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bis visits home his kindness to and intense love for my mother how in my tenth year he had talked of my being a writer heaven only knows why and how once os one of bis visits home when i was fourteen he bad set me to tbe task of a humorous essay which he felt sore i could write i willingly and i it but when i chose the ancient topic of the mule and its tendency to kick hia face fell and he tried to show me in the way possible how that and to put me on the track of doing something original now after all this time and scarcely knowing whether or not he knew i was here i was to see him once more to make clear to him my worldly improvement i do not say it to boast bnt i honestly think there was more joy in tbe mere thought of seeing him again than there was in showing him off and getting a little personal credit because of his success chapter aa i look back upon my life now i realize clearly that of all the members of our family to my mother s death the only one who without quite me still with my and artistic point of view and that most and at times practically was my brother despite the fact that au my other brothers were much better able than he to appreciate the kind of thing i waa tending toward mentally his was the sympathy that me np i do not think he understood even in later years long after i had written sister for instance what i was driving at his world was that of the popular song the middle class actor or the comedy and humorous of the writing world as bill v and the authors of the papers and at as far as i make out and i say this in no spirit he waa full of simple middle class romance humor middle class tenderness and middle class all of which i am very free to say i admire after all we cannot all be artists thieves or some of us the large majority have to be just plain middle class and a very comfortable state it is under any decent form of government but there is so very much more to be said of him things which persistently lift him in my memory to a he ht far more appealing and important than hundreds of greater and fame for my brother was a of so tender and delicate a that to speak of him as a mere middle class artist or middle class and would be to do him a gross injustice and miss the entire significance and flavor of his being his tenderness and a very human appreciation of the weakness and errors as well as the a book about toils and of most of ns was his most and engaging and gave him a very definite force and charm admitting that he had an intense possibly an fondness for women i have been able to discover where the dividing line is to be drawn in matters a horse sense of at times still he had other qualities that were positively that disposition that vigorous body and mind those smiling sweet blue eyes that air of and that was with him nearly all the time even at the most trying times life seemed to in him hope sprang upward like a fountain yon felt in him a capacity to do in his limited field an ability to achieve whether he was at the moment or not never having the least power to interpret anything in a high way stiu he was always foil of music of a tender sometimes sad sometimes gay kind the ballad maker of a nation for myself i was always fascinated by this skill of his the art that attempts to interpret sorrow and pleasure in terms of song however and on the stage how in a crude way by mere smile and he could make an audience laugh i i have seen houses crowded to the ceiling with middle or lower class people shop and boys factory hands and the like who at his every move he seemed to a kind of comforting sunshine and humor without a sharp edge or sting satire was entirely beyond him a kind of your true in cap and bells which caused even my morbid soul to by the hour already he was a of a certain type of and tearful yet land sweeping songs the letter that never came the pardon too late i believe it for my mother told me so the let those who wish to know him better read of him in twelve men my brother well this was my brother paul the same whom i have described as stout gross and all of qualities went hand in hand i have no time here for more the glimpse the echo i should like to write a book about a book him the wonderful tender bat now he was coming to st louis and in my way i was determined to show him what i waa he should be to peter dick and my i would have a feast in my room after tbe in his honor i give another a at s then the leading of st of a gay character and invite my editor i can never think of his name the dramatic editor and peter dick and r i proposed to my love to his some afternoon or evening and introduce him to her i to the c ce of the globe to find dick and peter and tell them my news and plans they were very for whatever it was i wanted to do and eager to meet paul of course also within the next twenty i had written to	43
miss w and told the editor and nearly everybody else i dropped in at s to get an estimate on the kind of dinner i thought be would like the head plan it for me and then eagerly awaited his arrival sunday morning came and i called at the at eleven and f him on the stage of this old entirely by trunks and scenery there was with him at the moment a very the female star of the company who as i later learned was one of his passing flames he was as ever and dressed in the most engaging fashion a suit of good cloth and smart cut a for coat a high bat and a gold headed cane in short all the of prosperity and comfort what a wonderful thing he and this stage world even this world of seemed to me at the time i felt on the instant somehow as though i were better established in the world than i t to be thus connected with one who all over the country whole world seemed to come closer because of him he called plainly astonished where d you and then seeing that i was better dressed and poised mentally than he bad ever known me he looked me over in an odd sl doubting way as a stranger t a book about ud then me to his mend seeing him apparently pleased by my and eager to talk with me she herself saying she had to go on to her then he fell to asking me questions as to how i came to be here how i was getting along i am he was slightly and disturbed by my sharp change from a shy retiring boy to one who examined him with the chill and weighing eye of the newspaper man to me all of a he was not merely one whom i had to like he was my brother or one who knew more life than i rather i now t quickly gathering his intellectual import but of his character solely i might like or dislike that as i chose he reminded me now a great deal of my mother and i not help recalling how loving and generous he had always been with her instantly he appealed to me as the simple home mother boy that he was it brought him so to me that i was definitely and tenderly drawn to i could feel how fine and generous he really waa then although i very much whether he liked me at first finding me so and self still so simple and were the laws by which his charming mind worked he at once accepted me as a part of the family and of himself a brother one of mother s boys how often have i heard him say in regard to some immediate relative whom an debate might be going forward after all he s your brother isn t or she s your sister as though mere should all and isn t there something sweet about that in the face of all the cold decisive of this world t weu wag my brother and now he her never before was he so much my dear brother as now so general admirable was he that i have liked him as had he been no relative after a few moments of explanation as to my state i offered to share my room with him for the period of his stay bnt he declined then i offered to take him to but he was too or engaged he agreed to come to my room after the show however and offered me a box for myself and my new friends so did i have in the good sense of peter dick and their certainty of the charm of a man like paul that i them to the thia same night i knew the show itself most be a mess there was a engine in this show with a heroine lying across the rails my dear brother was a comic or et in this act of low brow laughter by his and jokes i shall never foi t how my three friends took all this now that he was actually here they were good h to take him into their affectionate consideration on my account almost as h he belonged to them he was s brother paul even dear old paul afterwards because working conditions favored us that night we all three descended on the together sitting in the box while the show was in progress but spending all the in paul s or on the back of the stage having overcome his first and possibly dislike of my newspaper manner he was now all smiles and plainly delighted with my friends er and peter especially the latter appealing to him as characters not unlike himself individuals whom he understand and in later years when i was in new york he was always asking after them g a book and dick also came in for a share of his warm affection bat in a slower way he dick but queer like a strange animal of some kind on which took him to st he was always in with these three above all things the wa of s mind moved him immensely peter s and daring seemed to wonderful boy that he used to say to me almost as though he were confiding a deep secret yon hear from him yet mark my word yon can t lose a kid like that and time proved quite plainly that he was right during the play sang one of his own th it was an exceptional comic song quite destructive of the good name of the forever so much so that ten years later the merchants and property owners of that famous to have the name of the street changed on the that the involved in	43
the song had destroyed its character as an honest business street forever so much for the import of a silly ballad and the passing song writer what are the really powerful i in this world t after the show we all to some music hall in the vicinity of this old which dick insisted by reason of its wretchedness would amuse paul although i am sure it did not he was never a and thence to my room where i had the man who provided the midnight lunch for the workers at the spread a small feast i had no piano but paul sang and peter gave an imitation of a street player who could at one and the same time a drum mouth organ and we had to beat my good brother on the back to keep him from choking but it was during a week of together that the first impressive conversations in r ard to new york occurred conversations that finally me with the feeling that i should never be quite satisfied until i had reached there whether this was to the fact that i now told him about my present state and or dreams and my some s a book myself that remarkable here or that he was to the place where be was able to est ways and means and at the same time indulge the somewhat streak in himself i do not know but during the week he persisted in the most descriptions of new york and my to go there its import to me and otherwise and finally he convinced me that i never reach my stature unless i did other places might be very good he insisted they all had their but there was only one place where one might live in a keen and way and that was new york it waa the city the only city a wonder world in itself it was great wonderful the size the color the the beauty he went on to explain that the west was narrow slow not really alive in new york one might always do think and act more freely than anywhere else the air itself was all really ambitious people people who were destined to do or be anything eventually drifted there newspaper men actors song writers he pointed to himself as a ease in point how he had ventured there a doing a and how one harry minor now of antique fame had seized on him carried him along and forwarded bim in every way some one was certain to do as much for me for any one of ability in pas g he now confided that only recently from having been the star song writer for a new york music he had succeeded with two other men in a music company in which he had a third interest and which was to publish his songs as well as those of others and was pledged to pay bim an honest a thing which he insisted had not so far been done as well as a fall share as partner in addition under tbe friendly urging of an manager be was now writing a play to be known as the green goods man in which within a year or two he appear as star also he reminded me that our sister e who had long since moved to new york as early as was now living in west street where she a book about myself be glad to receive me he was rs in new york in the living with this sister why not come down there next when i am there off the road and look it over as he talked new york came nearer than ever it had before and i could see the light of conviction and in his eye it was plain now that he had seen me again that he wanted me to my friends had already song my praises to him although he himself see that i was fast emerging from my too shy youth st might be well and but new york new york one who had not seen it but who was eager to see the world not help bat and np his ears it was daring this week that i gave the mentioned and took my to meet my brother i am satisfied that she liked him or was rather by him not the least detail of his life or the character of the stage while the comment that i get of him waa that she was charming hot that if he were in my place he dot think of marrying yet a statement which had more light thrown on it years later by his persistent indifference to if not dislike of her he was always too and of others to express himself openly to me all of which is neither here nor there my oat to be somewhat of a knowing it i was trying to elements which not mix at least not on a short notice the and at the same time exclusive of as peter dick and and the rather of my friends and of the republic and the and of himself proved too the was formal my dear brother was as barren of as a child no problem as might have interested these men had the smallest interest for him or had ever been weighed by him he not them i fancy if we had turned to prize or heroes or comic characters in general he have a book about done well indeed his and their ts were ao far apart that they found him all bat dull on the other hand peter dick and finding paul were not in the least interested in the others upon them as and of no great import between these i was lost not knowing bow to them all at once by the and of my attempt i could not	43
railroad which went into within an hour fertile all about both gas and oil struck making the a book about and therefore in the mood for a as we would imagine sparkling glimmering in the t as a financial of a paper i chapter mt thoughts being now if to idea of life and a country newspaper although i really did not believe that i could succeed at that i talked and talked to to my future wife to dick and peter in a way developing all sorts of theories as to the possible future that awaited me to up my faith in myself i tried to make miss w feel that i was a personage and would do great things how nature would ever get on without total blindness or at least immense on the part of its creatures i cannot certainly if women in their lore period had any more sense than the men they would not be with the dreams of such as myself either t y cannot help themselves or they must want to believe nature must want them to believe how the woman who married me could have been impressed by my faith in myself at this period is beyond my reasoning and yet she was impressed of saw nothing better in store for her than myself that she was so impressed and that i moved by her affection for me or my own desire to possess her was impelled to do something to better my condition was obvious hints thrown out at the republic to my in particular that i might leave producing nothing i decided sometime during january and february to take up s proposition i i did not see how other than by gross luck it could come to anything neither of us bad any money to speak of and yet we were planning to buy a country newspaper for a few days before starting we this foolish matter and then i sent him to his home town to look over the field there and report which he immediately did writing most glowing accounts of an absolutely worth less country paper there which he was positive we could a book about myself for a and turn into a paying proposition at once i cannot say that i believed this and yet i went because i felt the need of something different and all the time the of that immense physical desire toward my beloved which were there any thing as in life might have been satisfied without any great blow to society was holding me as by hooks of steel it was this conflict between the need to go and the wish to stay that me yet i went i had the pain of separating from her in this mood that was slipping away that in the uncertainty of all things there might never be a happy to our love and there waa not and yet i went i bade her a final farewell the sunday night before my departure i hinted at all sorts of glorious achievements as well as all possible forms of failure lover wise i was impressed with the sterling worth and connections of this girl the homely conventional and surround my for her dreams tortured me as i could plainly see she was for life as it had been lived by by those who interpret it ss a matter of duty simplicity care and i think she saw before her a modest home in which would be children h money to clothe them decently enough mon to entertain a few friends and eventually to die and be buried on the other hand i was little more than a force with no convictions no definite theories or in my sky the latest cloud of t or plan was the great thing not i but destiny over which i bad no control had me in hand i felt or thought i felt the greatest love while me was a voice which what a liar i what a you will satisfy yourself make your own way as best you can each new day will be a clean slate for you no least picture of the past none at least which might not be quickly wiped away any beautiful woman would satisfy yon still i suffered torture for her and myself and left the next day by the the defeated for happiness in love my attitude on leaving the was one of complete a book about myself indifference with a kind of satisfaction at the last moment that after seemed previously totally indifferent to my worth the city editor the managing editor and even the seemed suddenly to feel that if i could be induced to stay i might prove of greater to them than thus far i had from a cash point of view and so they made a hearty if effort to detain me indeed on my very sudden only a few days before my departure that i was going my city editor expressed great regret asked me not to act hastily told me he proposed to speak to the editor in chief but this did not interest me any more i was down on the republic for the way it had treated me why hadn t they done something for me months that afternoon aa i was leaving the building on an the managing editor caught me and wanted to know of my plans said if i would stay he believed that soon a better place in the department could be made for me having already written that i would soon join him i now felt it impossible not to leave the truth is i really wanted to go and now that i had brought myself to this point i did not want to retreat besides there was a satisfaction in refusing these the editor said that if i were really going the would be glad	43
to give me a general letter of introduction which might stand me in good stead in other cities true enough on the monday on which i left having gone to the office to say farewell i was met by th who handed me a letter of introduction it was of the to whom it might concern variety and related my labors and in no vague words i might have used this letter to advantage in many a strait but never did by some queer of thought i concluded that it was somewhat above my capacity said more for me than i deserved and might secure for me some place which i could not fill for over a year i carried it about in my pocket often when i was a job and with only a few dollars in n pockets and still i did not it why i have often wondered since little as i should understand such a thing in another so little do i now understand this in myself chapter that at seven i carried mj bags down to the great station feeling that i was a failure other men had they need not go the world seeking a career so many youths and maids bad all that was needful to their ease and comfort arranged from the beginning they did not need to fret about the making of a bare living the of life which piles comforts in the of some while the smallest of satisfaction from the lips of others was never more apparent to me i was in a black despair and made short work of getting into my berth for a long time i stared at dark fields flashing by by lamps in scattered cottages the gloomy and lonely little towns of and then i slept i was by a ray of in my e es i lifted one of my blinds and saw the of northern the brown of last year s crop the snow commonplace little towns die small brown or red railway stations with the adjoining and tall gas well ont of dirty soil made me that i was approaching the end of my i that i had ample time to dress and breakfast in the adjoining a thing i proposed to do if it proved the last liberal courageous deed of my life for i was not too well provided with cash and was i not leaving civilization f though i had bat a hundred dollars mi t not my state soon be much worse t i have often smiled over the awe in which i then held the car porter conductor and all that went with it to my inexperienced soul it seemed to be the of el ance and grandeur could life offer anything more than the privilege of riding the world in these palaces t and here was i this winter morning with money to indulge in a u a book breakfast in of grand chambers if i kept this reckless pace there was no telling where i end i selected a table adjoining one at which two who talked of far and wide of large of and and the condition of trade they seemed to me to be among the most fortunate of men high np in the world as positions go able to steer straight and profitable for themselves because the bad half a spring chicken i had one and coffee and rolls and french potatoes as did tbey feeling all the while that i was indulging in at one station at which the train stopped some poor looking farmer boys in and and wrinkled looking np at me with interest aa i ate i stared down at them hoping that i should be taken for a to whom this was little more than a wearisome commonplace i felt fully capable of playing the part and so gate the boys a cold and glance as as to say behold i i myself that the way to establish my true worth was to make every one else feel small by comparison the town of lay in the extreme portion of on the a little stream which begins somewhere west of port and runs to into lake the town was traversed by this one railroad which began at st louis and ended at and consisted of a number of small frame houses and stores with a few brick of one and two stories i bad not arranged with that he should meet me at any given time having been uncertain as to the time of my departure from st louis and so i had to look him up as j stepped down at the little i noted the small houses with snow covered yards the bare trees and the glimpse of rolling country which i caught through the open spaces between there was the river wide and shallow flowing directly through the heart of the town and tumbling rapidly and over gray stones i was far more concerned as to whether i should sometime be able to write a poem or a story a book about myself this river i was to know if a local weekly here and after the and of st the town did not impress me i now that i had made a dreadful mistake and wondered why i had been so foolish as to ve np the suggested by my friends on the republic and my sweetheart when i mi ht have remained and married her under the new conditions proffered me yet i walked on to the main comer and inquired where my friend lived then out a country road indicated to me as leading toward his home i found an old rambling frame facing the river with a lean to and kitchen and a bam twice the size of the and smaller buildings all resting comfortably on a rise of ground apple and trees it now in the	43
