a an nor a real estate did he have any doctrine about preacher laid down for him so he and went on she looked sympathetic and did not hear a word later she would read ihe the society columns and the department store what do you know about this still the as heavy as ever here s what that woman says about last night never is society with the big big s more mattered than when they are to partake of good cheer at the distinguished and hospitable residence of mr and mrs charles l as they were last ni t set in its spacious and one of the notable sights crowning royal ridge but merry and despite its mighty stone walls and its vast rooms for their their home was thrown open last eight for a dance in honor of s notable guest miss j of washington the wide hall is so generous in its proportions that it made a perfect its floor reflecting the charming above its polished surface even the delights of dancing before the opportunities for i that invited the soul to loaf in the long library before the fireplace or b the drawing room with its deep its shaded lamps made for a sly whisper of pretty all a or even in the room where a cue and show a at still another game than that by and there was more a great deal more in the best style of miss pearl the popular editor of the advocate times but not abide it he he wrinkled the he protested can you beat it i m willing to hand a lot of credit to when we were in together he was just as hard i as any of us and he s made a million good out of and hasn t been any ac bought any more city than was necessary and that s a good house of his thou it un t any stone walls and it ain t worth the ninety thousand it cost him but it comes to talking as though and all that set of his	42
are any blooming bunch of of of why it makes me timidly from mrs i would like to see the inside of their house though it must be lovely i ve never been inside well i 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 bet i make a whole lot more mon than some of those tin horns that spend all th got on dress and haven t got a it suit of to their na m el what do you think of mrs was strangely unmoved by the tidings 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 recorded and he rose as he looked at her his seemed er than usual suddenly yes maybe of shame to not keep in touch with folks like the we might try them to some evening oh thunder let s not waste our good time thinking about em i our little bunch has a lot liver times than all those just compare a real human like you with these birds like all hi brow talk and dressed up like a horse you re a great old girl hon i he covered bis 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 teu you most folks don t q how 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 a her cheek he hurried out to the muttering lord what a family and now 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 of ce worry and detail just as bad and i act and i don t mean to but i get so chapter m to george f as to most prosperous citizens of his car was poetry and tragedy love and heroism the office was his ship but the car his perilous excursion ashore among the 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 drop had cost him this morning he was darkly prepared to find 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 be backed out of the he was confused he shouted morning 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 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 paint yellow as a of mr and mrs as from their house came midnight c and laughter there wo e of and fast r rides they furnished with many h of discussion during which he announced firmly i m not and i don t mind seeing a fellow throw in a drink in a while but when it comes to deliberately trying to get 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 in a strictly modem whereof the lower part was dark red brick with a the u q er part of pale like day and the roof red was the great scholar of the the authority on everything in the w ld except babies cooking and he was a bachelor of arts of college and a doctor of by in of he was the manager and counsel of the street company he could on ten hours notice appear before the board of or the state and prove absolutely with figures all in rows and with from and new that the street car company loved the public and over its that all its stock was owned by and and that i 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 the future of the german mark the of or the number of of coal tar he awed by that he often sat up tin t reading the figures and in government reports or with amusement at the author s mistakes the latest volumes of and but s great value was as a spiritual example despite his strange he was as strict a ind as firm a as george f he on j v the business men io the faith where they knew by instinct that their system of industry and manners was perfect dr proved it to them out of history and the of had a good deal of honest pride in being the neighbor 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 fine character like was revealed in appearances di was young for a man of for eight he wore his on the back of bis head and his red face was wrinkled	42
with laughter but was old for a man of forty two he was tall broad duck his gold spectacles were in the folds of his long face his hair was a tossed mass of greasy he puffed and as he talked bis key shone against a black be of old pipes he was altogether and and to and tiie of he added an of this morning he was in front of his house the grass between the and the broad side walk 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 of the day it s a mighty fine morning said t coming along fast now yes it s real spring now all ri t said still cold ni ts thou had to have a couple blankets m the sleeping porch last ni t yes it wasn t any too warm last night said but i don t anticipate well have any more real o now no but still there was snow at yesterday said the and you remember the they had out three days ago thirty inches of snow at and two years ago we bad a right in on the twenty fifth of april is that a say old man what do you think about the republican candidate who ll they for don t you think it s about time we had a real administration in my t what the needs first and foremost fi a good sound business like conduct of its affairs we need is a business administration said i m d to hear you say that i i certainly am glad to hear you say i didn t know how you d feel about it with all your associations with and so on and i m glad you feel that way what the country needs just at this present juncture is neither a college president nor a lot of with foreign affairs but a good business administration that will give us a chance to have something like a decent 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 in lies is that a well well breathed feeling much calmer and much happier about the way things were in the world well it s been nice to stop and a second guess have to get down to the office now and ting a few well so long old man see you t so long th had labored these solid years ben on j v f ae the on which heights was spread with its bright and turf and amazing comfort had been a wilderness of rank second growth elms and oaks and along the precise streets were a few wooded vacant lots and the fragment of an old orchard it was brilliant to day the boughs were lit with leaves like of green fin the first white of cherry blossoms down a and the earth chuckled at the as he would have chuckled at or at a comic he was to the e the perfect office going a man in a correct brown soft hat and spectacles ing a large cigar driving a good along a but in him was some genius of love for his his his the winter was over the time was come for the building the visible growth which to him was he lost his dawn depression he was cheerful what he stepped 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 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 i of came out to serve him mr said moon and felt himself a person of in 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 moon turned the handle n on j v ag how much we to day moon in a manner ch combined the independence of the great the of a familiar gossip and respect for a man of t in the community like george f fill er who you for for republican candidate mr it s too early to make any yet all there s still a good month and two no three weeks most be almost three weeks well there s more than six we in all before the r and i feel a fellow ought to keep an open mind and give all the a show look em all over and em and then decide carefully that s a fact mr but tell you and my stand on this is just th same as it was four years ago and eight years ago and be my stand four years from now yes and ei t years from now i what i tell everybody and it can t be too ally understood is that what we need first last and all the time is a good sound business by that s how do those front look to you fine wouldn t be much work for if looked after their car the way you do well i do try and have some sense about it paid his bill oh ke the change and drove off in an ecstasy of honest self appreciation it was with the manner of a good that shouted at a respectable looking man who was waiting	42
for a car have a lift as the man climbed in clear down town whenever i see a fellow waiting a i always make it a practice to give him a lift unless of course be looks like a bum wish there were more folks that were so generous with n on j v th said the victim of benevolence c no tain t a question of hardly fact i always feel i was saying to my son just the other night it s a fellow s duty to share the good things of this with his neighbors and it gets my goat a fellow gets stuck on himself and goes his merely because he s charitable the victim seemed unable to find the right answer on pretty service the giving us on these nonsense to only nm the road cars once every seven minutes fellow gets mighty cold on a winter morning waiting on a street comer with the wind at his ankles that s right the street car con any don t care a damn what kind of a deal they give us something ought to happen to em was alarmed but still of course it won t do to just keep knocking the company and net realize the difficulties they n c under like these that want the way these workmen hold the company for hi wages is simply a crime and of course the burden on you and me that have to pay a fact there s remarkable service on all their lines considering well uneasily dam fine morning e spring along fast yes it s real ring now hie victim bad no originality no wit and into a great silence and devoted himself to the game of beating cars to the comer a a tail chase n between the huge yellow side of the and the jagged row of shooting past just as the stopped a rare game and n and all the while he was conscious of the loveliness of for together he noticed nothing but and the to rent signs of rival to day in mysterious he raged or rejoiced with equal nervous swiftness and to day the li t of spring was so that he lifted his head and saw he admired each district along his familiar route to the and shrubs and winding irregular of heights the one story shops on smith street a glare of plate glass and new yellow brick and and stores to st the more immediate needs ot east side the market gardens in dutch their patched with iron and stolen doors with crimson nine feet tall pipe tobacco and powder the 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 iy bland sleek across the belt of tracks with hi perched water and tall producing milk paper boxes lighting 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 of he thought of the factory of the river with its strangely banks of the hills to the north and all the fat land and big and comfortable herds as he dropped his passenger he cried i fed good this v i as starting die car was the drama of h before be entered office as he turned from avenue round the corner into third street ne he peered ahead for a space in the line of cars he angrily just missed a ace as a rival driver slid into it ahead car was leaving the and up holding out hand to the cars pressing on him from behind an old woman to go ahead avoiding a which bore down on him from one side with front wheels the wrought steel of the car in front he stopped cramped his wheel slid into the vacant ace 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 fir roof as a rock and as efficient as a fourteen stories of yellow pressed brick with clean upright lines it was filled with the of lawyers doctors agents for machinery for wheels for wire for stock their signs 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 s 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 n on j v news and stand were in no way living in a valley interested only in one and in building their main street was the entrance hall with its stone floor severe marble ceiling ind the windows of the the place on the street was the building but this waa s one embarrassment himself he 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 bis and peace and dignity were i kin him and the s all unheard they were heard again immediately the outside was talking on uie ne with tragic	42
lack of that firm manner which say i think i got just the that would nut the house in ob you ve seen it well how d it strike you ob oh i see as marched into his private room a with of oak and glass at the back of the office he reflected bow hard it was to find who had his own faith that he was going to make 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 general utility man of and of broken silent gray a n to have been a crack real estate man a firm of bis own in resident out at the an enthusiastic parson with a n on j v and much family miss the swift and r ber pretty miss n the thick slow laborious and le and commission as be looked from his own cage into the main room mourned s a good s a whip but and all those the rest of the ring morning was smothered la the stale office air he admired the office with a pleased that he should have created this sure lovely thing he was stimulated by the clean of it and the air of bustle but to day it seemed the floor like a the colored metal ceiling the faded maps on the hard plaster walls the chairs of pale oak the and of painted in olive it was a vault a steel el where and laughter were raw sin he hadn t even any satisfaction in the new water and it was the very best of water up to date and right thinking it had a great deal of money in itself a virtue it possessed a non conducting a water jar hy 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 ture the feeling of social it had given him he y i d 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 a much as i feel like and drink a hundred and nine thousand bottles of beer he si ed he read through his mail he shouted which meant miss and he n to dictate was his own version of his first n on j v send it to bis office miss rf twentieth to hand and in r ly would say look here i m awfully afraid if we go on like this well just naturally lose the sale i bad up on day before yesterday and got right down to cases and think i can assure you no change that all my e be is all right means to do business looked into his record which is fine that sentence seems to be a little up miss make a couple es out of it if you have to period new paragraph he is perfectly willing to pro rate the special and strikes me am dead sure there will be no difficulty in getting him to pay for title so now for heaven s sake let s get busy no make that so cow 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 sincerely this is the version of his letter which he received 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 ay i m awfully afraid that if we go on like this well 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 there will be no difficult in getting him to pay for title ii sa got v your sincerely js as be read and it in his correct flowing bu hand reflected now that s a good strong and dear s a bell now what i never told to make a third paragraph wish she d quit trying to improve on my but what i can t understand is can t or write a like that with with a the most important thing be dictated that morning vas the form letter to be and sent out to a thousand prospects it was diligently of the best literary of the day of to heart talk pulling letters on the of will power and hand shaking house organs aa richly poured forth by the new school of poets of business he bad painfully written out a first and he it dow like a poet delicate and old i just want to know can i do you a favor no i i know you re interested in getting a house not merely a place where you hai up the old but a love nest for the wife 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 he for our lovely now take a look sit t down at the handsome carved mahogany and us in a line telling us just what you want and if we can find it well come	42
down your lane with the good tidings and if we can t we won t you to save your time just fill oat the blank enclosed on request will also send blank regarding more properties in heights silver grove and all east side districts yours for service p s just a of some we can for that came in to day grove four room a shade tree swell neighborhood handy car line down and balance liberal terms cheaper than a i artistic two family house all oak trim floors lovely gas log big heated all weather a bargain at a over with its need of sitting and thinking instead of bustling around and 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 was 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 and she was any more mist he that winds it up i guess and turned heavily away for all his wandering thoughts 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 or his own home start trouble sure but in twenty three years of married life he had peered uneasily at every graceful ankle y soft shoulder in thou t 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 everything ashamed of bis ud lonely for the fairy girl chapter iv it was a of artistic creation fifteen minutes 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 bad 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 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 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 v by a tragedy to the world of art the april enthusiasm of served only to the talent of the older george f he grumbled to that tan colored voice of s gets on my nerves yet he was aroused and in one he wrote do you respect your loved ones when the sad rites of over do know for certain that you have done your best for the departed 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 modern he sent mat to the s office to dig out the names of the owners of houses which 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 conductor who played at real estate in spare time to can on side street prospects who w e unworthy the of but he had spent his ment of and routine details him one of heroism he had in discovering a new way of st 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 os his allowance of and tlie 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 i he bad brought himself down to three cigars a day then he had lost the a week ago he bad invented a system of leaving his and box in an unused drawer at the bottom of the k file in the outer office ill just naturally be ashamed to go k king 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 t en 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 be 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	42