give to a paper that was run right t well that depends he said gloomily and i d have to see how it was mn first some i mi t give more than others me and we left i foi ot to tell you he said that he s a and a he d expect yoa to ran it in favor of those if yon got his support bat all the men around town won t feel that way in the back room of a we found a who did not know whether a weekly newspaper was of any value to him and could not more than fifty cents week in if it were the proprietor of the village hotel a thick set red faced man with the air of a country evil said that he did not see that a local newspaper waa particularly valuable to him he might bnt it would be more as a favor than anything else i began to sum up the difficulties of our position we should be to b in with by a wretched we should be to a company of small lean living narrow men who would take at the least show of individuality and cut as off entirely from support we should have to busy ourselves gathering trivial of news hard working indifferent farmers for of money and reduce all our thoughts and to the measure of this narrow world i saw myself dying by inches it gave me the youth and hope were calling i don t see this i said to myself it s horrible i should die to i said suppose we give op our for we might as well he replied there s a paper over at green for sale and it s a better paper we might a book about p over in a day or two and look at it we might as well go home now i agreed and we turned down a street that led to the road meditating i knew nothing of my destiny bnt i knew that it had little to do with this these great wide fields many of them already sown to wheat under the snow these of oil or gas well promising a new source of profit to many the and neatly divided farms all appealed to me but this world was not for me i was of something different richer more po less worthy possibly more terrible more for the moods and the what these bleak fields offer t i t of st the crowded streets the vital offices of the great papers their presses the hotels the the trains what bury n self here i thought of the east new possibly at least philadelphia i like the bat it s a hard place to make a isn t i finally said tes he assented gloomily i v never been able to get anything ont of it bat i haven t done very well in the city either i the mood of an easily defeated man i m so to the noise and of the streets that these fields lonely i said tes but yon t get over that in time yon think never i ht bat did not say so instead i said that s a sky isn t and he looked to where a touch of purple was creeping into the background of red and gold we reached the house at dusk going through the gate i said i don t see how i can go into this with you there isn t enough in it well don t worry about it any more t i d rather the girl wouldn t know well talk it over in the morning this and life mi t seem as a permanent field of endeavor it was pleasing enough as a spectacle or as the scene of a although it was late i came and there was snow on the a warm wind came in a day or two and drove most of it away a foil moon rose every t in the east and there was a sense of approaching spring before the charming old flowed the wonderful little over stones and spreading oat wide as though it wished to appear more than it was there is madness in moonlight and there is madness in that com is here in this simple farming region once free of the that by any chance i might be compelled to remain here i felt renewed and free as a bird though at the same time there was an of sadness not only for myself bnt for life itself the lapse and decay of things the impossibility of or knowing more than a of the glories and pleasures that are everywhere although i had not had a in years i was eager to be at work the greatness of life its i the dreams of which might come true were calling to me i wanted to be on to find what life had in store for me and yet i wanted to stay here for a while s father as well as his mother and wife interested me intensely for they were simple industrious believing they were good or or the little old farmer who bad built up this place or inherited a part and added the rest was exactly like all the other farmers i have ever known genial kindly fairly curious as to the wonders of the world without full of a great faith in america and its destiny sore that it is the a book about greatest in the and that there has never been other like it that first night at and the next morning at breakfast and all my other days here the old man me as to life its ways my or theories and i am positive that he vas delighted to have me there for it was winter and he bad little	43
the seeming comfort and of them the well kept the and windows i the wonder of evening fires in winter i the open cool and shadowy doors in summer and on and i the m a about myself of the book and somehow in the of my disturbed i had missed most of this after a day of looking the city i applied to the city editor of the leading morning paper and one of the intellectual experiences of my life at the city desk in a small and not too comfortable room sat a small with a complexion of milk and cream t hair and a serene eye who looked me over as as to say look what the latest breeze has in his attitude was neither nor he was so that i half detected on t the and in the r e of city editor in a mid west town one have an air if not the substance of and ability and so my city editor seemed to breathe a to be very and you re a st louis newspaper man he said me casually never worked in a town of this size thought well the conditions are very different we pay much attention to small make a good deal out of nothing and he smiled bnt there isn t a thing i can see now nothing beyond a three or four day job which you wouldn t want i m sure how do you know i tt well tell you about it there s a street car strike on and i could use a man who had nerve enough to ride around on the cars the company is attempting to run and report how things are but tell you frankly it s you may be shot or hit with a brick i indicated n to undertake this and he looked at me in a mock serious and yet way he took me on and i went about the city on one car line and another studying the strange streets expecting and every moment that a brick might be at me through the window or that a gang of would board the car and beat me up bnt nothing happened not a single threatening workman anywhere i so reported and was told to write it up and make as much of the story as possible without know a book of hie of hie case my were all with the i had se i of and of and of the quarrels between the money lords and the poor to be all on one side as was the in all newspaper with which i ever had anything to do where labor and capital were concerned i was told to be and not either i wrote my story and it was published in the first edition then at the order of this same i visited some charity where all the important paintings owned in the city were being exhibited and wrote as account which was headed as in old with all the silly about and ladies g after which i spread my feet under a desk being to talk more with the smiling if it who had employed me the opportunity soon came for apparently he was as much interested in me as i in him he came over after i had submitted my second bit of copy and announced that it was entirely a man from the room entered and commented on the fact that james and field were to lecture in the city soon i remarked that i had once seen field in the of the in which out the fact that my city editor had once worked in had been a member of the club knew field peter brand ben king and others at mention of the magic name of ben king author of if i should die t and jane jones the atmosphere of of the time of the club and field and ben king returned at once we fell into a varied and g exchange of it resulted in an enduring and yet stormy and friendship if he had been a girl i would have married aim of it would have been inevitable we were our dreams were practically identical though we approached them from different angles he was the in thought though the in action i was the in t and the in action he took me out to lunch and we stayed three hours he a book about took me to dinner and do so was compelled to call tip his and sa he had to in town he had dreams of becoming a poet and i a before the second day had gone he had shown me a book of and some poems i became of him the victim of a delightful illusion because he liked me he wanted me to stay on there was no immediate place he said but one might open at any time having very little money i could not see my way to that i did try to get a place on the rival paper that failing he suggested that although i wander on toward and i stand ready to come back if he for me meanwhile we in that wonderful possession affection i thought him wonderful perfect great he thou t well i have heard him tell in after years what he ht now at times he me with e ta chapter i should go east or west suddenly became a question with me i had the feeling that i mi t do better in or some point west of only the of cities aa h and those farther east me the cost of reaching them was small and ou the while i be moving toward my brother in new york and so after making at the office of the bee for a possible opening and finding none and learning from several newspaper men that	43
was not considered a live town i decided to travel eastward and t a ticket to in ai t of the tumbling waves of lake i was taken back in thought to my d rs in and all those who had already dropped out of my life forever what a queer thing this living was i where should be tomorrow what doing the next year the year after i ever have any money any standing any friends f so i tortured myself arriving in at the close of a smoky gray afternoon i left my bag at the station and sought a room then walked ont to see what i should see i knew no one not a friend anywhere within five hundred miles my sole resource my little skill as a newspaper buying the afternoon and morning papers i examined them with care down their room then me to a small for food u v i the next morning i was up to see as much as i could to visit the offices of the afternoon papers before noon then to look in upon the city of the two or three morning papers the latter proved not very friendly and there appeared to be no opening anywhere but i to remain here for a few days studying the city as a city and visiting the same each day or as often as they would s s a book about myself endure me if nothing came of it within a week and no came from my friend h in me i proposed to move on to which city i had not as yet made up my mind the thing that interested me most then vas that it was so raw dark dirty smoky and yet possessed of one thing force semi intelligent force america was then so new in the furnace stage of its existence everything waa in the making fortunes art social and commercial life the most impressive things were its rich men their homes office buildings and of commerce and pleasure generally and this waa as of as of any other city in america indeed the thing which held my attention after i had been in a day or two and had established myself in a room in a neighborhood once occupied by the very rich were those great and new in avenue with wide and iron or stone statues of and dogs and deer which were occupied by such rich men as john d tom johnson and henry m only a year or two before had given millions to the almost university of then a small college and was accordingly being hailed as one of the richest men of america he and his and were already casting a over they were all living here in avenue and i was to look up their homes them their wealth of course and wishing that i were famous or a member of a wealthy family and that i might some day meet one of the beautiful girls i thought must be here and have her fall in love with and make me rich physically or or materially there was nothing to see but business a few large hotels like those of every american city and these few great houses add a few and commonplace churches all american cities and all the inhabitants were busy with but one thing commerce they ate drank and slept trade in my wanderings i found a huge steel works and a world of low smoky pathetic little bout it although i was not as yet given to about a book about myself the profound of equality under this evidence of the brain toiling for the big one me with great force and produced a good deal of thought later on the paper with which i waa eventually connected was the leader which represented all tiiat was in the local life wandering into its office on the second or third day of my stay i was met at the desk of the city by a small looking person of a like countenance who wanted to know what i waa after i told him and be said there was nothing but on hearing of the papers with which i had been connected and the nature of the work i had done he suggested that possibly i might be able to do something for the sunday edition the sunday editor proved to be a tall melancholy man with sad eyes a sallow face sunken cheeks narrow shoulders and a general air of weariness and depression what is it now you he asked slowly looking up from his your city editor suggested that possibly yon might have some sunday work for me to do i ve had experience in this line in and st louis yes he said not asking me to sit down now what do you think you could write about this was a being new to the city i had not thought of any particular thing and could not at this moment i told him this there s one thing you might write if you could did you ever hear of a new style grain boat they are patting on the lakes called back t i interrupted back went on the editor indifferently well there s one here now in the harbor it s the first one to come here do you think you could get up something on that i m sure i could i d like to try do you use pictures you might get a or two we could have drawings made from them a book about i started for the door eager to be about this when he said we don t pay very much three dollars a that was bat i filled with the joy of doing something on my way ont i stopped at the and ht a copy of the last sunday proved to be a	43
poor composed of a half articles on local and with a few drawings i read one or two of them and then looked up my boat i it tied ap at a dock adjoining an immense railroad yard and near an imposing grain finding nobody about i oat the of the grain who told me that the captain of the boat had gone to the company s local office in a street i hastened to the place and there found a old lake captain in short stout ruddy coarse who volunteered almost with a and a ho i to tell me something about it i think i ou t to know a little about em i sailed the first one that was ever sailed out of the port of i listened with open ears i caught a story of plans and the pine woods of northern the vast grain of and other lake ports early on the lakes the theory of a and a back top and all strung together with numerous y sees and so i made notes on backs of scraps of paper and finally on a furnished me by the generous i carried my notes back to the paper the sunday editor was out i waited patiently until four and then the light gave up the idea of going with a to the boat i went to a faded green covered table and began to write my story i had no sooner done a paragraph or two than the sunday editor returned bringing with him an atmosphere of and indifference i went to him to explain what i had done well write it up write it up well see and he turned away to his papers i labored hard at my story and by seven or eight o clock a book about had out two words of ni had more of the bluff old in it than of the boat the editor it when i was through and it into a pigeon telling me to call in a d or two and he let me know i t this strange it seemed to me that if i were working for a sunday paper i work every day i called the next day but mr had not read it the next day he said the story was well enough written long you don t want to write so loosely stick to your facts closer this day i suggested a of my own the beauty of some of the new bat he frowned at this as offering a lot of free to real estate men who t to be made to pay then i proposed an article on the magnificence of avenue which was turned down aa old i then spoke of a great steel works which was but then coming into the city bnt as this offered great opportunity to all the papers he thou t poorly of it he a day or two later by allowing me to write up a chicken f arm which lay outside the of coarse this made a poor showing for me at the s desk at the end of the second week i was allowed to put in a bill for seven dollars and a half i had not realized that i was wasting bo much time i appealed to all the again for a regular staff position bat was told there was no opening it began to look as if i have to leave soon and i wondered where i go next or both near chapter hopeless for me i one da picked up and left then came i reached toward tiie end of march aside from the falls i it a little tame no especial snap to it not as as i had felt to be characteristic of what interest there was for me i provided myself wandering in odd about grain and soap and railroad yards and districts here as in i not help bnt see that in spite of onr boasted and equality of opportunity there was as much misery and and as little decent of opportunity against aa anywhere else in the world the little homes the poor shabby little homes with their yards their streets their their flattering thin gas lamps the crowds of ra d dirty f or children near at hand was always the inevitable and wretched saloon not satisfying a need for pleasure in a decent way bnt to the lowest and most and moat destroying instincts of the lowest and and and while the huge financial and m at the top with their lust for power and authority used the very flesh of the weaker elements for purposes of their own it was the saloon not liquor which brought the folly i used to listen as a part of my duties to the of thin blooded thin experienced as well aa to those of kept writers about the merits and blessings and opportunities of our and land bnt i encountered such regions as this i knew well enough that there was something wrong with their shout as they might there was here displayed before n very eyes ample evidence that somewhere there a book about a screw loose in the of han of ood machinery after i had placed n self in a neighborhood near the i the newspaper offices and their i had in my pocket that letter from the of the st my virtues as a and correspondent so was my mood and practical judgment that i did not present it to any one i merely into one office after another there were on four papers here convinced before entering that i should not get anything and i did not one young editor seeming to take at least an interest in me assured me that if i would remain in for weeks he could place me but since i had not enough money	43
to myself so long i decided not to wait ten days spent in these offices daily and i concluded that it useless to remain longer yet before i went i determined to see at one thing more falls therefore one day i by to and looked at tliat tumbling flood then not or drained by water power i was impressed but not so much as i had thought i should be standing out on a rock near the greatest volume of water under a gray sky i was awed by the and then became and felt aa though i were being carried along i would or not farther i stared at the water as it gathered force and speed wondering how i should feel if i were in a small and fighting it for my life behind the falls were great and of ice and snow still standing from the cold of weeks before i recalled that a famous french of his day had ten years before these fierce and angry waters below the falls i wondered how he had done it so wildly did they leap huge of water going round and round and leaping and and striking at each other when i returned to i congratulated myself that if i had got nothing oat of my visit to at least i had gained this i now that would be as good a field as u and one seeing a sign a rate s reading i a ticket to my small room to pack my bag and departed i arrived at at or seven that same evening of all the cities in which i ever worked or lived was the most agreeable it was due to the fact that n included on spring summer and fall or that i a peculiarly ea newspaper atmosphere or that the ty was so different from any i had thus far seen bat whether owing to one thing or another certainly no other newspaper work i ever did seemed so pleasant no other city more interesting what a city for a to work and dream in t the wonder to me ia that it has not produced a score of writers poets painters and instead of well how many t and who are they i came down to it through the brown blue mountains of western and all day long we had been winding at the base of one or another of them following the bed of a stream or turning out into a broad smooth valley directly at the of it or climbing some low ridge with a puff and then almost down the other slope i had never before seen any mountains the sight of faced at certain places little oil and tow tin lamps fastened to their hats their tin on their arms impressed me as something new and faintly of the one or two small coal mines about where i had lived when i was a boy of seven along the way i saw a heavy faced and heavy type of peasant woman with a black or brown or blue or green skirt and a waist of a color a or of still another by a few children of a book equally proportions i up or doing some thing else their miserable places these were the being imported by the large and and steel making of the to take the place of the restless and less american working man and woman i at their appearance and number and assumed american fashion that in their far off and unhappy lands the had heard of the t american constitution its of life and the pursuit of happiness as well as of the opportunities afforded by this great land and that they bad forsaken their miseries to come all this to enjoy these greater i did not then know of the foreign labor agent with bis lying among ignorant and often fairly contented painting america as a country rolling in wealth and and then bringing them here to take the places of more restless and greatly foreigners who having been brought over by the same gay pictures were becoming irritated and demanded more pay i did not then know of the the labor spy the company store five cents an hour for children the company all in full operation at this time au i knew was that there had been a great steel strike in recently that as well as other the for one had built fences and strong them with wire in order to protect themselves against the lawless attacks of lawless i also knew that a large number of state or county or paid and mounted police and city had been sworn in and set to guarding the company s property and that h c a steel manager for mr had been slightly wounded by a named alexander who was these all foreigners of course lawless and of the great and prosperous steel company which was paying them reasonable wages and against which they had no honest complaint mid western papers up to the d y of s a book myself in and for some time after bad been foil of ths merits of this labor with long and intended in the main to prove that the vas not so greatly considering the type of labor he performed and the intelligence he brought to his task that the public was not in the main vastly interested in labor both parties to the dispute being selfish that it would be a severe blow to the prosperity of the country if labor were too long continued that unless labor was reasonable in its demands capital would become aod leave the country i had not made up my mind that the was all on one side although i knew that the age man in america despite its great and boundless opportunities was about as much put upon and kicked about and	43
as ai other this growing labor problem or the general american dissatisfaction with poor returns upon efforts made three years later in the free silver campaign and the gold the full dinner was then invented as a to the vast and the threat to close down and so bring misery to the entire country unless william was elected was also freely posted henry george father most and a score of others were abroad the woes of hundreds of thousands who were supposed to have no woes at that time as i see it now america was just entering upon the most phase of that vast splendid most lawless and most savage period in which the great were and at the of the people and each other those crude which now sit in onr threatening its very life with their pretensions and were then in their very beginning john d was still in william h h were still comparatively young and secret agents was still in an iron master and of all his brood of powerful children only had appeared william h and had only recently died was a book about myself and mark waa an business man in the great struggles of the the coal companies the gas companies to and tax the people were still in or just being bom the had arrived it is but not the on every band were giants fighting dreaming and yet in there was still something of a singing spirit what i arrived here and came out of the railway station which was directly across the river from the business i was impressed by the walls of hills that arose on every hand a great black sheer ridge rising to a height of five or six hundred feet to my right and this river on the bosom of which lay of good size from the station a designed bridge of fair size led to the city beyond and across it in unbroken lines street cars and and of all sizes and descriptions the city itself was already by lights a climbing the hills in every direction and below me as i walked out upon this bridge was an stream reflecting the lights from either shore below this was another bridge and another the whole river for a mile or more was suddenly lit to a rosy glow a glow which as i saw npon turning came from the tops of some forty or fifty a deep orange red flame at the same time an enormous and came from somewhere as though were at work upon i stared and admired i felt that i was into a new and strange world i was glad now that i had not found work in or or the city beyond the river proved as interesting as the river cliffs and about the station as i walked along i discovered the name of the street which began at the bridge s end and was lined with buildings of not more than three or four stories although it was one of the principal streets of the business at the bridge head on the city side stood a large smoke colored stone building which later i discovered was the principal hotel the and beyond that was a most and build a book about myself i came to street finally lighted and carrying traffic and tamed into it i found this central r on to be most laid ont and did not attempt to solve its instead i entered a modest in a side street later i np a small hotel where i paid a dollar for a room for the night i retired as to how i should make ont here something the city drew me i wished i might remain for a time the next morning i was np bright and early to look np the morning papers and find out the names of the afternoon papers i that there were four the and morning papers and the and leader i t them most interesting and different from those of other cities in which i had worked hia right hand while at in the ss mill john had hie right wrist while at work in the mill joseph is from of the left wrist while at work in the s mill a train of hot metal being hauled from a mixing to hearth no was side h a engine near mill the ladies of some of t ears and the hot metal in a pool of water along the track and were wounded hj the metal arrested my attention at once and then each names as hill bon moon wind gap road somehow made me wish to know more of this region the was republican the times both were evidently with as to local news i made haste to visit the afternoon newspaper offices only to discover that they were folly equipped with writers i then proceeded in search of a room and finally found one in a street that climbed a hill to its top and then stopped here almost at the top of this hill in an old yellow the rear rooms of which commanded a long and deep or run i took a room for a week the family of this house rooms to several others clerks a book about locked and proved to be a genial a kind of court on the front steps of an i now tamed to the morning going first to the ik had its in s handsome building one of the two or three high office buildings in the ci the city editor received me but promise nothing at the s patch which was published in a three story building at and diamond streets i a man who expressed much more interest he was a slender soft spoken man on very short i found him to be shrewd and gracious always exceedingly and and an excellent of news	43
and holding his job not so much by reason of what he pat into his paper as by what he k t out of it he wanted to know where i had worked before i came to whether i had been connected with any paper here whether i had ever done feature stuff i described my experiences as nearly as i could and finally he said that there waa nothing now but he was expecting a to occur soon if i come around in the course of a week or ten days i drooped sadly well then in three or four days he thought he might do something for me the salary would not be more than eighteen the week spirits fell at that but his manner was so agreeable and his hope tor me so keen that i felt greatly encouraged and told him i would wait a few days anyhow my friend in had promised me that he would wire me at the first opening and i was now expecting some word from him this i told to this editor and he said well yon mi t wait yon hear from him anyhow a thought of my possible lean did not seem to occur to him and i at the casual manner in which he assumed that i could wait thereafter i the and its and to my delight foimd it to be one of the most curious and fascinating places i had ever seen from a store i first secured a map and figured out the lay of the town at a glance i saw that the greater part of it stretched eastward along the tongue of land that was between the and the and that thia waa proper acre a book about the on the north side was the ci of an but so completely connected vith as to be identical with it and connected with it by many bridges across the on the side were various towns mt washington i was interested especially in because of the long and bitter contest between the steel workers and the company which for six months and more in had space on the ont page of every newspaper in america having studied my map i going first across the river into here i found a city about the base of high granite hills or between in hollows called or with a street or car and twisting directly over them a charming pork and system bad been laid with the city hall a market and a e public library as a the place had large dry goods and business on another day i crossed to the side and ascended by an inclined plane such as later i discovered to be one of the features of the hill called mt washington from the top of which walking along an avenue called view which skirted the brow of the hill i the finest view of a city i have ever seen in later years i looked down upon new york from the heights of and the hills of island on rome from the gardens on from san and on and los from the slopes of mt but never anywhere have i seen a scene which impressed me more than this the ragged beauty of the mountains which th city the three rivers that as threads of bright metal dividing it into three parts the several cities joined as one their streets presenting a pattern here and there by the darkened of and the walls of the taller and and office buildings as in most american cities of any size the was just being introduced and being welcomed as full proof of the growth and wealth and force of the city no city was com a book mt without at least one the more of course the had a better claim to the as a commercial than any other american city that i know the of land which lies between the and the very likely not more than two or three miles in is still the natural heart of the commercial life for fifty a hundred miles here meet the three large rivers all here the natural and of the as well as the which the banks of the streams and which are the natural or for railroad lines street ears and streets come to a whether by bridges from au the bank of the or the or along the shores of the or within the city of itself all meet somewhere in this level and here of necessity is the business so ths tall i cannot see how one tenth of the business which would an be here would ever come about two or three tall the of vas then of a simple and aspect a blackened a small dark city hall and an old market place a long stretch of blast black as and the li bridges over the rivers gave it all an airy grace aod charm since the np here were very simple mostly s cottages and the streets back followed the of twisting and winding aa they and providing in the most and effective views of green hills and mountains beyond i decided that should i be so fortunate as to secure work i would move over here it would be like in a mountain resort and meat i descended and took a car which followed the to and here for the first time had a view of that enormous steel plant which on recently june to december had played such a great part in the drama of america the details of the quarrel were fairly fresh in my mind how the e steel company had planned with the of a scale as an excuse to break the power of the steel workers who were becoming too and who were best organized in their plant and how the the introduction of three hundred guards to protect the	43
plant had attacked them killing several and others and so permitting the introduction of the state which and permanently broke the power of the they could only wait then and starve and bo they had waited and starved for six months when they finally returned to work such of them as would be received when i reached there in april the battle waa already fifteen months past but the feeling was still alive i did not a book about then know it this town of that was bo bnt in the six months of my stay here i found that it was a of a sense of defeat and despair the men had not forgotten then the was busy and had been for months poles to take the places of the whole colonies were already here under the most conditions and more were coming hence the of those who had been defeated along the for a quarter of a mile or more the huge low length of the great black with rows of and long low sheds or buildings them sheds from which came a and and the glow of red fire the whole was by a pall of gray smoke in the t above the plant on a slope which rose behind it were a few attractive dwellings about two the trees of which were for want of air behind and to the of these were the of several those against failure and despair turning up streets one found invariably uniform frame houses closely built and by smoke and and below on the behind the mill were so g and as to shook me into the b that i was once more witnessing the lowest phases of the worst i had ever seen the streets were mere where there were trees and there were few they were and their foliage withered by a which was over all thou the was bright at the top of the hill down here it waa gray almost at best a dull gold base the place held me until night i about its of there was a large number most of them idle during the drift of the afternoon the open gates of the mill held my interest also for through them i could see huge engines cars of iron being hauled to and fro and mountains of powdered iron ore and scrap iron piled here and there awaiting the hour of new birth in a book about myself the when the sun had down and i had watched a shift of men coming out with their and coats over their arms and other entering in a i returned to the city with a sense of the w and breadth and depth of effort here bridges and rail and plate were made for all the world but of all these that dwelt and labored here scarce a seemed even to sense a portion of the meaning of all they did i knew that bad become a as had and others and that he was b to give that bad already given several and that their in cot ess were even then for the patronage of the government on their terms but the poor in these at what did they on another day i the east end of which was the residence section of the city and a contrast to such and as i had witnessed at and among the across the and below mt washington never in my life neither before nor since in new york or elsewhere was the vast gap which the rich from the poor in america so vividly and brought home to me i had seen on my map a park called and thinking that it might be interesting i made my way out a main called quite i think fifth avenue lined with some of the finest of the city never did the mere possession of wealth impress me so keenly here were homes of the most character huge tree shaded with immense great stone or iron or hedge fences and formal gardens and walks of a most character it was a r on of well well drained and well paved even the street lamps were of a better des than elsewhere so eager was a young and to see that superior living conditions were provided for the rich there were avenues lined with well trees and at every turn one encountered expensive carriages their horses silver or gold gilt harness their front seats occupied by one or two in livery while was madam or sir a book about myself or both ly upon the all too comfortable world about in park was a huge and interesting or garden under glass a most oriental affair given by of tbe e company a large graceful library of perhaps four or five times the of the one in given by was in process of construction and he was another of the chief of the of a great in this region another in new york and still another in scotland a man for whom the and had been killed like huge ribbons of fire these and other names of powerful steel men the seemed to rise and band the sky it seemed astonishing to me that some men could rise and about tbe heavens like while others all could only pick among the of the hot ways below what were these things called and about which men f had they any basis in there was constant the equality of opportunity which gave men as these their chance but i could not help as to the lack of equality of opportunity these men created for others once their equality at the top had made if of opportunity had been so excellent for them why not for others especially those in their immediate true all men had not the brains to seize upon and make use of that which was pat	43
before them but again not all men of brains had the blessing of as bad these few men strength as i felt should not be too or too forgetful of the accident or chance by which it had arrived it might do something for the poor pay them decent living wages for instance were these giants planning to subject their sons and daughters to the same equality of opportunity which had confronted them at tbe start and which they were so eager to recommend to the attention of others f not at all in this very neighborhood i passed an exclusive private school for girls with great grounds and a beautiful wall another of equality of opportunity a book ab jt on the day of my here i again at the office and waa given a position but only after the of a from offering me at eighteen a week now i had long since passed out of the eighteen dollar te of and this was by no means a comforting message if i show it to the city editor i reasoned it would probably hasten his decision to accept me but also he might consider eighteen dollars as a rate of pay acceptable to me and would offer no more i decided not to it then but to go first and see if had come about in my favor nothing yet he said on me drop around tomorrow or i m sore to know then one way or the other i went out and in the doorway below stood and meditated what was i to dot if i too long my friend in not be able to do anything for me and if i showed this it fix my salary at a place below that which i felt i de i finally hit upon the idea of changing the eighteen to twenty five and went to a telegraph office to find some girl to it for me not seeing a girl i would be willing to approach i worked over it myself and changing until the twenty five while a little forced and looked fairly natural with this in my pocket i returned to the this same afternoon and told the city editor with as great an air of assurance as i could achieve that i had received this message and was a little uncertain as to what to do about it the fact is i said i have started the west to go east new york is my goal unless i find a good place this side of it but i m up against it now and unless i can do something here i might as go back there for the present i wouldn t show yon this except that i must answer it tonight he read it and looked at me finally he got up told me to wait a minute and went through a door in a minute or two he returned and said well that s all right we can do as well as that anyhow if you want to stay at that rate a book about ah t i replied as as i could when do i come around tomorrow at twelve i may not have ai thing for yon bat carry yon for a day or two until i have i trotted down the steps as fast as my feet carry me anxious to get ont of his sight so that i mi t congratulate myself freely i hurried to a telegraph office to reject my friend s offer to my cleverness and success i indulged in a good meal at one of the best here i sat and to prepare myself for my work examined that day s as as the other papers with a view to their method of treating a feature or a striking piece of news also to discover what they considered a by nine or ten i had solved that mystery as well as i could and then to my excited nerves i walked about the section finally to mt washington so aa to view the lighted city at night from this great height it was clear up there and a young moon shining and i had the pleasure of looking down upon aa wonderful a night as i have ever seen a and field of diamonds that the s itself as far as the eye could see were these lamps and and overhead waa another field of stars below was that enormous group of with their red tongues waving in the wind far np the where li and and and other of red fire indicated where were blazing and boiling in the night i thought of the nest of i had seen at of those fine in the east end and of e with his of with his glass how to get up in the world and be somebody was my own thought now and yet i knew that wealth was not for me the best i should ever do was to think and dream standing aloof as a spectator the next day i b an work on the and for six months waa a part of it beginning with ordinary news but gradually up the of preparing s a book about ir nt l features first for the daily and later for the still later not long before i left i was by of being an assistant to the dramatic editor and a correspondent what impressed me most was the character of the city and e newspaper world here the more or less nature of its population apart from the steel companies and their and the genial and character of the newspaper men never had i encountered more intelligent or or cynical men than i found here they the world and their opportunities for studying public as well as private impulses and and them with public and private i were great as to make	43
them puzzled if not always accurate judges of affairs and events one can always talk to a newspaper man i think with the full confidence that one is talking to a man who is at least free of nearly everything in connection with those of justice truth mercy patriotism profession of all sorts is already and forever gone if they have been in the business for any length of time the is seen by them for what he is a of romance or a looking to profit and of the they know or but one thing that he is out for himself a with the moods and passions and ignorance of the public judges are men who have by some chance or other secured good positions and are careful to trim their sails according to the moods and passions of the strongest in any or nation in which they chance to be the arts are in the main to be respected when they are not frankly confessed to be in a very little while i came to be on friendly terms with the men of this and some other papers men who because of their intimate contact with local political and social conditions were well fitted to me as to the exact and political conditions here two in particular the political and labor men of this paper were most the former a large genial commercial type who might also a book about myself have made an excellent theatrical manager or provided me with a clear insight into the general of local and state politics and i liked him very the other the labor man was a slow silent dark and almost headed who drifted in and oat of the office he it was who when permitted by the working people all labor meetings in the city or elsewhere as far east at times as the hard coal regions and as he himself told me he was the paper s sole for comments or as it dared to make in con with the of coal and of steel he was an intense with labor bat not so much with organized as with workers he believed that labor here had two years before lost a most important battle one which would show in its with money in the future which was true he pretended to know that there was a vast movement on among the elements in america to if utterly destroy organized labor and to that end he me once that all the great steel and coal and oil were in a conspiracy to flood the country with cheap foreign labor which they had or were here by all sorts of devices once here these were to be used to break the demand of better paid and more intelligent labor he pretended to know that in the coal and regions thousands had already been introduced and more were on their way and that all devices as churches and schools for etc were to keep ignorant and tame those here but yon can t say anything it in he said to me if i should talk i d have to get out of here the papers here won t use a thing to the in any of these i write all sorts of things but they never get in he the daily as well as various radical papers from different parts of the country and was calling my attention to and a book about which proved that the was being most put upon and bnt he never did it in any m tent or manner he to be convinced that the cause of the workers everywhere in america was hopeless they hadn t the and the force and the innate of those who ruled them they were given to and the school and paper which left them helpless in the course of time because i expressed interest in and for these he took me into various mill in and near the city to how they lived chapter i went with him first to to some there later to some other mill districts nearer the name of which i have what astonished me in so far as the steel mills were concerned was the large number of goin at once the piles mountains of powdered iron ore ready to be the long lines of cars flat box and coal cars and the and and force of the machinery to roll steel the as he or his the showed me waa divided between the front and the back those working at the front of the took care of the ore and which was being the men at the back the stock and yard men filled steel or suspended from with ore and all of which was piled near at hand this material was then to a point over the month of the melting as they called and released a bottom at this particular plant i was told that the machinery for all this was better than elsewhere the company being richer and more in some of the less concerns the men filled carts with raw material and then them to the front of a which was at the back of the furnace where they were lifted and into the but in this mill all a man had to do to fill a steel with raw material was to push me of those el suspended from a under a and pull a rod when the stock tumbled into it from these it was by machinery to a point over the furnace the were charged or fed constantly by working in twelve hour so that there was little chance to rest from their labors their pay was not than half of that paid to the men at the because it was a book about myself bo hard nor so it locked hard to me the men at the front the were the labor princes of this	43