out a cigar and a match but only one match if cigar goes out by have to stay out later when the cigar did go out he took one more match from tlie file and a and a came in for a conference at eleven naturally he had to offer them cigars his conscience protested why you re smoking with but he it oh shut i m busy now of course by and by there was no t yet us that he had crushed the 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 always 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 pre pi but believed ana 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 mon i yet on the they said only south no no i said south south say l what the is is the trouble can t you get me south why certainly they ll answer oh speak mist mist talking lo paul s george speaking a old fair to how re you fine well do you know oh nothing much where you been yourself oh just round what s up e how bout lunch s noon be all right with me i guess oi n on j v meet you there twelve thirty a right thirty s long his was not sharply marked into divisions with correspondence and advertisement writing were a thousand nervous details calls from clerks who were incessantly and seeing five furnished rooms and bath at dollars a month advice to mat on getting money out of tenants who had no money s virtues as a real estate as the so of society in the department of finding homes tor families and for of food were and he was honest be kept his records of and s complete he had experience with aod titles and an excellent memory for prices his shoulders were broad enough his voice deep enough his of hearty humor strong enough to establish him as one of the ruling caste of good fellows yet his importance to mankind was pen lessened by his large and complacent ignorance of ah architecture save the es of houses turned out by all ie 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 club and all the varieties of annual to which good fellows were invited to speak of public service the s obligation to the trust of his and a thing called whose nature was but if you had it you were a high class and if you hadn t you were a a and a fly these virtues and enabled you to handle bigger but they didn t imply that v you were to be and refuse to take twice the value of a house if a such ao 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 engineer clearing the pathway for inevitable changes meant that a real estate could make money by t ch way the town would grow this he called vision in an address at the he had admitted it b at once the duty and the je of the to know everything about his own and its where a surgeon is a on every vein and mysterious cell of the human body and the engineer upon in all its phases or bolt of some great bridge o a mighty flood the must know his inch by inch and all its faults and virtues be did know the market price inch by of certain districts of he did not know whether the police force was too large or too small or it was in alliance with gambling and he knew the means of fire buildings and the relation of to but he did not know how many there were in the how tbey were trained and paid or how con their he sang the advantages of of to homes but he did not know he did not know that it was worth while to know the city were properly heated lighted furnished he did not know how the teachers were chosen and though be one of the of that we pay our teachers that was because he had read the in the advocate times himself he could not have given the average salary of teachers in or anywhere n on j v he had heard it said that conditions in the county and the 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 from delirium and insanity was not the perfect way of he had the report by growling folks that think a jail ought to be a hotel make me sick if people don t like a jail let	42
em behave and keep out of it besides these reform always that was the beginning and quite 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 and to decent women to have a district where tough nuts can raise s em away from our own homes as to conditions had thou t 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 fighting the eveiy business man ought 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 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 iii the mat n on j v 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 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 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 f page 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 than as and themselves but attend to their only it was si posed 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 per cent and a gang a small a tobacco old who enjoyed dirty politics business and at had ten per cent and the officials bad to him for fixing health and fire and a member of the state commission but was virtuous he though he did 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 be followed the custom of his and cheated only as it was by precedent and he never descended t 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 t n place to go proving my principal a liar i 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 credit for lying anyway in i got to my own horn like a lawyer defending a his 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 but even so i don t out the truth or or the rest of these fact i think a fellow that s willing to deliberately up and profit by lying ou t ti be shot i s value to his was rarely better shown than this morning m the at himself and was a real estate he was a nervous before he he consulted s and all of their who were willing to be and him advice he was a bold and be desired nothing more than complete safety in his freedom from attention to details and the thirty or forty per cent profit which according to all authorities a deserves for his risks and foresight he was a man with a cap like mass of short gray curls and clothes which no matter how well cut seemed shaggy below his eyes were hollows as though silver dollars had been pressed against them and had left an particularly and always consulted and trusted ui his slow six months ago had learned that one a in the district known as was talking of evening 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 i 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 they could make come to their price this was vision he had to bully into buying his first act as agent for e	42
was to increase the rent of uie 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 who had vision and who understood talking points key situations and the of p came to the conference he was fond of this morning and called him old the a long man and solemn seemed to care less foi n on j v and for vision but met urn at the street door of the office aod guided him toward the private room with affectionate little cries of this way brother he took from the correspondence file the entire box of cigars and forced them on his guests he pushed their chairs two inches 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 ten tin offers from and a of other folks for that lot next to your store but i persuaded brother that we ou t to l ve you a shot at the property first i said to it d be a rotten shame i said if somebody went and opened a combination and meat market right next door and ruined s nice little business e leaned forward and bis voice was harsh it would be hard lock if one of these cash and carry chain stores got in there and started cutting prices below cost till they got rid of and forced you to the wall snatched his thin hands from his pockets pulled 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 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 fr a fact that 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 why i d have to i wouldn t mind so much paying twelve thousand but why good god mr you re asking v n twice its value i and threatening to ruin me if i don t take it i i don t like your way of i don t like it one little supposing 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 well 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 here to up for a building on good terms heavens man we d be ad to oblige you i we don t like these foreign any better n you do i but it isn t reasonable to expect us to sacrifice eleven thousand oc more just for is it i 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 bands 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 modem 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 a he mattered makes me sick to think of carrying off n most of the profit i did all the work the old and what else have i got to do to y late to take a good long trip something he by um t of witb paul s for leaving the to its feeble self during the hour and a half of his lunch 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 she s to tell him i m already having the title traced and oh b the way remind me to morrow to have trace it now if at body comes in looking for a cheap house remember we got to that road place off somebody if you need me be at the club be back by two he the ashes off his he placed a letter on the pile of unfinished work that he might not fail to attend to it that afternoon for three now he bad placed the same letter on the unfinished he on a sheet of yellow paper the see t h which gave him an agreeable feeling of having already seen about the apartment house doors he discovered that he was smoking another he threw it away protesting it i thought you d quit this dam smoking he returned the box to the correspondence file locked it up hid the key in a more difficult place and	42
raged ought to take care of and need more walk to the every sin e noon just what m do every noon cut out this all the time the resolution made him fed immediately after k be decided that this noon it was too late to walk n on j v a it took but little more time to start his car and edge it int the traffic than it have taken to walk the three and a half blocks to the club as he drove he glanced vith the fondness of familiarity at the buildings a stranger suddenly ed into the business of could not have told whether he was in a 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 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 furniture shop the national cash register agency be for a for a type writer which would add and as a poet for or a physician for at the men s wear shop he took his left hand off the to touch his and thought well of him self 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 and solid he was to bank so an establishment his high moment came in the clash of traffic when he was halted at the comer beneath lofty second national tower his car was with four others in a line of steel restless as cavalry t the s town traffic and enormous moving and poured by on the farther corner rang on the sun skeleton of a new building and out of this flashed the in 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 band he noted how quickly his car picked up he felt superior and powerful like a a 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 store the lodging house hall with its lodge and the offices of fortune and he thought 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 deal but taxes due let s see i ought to pull out eight thousand net this year and save fifteen hundred of that no not if i put and let s see six hundred and forty dear last and twelve times six forty makes makes let see six times twelve is seventy two hundred and oh rats anyway make eight thousand now that s not so bad few fellows pulling down eight thousand dollars a year 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 ri t up at the t of the heap but way excuses 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 be felt at once triumphantly wealthy and poor and in the of these he stopped his car rushed into c s news and shop and t the electric cigar lighter which he had for a we he bis by being and noisy and by shouting at the guess this wilt near pay for itself in matches eh it was a pretty thing a with an almost silvery to be attached to the of his car it was not only as the on the counter observed a little 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 pretty nice always wanted one he said wistfully the one thing a needs too then he remembered that he bad given smoking bam it he mourned oh w i sit ih hit a cigar once in a while and be a great for other folks mi t make just the difference in getting with some that would put over a sale and certainly looks nice there certainly is a mighty clever little gives the last touch of refinement and class i by i guess i can afford it if i want not going to be the only member of this family that never has a luxury laden with treasure after three and a half blocks of adventure he drove up to the the club is not and it isn t exactly a club but it is in perfection 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 three thousand members use it as a in to lunch le v cards tell stories meet and entertain out at dinner it is the largest in the d and its chief hatred is the union which ad sound members of the call	42
i did hear george s went into tlie wear d at s to buy him some and before she could give his neck the clerk slips her some how know the size says mrs and the clerk says men that let wives buy for d always wear thirteen madam how s s good eh how s that eh i that ll about you i i sought amiable in answer he stared at the door paul was coming in cried see you later b s and hastened across the he was just then neither the sulky child of the sleeping porch the domestic tyrant of the breakfast table money of the conference nor the good fellow the and regular of the club he was an older brother to paul swift to him admiring him with a proud and love passing the love of women paul and he shook hands they smiled as as though th had been parted three years not three 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 high fondness you re a fine you ten snapped well you re lucky to have a chance to lunch with a th grinned and went into the a line of men bent over the along ft ous of marble as in religious before u v own images in the mirror voices thick satisfied along the marble walls bounded from the ceiling of bordered while the lords of tlie 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 player of was a noble man and that those two nuts at the this week certainly are a pair of actors though ordinarily his voice was the and most of all was silent in the of the t dark of paul he was a ward 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 thb was the dining room the of s it was lofty and half with an a somewhat 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 with hand blade wooden and at one end of the room was a and stone fireplace which the club s asserted to be not only larger than of the in european castles but of a draught more it was also much as no fire had ever in it half of the table which seated twenty w thirty men usually sat at the one near the door vith a including professor his neighbor t the poet and agent and jones whose n on j o was in many ways the best in they s within the and merrily called themselves to day as be passed their table the greeted him come on sit yoa n paul too proud to feed with poor afraid somebody might stick for a bottle of george strikes me yon are get ting awful he thundered you bet we can t afford to have our ruined by being seen with you ti and guided paul to one of the small tables beneath the gallery he guilty at the club privacy was bad form but he wanted paul to that morning he bad and now h ordered nothing but english mutton chop peas pie a bit of cheese and a pot of coffee with cream adding as be did invariably and and yon might ve me an order of french potatoes when the chop came he vigorously it and it he always and meat and before it paul and be took iq the like quality of the spring the virtues of the cigar lighter and the action the new york state assembly it was not till was thick and with mutton t that he flung out i wound a nice little deal with this that put five hundred good round in my pretty nice pretty and yet i know i t the matter with me to day maybe it s an attack of spring or staying too late at s or maybe it just the winter s work up but felt kind of down in the mouth all day long course wouldn t beef about it to the fellows at the table there but yon ever fed that way paul kind of comes over me here ive pretty much done all the things i ought to su my family and not a good house and a six car and a nice little business and i haven t any vices specially n on j v t and i m practically cutting that out by the way and i to the church and i ay enough to keep in trim and i only associate with good decent and yet even so don t know that i m satisfied it was out broken by from the net tables by mechanical love making to the by as the coffee filled him with and he was and doubtful and it was paul with his thin voice who pierced the fog good lord george you don t suppose it s any to ate to find that we that think we re so all fired successful aren t getting much out of it you look as if yoa me to you as you know my own life s been i know old man i ou t to have been a and i m a of and ob i don t want to bat yon know as well as i do about how a wife she is typical instance last evening we went	42
to the then was a big crowd waiting in the us at the tail end she began to push right through it with her sir how dare you honestly sometimes en i look at her and see how always so made and of and looking for trouble and kind of always i tell ite a lady damn why i want to kill well she keeps through the crowd me her feeling good and ashamed till she almost up to the velvet rope and ready to be the next let in but there was a little of a man tho e probably been waiting half an hour i kind of admired the httle and he turns on and says perfectly p te madam why are you trying to push past me and simply god i was so ashamed out at re no gentleman and she me into it and paul this person insulted and the poor v pot to fight n on j v cl i made out i hadn t heard them sure i same as wouldn t hear a and i tried to lo away i can tell you how every tile looks in the ceiling of that there s one with brown spots on it uke the face of the devil and all the time the people there they packed in like they k t making remarks about us and went right on talking about the little chap and that folks like him t to be admitted in a place that s sup posed to be for ladies and gentlemen and paul will you kindly call the manager so i can report this dirty rat and maybe i wasn t glad when i could inside and hide in the dark i after f our years of that kind of thing you don t expect me to fall down and foam at the mouth when you hint that this sweet dean respectable moral life isn t all it s cracked i to be do you i can t even talk about it except to you because anybody else would think i was yellow maybe i am don t care any longer you ve had to stand a lot of from me first and last rats now paul you ve never really what you could call sometimes i m always blowing to and the about what a whale of a i am and yet sometimes i get a idea i m not such a as i let on to be but if i ever do help by you along old i i guess maybe saint may let me in after all you re an old blow hard you ful cut throat but you ve certainly kept me going why don t you divorce why don t ii if i only could if she d just give me the you couldn t hire her to divorce me no nor des t me she s too fond of her three squares and a few pounds of nut in between if she d only be what ih call to me george i don t want to be too much of a back in college i d ve thou t a man who could say that ought to be shot at but honestly i d be to death if she d really go making love with somebody fat of shell with anything you know how she holds hands and laughs that laugh that horrible laugh the way she you naughty man you bet er be careful or my big husband will be after you and the looking me over and thinking why you little thing you run away now or and shell let him go just far enough so she gets some excitement out of it and then she ll begin to do the injured innocent and have a beautiful time wailing i didn t think you were that kind of a p talk about these in stories these but the wise hard old married women like are worse than any haired girl that ever went boldly out into this here storm of life and kept her slid up her but rats you know is how she how she wants everything i can buy her and a lot that i can t and how absolutely unreasonable she s and when i get sore and try to have it out with her she plays the perfect z so well that even i get and get all tangled 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 decent cigars not those de you re smoking that s all right that s a good two foe by the way paul did tell you decided to practically cut out yes you at the same time if 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 tempered that has quit and she s been so busy sitting in a dirty lace all afternoon reading about some brave manly west cm hero that she hasn t had time to do any you re n always talking about i suppose youve been the rock of ages to me all ri t but you re a vou where d you get that little man let me you love to earnest and the that it s the duty of h ble business to	42
be strictly as an to the community in fact you re so earnest about ty old that i to think how you be all n t you can wait wait what s talk about morals all you want to old thing but believe m if it hadn t been for you and an occasional evening playing the to s and three or four is that let me forget this joke they ue life i d ve killed mj f years o and the business roofs for ob i don t mean i haven t had a lot of fun out of the game out of putting it over on the and seeing a big check coming in the business increasing but what s the use of hi you know my business isn t it s my from same with you all we do is cut each s throats and make the public pay for it look here now paul you re pretty near talking oh yes of course i don t mean that i s pose course competition brings out the beat of the but i mean take all these fellows we know the kind right here in the now that seem to be with their home life and their and and the ch of commerce and for a million population bet if could cut their heads you d find that one third of em are sure i their wives and and and their md one feel kind of restless but won t admit it and one third are aod know it they tbe go game and they re bored t wives and think are fools at least when tb to forty or forty five they re bored and they hate and they d go why do yon si there s many why do you suppose so many citizens jumped into the war it was all patriotism what do yoa expect think we were seat into the to have a time and what is it float on beds of ease man was just made to y happy why not i never discovered that knew what the deuce man really was made well we not in the bible alone but it stands jo a man who doesn t down and do his duty if it does here sometimes is nothing but a well a in and what do you come down to if a man is bored by us do yoa mean he a right to her and take a or even kill himself good lord i know wliat ri ts a man id don t know the solution of if i did i d be the one tliat had tbe core for but i do know tliat about ten times as many people find their lives dull and dull as ever it and i do believe that if we out and admitted it sometimes instead of being nice aod patient and loyal for sixty and nice and and dead for tbe rest of eternity why possibly e might make life more fun they drifted into a of speculation was uneasy paul was bold but not quite sure about tie was being bold now and then suddenly agreed with paul in an admission all of duty and christian patience and at each admission he 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 oh don t worry old pillar of it s highly pr er it seems to be settled now isn t it though of course keeps 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 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 ideal 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 self imposed discipline which would have locked all and citizens why don t we just put our foot down and say we re going on ahead of you and that s all there is to iti 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 n on j v yoa wanted me and you d give in to save her feeling ob 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 steps of the not more than half an hour after the time at which bad 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 q ending all noon at the conventional stuff i m	42