realm and yet among the hardest worked a or was a brick structure like an oven seven feet high and six feet square with two one a into which p was thrown the other a fuel chamber where the melting heat was the were so arranged that the flame swept from the directly upon the surface of the iron from five to six hundred pounds of were put into each furnace at one time after which it was closed and sufficient heat applied to melt down the iron then tjie began to work it with an iron rod through a hole in the furnace door so as to stir up the liquid and bring it in contact with the air as the became separated from the iron and rose to the top as they were tipped out through a aa it became from a constantly higher temperature was required to keep the iron in a liquid condition gradually it began to in much as butter forms in later it took on or was worked into large balls or or rolls like butter three to any given charge or furnace then while still in a comparatively soft bat not condition these were taken out and across a steel floor to a to be worked by other machinery and other processes was a full sized man s job there were always two and three to a single furnace and they took turns at working the metal aa a rule ten minutes to a turn no man could stand before a furnace and perform that toil continually even when working by a man was often nearly exhausted at the end of his as a he had to go outside and sit on a bench the perspiration off him the intensity of the heat in those days was not aa yet relieved by the device of the furnace with water cooled plates the wages of these men was in the neighborhood of three dollars a day the hi est then paid before the p at strike it had been more a book about bat the men who most fascinated me were the who once the had done his work and thrown his lump of red hot iron ont npon an open hearth and another man had taken it and thrown it to a fed it into a second machine which rolled or beat it into a more easily handled and form the exact details of the process escape me now bat i remember the picture they presented in those hot fire lighted noisy and rooms and even were at a and a false step possibly meant death i remember watching two men in the mill below lit washington one who oat after from after and threw them along the steel floor to the and the latter who dressed on in and a flannel shirt the sweat from his body and his standing oat in knots took these same and with the skill and of a ti t rope tossed them into the machine he was constantly leaping about the red which came almost in a stream into or between the first pair of rolls for which tbey were intended and yet before he could torn back there was always another on the floor behind him the rolls into which he fed these were in a train side by side in and as they went one pair th had to be seized by a and back the next back and forth back and forth they went at an ever increasing speed until the at the next to the lost pair of rolls seizing the end of the rod as it came still red hot described with it a fiery circle bending it back again to enter the last roll from which it passed into water it was and yet these men were not looked upon as anything extraordinary while places in which they worked were metal and their toil of the most intense and character they were not allowed to oi to better their condition the recent great victory of the steel had settled that in that very city and elsewhere these were rolling in wealth their profits were in so fast that they scarcely knew what to do with them vast a about and were hang built with their gifts immense were crowded with art and their children were being sent to special schools to be taught how to be ladies and in a they and on the other hand these men were being denied an additional five or ten cents an and the right to if they protested or attempted to drive out imported they were fired and state or troops were called in to protect the mills they not then and th are not organized now my friend mar who was sympathetic toward them was more sympathetic toward the men who were not bo mere day who received from one dollar to one six five at a time when two a day was too little to support any one he grew as he told me where these men lived and how they lived and finally took me in order that i might see for myself afterward in the of my i came upon some of these and individuals and since they are all a part of the great era and how works in america and how some great were built i propose to put down here a few of things that i saw wages varied from one to one five a day for the commonest three and even a day for the skilled or what the cheaper workers who constituted by far the greater number were able to pay varied per week or eight sixty per month to two per week or twenty per month and the type of places they could secure for this t i recall visiting a two room in a court the character of which first opened my	43
the streets ranged along the below water first and second were many houses of as large and an area as i had seen in any city as i learned from the political and police man the police here as elsewhere protected ice or in other words npon it chapter in the i was going about m general work and an easy task it proved my city editor cool soul soon me as to the of and its here we don t on labor except through oar labor man he told me and he knows what to say there s to be said about the rich or religious in a sense they re all right in so far as we know we don t touch on in high life the big steel men here just about own the place so we can t some papers out west and down in new york go in for but we don t i d rather have some simple little feature any time a story about some old fellow with eccentric habits than any of these or of course we do cover them when we have to but we have to be mi careful what we say so much for a free press in a d and i found that the ci itself possibly by reason of the recent defeat administered to oi labor and the soft of the newspapers presented a most and aspect there was little local news occasional a wedding or death in high society a in a saloon the of a steel plant the visit of a or the remarks of some local provided the on which the local readers were fed sometimes an outside event as the organization by of of his army at that time moving toward washington to petition against the doings of the or the and impossible doings of opposition president to the dominant party of the state or the manner in which the par of this r on was attempting to steal an or share in the spoils these and the grand comments of gentlemen in high financial portions here and elsewhere as to the outlook for a book about in the nation or the steel mills or the coal adds the best places in the newspapers for a great metropolis as daring and rest as this it that it could be so or so little about the colossal the men at the top but when it came to labor or the their or demands or the views of a third rate preacher complaining of in dress or morals or an actor his views on art or a on some unimportant phase of our life it was a very different matter these papers were then free to their say i recall that thomas b then speaker of the house once passed through the city and stopped off to visit some friendly steel i was sent to interview him and obtain his views as to s army a band of poor who imagined that by marching to washington and protesting to they could compel a american and house to take of their woes this able and he was no fool being at the time in the and favor of the money power and looked upon as the probable pretended to me to believe that a vast national menace aj in a movement and protest why it s the same as revolution t he washing his face in his at the his swaying about his fat it s an of proceeding for a hundred years the american people have had a fixed and constitutional and method of have their county and state and national and their power of to the same they can write any plank they wish into any party platform and compel its by their now comes along a man who finds that doesn t just suit his views and instead of waiting and appealing to the regular party he an army and proceeds to march on washington bnt he has been able to muster three or four hun a book men all told i he doesn t seem to be followers hie of isn t the point he insisted it one man can gather an of five hundred another can gather an army of ten or five hundred thousand that means revolution yea i but about the thing of which they are it doesn t matter what their grievance is he said somewhat this is a of law and prescribed political onr people most abide by that i was ready to agree only i was thinking of the easy manner in which and elected representatives everywhere were the interests if not the of the body at large and listening to the advice and needs of and trust already the air was full of complaints against and of every kind were being organized and the people were being y all property however come by was sacred in america the least protest of the mass anywhere was or at least the of worthless and to be i not believe this i firmly believed then as i do now that the chains wherewith a rapidly developing financial or meant to bind a liberty mass were then and there being i felt then as i do now that the people of that day have been more alive to their interests that they should have compelled at on or elsewhere by political means if possible by dire and threatening if necessary a more careful concern for their interests than any or or governor or president at that time or since was giving them as i talked to this noble of the house my heart was full of these sentiments only t did not deem it of any avail to ai e with him i was a mere and he was the speaker of ihe house of representatives bnt i had a keen contempt for the enthusiasm he	43
for law when it came to what the money wished the and trust oi au a book about hiding behind a huge and wall he one of their chief and political and if yon it look up his record but it was owing to this very careful interpretation of what was and what was not news that i experienced some of the most delightful newspaper hours of my life large features being scarce i was ed to do city ball and police all as the book used to read and with this mild task ahead of me i was in the habit of crossing the river into the city of where in a chair in the room of the combined city hall and central police station or in the library over the way or in the cool central shaded court of the hospital with the head of which i soon made friends i waited for something to turn up as is usual with all city and police and hospital everywhere the hope of favorable and often them i was received most cordially all i had to do was to announce that i was firom the and assigned to this and i was informed as to anything of importance that had come to the surface during the last ten or twelve hours if there was nothing and usually there was not i sat about with several other or with the head of the hospital or having no especial inquiry to make i crossed the street to squire whose was in the square facing this and here a squire being the equivalent of a pet police magistrate inquired if anything had come to bis notice squire a large bald pink faced individual of three used of a sunny afternoon these warm spring days to sit out in front of bis office his chair against bis office or a tree and with three or four the most delicious stories of old time political characters and incidents he was a mine of this sort of thing and an immense favorite in consequence with all the newspaper men and i was introduced to him on my third or fourth day in au as he was sitting oat on his and he me with a mule a book about e m the take a chair if yon can find one if yon cant mt on the or in the doorway many s uie man i seen from the in my time harry to come here before he got to be ci editor so did sunday man i n ain t much news i can give yon bnt whatever there is yon re welcome to it i treat all the boys alike and he smiled then he proceeded with his tale something an old or who had painted a pig once in order to bring it np to certain and so won the prize only to be ont later the wore off he had a way of telling his stories as to ter and directly across the street to the east from the city hall was the library a very handsome building which contained in addition to the library an in which had been placed the one of the largest if not the largest pipe organ in the world this organ had one advantage it was with a paid city who on and entertained the public with free and bo capable was he that seats were at a and standing room only the one arrived far ahead of time this of interest on the part of the public pleased me greatly and somehow qualified if it did not for mr s indifference to the of his bnt i was most impressed with forty or fifty thousand volumes so conveniently arranged that one could walk from to looking at the and satisfying one s interest by in the books the place had most comfortable window and chairs between and in one afternoon having nothing to do i came here and by the merest chance picked np a volume entitled tm ass s skin by the writer who so fascinated honor de i examined it curiously reading a preface which with bis praise he was the great master of france his covered every aspect of the his of character were a book about and exact his were abundant picturesque in paris his home had been turned into a and contained his effects as they were at the time of his death i to the first page and b an reading and from then on until dusk i sat in this charming reading a and inviting door to life had been suddenly thrown open to me here was one who saw thought felt through him i saw a prospect so wide that it left me breathless all paris ih france all life through french eyes here was one who a tremendous and grasp of life philosophic patient amused at once i was personally identified with his his his his with i entered the house in the royal looked down into the waters of the from the royal turned from it to the shop of the in was ignored by the perfect young lady before the shop of the print attended the er banquet suffered horrors over the shrinking skin the lady without a heart wag all too real it waa for me a literary not only for the brilliant and i grasped life and invented whereby to present it but for the fact that the types he handled with most enthusiasm and skill the brooding seeking ambitious in life s social political artistic and commercial affairs de were i thought so much like indeed later taking up and almost at a sitting ths man from th it was so easy to identify myself with the young and seeking the brilliant and intimate pictures of life the exact flavor of politics arts social	43
to and fro impressed me so as to accomplish for me what his imaginary magic skin had done for his transfer me bodily and without defect or lack to the as well as the of the world which be was describing i knew his characters sa well as he did so was his his grand and somewhat philosophical his ea y and disposition h all manner of social a book about political historical problems the manner in which he as by right of intimate and knowledge of all fascinated and captured me as the method of the and the genius oh to possess an insist as this to know and be a part of a as paris to be able to go there to work to suffer rise and even end in defeat if need be so y alive were all the journeys of his what was what st what t and yet in spite of myself i adored his paris still i was obtaining a new and more dramatic light on the world in which i myself was not paris america was not france bnt in they were something and h at least had aspects which somehow suggested paris these charming rivers these many little the sharp presented by the east end and the mill regions the here and their importance to the world at lai e impressed me more vividly than before i was in a and yet vivid were no different from some of the immense money here in their ease power at least the possibilities which they possessed c out of the library this day and day after day thereafter the while i rendered as little service as was consistent with even a show of effort i at the physical of the two cities as i conceived it at the chance for pictures here as well as there american pictures here as opposed to french pictures there and all the while i was riding with to paris with bis mistress madame with brooding over the horror of the skin with over his miseries with the horrible art of with madame for a period of four or five months i ate slept dreamed lived him and his characters land his views and his city i cannot imagine a greater joy land inspiration than i had in these spring and sum days in days dreamy days poetic wonderful days the while i did police and hall in it would be to not to indicate that x an adequate return for the paid me as a of fact owing to the peculiar character of the local news conditions aa well as my own if poorly equipped literary instincts at the time i was able to as my and that with scarcely a to my mental ease for what they more than news of a dramatic or character was some sort of idle which they in place of news and interest their readers the spring time the very ci itself my own and yet disposition caused me finally to attempt a series of mood or word pictures about the most trivial matters a summer storm a spring d a visit to a hospital the death of an old s dog the arrival of the first gave me my first taste of what it means to be a writer e city editor asked me one day if i could not invent some kind of feature and i sat down and t of one theme and another finally i thought of the fly as a possible subject for an idle being young and ambitious and having just crawled oat of a breeding pit somewhere be alighted on the nearest fence or his bead and wings and meditated on the chances of a or a career what would be open to a young and ambitious fly in a world all too crowded with flies f there were of course and and horses and cows and pigs but these were and this was a sensitive and and meditative fly flying about here and there to inspect the world he encountered within a modest and home b shiny which to offer a rather polished field of effort and so on this idle thing which took me not more than three quarters a book about u self of an to and which i was almost afraid to produced a remarkable change in the attitude of the office as well as in my life and career we had at this time as assistant city editor a small retiring sentimental jim who was one of the most gracious and and men i have ever known he it was to whom i turned over my he took it with an air of kindly consideration and trying to help us out are you t he said with a smile and then added when i its well it s not such an easy thing to turn out that stuff i hope it s something the chief will like he took it and as i noticed for i hung about to see read it at once and i saw him begin to smile and finally chuckle this thing s all right he called you needn t worry he pleased with this i know and he began to it i went out to walk and think for i had nothing to do except wander over to to find oat if anything had turned np i returned at six i was greeted by my city editor with a smile and told that if i would i could do that sort of thing as much as i liked try and get up something for tomorrow will you t i said i would try the next day a spring rain descending with wonderful clouds and a display i described how the city dry and smoky and dirty lay panting in the heat and how out of the west came like an answer	43
to a prayer this sudden and soothing storm upon of huge clouds with great silvery of light darkening the sun as they came and how suddenly while shutters clapped and papers flew and office windows and doors had to be closed and signs and swung and people everywhere ran to cover the thousands upon thousands who had been enduring the heat heaved a sigh of gratitude i described how the steel the homes of the rich the office buildings the the and changed under these conditions a book about and then to give and pictures of animals and men this received with especially from the editor who was more partial to sentimental than his chief bat i feeling that i had hit upon a vein of my own was not inclined to the moods of either but to write things as appealed to me most this i did from day to day wandering ont into the or into strange for ideas and so varying my studies as my mood dictated i noticed however that my more attempts were not so popular as the lighter and things this might have been a to me had i been so inclined leading to an easy and popular success but by instinct and tion i was inclined to be interested in the larger and more tr c phases of life mere humor such as i could achieve when i chose seemed always to require for its foundation the moat trivial of incidents whereas huge and massive conditions tragedy and all the more aspects of life but what pleased and surprised me was the manner in which these lighter as well as the more serious things were received and the chaise they made in my standing hitherto i was merely a being tested and by no means secure in my hold on this position now of a sudden my waa entirely changed i was a feature man one who had where others apparently had failed and bo i was made more than welcome to my surprise my city editor one day asked me whether i had had my i gladly availed myself of a chance to talk to him and he told me a little something of local life who the of this paper was his politics and views the assistant editor asked me to dinner the sunday editor the chief political the chief city hall and police man grew friendly i went to lunch or dinner with one or the other was taken to the press club after midnight and occasionally to a by the dramatic man finally i was asked to something to the sunday papers and later still to help the dramatic man with i was a little and quite nervous though not a tain this change hie c g editor to talk familiarly vith me and after him the sou of the fresh from a trip but when he told me how interested he was in the kind of thing i was doing and that he wished he write like that i remember a of him with his fine and easy manner an invitation to dine at his home soothed me in no way i never went there was some talk of sending me to report a proposed commercial conference at i believe looking to the of a ship canal from or lo to bnt it interested me not at au i had no interest in those things really not in newspaper work and yet i knew what i wanted to do if not that one thing is i had no commercial sense whereby i might have by all this after the second or third sketch had been published there was a decided list in my direction and i might have my instead i merely and dreamed aa before reading at the library going oat on or writing one of these sketches and then going home again or to the press i gathered all sorts of aa to the steel com e and especially their homes their their local and the people of were looked upon as by some of these and their on from the or the mountains partook of the nature of a royal i remember being sent once to the club to interview fresh from bis travels abroad and being received by a who allowed me to stand in the back of a room in which mr short a grand air of authority him was addressing the of the city on the subject of america and its political needs no note t ng was permitted but t was later handed a address to the people of and told that the would be allowed to publish that and it did i smiled then and i smile now at the of press pulpit officials of this city of steel and iron where one and all seemed so and boot and yet a book about myself seemed not to profit to any t degree by the presence of these who were constantly at removing elsewhere they were treated and so as though the life of a great and metropolis depended on them alone it was about this time that i began to cordial relations with ttie short broad shouldered sad faced labor whom i have at first be appeared to be a little shy of me bnt as time passed and i seemed to have established myself in the favor of the paper he be more friendly he was re y a radical at heart but did not dare let it be known here often of a morning he would spend as as two hours with me discussing the nature of coal and steel making the of conditions which would satisfy all the men and not cause but in the main he commented on the shrewd and cunning way in which the were more and more their upon their prejudices by religious and political	43
and at the same time through the company store the short ton the cost of materials rent at first knowing nothing about the situation i was inclined to doubt whether he was as sound in these matters as he seemed to be later as i grew in personal i thought he might be too so painful did many of the things seem which i saw with my own eyes and his aid about this time several things to stir up m feelings in regard to new york the papers gave great space to new york events and affairs much more than did most of the mid western papers there was a steel colony here which was trying to connect itself with the so called pour hundred of new york as well as the royal social atmosphere of england and and the and and doings of these people at new york bar harbor london and paris were fully occasionally i was sent to one or another of these great homes s a book about to the of certain marriages or and find the people in the midst of the most preparations one night for instance i was sent to ask a certain steel man the or extension of work in one of the mills his was bnt a dot on a estate the reaching of which vas i found him ten o clock at night stepping into a carriage to be driven to the local station which was at the foot of the grounds although i waa to the same station in order to catch a local back to the city be did not me to accompany him instead he on the step of his carriage to say that he could not say definitely whether the work would be done or not he was entirely surrounded by bags a gun a fishing basket and other after of course a was looking when he waa gone i walked along the same road to the same station and saw him standing there another man came up and greeted him going down to new york george f he inquired no to the my lodge man me are there now and i thought i d run down and get a few the through train which had been ordered to stop for him rolled in and he was gone i waited for my smoky local at the comfort and ease which had been attained by a man of not more than forty five years of i but there were other things which seemed always to talk to me of new york new york i picked np a new weekly the standard one evening and found a theatrical paper of the most and character which pretended to report with accuracy all the of the st e the clubs the or white light districts as well as society of the and more character this paper spoke only of pleasure parties t dances scenes behind the stage and of young stars of the theatrical social and money worlds here were ease and luxury in new york plainly was all this and i m t go there and by some of chance taste of it i studied this paper by the hour dreaming of all it suggested a book about and there vas s the first and most of all the cent then into and being fed to the by the ton i saw it piled in high before a news and book store in the size of the pile of magazines and the price induced a examination i had never even beard of it before poor as it was and it wag poor it contained an entire section of highly paper devoted to the stage and scenes from plays and still another carrying pictures of beauties in society in cities and still another devoted to successful men in wall street it breathed mostly of new york its social doings its art and literary it fired me with an ambition to see new york a third paper town topics was the best of all a paper most brilliantly by a man of exceptional literary skill c m s it related to exclusive society in new london and paris the houses palaces and hotels the and of the owners and it really fun at all this and other forms of existence elsewhere still there was an element of envy and delight in it also which fitted my mood it gave one the impression that there existed in new york and elsewhere london principally a kind of realm in which forever the elect of fortune here was neither want nor care how i over all this the marriages and of marriages the travels engagements as a score of subsequently succeeded in to the entertainment and disturbance of rural america for me this realm was all flowers sunshine smart ease comfort beauty arrayed as only enchantment or a modem newspaper sunday can array it and while i knew that back of it must be the hard and realities such as everywhere hold and life still i didn t know in reading these papers i refused to allow myself to cut through to the reality life must hold some such realm as this and i belonged to it but i was already twenty three and what had i i wished most of all now to go to new a and enter the realm pictured by these papers why not i might an or capture in some other way i most save some money i told myself then fortified against starvation at least i might the great city and who knows t perhaps conquer s heroes had seemed to do so why not if it is written of the ood of china that in the b it swallowed the world and to cap it all about this time i had a letter from my good brother in which he asked me	43
how long i be about the west when i ought to be in new i should come this summer when new york was at its best he show me beach a dozen worlds he would introduce me to some new york newspaper men who would introduce me to the of the and the sun the mere mention of these papers so over awed was i by the of and me i ought to be on a paper like the sun he said since to him was the greatest editor in new york i meditated over this deciding that i go when i had more mon i then and there started a bank account putting in as ten or twelve dollars each week and in a month or two began to feel that sense of which a little mon gives one another thing which had a strange effect on me at the time as indeed it appeared to have on most of the of america was the publication in t this spring and summer of du s i have often doubted the import of novel writing in general but the effect of that particular work on me as well as on others one might aa weu doubt the import of power or fame or emotion of any kind the effect of this book waa not so much one of great reality and insight such aa at times managed to convey but rather of an mood or perfume of memory and romance conveyed by some one who is in love with that memory and upon it as do upon a theme i saw paris and and the jew with his being a book myself bud carried aw from little seemed to me then of the essence of great tragedy i myself fairly suffered about and dreaming the while i awaited the one or two final portions i was lost in the of paris the of life and resented more than ever as one t a great the need of living in a land where there was nothing bat work and yet america and this city were fascinating enough to me bat because of the of foreign letters on american life it seemed that paris and london most be so much better since every one wrote them like s great man from the provinces book seemed to connect with my own life and the tragedy of not having the means to marry at this time and of being compelled to wander about in this way unable to support a wife at i became so wrought up that i was quite myself i pictured myself as a little who would eventually lose by poverty as he by the thing i most my western sweetheart meditating on this i some of my misery in the form of sentimental in mj feature articles which were all liked well enough but which seemed merely to my misery finally some sentimental letters being exchanged between and my love i felt an impulse to return and see her and st louis before i went farther away perhaps never to return the sense of an past which had pervaded had i think something to do with this so and are all thoughts and moods at any rate having by now considerable influence with this paper i proposed a short and the city editor wishing no doubt to me su that the paper would be glad to provide me with both ways so i made haste to announce a grand return not only to my intended but to me cord wood and several others who were still in st louis chapter as one looks back on youth so of it appears and and an essential impulse or direction and yet as i look at life itself i am not sore but that or unimportant are a part of life s method we often think we are doing some important thing whereas in reality we are merely marking time at other times when we appear to be marking time we are growing or at a great rate and so it may have been with me instead of on to new york i chose to to st louis and grasp one more of exquisite romance drink one more of love and whether it me save as pleasure is profit i cannot only may not pleasure be the ultimate profit t this trip to st was for me a most and thing probably a great mistake at that time of course i could not see that instead i was completely lost in the grip of a passion that subsequently proved or the reality which i was seeking to establish was a temporary contact only any really beautiful girl or any scene could have done for me all the things that this particular girl and scene could do only thus far i had chanced to meet no other who her and in a way i knew this then only i realized also that one beautiful specimen was as good a key to the lock of earthly delights as another only there were so many locks or chambers to which one key would fit and how sad in youth at least not to have all the locks or at least a giant as to one i this with a long hot trip in to st louis and then a quick change in the union station there at evening which brought me by t to the small town in the back a book woods of near lived it was hot i recall the wide hot fields and small wooden towns of and and this landscape in the ni t the the the stars i ached and not so over her aa over and love and the of all material fires the spirit of cried and san at the same time the little cottages with their single yellow li t in the fields through which this dusty	43
train ran i the winds at last the train stopped and left me standing at midnight on a wooden platform with no one to greet me the train was late a who was to look after me did not at a lone window sat the telegraph baggage agent all in one a green shield his eyes otherwise the station was bare and silent save for the in some weeds near at hand and some the agent told me that a hotel was a part of this station ran by this railroad upstairs over the ba age and other rooms were a few large bam like sleeping chambers dusty the windows and in places and save for some all but from the world and the ni t i placed a chair against my door my purse under my pillow my bag near at hand during the night several long thundered by their lighting the room yet lying on a of straw and listening to the and outside i slept just the same the next morning i tied a handkerchief over my eyes and slept some more arising about ten to continue my journey the home to which i was going was part of an old decayed village once a point on a trail or stage coach route once the capital of the state but now nothing a and some quaint tree homes were all but lost or in a sea of com i rode out a long hot dusty road and finally up a long tree shaded lane to its very end where i passed through a gate and at the far end came upon a worn faded rain house facing a row of trees in a wide a book about myself i felt that never before had i been so a r on and a home it was all so simple the old and was the old french windows copied from where and by reaching to the the long graceful rooms the cool hall the before it so southern in the flowers every window and door i i found a home in which lived a poverty stricken and yet impressive a mother who mi t serve aa an american tradition so simple and was sisters and brothers who were reared in an atmosphere which somehow induced a sympathetic and poor as were they were the best of the families here the father had been an office and one of the leaders in his day and one of his sons still held an office a son in law was the district master of this entire district which seven and could almost make or break a all bnt three daughters were married and i was engaged to one of the remaining ones another too and too to think of any one in particular was teaching school or playing at it a farm of forty acres to the south of the was by the father and two sons elsewhere i have indicated this atmosphere bnt here i like to touch on it again we americans have home traditions or created as much by song and romance as thing else my old some despite any willing on my part this home seemed to the spirit of those songs there was something so sadly romantic it the shade of the great trees moved across the lawn in stately and curves a stream at the foot of the slope leading down from the west side of the house and in the birds sang and there were golden bees about the flowers and under the of the of barrel and others of better texture were strung between the trees in a bam of quaint design were several good horses and there were cows in the field adjoining ducks and solemnly to and fro a book about myself the and the the air waa of com wheat to me it that all the spirit of rural america its its dreams the passion of a brown the courage and patience and sadness of a the dreams and courage of a lee or a were all here the very soil of american and faith a in sentimental and purely im american tradition in which i alas not share i was ont of its charms and sentiments i might have composed an or an bat i not believe that it was more than a frail flower of romance i bad seen i bad seen and in their and i bad seen the girls of that city walking the streets at night thia faith in god in goodness in virtue and that i saw here in no wise with the craft the the and the envy that i saw everywhere else these parents were gracious and god fearing but to me they seemed asleep they did not know life could not these boys and girls as i soon found respected love and marriage and duty and other things which the american still to outside was all this other life that i bad seen of which apparently these people knew nothing they were as if suspended in dreams and my beloved was lost in this same romance i was thinking of her beauty her wealth of hair the color of her cheeks the beauty of her of what she might be to me she might have been thinking of the same thing possibly more indirectly but also she was thinking of the dignity and duty and of marriage for her marriage and one love were for life for myself whether i admitted it or not love was a thing much less stable indeed i was not thinking of marriage at all but rather whether i could be happy here and now and how much i could extract out of love or perhaps to be just to myself i was as much a victim of passion and romance as she was only to the two of us it did not mean	43
the same thing unconsciously i identified her with the beauty of all i saw and at the same time felt that it was all so different from anything a book about myself i knew or believed that i wondered how she fit in with the kind of life toward which i was moving how overcome thia in and f both of os being it was the moat thing for me to look her and not her physically and as she later admitted she felt the same yearning toward me at tiie time however she was all but at a thought which ran counter to all the principles impressed upon ber since early youth there was thus set up between as in this delightful atmosphere a conflict between tradition and desire the hot faint breezes about the house and in the trees seemed to whisper of secret and forbidden contact the of the thickly grown beds of flowers the heat of the afternoon and night the and blooming fields beyond the drowsy still nights with their hum of insects and of and the and and of animals seemed to call for bat one thing there was about her an intense delight in no doubt she longed as much to be seized aa i to her and yet there was a moral which added even more to the chase i wished to take her then and not wait but the prejudices of a most frightened and her and yet i always feel that the impulse was better than the forces which and subsequently defeated it for then was the time to unite not years later when however much the and social and conditions which are supposed to surround and such had been my zest for her and no doubt hers in part for me had worn away love should act in its heat not when its bank account is heavy the which works to the species and the most vital examples at that is not concerned with the petty local and social which govern all this life if it wants wants children and healthy ones and the weighing and binding rules which govern their coming and training may easily become too na ture s way is correct her impulses sound the delight of my e then would have repaid her for her a book about and me for if i had taken her a clearer and a better grasp of life would have been hers and mine the coward little of life the strong man drinks deep old most s fall and life most it is the law chapter am bo thia romance ended for me at the time of i did not know it on leaving her i was under the impression that i waa more than ever attached to her in the face of this life took on a and more aspect to be forced to wait when at that moment if ever was the time i and jet i told myself that better days were in i would return east and in some way place myself so that soon w might be it was a of hope by the time i was finally capable of maintaining her my mood had changed that which we had known or might have known had gone forever i had seen more of life more of other women and even then was by no means the original yearning had vanished e was now bnt one of many and there were those who were and more even more attractive and yet before i left her what days i the t the lounging under the trees i the drowsy heat t the wishing for what might not be having decided that her wish was genuine and my impulse to with it wise i stood by it wishing that it mi t be otherwise i consoled myself with the thought that the must bring ns together and then left first to st louis and later to new for while i was here that letter from my brother which urged me once more to come to new york was forwarded to me just before leaving i had sent him a collection of those silly features i had been writing and he also was impressed i most to new york some paper was the place for me and my anyhow i would enjoy there in the summer time more later i him that i would arrive at a certain time and th set out for st and a visit among my old newspaper friends there a book about myself i do not know how most people take but i have often noted that it has only been as i have grown older and less that they have become less and significant to me in my earlier years nothing have been more or more melancholy than my on any of these occasions whenever i to any place in which i had once lived and found things changed as they always were i was fairly by the oppressive of the of everything a mood so and dark and yet with so rich if sullen a that i was left with pain i was all bnt at how unimportant i was how nothing stayed bat all changed scenes passed never to be moods came and and loves and were gone forever life was moving on the pattern of which each of us bat more especially myself was a part was changing from day to day so that things which were an anchor and a comfort and delight yesterday were tomorrow no more and perhaps i desired change or at least appropriate and agreeable changes for myself i did not wish this other this exterior world to shift and that under my very eyes the most haunting and disturbing thought always was that i was growing older life was so brief such a very little cup at best and so soon whatever	43
its miserable amount or character it would be gone some had strength or capacity or looks or fortune or all at their command and then all the world was theirs to travel over and explore beauty and ease were theirs and love perhaps and the companionship of interesting and capable people but i poor with no definite or skill of any kind not even that of commerce must go about looking in npon life from the as it were beautiful women or so i argued were drawn to any but me the great opportunities of the day in trade and commerce were for any but me i never have a of the means to do as i wished or to share in the life that i moat i waa an a wanderer a book about in st i was oppressed beyond words of the newspaper men who had been living on the same floor with me in there was not left at the already reigned a new city editor my two friends wood and while to see me told me of who had already gone and seemed in many things that had arisen since i had gone and were as to why i have returned at all i hung about for a day or two wondering all the while why i did so and took the train going of all my far this to new york was the most it took on at once the moment i left st the character of a great for it was all unknown and for years my mind had been c on it true to the law of its was in proportion to its ever r size as a boy in and later in i had read daily papers sent on from new by my sister e who lived there in owing to a which existed on s part not cm new york s i am sure the papers were with comments which like all poorly based criticism only served to the and impressive of the greater city it had an road that ran its long streets on of steel and carried of thousands if not in the trains drawn by small it was a long heavily island by great rivers and was america s ocean door to it had the great bridge then anywhere wall street a huge company of it bad hall the of liberty not so many years before when i was a boy in southern square garden the opera house the horse show it was the and home of fashionable society of all fixed and actors and all great theatrical began there of papers of latest circulation and greatest fame it had nearly all as an ignorant i had often and that with various passing of new york as a book about as i ignorant and as to the relative merits of new and st louis there could not be difference were man great things in these minor places day would new york t well i lived to see many changes and things bnt not that instead i saw the great oi grow and grow it stood for size and force and wealth at least anywhere and now after all these i was at last to enter it i was moderate well placed in and not coming as a still even now i was afraid of it why i cannot say perhaps it was it was so immense and mentally ao more commanding still i consoled myself with the that this was only a visit and i was to have a chance to explore it without feeling that i had to make my way then and there i recall clearly the hot late afternoon in july when after stopping off at to refresh myself and a change of clothing i took the train for new york i noted with eager hungry eyes a succession of dreary foi and towns miles of blazing the track and lighting these regions with a lurid glow after dusk huge dark hills occasionally twinkling with a feeble light or two i spent a half t iu the berth and meditating in a nervous way before dawn i was awake and watching our through philadelphia then ton new park elizabeth and of all of these save on park the home of who was then invariably referred to by and as the of park i knew nothing as we new york at seven the sky was and at it began to when i stepped down it was pouring and there at the end of a long the immense steel and glass affair that once stood in city opposite street of new york awaited my fat and smiling brother as sweet faced and gay and hopeful as a a about myself at once be began as was his a of and as to my trip then led me to a entrance one of a dozen in a row as the pro arch of a stage i caught my first glimpse of the great a mist of rain was over it which might be seen dimly the walls of tiie great city b and as graceful as fat attended by overhanging of smoke ed in the of water at the foot of the of the beyond only a few having as yet appeared lay a fringe of ships and houses no boat being present we needs must wait for one as was the slip in which we stood but i was talking to my brother and learning of his life here and ot that of my sister e with whom he was living the boat eventually came into the slip and discharged a large crowd and we along with a vast company of and entered it its as i noted was with of all sizes and descriptions those carrying light aa well aa others carrying coal and stone and lumber and beer i can recall to this hour	43