conventional enough to be ashamed of saving my life by out with my fool 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 need you advise me on the roof of the and the de deal wiu fall through and be f of us but to go on ahead to i paul when it comes right 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 would 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 hell i can t stand here all on the job s don t take any wooden mon see you s he forgot pan in an of not details after a return to his of ce which seemed to have on without bim he drove a pro out to view a four flat in the district he was by the customer s admiration of the new cigar its novelty made bim use it and thrice be hurled smoked from the car protesting i got to smoking so blame ample discussion of every detail of the li ter led them to speak of electric flat irons and bed tor being so as still to use a hot water bottle and he announced that he would have the sleeping at once he had enormous and poetic admiration thou very little understanding of all devices tho wo e his of and beauty regarding each new intricate metal two jet machine gun w he learned one good sounding phrase and used it over and over with a delightful feeling of bang and the 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 bad 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 drove through south a i region new of hollow tile with gigantic windows old red stained with tar hi water big ted like and on a score of side tracks far wandering freight cars from e new central and apple the great northern and the sou em pacific and orange groves they to the secretary of the company about an interesting artistic project a cast fence for lane they drove on to the and the manager about a on a car for and were fellow members of the club and no felt r t if he bought anything from another without receiving a but henry growled ot t ml with em i i m not going to crawl around not from nobody it was one of the between the old fashioned lean yankee rugged stage type of american business man and the smooth up lo tlie minute and otherwise modern whenever son put your john on that line was as much amused by the as any proper englishman by any american he knew to be breeding altogether more and sensitive than son s he was a college he played he instead of cigars and when he went to he took a room with a private bath the whole thing is he explained to paul these old lack the that you got to have to day advance in civilization could be carried too far perceived manager of the was a frivolous of while was a sound and standard ware from that great department the state wore be wrote long about n on j v to city planning and singing and thou he was a be was known to carry in his pocket small volumes of poetry in a foreign language ah this was going too far henry was the extreme of and the extreme of while between them the state defending the churches and domestic brightness and sound business were and his friends with this just estimate of himself and with the promise of a on s car he returned to bis office in but as he went through the corridor of the building he sighed poor old i got to oh damn damn i just because they make more money than i do they they re so i wouldn t be found dead in their old union i somehow to day i don t feel like going back to work oh he answered calls he read the four o clock mail he signed his morning s letters he talked to a tenant he fought with young the outside was always that he deserved an increase of and to day be complained i think i ought to get a if i put through the sale i m chasing around and working on it every single evening almost frequently remarked to bis wife that it was to con your office along and ke em happy stead of on em and em up get more work out of em that way but this lack of af hurt bim and he turned on look here let s get this clear you ve got an idea that it s you that do all the selling d you get that stuff where d you think you d be if it wasn t for v our behind you and our lists of pr and all the prospects we	42
and in these you can get all kinds of that would come ic handy say listen to this one can you play a man s part if you are walking with your mother sister or best girl and some one passes a remark or uses improper language won t you be ashamed if you can t take her part well can you we teach and self by mail pupils have written saying that after a few lessons they ve and heavier the lessons start with simple movements practised before your holding out your hand for a coin the breast stroke in swimming etc before you it you are striking guarding and just as if you had a real opponent before v oh i wouldn t like that ted i d tell the world i d like to take one fellow i know in school that s always shooting ob his mouth and him al nonsense the ideal most useless thing i ever heard of i just su se i was walking with or and somebody passed a remark or used language what would i do why you d probably bust the record for the hundred yard i would not i d stand ri t up to any that passed a remark on my sister and i d show him look here young i if i catch you fighting whale the everlasting out of you end do it without holding out my hand for a coin b the mirror tool why ted dear mrs said it s not at all nice your talking of fighting well almighty that s a fine way to a and then si pose i was walking with you ma and somebody passed a remark nobody s going to pass no remarks on nobody observed not if they stay home and study their and mind their own instead of hanging around a lot of and and places where nobody s got any business to but if they mrs well if they did i wouldn t do them the honor of paying any attention to them besides they do vou always bear about these that get and insulted and all but i t believe a of it it s their own fault the way some women look at a person i certainly ve by aw shoot mother just suppose you sometime just can t you suppose something can t you ne certainly i can imagine the ideal certainly your mother can imagine things and si pose think you re the only member of this household that s got an imagination demanded but what s the use of a lot of supposing gets you anywhere no sense when there s a lot of real facts to take into look here suppose i mean just just yon were in your office and some rival real estate man some that you hated came in i don t hate any but you did i don t intend to suppose anything of the kind i there s den of fellows in my profession that stoop and hate 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 dresses up to their knees and powdered and painted and and knows what all as if they were chorus then you d know and you d pose 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 pose and i can t imagine my any not dirty society and there s no if and or but about but if i going to somebody i wouldn t require any ducks or swimming strokes before a mirror or any of these and s fl i suppose you were out some place and a called you vile names think you d want to box and v around like a you d just lay him out cold at least i certainly hope any son of mine and then you d dust off your hands and go on about your business and that s all there is to it and you aren t going to have any lessons by mail either i well but yes i just wanted to show how many different kinds of courses there are instead of al the they teach us in the hi but i t they taught in the school that s different tbey stick you up there and some big stiff the s out of you before you have a chance to learn not any but anyway listen to some of these the were truly one of than bore the rousing money the second announced that mr p r formerly making only a week in a shop writes to us that since taking our course be 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 system of breathing and mental control ted had collected fifty or sixty from annual books from sunday school fiction and journals of discussion one b implored don t be a be more popular and make more 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 exercises special training or long drawn out study and without waste of time money or energy learn to play by note piano or drum and learn sight singing the next under the wistful ap finger wanted big confided you red blooded men s and this is the profession you have	42
been looking for there s money in it big money and that rapid change of scene that and ng interest and fascination b active mind and adventurous spirit of being the chief figure and directing in serving mysteries and crimes this w h d ul profession brings you into contact with influential men on the basis of and often calls upon you to to distant lands paid no education required ob i guess that wins the wouldn t it be swell to travel everywhere and famous o ed ted i think much of that likely to get hurt still that music study mi t be pretty fair thou no reason why if put minds to it the way have to m a factory couldn t figure out some scheme so a person have to monkey with all this and exercises t t you get in music was and he had a parental feeling that they two the men of the family understood each other he listened to the notices of mail box taught short story writing and in the memory motion picture acting and ing the soul power and spanish and n hy en and window poultry raising and well well sought for adequate expression of admiration i m of a i knew this correspondence school business had become a mighty profitable real estate look like two cents but i didn t realize it d got to be such a key industry i must rank ll up with and always figured somebody d come with the brains to not leave education to a lot of v and bnt make a big thing out of it yes i can see bow a lot of these courses interest you i must ask the fellows at the if they ever realized but same time ted you know how s i mean some i know as they d be able to jam you these courses as fast as they claim can oh sure of course ted had the immense and of a boy who is respectfully listened to by his concentrated on him with grateful affection i can see what an influence these courses mi t have an the whole works course i d never admit it f ow like myself a state u it s decent and patriotic for him to blow his bom and the but of fact there s a lot of valuable lime lost even at the u studying poetry and french and that never in anybody a cent i don t know but maybe these mi t prove to be one of the most important american inventions trouble with a lot of folks is they re so blame material ey don t see the and mental side of american su they think that inventions like the and le and no that wa a invention but anyway they think these mechanical improvements are all tliat we stand for whereas to a real he sees that spiritual and its like and and and are what compose our deepest and truest and maybe this new principle in education at may be another may be i tell you ted we ve got to have vision those correspondence courses are gasped it was mrs had made this discord in their harmony and one of mrs s virtues was that except during dinner parties when n on j v b 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 sounds awful to me the way they those poor young folks to think th re learning something and nobody round to help them and you two learn so quick but me i always was slow but just the same attended to her get just as much studying at home you don t think a any more because be blows in his s hard earned and sits around in chairs in a swell with pictures and and table covers and those do you i tell you i m a college man i know 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 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 son i ve found 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 be gets to shooting off his mouth about or literature or foreign trade conditions and you just ease in something like when i was in college course i got my ba in and all that oh it puts an awful in their but there wouldn t be any class to saying i got the degree of stamp from the mail university i you see my was a pretty good old but he never had much s le to him and i had to work bard to earn my way through college well it s been worth it to be able to associate with the finest gentlemen in at the clubs 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 fe le but still have and personally it would kind of hurt me if you did that	42
old man i i know ah right i ll stick to it i forgot all about those i was going to take to the chorus ill have to but you haven t done all your home work do it first thing in the morning six times in the past sixty days bad you not do it first thing in the morning do it right but to night he said well better and his mile was the rare y radiance he kept for paul ted s a good boy he said to mrs oh he ul who s these girls he s going to pick up are they nice decent i don t know oh dear ted never tells me anything any more i don t understand what s come over the children of this generation i used to have to tell papa and but seems like the children to day have just slipped away from all control i hope they re decent girls course ted s no 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 i she blushed and lowered her eyes well don t know way i figure it no sense a lot of things to a boy s mind up by but i wonder it s kind of a bard question v t thinks about it course papa you he says all this he t decent be does does bet well let me tell you that whatever henry t thinks about morals i mean thou course you can t beat the old why what a way to talk of singly can t beat him at getting in on the ground of a deal but let me tell you he springs any ideas about higher and education then i know i think just the c you may not regard me as any great but believe me i m a regular college president compared with henry t l 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 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 the proper and occasion arises so it just comes in natural why then i ll have a friendly little talk and was that up she ought to been asleep long ago he the room and stood in the that glass walled of chairs and coach is which they on out de only the of s and the dim of s favorite elm broke the softness of april ni t good visit with the boy getting over feeling i did this and restless though by i liave a few days with paul in devil but ted s all whole family all ri t and good business not many fellows make four and fifty practically of a thousand ea as did maybe we all get to it s as fault as it is theirs oi ta t to get like z do but wish i d been a same as my grand but then wouldn t have a like this i oh know he thou t of paid of their youth of die girls they bad known when had from the state university four years ago be had intended to be a lawyer he had been a ponderous in college he felt that he was aa be saw himself becoming governor of the state while he read law be worked as a real estate he saved money lived in a boarding house on egg on the lively paul who was certainly going ofi to europe to study next month or next year was his till paul was by who laughed and danced and drew men after her plump and gaily s evenings were barren then and he found in paul s second cousin a and gentle girl who showed hei capacity by with the that of course be was going to be governor day where him as a country boy said indignantly that be was ever so much than the young who bad been bom in the great ci of z an settlement in one hundred and five years m two thousand population the and wonder rf all the state and to the boy george so vast and and luxurious that he was flattered to know a girl by in t h of love there was no talk between them he knew that if be was to study law be could not marry for years and was distinctly a nice girl one didn t kiss her one didn t about ber that w at all unless one was t many her but she was a m go always ready to go walking always content to hear his on the great things be was to do the distressed poor whom he would defend against the unjust rich the speeches he would make at the of p thou t which he would correct one evening when be was weary and soft minded be saw that she had been she had been left out of a party by somehow ber head was on bis shoulder and he was kissing away the tears and she raised 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 be could not hurt her 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	42
some day i m going to take a long trip yea we d ea ay that she yawned he looked away from her as be realized that he not wish to have her go with him as he locked doors and tried windows and set the heat so that the would open in the morning he sighed a little heavy with a feeling which and frightened him so absent minded was be that he could not remember which window catches he had and through the darkness at unseen perilous chairs be crept back to try them all over again his feet were loud on the steps as he upstairs at the end of this great and treacherous day of veiled before breakfast he always to up state village boyhood and shrank from the complex demands of bathing deciding whether the current shirt was clean enough for another day whenever he stayed home in the evening he went to bed early and got ahead in those dismal duties it was his luxurious custom to while in a of hot water he may be viewed to m g t as a smooth pink robbed of the importance of spectacles in breast high water his cheeks with a safety like a tiny lawn and with melancholy dignity the water to recover a slippery and active piece of soap he was to dreaming by the caressing warmth the light on the inner surface of the tub in a pattern of delicate wrinkled lines which slipped with a green sparkle the as the clear water trembled lazily watched it noted that along the of his against the radiance on the bottom of the tub the shadows of the air to the hairs were r as strange he patted the water and the reflected li os leaped and he was content and childish he played he shaved a down the calf of plump leg the drain pipe was dripping a and lively song he was enchanted by it he looked at the solid tub the t the walls of the room and felt virtuous in the possession of this splendor he roused himself and spoke to his bath things come here you ve done enough he tht treacherous soap and defied the nail brush with oh you would would you he himself and himself and rubbed himself he noted a hole in the to sh and thrust a finger through it and marched back to the bedroom a grave and citizen there was a moment of gorgeous abandon a flash of such as he found in traffic driving when be laid out a dean collar ed that it was in front and tore it up with a ma sound most important of all was the preparation of his bed and be sleeping porch it is not known whether he enjoyed his ing porch because of the fresh air or because it was the standard thing to have a sleeping porch i 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 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 were his and proofs of excellence at first the signs then the for toy and passion and wisdom n on j v but of these advertised tokens of and social success was more significant a sleeping porch with a below the rites of for bed were elaborate and the blankets bad 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 bis bare feet would strike it when he arose in the 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 at last his brow cleared and in his rang power but there was yet need of as he sank into sleep just at the first exquisite the car came home into why the devil can i some people never get to bed at a reasonable hour so familiar was he with the process of putting up his own car that be awaited each step like an able to bis own rack the car y cheerful on the the car door and shut then the door slid open on the sill and the car door again the the climb up into the and once more before it was shut off a final opening 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 at that moment m the city of was making love to in her drawing ji ml royal ridge after their return from a lecture by an ei sh was s professional bachelor a slim man of for six with an voice and taste in flowers and mrs mc was red haired discontented rude and honest tried his invariable first touching her n wrist be an she said do you mind awfully that s i he changed to conversation he was famous at tion he reasonably of long island and the he had found in she promised to meet him in the coming summer though she si ed it s too dreadfully nothing but and english and at that moment in a and a were drinking in s saloon on front street since national was now in force and since was law abiding	42