the of and so characteristic of the boats and houses the crowd in the house on the new york side waiting to cross over once we arrived there and the miserable little horse cars then still along west street and between and and the and market these were drawn by one horse and yon deposited your fare yourself and this in the city of elevated roads but the car which we had two horses we up west street from to and thence along that shabby old to sixth avenue and street where we chained at first aside from the sea and the boats and the sense of which goes with immense everywhere i was disappointed by the seeming meanness of the streets many of them were still paved with like the oldest parts of st and the buildings houses and stores alike a book about were for the most of a shabby red in color and varying in height from one to six stories most of them of an aged and contemptible appearance this was as i soon learned from my serene and confident brother an old and shabby portion of the ci these in fact were one of the jokes of the city but they added to its don t think that they haven t anything else this is just the new york way it has the new and the old mixed wait you re here a little while ton be like everybody else there be just one place new york and bo it proved after a time the was that the city then for the first time in a half if not longer was but beginning to a period of at the bands of as evil a band of as ever a body it was still being and upon in a most manner and vice stalked hand in hand although hall the head and of all the and robbery and vice and crime protection had been delivered a blow by a reform wave which had temporarily it and placed reform officials over the city still the grip of that had not relaxed the police and au minor as well as the workmen of all were still under the very noses of the newly elected officials perhaps with their aid collecting and tribute the reverend doctor was preaching like the destruction of these of the city when i arrived the streets were not cleaned or well lighted their ways not protected or regulated as to traffic lay in piles the while the city was paying enormous sums for its small and feeble gas flattered when in other cities the arc light had for fifteen years been a as we dragged on on this car the bells on the necks of the horses i stared and commented well you can t say that this is very much my boy my good and cheerful brother you haven t seen anything yet this is an old part of new a book about myself yon and avenue we re just coming thia way because it s the way home when we reached street and sixth avenue i was very differently impressed we had for a way under an elevated road over which trains thundered and aa we stepped down i beheld as wide even at this hour in the morning with people here was a and northward stretched an area i was was the of the vast metropolis b s o s s all and all in a row the west side of the street we made our way across street to the entrance of a narrow apartment house and ascended two flights waiting in a rather poorly lighted ball for an answer to onr ring the door waa eventually opened by my sister whom i had not seen since my mother s death four years before she had become the trim beauty which a very few years before she had been notable had entirely disappeared i was disappointed at first but was soon reassured and comforted by an kindly and genial disposition which expressed itself in much talking and laughing why i m so glad to see yon i take off your things did you have a pleasant here s this is my husband come tm back yon and paul so she on i studied her husband whom i had not seen before a dark and shrewd and person who seemed to be always following me with his eyes he was an american of middle western but with a latin and latin eyes e s two children were t forward a boy and a girl four and two years of age a breakfast table was waiting at which paul had already seated himself now my boy he b an this is where you eat real food once more no hotels this no newspaper this i ah look at the look at the as a maid brought in a se a book about and here s and brown and and brown and he robbed his bands in joy ill bet yon t seen anything like this since yoa left home ah good old and i hia interest in food was always intense it s been many a day since i ve had such and b i observed it s been many a day since i ve had such and e my brother get oat yon in my sister listen to him the old i i can t get him out of the kitchen can i he s eating it s been many a day i thought you were i inquired so i am bnt yoa don t expect me not to eat this morning do yon t i m doing this to welcome some welcome i onr chatter became more as the first ow of welcome wore off daring it all i was never free of a sense of the and strangeness of the city and the fact that at	43
fall in a new one which he had written for himself and which subsequently enjoyed many seasons on the road in addition he was by way of becoming more and more aa a song writer also as i have said he had connected himself as a third partner in a song business which waa to his own and other songs and this despite its was showing unmistakable signs of success the first thing he did this morning waa to invite me to come and see this place and about noon we walked and up sixth avenue then the heart of the a book about myself district to twentieth street and east to between fifth and where in a one time bat now decided dwelling given over to small bis concern was on the third floor this was almost the of a world of smart shops near great hotels the continental and the fifth next door were lord below this on the next comer st nineteenth and was the company and below that the company a great house company and others there were excellent and office crowding out an older world of fashion i remember being impressed with the great of severe with their wide flights of and fifth and twentieth street were filled with handsome and going into my s i saw sign on the door which read company and underneath wing o i are yoa the agent for a i inquired till they let us have a practice piano in return for that sign when i met his partners i was impressed with the probability of which they seemed to suggest and which came true the senior member was a small with a of teeth and hair as black as a crow and piercing eyes he had lot thin arms and legs which because of his back made him into a kind of spider of a man and he went about spider wise laughing and talking yet always with a heavy we re our feet here he said to me his queer twisted face up into a of satisfaction and pride end we t yet s to show ye but a time i m a yell be n a a i laughed say i said to paul when had gone about some work how could yoa fail with him around f he s smart as a whip and they re all good luck anyhow i a book about was referring to the all as lucky to others yes said my brother i know they re and he s as t and honest as they make em always get a square deal here and then he began to tell me how his old by whom howl had been employed had trimmed him and how this youth had pat him wise then and there had begun this friendship which had resulted in this the space this firm occupied was merely one room twenty by twenty and in one comer of this was placed the free try ont piano in another between two windows two tables stood back to back piled high with correspondence a longer table was along one side of a wall and was filled with published music which was being wrapped and on the walls were some wooden or containing stock the few songs thus far published although only a year old this firm already had several songs which were beginning to attract attention one of them entitled on the of new by the following summer this song was being sung and played all over the and in england an hit this office in this very busy cost them only twenty dollars a month and their overhead as pronounced it were i see that my good brother was in competent hands for once and the second partner who arrived just as we were sitting down at a small table in a for waa an equally interesting youth whose personality seemed to success at this time he was still connected as head of stock whatever that may mean with that lai and music house the company at and street although a third partner in this new concern he had not yet resigned his connection with the other and was using it secretly of course to aid him and his firm in of some of their wares he was quite not more than seven very quick and alert in manner very short of speech arid and handsome a most attractive a book about and looking man he shot out and replies as one bullets ont of a what d t don i was moved to study him with the greatest care out of many i i would have selected him as a and promising and very self person bat by no means disagreeable speaking of him later as aa of my brother once said y see thee new york s the only place yon could do a thing like this this is the only place you could get fellows with experience used to be with my old and he s the one that put me wise to the fact that was me and was a friend of his for the first i the feeling that this firm of which my brother was a part would certainly be successful there was something about it a spirit of victory and health and joy in and life which convinced me that these three would make a go of it i could see them ending in wealth as they did before of their own invention overtook them but that was still away and after they had at least eaten of the of victory as a part of this my into the wonders of the ci paul led me into what he insisted was one of the and most of the churches in new york st francis in sixteenth street from which he was buried standing in this he told me of some priest	43
there a friend of his who was comfortably and a good sport into the bargain thee a bird however hav ing had my fill of and its ways i was not so much impressed either by his friend or his character but sixth avenue in this sunshine did impress me it was the crowded of nearly all the great stores at least five each a block in length standing in one immense line on one side of the street the carriages i the well dressed people i paul pointed out to me the windows of s on the west side of hie street at and said it was the most exclusive store in america that field company of a book about was as and i had the feeling looking at it that this was true it was so well and its windows in which selected materials were gracefully draped and contrasted ont this impression there were many of the better sort pausing at its doors to put down most carefully dressed women and i at the size and wealth of a which could support so many great stores all in a row because of the heat my brother insisted upon a cab to take us to and where we were to begin onr northward journey just south of square at street was the old star of which he said there yon have it that used to be s twenty years the great there was an actor my boy a great actor i they talk about and and and and all other people all good my boy all good but not in it with him not in il this man was a and he packed em too many a time i ve passed this place when you couldn t get by the door for crowd and he proceeded to relate tliat in the old days when he first came to new york all the part of the theatrical district was still about and below union square s the old london on the and what not i listened what had been had been it mi t all have been very wonderful hut it waa so no longer au done and gone i was new and strange and wished to see only what was new and now the sun was t on union square now this waa a in which we were living he and i this day the wave of the sea invariably the one that has gone before and that was only twenty years ago and it has all changed again north of this was the the of the actor manager and the best and fresh in i g t of almost every trace of poverty or care s was at and its windows with jewels s the were at sixteenth on the west side of union square and the a book about between and sixteenth a great gold of his signature indicating his shop the company to which my brother called my attention oa an i might some day be connected with so great was bis and faith in me stood on the north of union square at at nineteenth and were the company and company at twentieth was lord s great store adjoining the old building in which was my brother s firm also at this street stood the old continental hotel a popular and excellent a large portion of its lower floor which became a part of my daily life later at street was then standing one of the three great stores of park at twenty third on the east side of the street facing square was another hotel the and opposite it on the west side was the site of the building across square its delicate golden brown tower soaring aloft and alone no huge buildings then as now to dwarf it stood square garden her arrow pointed to the wind giving naked chase to a her d at her heels high in the air above the west side of between twenty third and was occupied by e fifth hotel the home as my brother was to inform me of the republican of the state who with divided the political control of the state and who here held open the famous amen comer where his political were allowed to all bis suggestions it was somewhere within between twenty fifth and twenty sixth on the same side of the street were two more hotels the and the house just north of this at twenty and on the east side of the street and throng to fifth avenue was s into this we now ventured my good brother some who happened to be in charge of the at the moment the waiter who served us greeted him familiarly i stared in awe at its and a book about tt and the about it which seemed to speak of wealth and power how easily five the knee to five million t a block at two north of this was the old fifth then a of the first class but later devoted to at twenty ninth was the house one of the earliest homes of this my brother at and on the east side stood s famous for its musical and beauty shows at thirty first and on the west side of the street stood s famous its of older homes to this new use and already it was coming to be fields had not even appeared and in my short span it appeared and disappeared and became a memory i between twenty eighth and thirty fourth were several important hotels the grand the imperial and between third and thirty fourth streets in sixth the old at that time the home of many bnt also s drawing to the end of a successful career in thirty fourth west of later a part of the hat store site s hall managed by a man who subsequently was to become	43
widely known but who was then only beginning to rise and around the comer in at thirty fifth was a very the herald square facing the unique and beautiful building beyond that in thirty fifth not many feet east of sixth avenue was the or the as it was then known managed by daniel above these at thirty sixth on the west side was the at which later in his my brother to live at thirty eighth on the comer stood the popular and exclusive one of the hotels and at the comer of this same the new and imposing at thirty ninth was the with its of girls the of all n ht loving and and between thirty ninth and on the west side the world a book opera still unchanged save for a in its comer at over the stood the empire with its stock company which included the and what not and in this same block was the a chop a resort for and at and the end of all tar my brother and j which he sadly and said well here s the end stood that of the new hotel with its opening on three streets its seats backed to its walls its hi open windows an air of wisdom as to all matters to sport and the it this indeed was the extreme northern limit of the white light district and here we paused for a drink and to see and be seen how well i it all the sense of ease and that was over this place and over all the load clothes the bright straw hats the the the hot the air of and weu being assumed by those who had won an au too brief in that petty world of make believe and and fame and here my good brother was at his best it was paul here and paul there already known for songs of great fame as well as for bis stage work and genial personality he was welcomed everywhere and then down the street in the comforting shade of its west wall what male and female and very many of them pausing to take him by the hand slap him on the back pluck familiarly at his coat and pour into his ear or his bosom magnificent tales of of great shows of fights and and love affairs and tricks and and all the time my good brother smiled laughed there were moments with with long haired down on their luck and looking for a or a dollar and bright petty of the world retired and out of the west here to live and their tales of endured battles won or of at cards in racing ting and what not now by or a book about myself stopped and exchanged news or stories there was talk of what dogs or swine people were what as well as the magnificent s own salt that others were the oaths the stories of women my brother seemed to know them all i was what a genial happy well of chapter all this while of course there had been much talk aa to the of we met the wealth and that at a or at s those who at the fifth the the the my brother had friends in many of these hotels and bars a friend of was the editor of the standard and he would take me ap and me another was the political or sporting man of the sun or or herald here came one who was the manager of the or the one was a writer a t a or a poet a man of my brother as we passed twenty street he made it plain that here was a street which had recently began to replace the older and more colossal sixth avenue of the and much stores best s le s s stem brothers having here this is really the smart street now thee this and a part of fifth about twenty third the really stores are coming in here if yon ever work in new york as yon will yon want to know about these things ton see more smart women in here than in any other street and he called my attention to the lines of and and carriages the harness of the horses with and gilt passing s he said now here my boy is a manager he makes actors he don t hire them he takes em and trains em all these young fellows and girls who are a stir and he named a dozen among whom i noted names as those of drew and worked for bim and he don t allow any nonsense there s none of that staff with him yon bet when yon work for bim you re just an ordinary and you a book about do what lie tells not the wa think yon to do him and i know and all these tell the same about him but he a a gentleman my boy and a manager knows that when he with a man or a woman they can act at thirty third street lie waved hia hand in the direction of the which was then bat the half of its later sin down there s the that s the place that s the last word for the rich that s where they give the bi est balls and dinners and at s and the and after a pause he continued some time yon t to write about these things thee they re the limit for extravagance and the people out west don t know yet what s going on bnt the rich are control they ll own the country a writer like yon could make em see that ton on t to show up some of these things so they d know youthful inexperienced the whole of this earthly a mere guess i	43
accepted that as an important challenge maybe it ought to be shown up as though or life has ever yet changed it but he the genial and hopeful always fancied that it might be so and i with him when he left me this day at three or four his interest ended because the wonders of had been exhausted i found myself with all the great strange still to be making inquiry as to directions and distances i soon myself in fifth avenue at forty second street here represented by at least was that of wealth which as i then solved all earthly ills beauty was here of course and ease and dignity and that most wonderful and thing in life i saw i admired and i resented being myself poor and seeking fifth avenue then lacked a few of the buildings which have added somewhat to its the library the museum a eighty second street as well as most of the great houses which now central park north of fifty ninth street but in their a book was that has been lost and will be again a line of quiet and i crowded on spaces of land no wider than twenty five feet still had about them an air of which caused one to hesitate and take note between forty second and fifty ninth street there was scarcely a of that coming invasion of trade which subsequently in a period of less than twenty years changed its character instead there were clubs huge quiet and graceful hotels such as the old and the long since de ed and the very graceful cathedral of st all the cross streets in this area were lined with or red brick houses of the same height and general appearance a high t of steps leading to the front door a side gate and door for servants under the steps nearly all of these houses were closely up for the summer there was scarcely a trace of life anywhere save here or there where a servant idly at a side gate or on the ont steps talking to a or a at street the great church on its platform was as empty as a at fifty ninth where stood the the and the as well as the great home of it was all bare as a desert lonely handsome to and fro and the father or mother of the present fifth avenue an overgrown closed carriage rolled between ton square and one hundred and tenth street central park had most of the lovely walks and lakes which grace it today but no distant central park west as such had not appeared that huge wall that breaks the western sky now was wanting along this dismal there a dismal yellow horse car trailing up a paved street bare of anything save a hotel or two and some on rocks with their attendant but for all that keeping on as far north as the i was more and more impressed it was not but perhaps as i thought it did not need to be the of the great city and the power of a number of great a book about myself names were to it and ever and anon would come a home at sixty first the and at sixty and the library at which it even the old red brick and white stone museum now bnt the central core of the larger building with its attendant had charm and dignity so far i wandered then took the and to my s apartment in street if i have presented all this mildly it was by no means a mild experience for me sensitive to the of life and what one m do in a given span vastly interested in the city itself i was swiftly being by a charm more than real more of the mind than the eye perhaps which seized upon and held me so nevertheless that soon i was to of all this and saw commonplace and even mean face in a most light the beauty the hope the possibilities that were here it was not a handsome city am i look back on it now there was much that was gross and and even repulsive about it it had too many hard and avenues and cross streets bare of anything save and stone or and wretched iron lamp posts there were regions that were painfully crowded with poverty dirt despair the buildings were too uniformly low compact squeezed outside the residence and commercial there was no sense of length or space bnt having seen and this barren section of fifth i could not think of it in a hostile way the of large bodies over small ones holding me its did not now me nor lack of beauty there was something else here a quality of life and and security and ease for some cheek by with poverty and longing and which gives to life everywhere its keenest most pathetic edge here was none of that e er ing so characteristic of many of our western cities which while it at first eventually no city that i had ever seen had exactly what this had as a boy of course i had a book about with color and force and it was there ignorant american seeking but new york was entirely different it had the feeling of and and self it was aa if whispered to yon that here was home as if for the most part it was here secure life here was harder for some more more cynical and and brazen and and yet more for these very reasons wherever one tamed one felt a of ease and indifference to however low or high and coupled with a sense of power that had found itself and was not easily to be of virtue that has little and is willing to yield for a price here as one feel	43