they were to keep the innocent by drinking them out of tea cups the lady threw her at the s head he worked his revolver out of the pocket in bis sleeve and casually her at that moment in z th two men sat in a for thirty seven hours now they had been working on a report of their of at that moment in here 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 a and prosperous one a yankee one a clerk and one a russian actor the russian jew and at that a g a r was dying he had n come from the war t to a farm it was within the of was primitive as the he had never ridden in a car seen a bath tub never read any book save the bible mo s readers and religious tracts and he believed that the earth is flat that the english are the lost ten tribes ol 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 glared through its wide windows like a along the hi wire fences search li ts played on lined yards tracks and armed guards on at that monday was finishing a meeting mr monday the distinguished the best 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 well earned for to quote hb last report rev mr monday the prophet with a punch has shown that he is the world s greatest of salvation and that by efficient organization the overhead of spiritual may be k t down to an rock bottom basis he has converted over two hundred thousand lost and souls at 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 ci had to invite him mr george f had once praised him in a speech at the club but there was o from c and ministers those whom mr monday so finely called v of gospel with dish water instead of blood a gang of that need more dust on the knees of their and more on their old this had crushed when the secretary of the of commerce had reported to a committee of that in every city he had appeared mr monday had turned the minds of workmen from wages and hours to higher thin and thus averted strikes he was invited an expense fund of forty thousand dollars had been out on the county fair grounds a monday had been to seat fifteen thousand people in it the was at this moment concluding his message there s a lot of smart college professors and tea sl in this that say i m a and a never and my knowledge of history is not yet ob there s a gang of book that think they know more than almighty god and a lot of hun and 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 os 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 coin well now listen i m going to give those birds a they can stand ri t iq here and tell me to my face that i m a and a liar and a 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 flaming ri behind the well come on who says it who says monday is a and a don t i see anybody standing up well there you now i guess the folks in this man s town will quit listening to all this from behind the fence i quit listening to the that pan and roast and kick and beef and out filthy n on j v all of you come in with every grain of and you got and all together for christ and h everlasting men and tenderness at that moment the radical lawyer and br the t whose report on the destruction of undo had made the name of known in and rome were talking in s library s a with gigantic building gigantic machines gigantic meditated i hate your city it has all the beau out of life it is one big railroad station with all the people taking tickets for the best dr said placidly roused i m hanged if it you make me sick with your perpetual about don t you suppose any other nation is is ai more than england with every house that can it having the same 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 y in saying right you to every other prosperous ass yet i love england and just look at the in france and the love making in is excellent per se when i buy an watch or a ford i get a better tool less money and i know precisely what i m getting and that leaves me more time and energy to be individual in and i once	42
in london i saw a picture of an american in a ad on the back of the saturday post an lined s street of these new an v 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 vas there s no other in the world that has pleasant houses and i don t care if they are it s a 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 properly and yet minds are the enemy then this y 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 matter of taste personally i prefer a city with a future so unknown that it my imagination but i particularly want you 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 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 jove for the dear and i do love to hay respectability reasonable wonder how long we can it i we re safe as long as the good little boys v like george and all the nice respectable labor leaden think you and me are there s swell for an honest here a whole working to provide cigars and chicken and dry for us and to our banner with indignation oh fierce indignation some like this fellow comes along honest a smart like me ought to b ashamed of himself if he didn t milk cattle like them when they come around for but the gang can t get away with grand like it used to i wonder when i wish we could fix some way to run this fellow out of town it s him or at that moment in three hundred and forty or fifty thousand ordinary people were asleep a vast shadow in the beyond the railroad tracks a young man who for six months had sought work turned on the gas and killed himself and his wife at that moment the poet of the book shop was finishing a to show how was life amid the of but how it was in so obvious a place as and at that moment george f turned in bed the last turn that he d bad enough of this worried business of falling asleep and was about it in earnest instantly he was in the magic dream he was somewhere among unknown people who laughed at him he slipped away ran down the paths of a midnight garden and at the gate the fairy child was waiting her dear and tranquil hand bis cheek he was gallant and wise and well beloved warm were her arms and b perilous the brave sea glittered chapter viii thb great events of s spring were the secret buying of real estate in for certain street officials before the public announcement that the avenue car line would be extended and a dinner which was as he rejoiced to his wife not only a regular society read but a real sure enough affair with some of the keenest and the brightest bunch of little women in town it was so absorbing an occasion that he almost forgot his desire to run off to with paul though he had been born in the village of bad risen to that social plane on which hosts have as many as four people at dinner without planning it for more than an evening or two but a dinner of twelve with flowers from the s and all the cut glass out staggered even the for two weeks they studied and the list f of course we re t to date ourselves but think of us entertaining a famous poet like a fellow that on nothing but a poem or so every day and just writing a few down fifteen thousand a yes and do you know the other evening told me her papa speaks three said mrs that s nothing so do i american and i don t think it s nice to be funny about a matter like that n on j v think how wonderful it must be to speak three languages am so useful and and with people like that i don t see why we invite the well dow is a mighty up and coming fellow yes i know but a admit a hasn t got the class of poetry or real estate but just the same is mi ty deep ever start him about say that fellow can tell you the name of every kind of tree and some of their greek and latin names tool besides we owe the a dinner besides we got to have some for audience when a bunch of hot air artists like and get going well dear i meant to speak of this i do think that as host you ought to sit back and listen and let your guests have a chance to talk once in a while oh you do do you i talk all the and i m just a business man	42
it no one got a ri t to personal 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 said yes that s so but the trouble is the manner of insisted undo stand the right system now if i d running the thing n on j v d have arranged it so that the was and then we could have 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 for home made beer the other day you interrupted wait let me tell you thing to do is to jones insisted i ve got the receipt that does the begged oh say tell you the story but 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 tiu ned toward them with yearning sweetness hastened to finish even his best beer and she said gaily dinner is served was a good deal of friendly argument among the men as to should go in last and while they were crossing the hall from the living room to the dining room made them laugh by thundering if i can t sit next to and hold her hand under the table won t play i m goin home in the dining room they stood embarrassed while mrs fluttered now let me see ob i was going to have some nice hand painted place cards for you but oh let me see mr you sit there the dinner was in the best style of women s magazine art whereby the was served in apples and everything but the invincible resembled something n on j v il ordinarily the found it hard to talk to the women was an art unknown on and the of offices and of bad no but under the inspiration of the conversation was violent each of the men still had a number of 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 ing but seems this fellow was standing on the comer and fellow comes up to him they say there s a whole of stuff being across at what i always say is 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 but they all that it was rather in bad taste for jones and he not recognized as one of the wits of the anyway to say in fact the whole thing about is this it isn t the cost it s the not till the one required t ic had been dealt with did th conversation become general it was often and said of that fellow can get away with murder i why he can pull a raw one in mixed company and all the ladies laugh their heads off but me if i crack that s just the least bit off color i get the for now ted them by crying to mrs of the women i to s out of hb pocket and wliat say you and me across the street when be folks t looking got something with a gorgeous awful in to tell you i the women and was stirred to like say folks i wished i dared show you a book i borrowed from now george the ideal mrs warned him this book isn t the it s some kind of an rt about about customs in the south seas and what it doesn t it s a book you can t bi ry lend it to you me insisted sounds announced say i heard a good one the day about a and their wives and in the best accent he carried the good one to a slightly ending it but the the f ed back into cautious reality had recently been on a lecture tour among the small towns and he chuckled awful good to get 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 od earth those small town folks but oh what why say th can t talk about anything but the weather and the ne oo 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 said yes it s ready remarkable they seem to lack all of looking at things th simply go over and over the same talk about and the and so on n on j v still at thai can t blame em they t got intellectual such as you get tp here in the city said that s right said i don t want	42
you hi brows to get stuck on yourselves but i must say it keeps a fellow right on his toes to sit in with a poet and with the that put the con in but these with nobody but each other to talk to no they get so and in their speech and so up in their 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 where here in the city you got your choice of a dozen dis rent any evening you want to name sure and the inspiration we get from rubbing up against high class every day and getting jam full of said same time said no sense these too ea fellow s own fault if be doesn t show the to up and beat it to the city like we done did and just speaking id confidence among friends they re jealous as the devil of a city man every time i go up to i have to go around ng to the fellows i was brought up with because i ve more or less succeeded and hey 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 they think you re putting on side there s my own martin runs the little store n used to keep say bet he don t know there is such a thing 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 yes sir they re agreed that s so but what i mind is lack of culture and appreciation of the beautiful if le excuse me for now i like to give a hi class lecture and read some of my best poetry not the new stuff but the magazine things say 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 up fact is we re mighty lucky to be living among a bunch of city folks that recognize artistic things and business punch equally we d feel pretty if ve got stuck in some street and tried to wise up the old to the kind of life we re used to here but by there s this you got to say for em every small american town is trying to get and modem and if a lot of em don t put it across i somebody starts a telling how he was there in and it consisted of one muddy street count em one and nine hundred human well you go back there in and you find and a swell hotel and a first class ladies ready to wear shop real perfection in vou 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 he finest spots on earth they all want to be just like however intimate tb r might be with t as a as a of lawn and monkey they knew that he was also a famous poet and a distinguished agent that behind his were which th could not penetrate but to in the gin confidence he admitted them to the i ve got a literary problem that s worrying me to death i m doing a of for the car and i want to of em a real little h stuff i m all for theory that perfection is the or nothing at all and these are as tough things as i ever you might think it d be harder to do my poems all these 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 do you know the fellow f o s really tke american genius the fellow who you don t know his name and i don t either but his work ought to be so s future generations can judge our american thought and originality to day why the fellow that writes the prince tobacco i just to this it s pa that such joy in pipes bet you ve often bent an ear to that o speech about from five to f i f t y p e r by stepping on her a i guess going some all ri t just among ourselves you better start a system to 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 prince ts john on the job always jo mon in flavor always delightfully cool and fragrant i for a fact you never such copper two smoke enjoyment i go to a pipe speed o quick like you light on a good l packed with prince you can play a jo os straight across the and you know what that means now that the agent that s what i call h that prince thou lai there can t be just one fellow that writes em must be a big board of ink in conference but anyway now him he doesn t write for long haired he writes for regular he writes for	42
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 hat 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 pas wrinkles she was thirty perhaps or younger gossip had never touched her but every man naturally and instantly rose to when he spoke to her and every woman watched her with between games sitting on the spoke to her with the requisite gallantry that hei its gallantry is not but a terrified t from it you re looking like a new fountain to night am i kind of on the age yes i get so sick of it well when you get tired of you can run off uncle george k i ran away oh well anybody ever tell you your hands are awful pretty she looked down at them she pulled the lace of her sleeves them but otherwise she did not heed him she was lost in was too languid this 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 he just 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 sl 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 when the men took their hands in the circle with a t of interest in life 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 th jumped with unnatural but at s hiss they sank into subdued awe suddenly they heard a knocking they stared at s half revealed hands and found them lying still they and pretended not tc be n on j v ta with gravity is some one there a one knock to be the for yes p a and two for no a now ladies and gentlemen shall we ask the guide to put us into communication with the spirit of some great one 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 sure 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 being fellow poets said fellow poets where d you get that protested i suppose showed a lot of speed tar 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 for the every day like does that s so from old birds could take th r time priest i could write poetry if i had a whole year for it and just wrote about that old fashioned like wrote about hush now call him ing eyes forth into the oh the and bring hither the of that we mortals may list to bis words of wisdom you forgot to give am the address fiery chuckled but the others that this was and besides probably it was ji ii t the but ill if there did i to be something to all this be exciting to talk to an old belonging to way back in early times a the spirit of had come to the parlor of george f he was it seemed quite ready to 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 do you like it in the paradise we are very happy on the a plane we are glad that you are studying this great truth of relied 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 never could tell about these dam and to be an out and out would be almost like being a 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 he and instantly all was mirth mrs jones and desired to know whether didn t catch cold with nothing on but bis wreath the pleased made humble answer but the discontent was him again and heavily in the darkness he pondered i don t we re all so and think we re so smart d n on j v be a fellow uke i wish i d read some of	42
hb pieces i suppose i ever will now he bad without explanation the in of a and on it in against menacing clouds a lone and austere figure he was dismayed by a sudden t for his friends he grasped s hand and found the comfort of human warmth habit came a warrior and be shook himself what the deuce is the matter with me this evening he patted s band to indicate that he hadn t meant anything improper by it and demanded of say see if you can get old to ns some of bis poetry talk up to him tell him com ta va me st a the li ts were on the women sat on tbe fronts of their chairs in that determined suspense whereby a wife that as soon as tbe present has finished she is going to remark brightly to her husband well dear i think pa it s about time for ns 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 bad started them a again why didn t they go why didn t they go home thou he was impressed by the of the statement be was only half enthusiastic when the united states is the only nation in which the government is a moral ideal and not just a social ar true true weren t they ever going home he was usually ted to have an inside view of the world of but to he scarcely listened to s if you want to go above uie the is a mighty good buy e ia ago and mind you this was a fair square test they i stock car and th slid up the m high fellow told me good boat but they planning to stay all night they really going vith a of we did have the best time most 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 ob it was nice wasn t it i i know they ed every minute of it don t you think so he couldn t do it he couldn t mock it would have been like at a happy child he lied yoa best party this year by a long shot wasn t the dinner and honestly i thought the chicken was delicious you to the queen s taste best chicken i ve tasted for a s age didn t it and 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 sound as if yon hadn t really enjoyed it course i what is it oh i m kind of tired i guess been pretty bard t the office need to get away and up a little n on j v i well we re going to in just a few now dear thee he was pouring it out robbed rf i think it d be a good thing for me to get up there early but you have this man you have to meet in new york about business what man oh sure him ob s all off but i want to hit early get in a little fishing catch me a big by a nervous artificial laugh well why don t we do it and can run the between them and you and i can go any time if think we can afford it but that s i ve been feeling so lately i thou t maybe it might be a good if i kind of got off by myself and sweat it out of me george don t you me to go along she was too in earnest to be tragic or insulted ot ing save and and flushed to the red of a boiled of course i i just meant remembering that paul had predicted this he was as de 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 i might up to just a few days ahead of you i d be ready for a real bat see how i mean he ha with large sounds with smiles like a preacher blessing an congregation like a humorous lee turn hia 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 thing to your fun he broke suddenly dreadfully he was hysterical be was a baby yes yes but can t yoa n on j v understand i m shot to pieces i m au i got to take care of i tell you i to i m sick of and i got to it was she who was mature and now why of you shall run off by yourself why don t you get paul to go along and you boys just fish and have a good time she patted his shoulder reaching up to it while be shook with helplessness and in that moment was not by habit fond of her but	42