were huge dreams and and being gratified i wanted to know the worst and the best of it daring the few days that i was permitted to remain here i certainly had an excellent my brother while associated the other two as a partner was so a so far as his firm s internal economy was concerned that be was not needed as more than a band on one who went about among and stage singers and actors and song com and advertised by his agreeable personality the existence of bis firm and its value to them and it was that quality of in bim which so speedily caused bis firm to grow and prosper indeed be was its very breath and life i always think of him as along in the time seeing men and women who could sing songs and writers who write them and by the compelling charm of hia personality to resort to his firm he had a way with people affectionate intimate he was a which drew the and the old the and the to his gradually and because of him and bis fame it and yet i doubt if ever his partners understood how much he meant to them his house was young and unimportant yet within a year or two it had its way to the front and this was a book about to him and none other the rest v merely fair commercial management of what he provided in great while he waited for his regular theatrical to resume he was most prepared to entertain one who might be interested to this night after dinner at my sister s he said on sport and together after faithfully to be back by t we forth strolling across street to sixth avenue and then taking a car to thirty third street the real of all things theatrical at the time here at and opposite the herald and the herald stood the hotel a popular for actors and singers with whom my brother was most concerned and here they were in great the on two sides of the building alive with them a world of glittering spinning flies i recall the agreeable evening air the bright comforting lights the open doors and windows the clothes the laughter the the the it was the spirit and the sense of happiness and ease men do at times attain to happiness paradise even in this shabby worthless make believe world i have seen it with mine own eyes and here as in that more at street the my brother was at ease his was by no means the trade way of a but rather that of who like these others was merely up down the street seeing what he might he drank told idle tales but all the as he told me later he was really looking for certain individuals who could sing or play and whom in this and casual way he might interest in the particular song or composition he was then and you never can tell he said ton mi t run into some fellow who would be just the one to write a song or sing one for you t next day i left to myself and tinted city bridge wall street and the financial and i having no for h n g money and intensely for the things that money would boy stared at wall street a kind of in which all the gods of with the eyes of one who hopes to extract something by mere observation physically it was not then as it ia today the of a sky crowded world there were if any hi buildings below city few higher than tea stories wall street was curved low like oxford street in london it b an as some one had already pointed out at a and ended at a river the of j p was just then being assailed for its connection with a government bond issue the offices of sage and george the son as well as those of the standard oil company below wall in and those of a whole company of now forgotten have been pointed out by any messenger boy or policeman what impressed me was that the street was with something which though far from craft cunning a smart ease on the part of some and ed or beaten aspect on the part of others held my interest as might a tiger or a snake i had never seen such a world it was so busy and messenger and as to make who had nothing to do there feel dull and commonplace one thought only of millions made in stocks over night of o es travels and what not since that time wall street has become much less significant but then one had a feeling that if only one had a tip or a little skill one mi t become rich or that on the other hand one might be torn to bits and that here was no mercy h a book about i a little before noon and the with and clerks and on the ground was a of papers torn and letters near broad and wall streets the air was filled with a ham of voices and issuing from open windows just then as with the later and still later with the motion industry it bad come to be important to be in the street however thin one s connection to say t am in wall street a world of prospects and possibilities the fact that at this time and for twenty years after the news columns were all but to and failures in wall street so common were they how and were the dreams of many bnt the end of wall street as the seat of american mon even then have been foretold the cities of the nation were growing new and by degrees more or less independent of were in	43
the course of fifteen years it had become the of some cities that they could do without new york in the matter of and it was true they could and today many go west not east for their cash in the main wall street has into a second rate paradise what significant wall street figures are there today t on one of my morning walks in new york i had wandered up to the building and looked into its windows were visible a number of great presses in full operation much larger than any i had seen in the west and brother had recalled to me the fact that james owner and editor of the had once henry m at that time a on the paper to go to africa to find and my good brother who all things my supposed abilities and possibilities included was inclined to think that if i came to new york some such greet thing mi t happen to me on another day i went to house square i stared at the sun and and and buildings all facing city hall park for the opportunities that they represented bat i did not act something about a book myself them me especially tiie the editor of which had b his career in st years before compared with the western papers with i had been connected all new york papers seemed the tasks th represented and more difficult true a brother of a with whom i had worked in st had come east and connected himself with the world and i might have called npon him and ont the land he bad fortified with a most record in the west aa had i only i did not look upon mine as so favorable somehow again a city editor once of st was now here city editor of one of the city s great papers the end another man a sunday editor of had become the sunday editor of the press here but these appeared to me to be exceptional cases i large and in the main rather doll with the eye of one who seeks to take b fortress the pages of all of these papers as i had noticed in the west with cynical and remarks that region and their voices representing great circulation and wealth gave them amazing weight in my eyes although i knew what i knew the of newspapers to financial interests their fear of and their shameful of the ordinary man at every point at which he could possibly be betrayed yet still having the power by weight of lies and and make believe to stir him ap to his own and destruction i was frightened by this very power which in subsequent years i have come to look upon as the most deadly and of all in nature the power to and betray there was about these papers an air of assurance and r and authority and superiority which and frightened me to work on the sun the herald the world how many from how many angles of our national life were constantly and them from the very same or benches in city hall park as the ultimate solution of all their literary commercial social political problems and the thousands of pipe smoking a book about who have the sun alone the and i i decided tbat it would be best for me to to and save a little money before i took one of these frowning by storm and i did return but in what a reduced mood i after new york and au i had seen there and in this darkly brooding and indifferent spirit i dow resumed my work a sum of money sufficient to me for a period in new was all that i wished now and in the course of the next four months i did save two hundred and forty dollars enduring which i at even now breakfast consisting of a and a cup of coffee dinners that cost no more than a quarter sometimes no more than fifteen in the meantime i worked as before only to greater advantage because i was now more sure of myself study of and these recent adventures in the great city had so fired my ambition that nothing could have kept me in i lived on so little that i think i must have done myself physical which told against me later in the for in new at this time i had the fortune to discover and and whose volume to his blew me to bits hitherto i had read i had some lingering of trailing about me faith in the existence of christ the of his moral and c the brotherhood of man but on reading and hebrew and science and tradition and finding both the old and new to be not of revealed truth but mere records of religious and veiy ones at that and then taking up fir t and discovering that all i deemed substantial man s place in his importance in i the universe this too too solid earth man s very identity save i as an speck of energy or a suspended drawn or blown here and there by forces in which he i a book about myself moved quite as an all questioned and into other and i was thrown down in m or non of life up to this time there had been in me a blazing and desire to get on and the feeling that in doing so we did get somewhere now in its tha that hi rf waa tin of no importance of one s struggles sorrows and joys it could only be said that the were something which for some inexplicable bat unimportant reason responded to and resulted from the hope of pleasure and the fe r of pain man was a me ch and and a badly and carelessly driven one at	43
that i fear that i cannot make you feel how these things came upon me in the course of a few weeks reading and left me my fears as to the le disorder and nt y ver i felt as low and hopeless et times as a beggar of the streets there was of course this ther matter of necessity i al to i had to respond whether i would or no i was daily facing a round of which now more than ever all that i had suspected and that these books proved with a gloomy eye i b an to watch how the and their i the mechanical forces through man and outside him and this under my very eyes seemed since there was no care for them failures the same one of those t out in with the care of prisoners in some local or state jail i saw how self interest the hope of pleasure or the fear of pain caused or or a to on prisoners feed them rotten meat torture them into silence and and then politics interfering the hope of pleasure again and the fear of pain on the part of some the whole thing hushed up no least measure of the sickening truth breaking out in the a book about papers life could or do nothing for those whom it again there was a poor section one street in the east h district off by a railroad at one end the latter s high fence to protect itself from and by an property owner at the other end those within were actually left without means of and yet instead of either or both the being so powerful and the citizen prosperous and within hia ri ts i was told to write a article but not to hurt anybody s feelings also before my eyes were always those r of indescribable poverty and indescribable wealth mentioned which were always kept separate by the local papers all the and compliments and commercial and social going to those who had all the and and going to those who had not and when i read i could only sigh all i think of was that since nature would not or could not do anything for man he must if he could do something for himself and of this i saw no prospect he being a product of i r t l ff an bo i went on from day to day reading thinking doing fairly acceptable work but always withdrawing more and more into myself as i saw it then the world not understand me nor i it nor men each other very well then a little later i turned and said that since the whole thing was hopeless i might as well forget it and join the narrow indifferent scramble but i not do that either lacking the temperament and the skill all i do was think and since no paper such as i knew was interested in any of the things about which i was thinking i was hopeless indeed finally in late november having two hundred and forty dollars saved i decided to leave this dismal scene and seek the of the great city beyond hoping that there i might succeed at something be and rested by some important of kind chapter t mt departure was bj a i had day with the political of whom i have spoken but whose name i have by now i had come to be on b social terms with all the men on our staff and at midnight it was my custom to drift around to the press where might be found a goodly company of men who worked on the different papers i found this political man here one night he said i can t understand why yon here now i wouldn t say that to any one else in the game for fear he d think i was to get him out of his job but with yoa it s different there s no great chance here and yoa have too much ability to waste your time on this town they won t let you do anything the steel people have this town op t the papers are all you can do is to write what the people at the top want yon to write and that s very with your talent yon could go down to new york and make a place for yourself i ve been there myself but had to come back on account of my family the conditions were too uncertain for me and i have to have a regular income but with you it s different you re young and apparently yon haven t any one dependent on yoa if you do strike it down there make a lot of money and what s yoa m ht make a name for yourself don t yoa think it s foolish for you to stay don t think it s anything to me whether you go or stay i haven t any ax to grind bnt i really wonder why yon stay i explained that i had been drifting that i was on my way to new york bat taking my time about it only a few days before i had been reading of a certain english newspaper man fresh oat of india with his books and stories who was making a great stir his name was and the enthusiasm with which he was being received a book made me not jealous but for a career for myself the to his were so and he vas a mere youth as yet not more than twenty seven or eight he was coming to america or was even then on his way and the wonder of a filled my mind i decided then ind there that i go go and y gave notice of my intention my city editor merely	43
looked at me as much as to say well i thought so then said well i think yon do better there myself bat i m not d to have yon go yon can refer to as any time yon want to on saturday i drew my pay at noon and by four o clock had once more the express which me in new york the following morning at seven my brother had long since left new york and not be back until the following spring i had exchanged a word or two with my and that she was not since paul had left she had been forced to resort to letting rooms h not having found anything to do i her that i was coming and walked in on her the next morning my on seeing me again was delighted i did not know then and perhaps if i had i should not have been so pleased that i was looked upon by her as the possible way out of a very difficult and trying crisis which she and her two children were then facing for h from being a one time and and man had slipped into a most attitude of weakness and all but indifference before the of the great city my brother paul being away saw no reason why he should be called upon to help them since h was as physically as himself aside from their rooms there was apparently no other of income here at least which h troubled to provide he appeared to be done for played out like so many who have a fair battle and then lost he had wearied of the game and was drifting and my sister like so many of the children of ordinary families the world over had received no practical education or training and knew nothing other than that trade in within a very short time a book about myself after my i found faced by one of two that of retiring and leaving her to shift as best t a step which in view of what followed have been wiser bat which my sympathy would not permit me to do or of assisting her with what means i had bat this be merely the day of for all of them and bringing a great deal of trouble npon myself for finding me willing to pay for my room and board here and in addition to advance certain which had nothing to do with my obligations h felt that he now drift a little while longer and so did accepting his wife as i was willing to make my flowing like water into any of accepted this sacrifice on my part bat despite these facts which developed very slowly i was very alive to the which the city then held for me at last i was here i told myself i had a comfortable place to stay and remain and from this point i could now sally forth and the ci at my and as in all previous instances i devoted a day or two to rambling the world which i was seeking to to my advantage and then on the second or third afternoon began to investigate those newspaper with which i was most anxious to connect i can never forget the shock i received when on entering first the world then the and later the herald i discovered that one not so as get in to see the city editor that worthy being guarded by or in which were posted as and or men at arms as cynical and contemptuous a company of youths and hall as it has ever been my lot to meet they were not only but and whenever i entered one of these offices there were two or three on guard four or five in the world office for the of an ink well or a pencil or an apple or each other on the back bat let a visitor arrive with an inquiry of some kind and these young would cease their personal long enough at least to place them a book about as a between the aod the door to the would the following routine each and every one of them or eating an apple the city editor see him a job ko no no today he says to say no today see f ton can t go in there he a s no bnt can t i even see no be don t see anybody no well how about taking my name in to not if you re for a job he no the tone and the manner were most to me new to the city and rather by the size of the buildings as well as the reputation of the and the themselves this was all but final for a little while after each i did not see how i was to overcome this difficulty plainly they were with and in bo great a city why would they not he t but what was i to one must get in or write or call up on the but would any city editor worthy the name a man s fitness or attempt to judge him by a conversation or rather and therefore after i had visited four or five of these with exactly the same result in each instance i went finally to city hall park the of them the sun the the times the world the and stared at their great buildings about me was the throng which has always made that region so interesting the vast mass that upward from the district and the regions south of it and crosses the to bridge and the elevated roads the had not come yet about me on the benches of the park was even in this gray chill december weather that large company of a book about myself the and of the great city s whirl	43
and strife to be seen there today i presume i looked at them and then considered myself and these great offices and it was then that the of was born the city seemed so huge and cruel i recalled gay of the preceding summer and the isolated atmosphere of fifth ave all and now i was here and it was winter with this great newspaper world to be conquered and i did not see how it was to be done at four in the afternoon i turned my steps northward along the great bustling commercial to street walking all the way and staring into the shops those who recall sister s wanderings may find a taste of it here in union square before s i stared at an immense christmas throng then in the darkness i wandered across to my sister s and in the warmth and light there set me down thinking what to do sister noticed my mood and after a little while said you re worrying aren t yon oh no i m not i said rather oh yes you are too you re how you re going to get along i know how you are we re all that way but you mustn t worry paul says you can write wonderfully you ve only been here a day or two you must wait until you ve tried a little while and then see you re sure to get along new york isn t so bad only you have to get started i decided that this was true enough and proposed to give myself time to think chapter but the next da and the next and the next me no to the problem the weather had turned cold and for a time there was a snow on the which made the matter of job all the worse those fierce youths in the were no more kindly on the second and fifth days than th had been on the first but by now in addition to becoming decidedly door i was becoming a little angry it to me to be tiie height of not to say rank for newspapers and especially those which boasted a social and of their fellows in american life to place and and between and the general public men and women of all shades and d of intelligence who might hare to come in contact with them h l has written the average american newspaper especially the so called better sort has the intelligence of a the of a rat the of a the information of a high school the taste of a of and the honor of s police station lawyer judging by some of my experiences and i be willing to to this the and airs the grand assumption of wisdom i the heartless and brutal nature of their internal their to the of all public instincts and tendencies in search of after several d s i made up my mind to see the city editor of these papers regardless of hall boys and so going one day at one o clock to the world i started to walk right in but being as usual lost my courage and retreated however as i have since thou t perhaps this was fortunate for going downstairs i meditated most as to my future my lack of skill and courage in carrying out my in a book about so thoroughly did i myself that i recovered my and i the small and finding two of the still on hand and waiting to me them both aside as one might flies opened hie door and walked in to my satisfaction while they followed me and by threats and force attempted to me to retreat i d npon one of the most interesting ci and rooms that have ever beheld it was forty or fifty feet wide by a or more deep and lighted even by day in this gray weather by a blaze of lights the entire space from front to back was filled with a varied company of newspaper men most of them in shirt were hard at work in the forward part of the room near the door by which i had entered and npon a platform were several at which three or four men were seated the throne as i quickly learned of the ci editor and his two of these as i see were engaged in reading and marking papers a third who looked as he might be the city editor was with several men at his desk copy boys were to and fro from somewhere came the constant click click click of ts and the howl of i think i should have been forced to retire had it not been for the fact that as i was standing there threatened and pleaded with by my two a man since distinguished in the world arthur who was passing through the room looked at me curiously and courteously what is it yoa i want i said half ai by the spectacle i was and that was being made of me a job where do you the west wait a moment he said and the youths seeing that i had attracted his attention immediately withdrew he went toward the man at the desk whom i had out as the city editor and turned and pointed to me this man wants a job i wish yon would give him one a book about the man nodded and my remarkable turning to me said wait and disappeared i did not know what to think so astonished was i bat with each succeeding moment my spirits rose and by the time the city editor chose to motion me to him i was in a very exalted state indeed so much for i told myself surely i was for had i not been dreaming for months years of coming to new york and after great	43