i i why now and i were just saying how hard paul s been all year and we thinking it oe lovely if the boys could nm os by themselves i ve been george to go up to ahead of the rest of us and get the tired out of his system before ve come and x it would be if paul could manage to get away and join him at this exposure of his plot to escape paul was startled out of he rubbed bis fingers his hands yon re lucky you can let george go and cot have to watch him fat old never at another hasn t got the the hell i haven t i was defending his when paul interrupted bim and paul looked dangerous he rose quickly be said gently to ua i suppose you imply i have a lot of yes i do then my dear since you ask for it there hasn t a time in the last ten years when i haven t found some nice little girl to me and as long as you continue your i shall probably continue to deceive you it isn t hard you re so stupid she words could not be distinguished in her of abuse then the bland george f was transformed if paul was dangerous if was a snake locked fury if ths neat emotions suitable to the arms had hem into raw it was who was the most formidable he leaped iq he seemed very large he seized s the of the wo e wiped from his face and his voice was cruel had enough of all this damn nonsense i i ve known you for twenty five years and i never knew you to miss a chance to take your disappointments out on paul you re not wicked you re worse you re a fool and let me tell you paul is the boy god ever made every person is sick and tired of your taking age of being a and springing every mean you can think of who the are you that a person like paul should have to your to go with me you act like you a combination of victoria and you fool can t you see how le at you and sneer at you was sobbing i ve never i ve never nobody ever talked to me like this in all my no but that s the way they talk behind your back i always th say you re a scolding old woman old by that cowardly attack broke her her eyes were blank she wept but glared he felt that he was the all powerful in charge that paul and mrs looked on him with awe that he alone could handle this case she begged oh they don tl they certainly i ve been a bad i m terribly kill my ni do anything oh what do you want she herself completely also she enjoyed it to the of scenes b more than a thorough humility i want you to let paul beat it o to with me demanded how can i help his going you ve just said i was an idiot and nobody paid any attention to me oh you can help it all right all what you got to do is to cut out that the minute he gets out of your hell go chasing after some matter fact that s the way you start the boy o wrong you ought to have more oh i will honestly i will george i know i was bad oh forgive me all of you forgive me she enjoyed it so did he condemned and forgave and as be went out with his wife he was to ha n on j v kind of a shame to bully but course it was the only ay to handle her i certainly did have her she said calmly yes you were horrid you were showing os you were having a lovely time thinking what a great fine person you well by can you beat it of course i mi t of e q you to not stand by i might of you d stick up for your own yes poor she s so she takes it out on 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 nasty and mean as you could be i m not a bit proud of you or of paul about his horrid love he was silent he maintained his bad t at a high of outraged nobility all the four blocks home at the door he left her in self and the lawn with a shock it was revealed to him i if she was right if she was partly right must have him to it was one of the few times in his life when he had his eternal excellence and he perceived the summer ni t the wet grass then i don t i ve pulled it ob we re going to have our and for paul i d do anything they were buying their tackle at brothers the sporting goods with the help of member of the club was mad he and danced he muttered to paul say this is pretty good eh to be buying the stuff eh and good old himself coming down on the floor to wait cm say if those fellows that are ting for the lakes knew we were going clear i to they d have a fit well come on i mean here s your we re a couple of easy wheel let me at iti i m going to buy out the he on fly rods and gorgeous rubber hip boots on tents with windows and	42
folding chairs and ice boxes he simple wanted to buy all of them it was the paul whom he was always vaguely protecting who kept him from bis drunken desires but even paul listened a with poetry and discussed flies now of course yoa boys know he said the great scrap is between dry flies and wet flies personally i m for dry flies more sporting that s so lots more sporting who knew very little about flies either wet or dry now if you ll take n advice you ll stock well cm these pale evening and ai va and red oh boy there s a fly that red anti you that s what it a rejoiced yes sir that red ant said is a real honest to god oh i guess mr won t come a when i one of those red on the i asserted and his thick wrists made a of casting yes and the salmon will take it too said who had never a salmon s paul can you see uncle george with his on em in some morning bout wheel they were tm the new york bound tor without their families they were free io m man s world in the of the v i p outside tbe car window was a of with the gold of mysterious li ts was immensely conscious in the sway and clatter of the train of going of going on leaning toward paul he pretty nice to be di the small room with its walls of steel was filled mostly with the sort of men he as the best fellows ever real good there were four of them on the long seat a fat man with a shrewd fat face a knife edged man in a green hat a very young young man with an imitation and facing them on two leather chairs were paul and a old fashioned man very cunning with wrinkles his mouth they all read newspapers or bade journals boot and journals journals and waited for tbe joys of conversation it was the young man now making bis first journey by who began it say i had a wild time in he say if a fellow knows the ropes there be can have as wild a time as he can in new york i bet you singly raised the old ned i figured you were a bad man when i saw you get on the train i tbe fat one the others laid down papers well that s all right i guess i seen some things in the you never complained the hay ob bet you i bet you up the milk like a little devil t then the boy having served as introduction they ignored him and into real talk only paul sitting by himself reading at a story in a new failed to join them and all but regarded him as a an eccentric a p son of no spirit which of them said which has never been determined and does not matter since they all had the same ideas and n on j v t 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 it at that though announced the first they re selling some in guess they are where i don t know how you feel about but the way it strikes me is that it s a mighty thing for the poor that hasn t got will power but for like us it s an of personal liberty that s a fact has got no ri t to 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 ci he was an out he was not one of the old families of the they looked upon him and after trying to t at ease by examining his chin in the mirror he gave it and went out in silence just been making a trip through the south business conditions not very good down there said one of the l that a 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 nodded and decided not hardly up to snuff well business conditions ain t what tbey ought to be oat 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 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 yon a little service that s a fact say hotels i hit the st francis at san for the first time the other day say it certainly is a first class place n on j v you re right the st francis is a 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 you can but say of all the rotten that pass off as first hotels that s the worst i m going to get those one of these days and i told em so you know bow i am well maybe you don t know but i m accustomed to first 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 always in taking a when you get in late	42
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 well we got there and i up to the desk and said to the clerk well brother got a nice room with bath cousin bill you d a thought i d sold bim a second or asked bim to 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 t 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 bow 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 ng it instead of the firm i d w the streets all night before i d a let any tavern stick me seven great big round dollars so i i lets it go at that well the wakes a nice young bell fine lad not a day over seventy nine years fought at the battle of and doesn t know it s over yet thought i was one of the i guess from the way he looked at me and van took me tip to some thing i found out afterwards they called it a room but first i thought there d been some mistake i thought tbey were putting me in the salvation army collection at seven per each and every i ve heard the was pretty now en i go to i always stay at the or the la first class places say any of you fellows ever stay at 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 tbey get 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 on 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 it was nice vegetable wool right off the plantation it s all wool he says and we get sixty seven ninety fm it oh you do do i says not from me you don t i says and i walks ri t out on him you i says to the wife well i said as long as your strength holds out and r i ot s you can go putting a few more patches on papa s well just pass up buying clothes that s t brother and just look at wait the fat man protested what s the with i m selling d you realize the cost of labor on is still two hundred and seven per cent above they that if their old 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 than the romantic hero was no loi r the knight the wan poet the the nor the brave young district attorney but the great manager who had an analysis of problems on his glass de 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 s ing the talk roused paul though he was a player of and an 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 ent on then he committed an against the holy law of the of good fellows he became th were entering a on the outskirts they passed a steel mill which in scarlet and orange flame that licked at the at the iron walls and my lord look at that 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 the man with the bat said reverently i didn t mean i mean it s lovely the way the light that picturesque yard all with ri t 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 stuff d of been an author or something if he hadn t gone into the line paul locked annoyed sometimes wondered if paul his loyal the man in the bat well personally i	42
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 i paul returned to bis new 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 let s 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 ri t on time no we re about seven minutes late that s ri t seven minutes late the porter entered a negro in white jacket with brass buttons how late are we george the fat man i know sir i think we re about on tim 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 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 i they got to be law and professors and lord knows what 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 where he belongs and doesn t try to the authority and business ability of the white man s the i and another thing we got to do said man with the hat whose name was is to keep these damn foreigners out of the country thank the lord we re putting a limit on these and have got to learn that this is a white man s country and ihey ain t wanted here when we ve the foreign s we got here now and learned em the principles of and turned em into regular folks why then maybe well let in a few more you bet that s a fact they observed and passed on to topics they rapidly car prices e oil stocks 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 in th r by his of sly humor and grumbled oh hell boys let s cut out the formally and get down to the stories they became my and intimate paul and the boy vanished the others slid forward oa die long seat thrust their feet i on tlie chairs pulled the stately brass nearer and ran the window shade down on its little to shut them in from the uncomfortable strangeness of night after each bark of laughter ihey cried say hear the one about was and when the train at an important station the four men walked up and down the platform under the vast train shed roof like a stormy sky under the elevated beside of ducks and sides of beef in the mystery of an unknown ci they strolled abreast old friends and well content at the long drawn like a call at dusk they hastened back into the smoking con and tiu two of the morning continued the droll tales their eyes with cigar smoke and ter 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 y pillow looking out on the sliding of trees and village lamps like points he was chapter xi had four hours in new york between trains the one thing wished to see was the hotel had been built since his last he stared up at it muttering twenty two hundred rooms and twenty two hundred that s got everything in the world beat lord must be weu 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 anyway with and everything say between eight and fifteen thousand a day every i never thought i d see a thing like that some 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 he so bad to go over to the old country and take a at all these ruins and place where was horn and think of being able to order a drink whenever you wanted one just range up to a bar and out loud a and dam the police not bad at all what like to see over tho e	42
m did not answer paul was vith clenched head ing 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 side at the steamer bis breast heaving paul whispered my while him anxiously be ed come oa 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 au i thought he d be inter though be 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 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 the silver and and across the lake it burned on the shoulders of the mountains over everything was a holy peace silent they cm the edge of the wharf swinging their legs above the water the immense tenderness of the v sank into and he murmured i d like to at here the rest of my life and and sit and bear a or la the or and ted sit he patted paul s shoulder how does it strike you old oh it s dam good george there s something sort of eternal about it for once understood him their rounded the bend at the head of the lake under a mountain slope th saw the little central of their hotel and the of log served as they landed and endured the critical examination of the who had been at the hotel for a week in their cottage with its high stone fireplace they hastened as expressed it to get into some regular be 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 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 bis back pocket a of tobacco a forbidden in the home he took a beaming and his head as he at it urn i maybe i haven t been hungry for a of eating have some they looked at each other in a grin of paul took the at it they stood quiet their jaws working they solemnly one the other into the they stretched with lifted arms le and arched backs from b the mountains came shuffling sound of a far off train a leaped and back in a silver circle they sighed together they bad a before families came each evening they planned to get up early and fish before breakfast each 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 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 the game even to scratch at midnight as paul and he to their cottage over the wet grass and pine roots in the dark ness rejoiced that be did not have to e lain to his wife where he had been all evening did not talk much the nervous and of the club from them but when they did talk th 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 bis hand through the cool and mused we never thought we d come to no we ve never done anything the way we thought we would i expected to live in 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 might 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 if i didn tl 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 different now that we re getting a good rest and can go back and start i hope so old boy say	42
it s been awful nice to sit around and loaf and and act regular with vou along you old horse well you know what it means to me saved mj life the shame of emotion overpowered them they cursed little to prove they were good rough fellows and in a mellow silence whistling while paul 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 arrived guests at the hotel oh isn t it you must be so excited and the f and paul to look excited but they went to bed early and when 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 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 doesn t seem to have done me a bit of good he lamented paul s as a but i swear i m and than when i came up here re 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 mountain and wanted to camp at box car pond he was curiously weak yet cheerful as though he bad 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 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 ob this is going to be a great year a great old year i v chapter xii die way home from was certain that he was a changed man he was converted to serenity he waa going to cease worrying about business he was going to have more interests public affairs reading and suddenly as he finished an heavy he was going to stop 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 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 uneasy he two pages in his story and didn t l ow 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 stepped smoking but he was too busy catching up with his to keep it he determined would be an excellent no a man s his fool head off i m going out to the game three times a we besides ought to the home team he did go and ai the team and the glory of by yelling and 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 be 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 he honestly believed that he loved it is true that he hadn t in twenty five years himself played any all except back lot catch with ted very gentle and strictly to ten minutes but 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 approached the office he walked faster and muttering guess better ah about him the was for s sake men in 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 building into ei men in w e to down the food which bad to men in shops were me once over men were getting rid of visitors in offices adorned with the signs this is my busy day and tht 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 urging on nerve bodies and ji brains so that they might make twenty thousand this year and the men who bad	42
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 club every noon and demanded while looked hunted and say you re a hi this writing stuff how would yoa put this sentence see here ui 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 me to impress forgot about style order and the other and off what he really thou t 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 and such splendid ideas i why it s it s just next day he and well old i finished it last just it out i used to think you writing must have a hard job making pieces but lord it s a pretty soft for you you certainly earn your money easy some day when i get ready to retire guess take to writing and show you boys how to do it i always to think i could write n on j v stuff and more and ai than all this stuff yoa see printed and now i m sure of hi he bad copies of the papa in black with a red title had them bound in pale blue and presented one to old the managing of the advocate times who said yes indeed yes he was very ad 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 bad a women meeting said that he was very be des the five official to the w a and were fifty most of 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 we for official were with silver and ribbons martin s little boy carried a banner inscribed the city zeal zest and t in as the arrived not in but in the family driven by the oldest son or by cousin they formed the station waiting room it was a new and enormous waiting room with marble and the of the river by in the benches were shelves of ponderous mahogany the news stand a marble with a brass down the echoing of the ball the after s banner the men waving their c the of dew od of beads all singing to tlie tune of the official song written by good old our and wherever we may b h tt in the ring we ting of prosperity the had a gift of verse for and had added to s song a for the oh here we come the 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 s the matter with she s all right i what s best town in the u s a the patient poor people waiting for the t train stared in wonder italian women with old weary men with broken shoes road wise in suits which had been when th were new but which were faded now and wrinkled perceived that as an official be must be more dignified with wing and he up and down the platform beside the waiting driven baggage and red carrying ba q ed down the platform with an agreeable effect of arc lights glared and stammered overhead the glossy sleeping can shone made hit voice to be measured and be out his and we got to see to it that the lets the understand just where they get ofi in this of wing uttered proving and swelled the blind of a was raised and looked into an world tlie of the was the pretty wife of the possibly thrilled she was to europe i on the seat beside ber was a bunch of and and a yellow paper bound book which seemed foreign while he stared she picked iq the book then glanced out of the window as though she was she must have looked straight at him and be bad met her but she gave no sign she languidly pulled down the blind and be stood still a cold feeling of in his heart but on the train pride was restored by meeting from and other smaller cities of the state who listened respectfully when as a from th metropolis of he explained politics and the value of a good sound business administration they fell joyfully into 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 well tell you said now if i d handling it so wing was i this window for a week and put up a big 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 got folks talking and first e tbe sang as the train ran through the factory district flame and power were red lights green lights furious white lights rushed past and was he did a thing he had his clothes pressed on the train in the morning half an hour before they	42
tb shouted that s the and in the v mi afterward they referred with to our and brother mr george f he had id minutes changed from a minor to a person 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 bim into comers to confide mighty glad you had the courage to stand up and give the profession a real now i ve always maintained next morning with tremendous asked the girl at the hotel news stand for the newspapers from there was nothing in the press but in the advocate on the third page ed had printed his picture and a half column account the was sensation at annual land men s g f prominent in fine address he murmured reverently i guess some of the folks mi heights will sit up and take notice now and pay a little attention to old it was the last meeting the were 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 is the recognized of culture and high class enterprise and that the big little with thb logical where every man is open handed and every woman a heaven bom hostess throws wide to you her table gates in the midst of these more invitations the golden doors of the opened with a of trumpets and a rolled in it was composed of the i dressed as j at the bead was big in the and gold and coat of a drum major him as a 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 loves his neighbors but we ve made up our minds to this os our neighbor like we ve the milk business and the p er business and j harry the hinted we re grateful to you mr but you must 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 i m from i our chamber of commerce has me they ve set aside eight thousand dollars tn real for the entertainment of the a looking man rose to money move we t 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 that they 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 president of the sa r b to fifteen thousand dollars in for sane tax measures in the state this resolution had a good 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 ave learned that he had been appointed a cf the committee on titles he rejoiced i said it was going to be a great year i old son you got big things ahead of you i you re a orator and a good and there vas no entertainment provided for the last bad 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 hi earnestly attended them at least twice a year but they were sufficiently to make him feel important he sat at a ass 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 model and he had met two days before so they were calling each and said say boys before you go acting this is the last i ve got if up 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 ob how when she saw that she bad left a i of sheer cr oa the bed she tucked it into a bag don t mind us we re a couple o little for ice and the bell boy who t it said and hi ball 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 boys could stand another you got a coming that though she was but a woman she knew the complete 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 kind of stayed in monarch and threw a party george you with the tongue of wisdom and el m g s wife has gone on to let s see if we can t gather him in at half past they sat in their room with t wing and two up state coats were off their open their faces red their voices emphatic they were finishing a bottle of and imploring the 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	42
of nature sighed i don t know how it strikes you but i like this loose for a change and kick ii over a couple of mountains and climbing up on the north 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 why i go out and n on j v with the guard i guess i got the little in my know what 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 me out on the road selling and here i m settled down settled for not a oh who the devil started this talk how drink and a doth er drink wouldn do s ny yea cut the sob stuff said w a you boys know i m the village come on now sing said the old to the i am dry i am dry said the young to the old so am i ao am i they had dinner in the of the hot somewhere somehow they seemed to have in two comrades a of fly p er and a they all drank from tea cups and they were humorous and never listened to one another except when w a the italian say he said i want a couple o ears sir we haven t any no ears what do you know about turned to says the ears are all out i well be said the man from with difficulty hiding his laughter in that case just bring me a o and a couple o o french potatoes and some peas went on i back in dear old it the get their fresh garden peas out of the can no sir we have very nice peas in italy is that a do you bear 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 ri t just shoot me in that with about two of french on the deck afterward wing admired you did have that poor going w a he couldn t make you out at in the monarch found an advertisement be read aloud to 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 the feet get the card board and twist the to the show ever you will get on your in this fun the sisters are sure some and will give you a mn 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 bat tbey put off as long as they could they were safe while they sat here legs firmly crossed under the table but they felt unsteady they were afraid of the long and slippery floor of the under the es of the other guests and the too attentive when th y 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 judge would fed that they were gentlemen they at one another who owns the bum lid and you take a good one george take what s left and to the check girl they ed better come along high wide and fancy evening all of them tried to tip her ur g one another no wait i here i got it right here among them they gave her three dollars 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 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 hi ji along the floor too to be guided bis steps 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 bat be was overwhelmed by the girl and her young when she had firmly returned him to his he remembered by a connection quite that his mother s mother had been scotch and with bead 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 tor 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 de e for more brutal amusements when w a what say we go down the line and look	42
cheered him and when he worked up to his anecdote of their were wet modestly busily he hurried out of the hall on applause and sped os to his third audience of the evening ted you better drive he said kind of all in after that q ie well paul how d it go did i get em you had a lot of mrs oh it was so clear and interesting and such nice ideas when i hear you i realize i don t how profoundly you think n on j v a brain and you have just splendid but was she worried how do you know that public of and so on and forth will always be a failure mrs i should think you could see and realize that your father s all worn out with it s no time to expect him to explain these complicated subjects i m sure he s rested hell be glad to explain it to you now let s all be quiet and give papa a chance to get ready for his next speech just think right now tbey te in temple and waiting for mr and sound business defeated mr and class rule and was again saved was offered minor to among poor relations but he preferred advance information about the extension of paved and this a grateful administration gave to him also he was one of nineteen at the dinner with which the chamber of commerce celebrated the victory of his reputation for established at the dinner of the real estate board he made the annual address the advocate times this with unusual one of the that has recently been pulled off occurred last night in the annual get together o the real estate board held in the ball room of the o house mine host bad as usual done himself proud and those assembled on such an assemblage of plates as could be nowhere west of new york if there and washed down the feed with the inspired but did not in the shape of from the farm of president of the board and acted as and efficient so as ms suffering from slight and throat g f made the principal talk the progress of real estate title mr spoke in part as follows in rising to address you with my in speech carefully tucked into my pocket i am reminded of the of the two and fat who were riding on the ao both of i forgot to say were sailors in the navy it seems had the lower b th and by and by he heard a terrible from the upper and when he v to find out what the trouble was pat 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 ei t now standing up here before you i fe a good deal like fat and maybe after i ve along for a i e i may fed so dam small that be able to crawl into a with no trouble at all at it strikes me that each year at this annual occasion when friend and toe get together and lay down the battle and let the waves of good fellowship than the slopes of it us standing together e to eye and shoulder to shoulder as fellow citizens of the best city in the world to where we are both as 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 request any to remove my shirt and to eat the same with the con of f it may be true that new york and philadelphia will continue to ke ahead of us in size but a de from these three which are so overgrown that no decent white man v t l nobody who loves us wife and and god s good doors and likes to shake the hand of bis io greeting would want to live in them and let me tell you right here and dow i wouldn t trade a for the whole length and breadth of or state aside from these three it s evident to one with a bead for facts that is the finest of american life and to be found anywhere i don t mean to say we re perfect we ve got a lot to do in the way of the of for believe me it s the fellow with four to ten thousand a year say and an and a nice little family in a on the edge of town that makes the of progress go round that s the type of fellow that s ruling america in fact it s the ideal type to which the entire world must tend if there s to be a decent well balanced christian future for this little old planet i once in a while i just naturally sit back and size up this solid american citizen with a whale of a lot of satisfaction our ideal citizen i picture him first and foremost as being than a bird dog not wasting a lot of good time in day dreaming or going to or kicking about things that are none of his business but putting the into some store or or art at ni t he lights up a good cigar and into the little old and maybe the and shoots out home he the lawn or in some practice putting and then he s ready for dinner after dinner he tells the a story or takes the family to the or plays a few fists of bridge or reads the evening paper and a chapter	42
them our good they ve got to help us by selling and it iq for rational prosperity and it comes to these mouth fault finding cynical ty teachers let me tell you that during this golden coming 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 the ideal of american manhood and culture a lot of sitting around the rag about their ri ts and their wrongs but a god fearing successful two regular to some church with and piety to it who belongs to the or the or the to the or or red men or of any one of a score of of good jolly laughing lend a handing royal good fellows who plays hard and hard and answer to his critics is a square boot that ll teach the and smart ale to respect the he man and get out and root for uncle u ai promised to become a recognized orator he es a of the men s of the road church irish and dialect but in nothing was he more revealed as the fr i citizen than in his lecture on brass facts on real estate as delivered before the class u methods at the y m ca the advocate times reported the lecture so that said to you re getting to he me rf the ia tons seems s if i rid n n a paper without reading about your known eloquence ah this ought to bring a lot of business into office good work keep it go on quit your kid ng said feebly but at this tribute from himself a man of no mean fame he expanded with delight and wondered how before his he could have tbe joys of a solid chapter to greatness vas not disastrous stumbling fame did not bring the which the deserved they were not asked to join the country nor invited to the dances at the union himself fretted be didn t care a fat for all these but the wife would kind of like to be among those present he nervously awaited his university class and an evening of furious with such social as charles the the banker the tool and the fashionable interior he was their friend as he had been in college and when be encountered them they still called him but he didn t seem to encounter them often and they never invited bim to dinner with champagne and a butler at houses on royal ridge all the week before the class dinner he thought of them no reason why we shouldn t become real like all true american and the of the men of the class of was y organized the dinner committee like a once a week they sent out no old are you ag to be with us at the friendship the of the good old u have v ever the of o turned out o strong are we boys going to be by a of skirts come on fellows let s work up some real genuine enthusiasm and all together for the dinner yet i elegant eats short talks and memories shared together of the brightest days of life held in a private room at the union club club was a building three old knocked together and the entrance hall resembled a yet the who was free of the magnificence of the club entered with he nodded to the an proud negro with brass buttons and a blue coat and through the hall trying to oa like a member sixty men had to the dinner tbey made islands and in the hall ey packed the and the of the private dining room they tried to be intimate and they appeared to one another exactly as they had in college as raw whose present and wrinkles were but jovial put on for the evening you haven t changed a they the men whom th could not recall tbey addressed well well great to see you again old man what are you still doing the same thing some one vas always starting a cheer or a college song and it was always into despite their tion to be they divided into two sets the men with dress clothes and the men without in dress clothes went from one group to the other though he was almost frankly out for social conquest be sou t paul first he found him alone neat and paul si ed i m no good at this and look who s here now and be a finest bunch of on say yon seem kind of um matter oh the usual run ia with come on let s in and forget our troubles he kept paul beside him but worked toward the spot where charles stood bis admirers like a furnace had been the hero of the class of not captain and but aad in what the state university con he had gone on bad captured the company once owned by the best known family of he built state ca railway he was a heavy big man but not there was a quiet humor in bis eyes a smooth in bis which and warned and in his presence the most int or the most sensitive artist thin blooded and a little y he was particularly en be was oc labor es very easy and and gorgeous he was be was a peer in the r idly aristocracy inferior only to the old families in an old family is one which came to town before his power was the greater because he was not by les by either the vice or the virtue of the tradition was being placidly merry now with the great tbe and the land owners and	42
and o had and went to europe squeezed among them he liked s smile as much as the social to be had from his if in paul s company be felt and with mc he su t and he heard say to the banker yes we ll put up sir s love for titles became a you know he s one of tbe in england o old say george is getting than i ami the shouted take seats shall we make a move said casually to ri t how s the old planning to sit anywhere george come on let s some seats come on i read about your speeches in the bully after that would have followed him through fire he was busy the dinner now cheering paul now approaching with hear you re going to build some in now noting how en the failures of the class sitting 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 spoke of a dance for which had decorated her house with thousands of they spoke with an excellent imitation of of a dinner in washington at which had met a a princess and an english major general called the princess and let it be known that he had danced with her was thrilled but not so with awe as to be silent if he was not invited by them to dinner be was yet accustomed to talking with bank and who poets he was t and with say remember in junior year how we a sea going hack and chased down to to the big show madame brown used to put on remember how you beat that that tried to run us in and we pinched the sign and took and hung it on s door ob those were the days t f agreed were the days had reached it isn t the books yoa study in college 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 come to dinner some night vaguely yes indeed like to talk to yon about the growth of real estate out your i might be able to you off to a thing or two possibly splendid i we must have dinner together just let me know and it will be a great pleasure to have your wife and you at the house said much less vaguely then the s voice that prodigious voice which once had roused them to cheer defiance at from or or come on you all together in the long y l felt that life would never be sweeter than now when he joined with paul and the newly recovered hero in ax who the u i the invited the to dinner in early december and the not only accepted but ing the date once or twice actually came the somewhat thoroughly discussed the details of the dinner from the purchase of a bottle of to the v of to be placed each person especially did they the matter of the other guests to the last held out for giving paid the benefit of being with good old would like paul and better than some boy he insisted but mrs interrupted his observations with i think try to get some and when she was quite ready she dr j t the and a re lawyer named with th r glittering wives belonged to or to the club neither of them had ever called or asked his opinions on the only human pet le whom she invited raged were the and at times became so that longed for the refreshment of s well old pie face s the good word immediately after lunch mrs began to set the table for the seven thirty dinner to the and was by home at four but they didn t find anything for him to do and three times mrs do please try to keep out of the he stood in the door of the bis lips and wished that or sam or somebody would come along and talk to him he saw ted about the comer of the house what 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 night and she bit me she says i got to take a hath too but say the men will be some to night i little in a dress suit the men liked the sound of it he put his arm about the boy s shoulder he wished that paul had a ter so that ted mi t marry her yes your n on j v is kind of round au ri t he said and together and sighed together and went in to dress the were less than fifteen minutes late hoped that the d would see the and their waiting in front the dinner was cooked and plentiful and mrs had t out her s silver worked hard he was good he told no e of the jokes he wanted to js he listened to the others he started off with a let s hear about your trip to the he was extremely he found opportunities to remark that dr was a tor to humanity and profound scholars charles an inspiration to youth and mrs an to e social circles of washington york paris and s of other places but he could not stir them it was a dinner without a soul for no reason that was dear to was over them and they spots laboriously and unwillingly he concentrated on carefully not at her shoulder and the	42
his and even was silent as the lonely man who had lost his way and forever cr down roads spun out his dark soul in nothing gave more and than his labors for the sunday school his church the road was one of the largest and richest one of the most and in the was the reverend john drew ma d d the m a and the were from the ll d from college he was eloquent efficient and he resided at meetings tor the of or the elevation of domestic service and confided to the that as a poor boy he had carried newspapers for the saturday edition of the evening advocate he wrote on the manly man s religion and the dollars and sense value of christianity which were printed in bold type by a he often said that be was proud to be known aa a business man and tbat he certainly was not going to permit the old satan to all tlie and he was a thin rustic faced young with gold spectacles and a bang of dull brown hair but when he hurled himself into he glowed with power he admitted that he was too much the scholar and poet to imitate uie monday yet he had once awakened his told to new life and to larger by the challenge my brethren the real is the man who won t lend to the lord he had made his a true community it contained everything hut a bar it had a nursery a thursday evening r with a short bright missionary lecture a a motion picture show a of books for young though unfortunately no young workman ever entered the church to wash the windows or repair the and a sewing circle which made short little for the children of th poor while mrs drew read aloud from earnest novels though dr drew s was his church building was gracefully as he said it had the most features of those noble of grand old england which stand as of the eternity of faith religious and civil it was built of cheery spot brick in an improved style and the main had ting from in lavish on a december morning when the went to church dr john drew was unusually eloquent the crowd was immense ten brisk young in morning coats white roses were bringing chairs up from the was an impressive musical conducted by of the v m ca who also bang the cared less for this because some person had t young mr to smile n jn j v ao smile smile while he was singing but with all the af of a fellow orator be admired dr drew s sermon it had the intellectual quality which the road congregation from the du on smith street at this abundant harvest time of all the year dr drew when though stormy the sky and laborious the path to the yet the hovering and back o er all the labors and desires of the past months oh then it seems to me there sounds ail our parent failures the golden chorus of greeting from those passed on and on the dim horizon we see behind clouds the mj ty mass of mountains mountains of mountains of mirth mountains of might i certainly do like a sermon with culture and thought in it meditated at the end of the service he was when the shaking hands at the door oh brother can you wait a your advice sure doctor you into my office i think you ll like the cigars there did like the cigars he also liked the office whidi was distinguished from offices only by the spirited change of the familiar wall to this is the lord s busy day came in then william w mr was the seventy year old president of the first state bank of he still wore the delicate patches of side whiskers which had been the uniform of in if was envious of the smart set of the before william washington he was mr bad 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 generation of he could examine make promote or injure a man s business in his quickly and felt young n jn j v ao the reverend dr into the room and flow into speech i ve asked you to stay so i can put a proposition before you the sunday school needs up it s the fourth largest in but there s no reason why we should take anybody s we ou t to be first i want to request yon if you will to form a of advice and for the sunday school look it over and make any suggestions for its and then see that the press gives us some attention ve the public some really and news instead of all these and excellent said the banker and were enchanted to join liim if you had asked what his religion was he would have answered in club my religion is to serve my fellow men to honor my brother as and to do my bit to make life for hie and all if you bad pressed him for more detail he would have announced i m a member of the church and i accept its doctrines if you had been so brutal as to go on he would have protested there s no use discussing and arguing about religion it just up bad actually the content of his was that there was a supreme who had tried to make us perfect but had failed that if one was a good man he would go to a place called heaven unconsciously pictured it as like an excellent hotel with a private garden but if one was a bad man that	42
is if he murdered or committed or used or had or sold non estate he would be punished was er about be this of he v c to ted of course i m liberal i don t exactly believe in a fire and hell stands to though that a fellow can t get away with all sorts of vice and not get for it see how i mean upon this he rarely pondered the of his practical religion was that it was respectable and ben to one s business to be seen ing to services that the church kept the worst elements from still worse and that the s sermons however dull they might seem at the time of taking bad a which did a good kept him in touch with higher thin his first for the sunday committee did not inspire him he the busy folks bible class con of mature men and women and addressed by the old school physician dr t in a sparkling style to that of the more refined humorous but when he went down to the junior classes he was disconcerted he heard of the v m ca and leader of the church choir a pale but man with curly hair and a teaching a class of old boys lovingly them now fellows i m going to have a heart to heart talk evening at my house next thursday well get off by ourselves and be frank about our secret you can just tell old anything like all the fellows do at the y i m going to frankly about the horrible a falls into unless he s guided by a big brother and about the perils and of sex old beamed the boys look ashamed and didn t know way to turn his embarrassed eyes less but also much were the classes which were being instructed in philosophy and oriental by earnest most of them met in the highly v sunday school room but there was an to the which was decorated with water pipes and lighted by small windows hi up in the wall what saw however was the first church of he was back in the sunday school of his boyhood he again that polite ness to be found only in church he recalled the case of sunday school books a humble heroine and jo a lad of he once more the high text cards which no boy wanted but no boy liked ta throw away because they were somehow sacred he was tortured l the stumbling of thirty five years ago as in the vast z th church he listened to now you read the nest verse what does it mean when it says it s easier a to go through a needle s eye what does this teach us please don t if you had 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 remember boys is the words with god all things are possible just think of that always please pay attention just say with god all thin are possible whenever you feel discouraged and will you read the next verse if you d pay attention you wouldn t lose your gigantic bees that in a of started from his open ed nap thanked the teacher for the privilege of listening to her teaching and staggered on to the next circle after two weeks of this he had no st whatever fat 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 as the real estate t i ff oc the trade magazines he bought half a of them at a rd ous shop and till after t be read them and admired he found many tips on for new members and getting pro to sign up with the sunday school he particularly liked the word and he was moved by the the moral springs of the community s life lie deep in its sunday schools its schools of religious instruction and neglect now means loss of vigor and moral power in to come facts like the above followed by a straight arm appeal will reach folks who can never be or into doing their part admitted that s so i to skin out of the sunday at every chance i got but same time i wouldn t be where i am to y maybe if it hadn t been for its training in in moral power and all about the bible great literature have to read some of it again one of days how the sunday school could be organized he learned from an article in the westminster bible class the second vice president looks after the fellowship of the class she chooses a to help her these become every one who comes gets a glad hand no one goes away a stranger one of the group stands on the and by to come in perhaps most of all appreciated the remarks by william h in the sunday school times if you have a sunday school class without any and get and go in it that is without interest that is uncertain in attendance that acts like a fellow with the spring fever let old dr write you a invite the bunch for supper the school were as well rounded as were practical they n none of the arts as to mu the school times advertised that c known to thousands through his sacred bad written a new yearning for you the poem by harry d is one of the you could imagine and the music is beautiful critics are agreed that it will sweep the country may be made into a sacred song by the hymn words heard	42
at it as if it was a problem of course the one and need is growth i presume we re an agreed we won t be satisfied till we build up the bi t dam sunday school in the whole state so the road won t have to take anything off anybody now about up the campaign for prospects they ve already used and given to the that bring in the most members and they made a mistake there the were a lot of and like poetry books and illustrated instead of something a real live kid would want to work for like real cash or a i for his course i suppose it s all fine and to illustrate the lessons with these decorated book marks and drawings and so on but when it comes down to real he getting out and up customers or i mean why you got to make it worth a fellow s while i want to propose two first divide the school into four armies depending on age gets a military rank in his own army according to how many n i ai be in and the that lie down on us and don t bring in ai tbey the and rank as and everybody has got to give and all the rest of that just like a to make em fed it s worth while to get rank second coarse the school has its committee but lord nobody ever really works good nobody works well just for the love of it the thing to do is to be and up to date and hire a real paid press agent for the sunday some new per fellow who can part of his time sure you said think of the nice bits he get not only the big vital facts about how fast ae sunday school and the b growing but a lot of humorous gossip and bow some down on bis pledge to get new members or the good time the sacred class of is had at their party and on the side if he had time the pre s mi t even the lessons themselves do a little for all the sunday schools in town in fact no use being ht toward the rest of em we can keep the on em in he mi get the papers to course i haven t got a literary training like here and i m just how the pieces t to be bat take the week s lesson is about jacob well t press agent might get in something that have a e and yet with a trick get folks to read it like the makes with and see how i mean get their now coarse mr you re and ma you feel these would be but honestly i they d bring home the bacon folded his bands on his b ma like an ed n on j v may i say first that i have i very pleased by analysis of the situation mr as you su it s necessary in my position to be and p h s endeavor to maintain a certain standard of dignity yet i think you ll find tne somewhat in our bank lot example i hope i may say that we have as modern a method of and as any in the city yes i fancy you ll find us quite co of the shifting spiritual of the age yes oh yes and so in fact it pleases me to be able to say that though personally i might the of an earlier era finally gathered that was willing suggested as part time press agent one on the advocate times they parted on a high plane of and christian did not drive home but toward the of the city he wished to be by himself and over the beauty a intimacy with william washington a snow evening of ringing and eager li ts great lights of cars sliding the packed snow of the lights of little houses the glare of a distant wiping out the stars lights of stores where friends well pleased after the day s work the green of a police station and radiance m the snow the drama of a wagon beating like a terrified heart the crystal street driver not a but a policeman proud in uniform another policeman dangling on the step at the back and a glimpse of the prison a s a cleverly ed i an church with a ri dim li t in the and cheerful of choir practise the green light of a s then the lights of down town cars with tail lights arched to like frosty mouths of electric signs and little dancing men of fire pink shaded and scarlet music in a cheap up stairs dance hall lights of chinese painted with cherry blossoms and with hung against of gold and black small lamps in small the smart district with rich and quiet light on crystal and and of wood in velvet hung windows high above the street an unexpected square han t in the darkness the window of an office where some one was working late for a reason unknown and a man in an ambitious boy an oil man suddenly become rich the air was shrewd the snow was deep in and beyond the city knew were of snow drift among wintry oaks and the ice enchanted he loved his city with passionate wonder he lost the accumulated weariness of business worry and ei he felt young and he was ambitious it was not enough to be a an jones no they re bully fellows simply lovely but they haven t got any no he was going to be an coldly powerful that s the stuff the in the velvet not let anybody get fresh with you been getting	42
he said the of the fold of commerce for the first time departed from the topic of sunday schools and asked about the progress of bis business answered modestly almost a few months later when he bad a chance to take part in the street company 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 might not have understood he went to his friend mr he was welcomed and received the loan as a private venture and they both in their pleasant new association after that bat went to church regularly except on v q i sunday which were obviously meant for he announced to ted i you boy there s no stronger of sound than the church and no better place to make friends be you to g your place in the than in own chapter xviii be saw them twice daily though he knew and y discussed every detail of their yet we together was no more conscious of his children than of the buttons on his coat sleeves the admiration of made bim aware she had become secretary to mr of the leather company she did ber work with the of a mind which details and quite v stands 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 be became the playful parent when he returned from the he peered into the living room and has our been here to night he never a protest why ken and i are just good friends and we only talk about ideas i won t have all this that would spoil everything it was ted who most worried with conditions in latin and en but with a record in manual training basket ball and the organization of dances ted was struggling through bis senior year in the east side high school at home be was interested only when he was asked to trace some subtle ill in the n of the car he repeated to his tut father that be did not wish to go to college or law school and was equally l this and by ted s with next door she was the of that wrought iron fact mill that horse faced priest of private was a in the sun she danced into the house she herself into s lap he was reading be hb paper and laughed at him when he that he hated a newspaper as he hated a broken contract she was seventeen now her ambition was to be a she did not merely attend the showing of every feature she also read the motion picture magazines those extraordinary of the age of and illustrated with portraits of young who had recently been girls not very skilful girls and who unless their every had beat arranged by a could not have acted in the of the central magazines quite in with pictures of riding breeches and the views on and politics of beautiful su young the plots of about pure and kind hearted train and giving directions for into celebrated authors authorities studied she could she frequently did it was in oi that the renowned screen and began his public career as man in oh you naughty on the wall of her room her father reported had pinned up one photographs of actors but the portrait of the most graceful of the heroes she carried in her young bosom was bewildered by this worship of new gods and he that smoked he the stairs and heard bar with ted he never inquired the agreeable dismayed her thin and charming face was sharpened by hair ha skirts were short her stockings were and as flew after ted above the caressing silk were es of soft knees which made uneasy and wretched that she should consider bim old sometimes in the veiled life of his dreams when the fairy child came running to him she took oa the semblance of ted was mad as was mad a thousand sarcastic did not check his for a car of hia own however he mi t be about early rising and the of vo be was hi with three boys he bought a ford built an body out of tin and pine went round tn the craft and sold it at a profit gave him a and every saturday afternoon with seven and a bottle of in bis and perched on the seat he went off to distant towns usually and he were merely nd and with a wholesome and violent lack of delicacy but now and then after the color and scent of a dance w e together and a little and worried was an average he was affectionate ignorant and rather wistful like most parents be enjoyed the game of waiting till the victim was clearly then he justified himself by well ted s mother him got to be some body who tells him wliat s what and me i m elected the goat because i try to him up to be a real decent human being and not one of these and of course they all call a throughout with the eternal human genius for arriving l the worst possible at surprising tolerable on j v loved his sod and warmed to his companionship and would have sacrificed for him if he could have been sure of credit ted was planning a party for his set in the senior class meant to be and jolly about it bis memory of high pleasures bade in a he suggested the games going to boston and with for and word games in whidi you w e an or a when he was	42
i am this happened needless to say iii fire the minute he comes in and of course your lease stands but there s one other thing i d like to do ill the owner not to pay us the commission but apply it to your rent no straight i want to to be fr this thing shakes me p bad i suppose i ve always been a practical business man probably i ve told one or two fairy stories in my time when the occasion called for it you know sometimes you have to lay things on thick to impress but this is the first time i ve bad to accuse one n n of my own en of ai thing more than a few honest it would hurt me if we by it so you ll let me hand you the commission good he walked the february flung if a of and the sky was dark above dark brick he came back he who tbe law had broken it by concealing the crime of of the but he could not see grate go to jail and his wife suffer worse he bad to discharge and this was a part of office routine which he feared he liked le so much he so much wanted them to like that he could not bear insulting them miss dashed in to with tbe of an scene he s mr ask him to come in he tried to make himself heavy and calm in his chair and to keep his eyes stalked in a man of five d per eye with a want me said yes sit down continued to stand i pose that old nut has been in to see you let me explain about him he s a regular and he sticks out for every cent and he practically lied to me about his ability to pay the rent i found that out just after we signed up and then another fellow comes along with a better offer for the house and i felt it was my duty to the firm to get rid of and i was so worried about it i up there and got back the lease honest mr i didn t intend to pull anything crooked i just wanted the firm to have all the wait now this may all be true but i ve been lot of con about you now d i t s you ever mean to do wrong and i if you get a good lesson you a little you ll turn out a yet but i don t see bow i can keep you on leaned against the cabinet bis hands in his pockets and so i m well old vision and i m to death i but i don t want you to think you can get away with any than stuff sure i ve pulled some raw stuff a little of it but how could i help it in this office now by god young man tut tut i keep the ty er down and because in the outside office hear you re probably listening ri t 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 off a blind man to ke my wife from starving us married just five months and her the girl living and you keeping m 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 by god take it or so the whole office will bear 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 up well 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 th got to be rewarded oh for s sake don t get virtuous on as i gather it i m fired all ri t it s a good thing for me and if i catch you knocking me to any other firm all i know about you and henry t and the dirty little that you of industry pull off for the bigger and r and get chased out of town and n on j v ho youve right ive been going but now i m going and the first st will be to get a job in some office where the bees doesn t ta about bad old dear and you can stick your job i die sat for a long tim alternately raging have him arrested and yearning i wonder no ive never done anything that wasn t necessary to keep the wheels of ess moving day he hired in s place the man of hia most injurious rival the east side homes and de company and thus at once annoyed his and acquired an man young was a mercy playing he made customers to the office thou of him as a son and in h f had much comfort m 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 in had so shaken that he found it hard to sit at his desk and he proposed to his family look here do you know who s going to trot up to for a couple of days just week end won t lose but one day of school know who s going with that celebrated business f why mr ted shouted and oh maybe the men	42
won t paint that town and once away from the familiar of home th were two men ted was young only in his tion of and the only apparently in which had a larger and more grown t knowledge than ted s were the details of real estate and the phrases of politics tbe other of the liad left to s voice did not drop playful and offensive tone in which one children but continued its and and ted tried to imitate it in his tenor you certainly did show i that poor boot when he got about the league of nations the trouble with a lot of these fellows is they simply don t know what tb re talking about don t get down to what do you think of ken ill tell you it strikes me ken is a nice lad no q faults except he too much but slow why if we don t give him a the poor dumb bell will and just as bad slow yes i guess you re ri t re slow they haven t either one of em got our that s right they re slow i swear i don t know how got into our family bet if the truth were known you were a bad old egg when you were a kid well i wasn t so bet you weren tl bet you didn t miss many when i was out with the girls i didn t q aid all the time telling em about the strike in the knitting industry i they roared together and together lighted cigars what are we going to do with an consulted i t know i swear sometimes i feel like taking ken aside and putting him the and saying to him young 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 twenty or twenty five a week when you going to q a sense of re and get a raise if there s anything that george f or i can do to help you call on us but show a little speed anyway i at that it might not be so bad if you or i talked to him except he mi t not understand he one of these n on j v brows he cant down to cases aod lay his cards on die table and talk t out from the shoulder like you or i can that s right he s like all these that s so like all of em a a fact they and were silent and thoughtful and hai y the conductor came in he had once called at office to ask about houses h are you mr we going to have you with us to this your yes this is my son ted ell now what do you know about here i been thinking you a yourself not a day over hardly and you with this great big for why brother never see forty five la that a wouldn t hardly a thought yes sir it a bad give away for the old man when he h to travel with a young whale like ted you re ri t it is to ted i si you re in bow proudly no not till next i m just kind of giving the rent the once over now as the conductor went on his way huge watch chain ng against his blue chest and ted gravely considered they arrived at late at oi t they lay in the morning rejoicing pretty nice not to have to get up and get down to breakfast they were stay ing at the modest hotel because business always stayed at the but they had dinner in the aiid crystal room of the hotel ordered blue point with a with a tremendous of french potatoes pots of apple pie with ice cream both rf than an ted an extra piece of pie v ot feed young ted admired you stick around with me old man and iii you a good they went to a musical comedy and each at the matrimonial jokes and the jokes they the arm in ann between acts and in the glee of his first release from the shame whidi fathers and sons ted chuckled did you ever hear the one about the three and the judge when ted had returned to was lonely as he was trying to make alliance between and certain interests wanted the race track plot most of his time was taken up in waiting for calls sitting on the edge of his bed holding the asking mr not in yet didn he leave any message for me all right hold the wire staring at a stain on the wall that it resembled a shoe and bored by this twentieth discovery that it resembled a shoe lighting a then bound to the with no in reach wondering what to do with this menace and anxiously trying to toss it into the at last on the ne no message eh all right up again one afternoon he wandered through snow streets of which he had never beard streets of small and and cottages it came to him that be had nothing to do that there was nothing he wanted to do he was lonely in the evening when be dined by himself at the hotel he sat in the afterward in a chair with the arms lighting a cigar and looking for some one who would come and play with him and save him from thinking in the chair next to him showing the arms of was a half familiar man a large red faced man with pop yes and a d v he seemed kind and insignificant and as as himself he wore a suit and a reluctant orange tie it came	42
to with a crash the melancholy stranger was sir instinctively rose how re you sir member we met in at s s my name real estate how d you do sir shook hands embarrassed standing wondering bow he could retreat well i pose you been having a great trip since we saw you in quite british and and all over the he said doubtfully at how did you find business conditions in british or i suppose maybe you didn t look into em scenery and and so scenery oh capital but business know mr they re having almost as much ment as we are sir was speaking warmly now so conditions not so good eh no conditions weren t at all what i d ed tt find them not good eh no not not really good that s a dam shame well i suppose you re waiting for somebody to take you out to some big sir oh no to tell you the truth i was what the deuce i could do this evening don t know a soul in i wonder if you happen to know whether there s a good in this city good why say they re running grand opera right i guess maybe you d like that eh eh went to the opera once in london garden sort of no i was wondering i there was a good b was sitting down his chair over shouting say sir i supposed of course you had a of waiting to lead you out to some but if you t what do you say you and me go to a there s a a at the bill in a picture o just a while i get my coat swollen with greatness slightly afraid lest the noble of change its mind and leave him at any street with sir to the palace and in silent bliss sat beside him trying not to be too enthusiastic lest the des his adoration of and at the end sir murmured jolly good this so awfully decent of you to take me t enjoyed myself so much for weeks all these they never let you go to the the devil you s had lost the refinement and all the broad a s with which he had adorned it and become hearty and natural well i m to death you like it sir they crawled past the knees of fat women into the aisle they stood in the waving their arms in the of putting on hinted say how about a little something to eat i know a place where we could get a swell and we might dig up a little drink that is if you ever touch the stuff but why don t you come to my room i ve scotch not half bad oh i t want to use up all your it s of you but you probably want to hit the hay sir was transformed he was yearning really now i haven t had a decent evening i x so long n i le having to go to all these dances no chance to discuss business and that sort of thing do be a good chap and come won t you i just thought say by it does do a fellow good don t it to sit and visit about business conditions after he s been to these balls and and and all that stuff i often fed that in sure you bet come that s awfully nice of you they beamed along the street here old ch can you tell me do cities keep up this dreadful social pace ah these parties go on now quit your you with court balls and functions and everything no really old chap i mother and i lady i should we usually play a hand of and go to bed at ten bless soul i couldn t keep iq your and all women they know so much culture and that sort of thing this mrs your old good kid she asked me which of the liked best in or was it in never d ic italy in my and did i like do you know what the deuce a primitive is me i should say but i know what a for cash is so do i by but they laughed with the sound of a sir s room was except for his ponderous and english bags very much like the room of george f and quite in the manner of he disclosed a huge looked proud and ho and chuckled say n on j v it was after the third drink that sir proclaimed how do you get the that writing like and this wells us the real business en and we think those du s are both our countries have their comic old aristocracy you know old county hunting people and all that sort of thing and we both have our wretched labor leaders but we both have a of sound men who run the whole show you bet h e s to the real i i m with you i here s to ourselves it was the fourth drink that sir asked humbly do you think of north but it was not till after the fifth that began to call him and sir go aid confided i say do you mind if i pull off my boots and stretched his feet his poor tired hot swollen feet out on the bed after the sixth arose well i better be along you re a regular human i wish to thunder we d been better acquainted in can t you come back and stay with me a while so sorry must go to new york to morrow most awfully sorry old boy i haven t enjoyed an evening so much since i ve	42
been in the states real talk not all this social i d never have let them give me the tide and i didn t get it for nothing di if i d thought i d have to talk to women about and thing to have in though annoyed the mayor most when i got it and of course the likes it but nobody calls me now he was almost and nobody in the states has treated me like a friend till to ni tl good by old chap good thanks awfully i don t mention it and remember whenever you get to the latch string is always out and don t forget old boy if you to and i will be to s e i ae in um ideas about vi and sail g t out next at his club what kind of a time have in c b and bis answering oh fair ran around with sir a lot himself meeting and hei au ri t mrs when you t to pull this d row pose it s as to me in oh s an old friend of the wife and i are of over to england to stay with in his castle not nd he to ne old bum i e yon aid me george we got to make her get h ty i way die s got but evening a wrecked his c ride at he mi to a s f and they tc filled with friend ad weu g he enjoyed the the the the of french kings of he the pr ty were he gasped he stared tamed aw and stared off a sort of a woman at once and withered was paul and paul was to be in tar the woman was his hand at him and g g in that ht had involved and paid v vas talking with the eagerness of a man who is his he was concentrated on the woman s faded eyes once he held her hand and once blind to the other guests he his lips as though he was pretending to kiss had so strong an impulse to go to paul that he could fed his body his shoulders moving but he felt that he must be and not till he saw paul paying the check did he to the piano by friend of mine there me second just say to him he touched paul s shoulder and cried well when hit town paul glared up at him face oh george thought you d gone back to he did not introduce his companion pe ed at her she was a weakly woman of forty two or three in an y hat her was thorough but where you staying the woman turned yawned examined her nails she accustomed to not being introduced paul grumbled inn on the south side alone it sounded unfortunately furiously paul turned toward the woman smiling with a fondness sickening to may want to introduce you mrs this is n old acquaintance george growled while she ed oh i m very pleased to meet any of mr s i m sure demanded be back there later this evening paul drop down and see you no better we better lunch together to morrow all right but see you to night too go down to your and iii wait for n on j v chapter xx he sat smoking with the piano clinging to tlie refuge of gossip afraid to v into thoughts of paul he was the more on the surface as secretly be became more apprehensive felt more hollow he was certain that paul was in without s and that he was doing not at all moral and secure when the yawned that he bad to write q his orders him left the hotel in leisurely calm but he said to the driver he sat agitated on the leather seat in that chill which o dust and perfume and he did not heed the snowy lake front the dark and sudden bright comers in the unknown land south of the the of the inn was bard t new ths harder and brighter he said to mr paul here is he in now n pe then if me his key wait for him can t do that wait down here if you bad with the deference which all the of good fellows give to d now be said with i may to wait some time i m s brother ill go up to his room d i look like a thief his voice was low and not pleasant with considerable the down the key protesting i never said ji i looked like a just rules of the hotel but if you want to on bis way up in the wondered why he was here why shouldn t paul be dining with a respectable married woman why bad he lied to the clerk about being paul s brother in law he had acted like a child he must be careful not to say foolish dramatic things to paul as he settled down he tried to look and placid then the t suicide he d been that without knowing it paul would be just the person to do something like that he must be out of his bead or he wouldn t be confiding in that that dried i oh damn how gladly he d that ng of a she d probably succeeded at last and driven paul suicide out there in the lake way out beyond the t led ice the shore it would be lastly cold to into the water to night or throat cut in the into paul s it was he feebly he pulled at his choking collar looked at his watch the window to stare down at the	42
in a amid a of boxes and cheap magazines and she sounded when she did not sound but was exceedingly well well old dear having a good loaf away the meal bet a bat never got up v till ten while i was in say could i borrow your just dr v in to see if i could borrow your bottle we re going to liave a want to take some coffee ob did you get my card from saying i d run into paul yes what was he doing how do you mean he his sat on the arm of a chair you know how i meant she the pages of a magazine with an irritable i he was trying to make love to some or girl oi somebody hang it you re always letting oa that paul goes round chasing skirts he doesn t in the first place and if he did it would be because you ke at him and at bim so much i hadn t meant to but since paul k away in he really is in i know he has some horrible woman that he writes to in didn t i tell you i saw him in what re you trying to do make me out a liar no but i just i get so worried ow there you that s gets hare you love paul and yet you plague him and him out as if you him i simply can t understand why it is that the more some folks love le the harder they try to make em miserable you love ted and i suppose and yet yon oh well that that s different i don t em not 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 a i m you can act so common s over her linked fingers oh i know i do and get mean sometimes and i m afterwards but oh paul is so i ve tried awfully hard these last few years to be nice to him but just because i used to be or i seemed so i wasn t really but i used to and say anything that came into my and so he made up his n ind that everything was n fault everything can t always be my fault can it and now if i get to he just turns silent oh so dreadfully silent and he won t look at me he just me he simply and he keeps it up till i bust out and bay a lot of things i don t mean so silent oh you right how wicked you how rotten th y things over and over for half an hour at the end weeping promised to restrain herself returned four days later and the and went to the and had chop at a as th walked to the throng a street of tailor shops and shops the two wives id front chattering about murmured to paul seem a lot now she has been except once or twice but it s too late now i just i m not going to discuss it but i m afraid of h there s nothing left i don t ever want to see he some day i m to break away from ha somehow v chapter xxi the organization of become a world force for manly and good business chapters are to be found now in thirty countries nine hundred and twenty of the thousand chapters however are in the united states none of these i more ardent than the club the second march lunch of the vas the most important of the year as it was to be followed by the annual election of there was a abroad tlie lunch was held in the of the house as each of the four hundred entered he took from a a huge button announcing his name his and his business there was a fine of ten cents for calling a fellow by anything but his at a lunch and as checked his hat the air was radiant with shouts of and how re you and top o the mad they sat at friendly tables for eight choosing places by lot was with the merchant tailor s bolt of the little sweetheart milk the professor of the business college dr walter the and ben the one of the merits of the club was that only two from each department of business were permitted to join so that you at once encountered the of other occupations and realized the of all occupations and painting medicine and the manufacture of a n on j v s table was particularly happy to day because professor bad just liad a birthday and was therefore to let s pump pump about how old he is said no let s him with a dancing said ben but it was who had the applause with don t talk about to that i the only he knows is a honest th tell me he s starting a class in home at the college at each place was the the members thou the object of the club was good yet they never lost sight of the importance of doing a little more business after each name was the member s there were scores of in the and on one page the there s no rule that you have to trade with your fellow bo but get wise boy s the use of letting all this good money get outside of our happy and at each to day there was a a card printed in artistic red and black service and service finds finest opportunity and development only in its and	42

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