and difficulty perhaps securing a position t and dow of a here i was swiftly into the very which of all others i had most surely this moat be the influence of a star of fortune surely now if i had the least trace of ability i should be in a better than i had ever been in before i looked about the great room as i waited patiently and and saw on the walls at intervals printed cards which read the the the i knew what those signs meant the proper order for beginning a newspaper story another sign insisted upon courtesy most excellent traits i thought but not as easy to put into execution as comfortable and might suppose presently i was called over and told to take a seat after being told have an for you after a while that statement meant work an opportunity a salary i felt myself growing only the eye and the glance of my immediate superior was by no means cheering or genial this man was holding a difficult position one of the most difficult in in america at the time and under one of the most eccentric and difficult of joseph this same whom ireland subsequently in so brilliant a fashion as to make this brief sketch trivial and unimportant save for its service here as a link in this tale was a brilliant and eccentric jew long since famous for his genius at that time he must have been between and years of age a book d and blind having almost wrecked himself or so i understood in a long and to ascend to in the american newspaper world he was the owner as i of not only the new york world bnt the st the then afternoon paper of largest and in that city while i was in st louis the air of that newspaper world was or still with this remarkable s past exploits how once when he was starting in the newspaper world as a he had been by some citizen for having published some item and having submitted to the had then into his and given orders that an extra be issued the attack in order that the news value mi t not be lost to the counting room of his st louis city or managing one by name who at this very time or a very little later was still one of the of the new york world had after conducting some campaign of exposure against a local citizen by order of his chief and being confronted in his by the same evidently come to punish him drawn a revolver and killed him that was a part of what might have been called the of this great newspaper figure here in new york after his arrival on the scene in at which time he had taken over a journal called the world he had literally succeeded in things down much as did william after him and as had charles a and others before him like all newspaper men worthy the name he had seized upon every possible vital issue and attacked attacked attacked hall wall street then defended by the sun and the herald the of some phases of society and many other features and conditions of the great city for one thing he had cut the price of his paper to one cent a move which was reported to have his and rivals who were getting two three and five and who did not wish to be disturbed in their peaceful pursuits the wi in particular which had been made by the brilliant and daring a book of and earlier and the which originally owed growth and fame to the skill of were now both grown and attacked him as low vulgar and the like an jew whose nose was in ever out for the consumption of the of society bat is it not always so when any one who wishes to break through from or into the white light of power and influence t do not the always those who have ceased growing or are at least comfortably and who do not wish to be disturbed f just the same this man because of his vital working mood and his ambition to be all that there was to be of force in america was making a veritable hell of his paper and the lives of those who worked for him and although he was not present at the time hot was sailing around the world on a or in a villa on the or at bar harbor or in bis town house in new york or london you could fed the feverish and disturbing and of his presence in this room as definitely as though he were there in the flesh air fairly with the rays of this black star of to this editor and with him at the time but coming back to nose about the paper and cause woe to there were of sons by no means in active charge but growing toward control two of all dipping about and as the newspaper men seemed to think on each other at one time as many as seven he bad so little faith in his fellow man and especially such of his fellow men as were so unfortunate as to have to work for him that he played off one against another as might have the council of the secret ten in or as did the devils who ruled in the in the middle ages every man s hand as i came to know in the course of time was turned against that of every other all were of each other and feared the that was going on each as i was told and aa to a certain extent one could feel was made to believe that a book he was tlie important one or might be that lie could	43
there to be some kind of a to it i did not get him he told me to wait and i oat an empty desk and sat down the thing that was interesting me was how i should be paid per week in the mean i contented myself with counting the and wondering the men who them who they were and what they were doing to my right against the north wall were two roll top at one of which was seated a actor like man writing and he was arrayed in a close fitting gray suit with a bright and an exceedingly high collar because of some theatrical which i saw him examining i that he moat be connected with the dramatic department probably dramatic critic i was interested and a little the dramatic department of a great daily in new york seemed a thing to me after a time also there entered another man who opened the desk next the dramatic critic he was tall and with a mass of loose hair hanging over his collar not the advance t ent of a or a his body was in a coat which reached to his knees after the best manner of a he wore a large soft felt which be now rather and stood a big cane in the comer he had the look and attitude of a famous the stage i tp evidently took himself very i pat him a book about down as the critic at least great authority of whom i should hear later time went by and i waited the from where i was sitting i see the of one or two one holding a clock face lighted with a green t being weary of sitting i to leave my seat and look oat to the south then for the first time i saw tiiat great ni t of the east river and the bay with its ships and and the dark mass of in between many of them still lighted it was a great scene and a sense of awe came over me new york was so vast bo varied so rich bo hard how was one to make one s way here i i had ao little to offer merely a gift of and mon as i see was not to be made in that way the city editor and told me to attend a meeting of some committee which looked to the better lighting and cleaning of a certain district it was au bat too late as i knew and if reported be given no more than an inch of space i took it rather then fell the worst blow of all wait a he said as i moved to depart i wanted to tell yoa i can t make yon a yet there is no on oar regular staff but pat yoa on and yoa can charge ap whatever yoa get in at seven and a column we allow fifty cents an lor time show ap tomorrow at eleven and see if anything turns up my heart sank to my shoes no staff with which i bad ever been connected had been paid by space i went to the and found that it was of no importance and made but one inch as i discovered next morning by a careful examination of the paper and a column of the paper measured exactly twenty one inches i so my efforts this day allowing for time charged for my first trip had resulted in a total of one dollar and eighty six cents or a little less than and were receiving but this was not all returning about eleven with this item i ventured to say to the night editor now in charge when does a man leave here f you re a new space man aren t a book about t b yon have the late watch and how ia until after the first edition ia on the press he growled not knowing when that waa i still did not to him bnt returned to another working near at hand who told me i should have to stay until three at that time my green called ton might as well go now and i made my w to the sixth avenue l and home having been here one o dock of the preceding day the face of my sister admitting me waa the best thing that this brisk day in the at city had provided chapter t tt thb morning coming down at eleven i encountered my friend of the day before whom i looking the paper and checking up such as he had been able to achieve he to himself as he went over the pages high and low for a which he had managed to get in around and me near at hand be said this is the worst paper in new york i ve always heard it was and now i know it this damned crowd plays they have an inside ring a few who get all the cream and like yon and me get the ends take me yesterday i was sent oat on f oar little stories and not one to anything i and rode all over town in the anew listened to a lot of fools and this morning i have just three little look at that and that and that and he pointed to on different pages they made a total of say seven or eight inches the in cash of less than three dollars and i m supposed to live on that he went on and i have a boy and a in school how do they figure that a man is to get f i had no consolation to offer him after a time he what they do is to get strangers like as or any of these down and oat newspaper men always walking up and down park	43
row looking for a job and get us to work on space because it bounds bigger to a sure they have space men here who amount to something fellows who get big money but they re not like us they make as much as seventy five and a hundred dollars a week but they re men old who have too big a pull and who are too sure of themselves to stand for the low they pay here but they re at the top we little fellows are told that staff about space but all we get is leg if you or i a book about should get hold of a good story don t yon ever think they d let os it i know that they d take it aw and give it to one of these fellows there s one now and he pointed to a large comfortable man in a light brown overcoat and brown bat who was bnt now in he one of my stories just the other day if they wanted yon for r work they d make yon take a regular salary for fear yon d get too of space they just keep us little fellows as to follow ap such things as they wouldn t waste a good man on and they re always firing a crowd of men every three or four m to keep up the np of the staff to keep em worried and working hard i hate the damned i told myself in h that i never would get back in it again bnt here i am i this revelation made me a little sick so this wag my grand job i a long period of for little or my hard earned money exhausted and then just now he went on there s nothing d around tiie town or i wouldn t be here i m only staying on until i can something better it s a dog s life there s nothing in it i worked here all last week and what do you think i twelve dollars and five for the whole week time included twelve dollars and seventy five it s an i agreed with him what is this time they i asked how do they expenses and sure they allow expenses and i m going to figure mine more liberally from now on it a a little they allow you for the time yon work but you don t get anything anyhow ill double any railroad fare i pay if they don t like it th can get somebody else but tbey won t let yon do too much of it and if you can t make a little salary on small stuff they won t keep yon even then he anything big goes to the boys on a salary and if it s real big the who are on salary and space also get the cream i went out on a story the other afternoon and around in the rain and got all the facts and just as i was going to sit down and write it well i hadn t really got started one of the a book about myself managing there are twenty here came ap and took it away from me and gave it to somebody else to write all i got was time i was sore care he added with a ill be getting out of here one of these days being handed this dose of inspiring i was in no mood for what followed i decided that this series of ills that were now him was due to the fact that be was older than myself and m be not very efficient whereas in my case being young etc etc the youth hands itself i do better but when it came to my this day and the next and the next and in addition i was handed the late watch my began to each day i was given unimportant or tales which came to nothing so keen was the competition between the especially between the world and the vn or the world and the herald that almost everything by one was looked into and by the others the assigned to me this second day were to visit the city e and there look ap the body of s and girl who was supposed to have drowned herself or been drowned and see if this was as another paper had said and of course she was not beautiful at all to visit a certain hotel to find out what i could a hotel beat who had been arrested this item although written was never used to visit a conference called to debate some supposed changes in faith or method of church development the date for which however had been changed without notice to the papers for which i was allowed time and my time setting aside the long and wearisome hours in which i sat in the office awaiting my turn for an me the handsome sum of two dollars and fifty cents and all the time in this very paper i could read the noblest and most about the need of a higher sense of and what not i used to frown at the shabby of it the cheap that would allow a great to and drive hia a book myself at one end of his and as to duty honesty at the other however despite these little and i was not to be discouraged the fact that i had succeeded elsewhere made me feel that somehow i should succeed here nevertheless in spite of this sense of i was strangely and made more than ordinarily by the ness and force and of the great city its startling of wealth and poverty the air of and indifference and that everywhere prevailed only recently there had been a exposure of the and	43
and which the social of the city there had been the investigation with its sickening revelations of and corruption and the protection and encouragement of vice and crime in every walk of political and police life the most horrible types of had been proved to be not only winked at bat npon by the police and the by a fixed and monthly tax in which the the the captain and the to say nothing of the district leader shared there was proof that the police and the even the officials of the city were closely connected with all sorts of gambling and wire tapping and and even the of murder to the door of every house of and transient the station police captain s man the as regularly as the rent or the gas man and took more away bad been murdered in cold blood for their a famous chief of police by name at that time far and wide for his supposed skill in being faced by a of crime which he could not solve had finally is self caused to be arrested tried convicted and all upon testimony an old helpless half bum known as old shakespeare only crime was that he was worthless and but the had thereby saved his tion not far from the r on in which my sister lived it was respectable enough in its way count a book about girls hy ni t and b d looking tor men the great of new york and all upon hj the police on several occasions coming home from work after midnight i found men trousers pockets pulled oat p their so or indifferent or was the so called police protection nowhere before had i seen such a lavish show of wealth or bitter poverty in my rounds i soon came upon the east side the with its endless line of degraded and impossible lodging houses a perfect of and failures the parts of it terrible in its and then by way of contrast again the great hotels the along fifth avenue the smart shops and clubs and churches when i went into wall street the uie fifth avenue district the east and west sides i seemed everywhere to sense either a desire for lust or pleasure or wealth accompanied by a which was to the or a dogged resignation to and misery never had i seen so many down men in the the and in the which lined that pathetic street they slept over from which came a little warm air or in or cellar ways at a half dozen points in different parts of the city i came upon those strange which supply a free meal to a man or lodging for the night providing that he came at a given hour and waited long and never anywhere had i seen so show and nearly all of the houses along upper fifth avenue and its side streets boasted their wall street was a sea of and a realm so crowded with of that one s poor little intelligence was entirely and made ridiculous how was a to make his way in such a world t nothing bat chance and luck as i saw it could farther the average man or lift him out of his rat and since when had it been proved tiiat i was a favorite of a crushing sense of and general in a book about to settle me and i could not shake it off whenever i vent ont on an and i was always being sent upon those trivial shoe wearing affairs i carried with me this sense of my it is entirely possible that to some physical or mental defect of my own i was in do w fitted to contemplate so huge and a spectacle as new then presented or that i had too keen a conception of it at any rate after a few days of work here i came in with newspaper men from the west a youth by the name of graves another by the name of both formerly of and a third who had once been in st louis thomas brother of the famous t all were working on this paper two of them in the same capacity as myself the third a staff man at n ht we to sit doing the late watch and spin all sorts of newspaper tales these men had wandered from one place to another and had seen heavens what had they not they were completely here as in newspaper offices everywhere one hear the most tales of human cruelty i think that in the hours i spent with these men i learned as much about new york and its and its different social its figures social and political as i m ht have learned in months of and they seemed to know every one likely to figure in the public eye by degrees they introduced me to others and all confirmed the which i was reaching new york was difficult and the police and were a menace vice was wealth was cold and brutal in new york the or had scarcely any chance at all save as a servant the city was with hungry men of all descriptions newspaper writers included after a few weeks of however i had no need of confirmation from any source an or two having developed well under my handling and i having re a book about myself s my to the city editor i was allowed to begin to write it then given another and told to turn my over to the large gentleman with the gold headed cane this and discouraged me bat i said nothing i thought it t be due to the city editor s conviction so far not disturbed by any i had had that i could not write bnt one night a small item a fight in a house having	43
been given me to investigate i went to the place in and that it was a cheap beer drinking on the east side which had its in the objection of one neighbor to the noise made by another i a story of my own to the effect that the first irritated neighbor was a who had been attempting at midnight to a into which the and of his next door neighbor would not fit becoming irritated and unable by and knocking to arouse his friend and so bring him to silence he finally resorted to piano and glass breaking of such a terrible character as to arouse the entire neighborhood and cause the sending in of a riot call by a policeman who that a war bad broken out result broken heads and an interesting parade to the nearest police station in the text i used the phrase wood finding no one in charge of the ci editor s desk when i returned i handed my to the ni t city editor the next morning lo and behold there it was on the first page at least a fourth of a column i to my further surprise end gratification once the city editor appeared i noticed a change of attitude in him while waiting for an i caught his eye on me and finally he came over paper in hand and to the item said you wrote this didn t i began to think that i might have made a mistake in creating this bit of news and that it had been and found to be a fiction yes i replied instead of me he smiled and said well it s rather done i may be able to make a place for you after a a book about myself while ill see if i can t find an for ton somewhere and to his word lie gave me another on this order in the bar one of the show places of the there had been a the day before a fight between a well known society of great wealth who owed the hotel money and would not pay as speedily as it wished and a manager or assistant manager who had sent him some of disturbing letter all ihe details as i on reading the item which bad been from the herald had been folly covered by that paper and all that remained for me twenty later was to visit the and extract some comments or additions to the tale which plainly i was expected to in a fashion as i have said had never been wholly in my line and in addition i had by no means overcome my awe of the city and its imposing and advertised poor hundred now to be called npon to one of its main and beard the and lofty manager in his den to say nothing of this or well i told myself that when i reached this hotel the manager would doubtless take a very lofty tone and refuse to discuss the matter which was what happened he was to think that he had been reported as fighting should i in finding this society youth s apartment i should probably be or off in some fashion which was exactly what happened i was told that my mr x was not there then as a conscientious newspaper man i knew i return to the hotel and by or see if i could not induce some or waiter who had witnessed the fight to describe some phase of it that i might use bat i was in no mood for this and besides i was afraid of these new york and and society people suppose they complained of my tale and me as a f i returned to the hotel bat its and bar a book about and its heavy and took n courage aw i lingered about bnt not begin my and finally walked out then i went back to the apartment in which my lived bat still he was not in and i extract no news from the noble footman who kept the door i did not see how i was to up from the facts in hand finally i dropped it as unworthy of me and returned to the office in doing so i had the feeling that i was turning aside an item by which had i chosen to take i have myself i knew now that what my city editor wanted was not merely accuracy accuracy but a kind of for the or the remarkable even it had to be invented so that the pages of the paper and life itself might not seem so dull also i realized that a more experienced man one used to the ways of the city and acquainted with its interesting and eccentric might make something oat of this and not come to grief but not i and so i let it go that i was losing an excellent opportunity and i think that my editor thought so too when i returned and told him that i could not find ai thing new in connection with this he looked at me as much as to say well be and threw the on his desk i am satisfied that if ai had succeeded in any aspect of this case not previously used i should have been dropped forthwith as it turned out however nothing more developed and for a little time anyhow i was permitted to drag on as before but with no further one day being given a part of a case to a man and woman working together to a hotel man of a check for five thousand dollars and i having the lady in the case then arrest into making some interesting remarks as to her part in the affair and in general i was not allowed to write it but had to content myself with seeing	43
my very good in another man s story while i took time another day having a book another tale of a marriage the girl of a family of some standing i was not allowed to write it i was beginning to see that i was a hopeless failure as a here chapter r v things most contributed to my want of in new york and eventually drove me though much my will and into an easier and more agreeable phase of life were first that awe of the grinding and almost disgusting forces of life itself which i in and and and now persistently haunted me and due to a depressed physical condition at this time made it impossible for me to work with any of the zest that had my work in the west next was that contrast between wealth and poverty here more sharply than anywhere else in america which gave the great city a gross and cruel and mechanical look and this was not only by the papers themselves with their various of and but also by my own contact with it a look so harsh and indifferent at times as to leave me a little again there was something in the sharp between the professed and of such a constantly as the world and the heartless and savage aspect of its internal economy men such as myself were mere machines or in an ill paid to be thrown into any breach there was no time off for the space men unless it was for all time one was expected to achieve the results desired or get out and if one did achieve them the reward was nothing one day i met an acquaintance and asked about an ex city editor from st louis who had come to new york and his answer staggered me ob cliff t didn t yon hear t why he suicide down here in a west street hotel what was the i tired of the game i be replied he a book about get along down here as well as he had out there i he felt that he was going i walked away meditating he had been an excellent newspaper man as brisk and as one need be to the last time i had seen him he was in good physical condition and yet after something like a year in new he had killed himself however my mood was not that of one who aw from a contest i had no notion of leaving new fork whatever although i constantly as to what i should do when my money was gone i had no trade or profession beyond this and yet i was convinced that there must be else that i could do come what might i was determined that i would no favor of my brother and as for my sister who was now a burden on my hands i was determined that as soon as this burden became too great i would take up her case with my brother paul outline all that had been done and him to shoulder the difference until such time as i could find myself in whatever work i was destined to do but what was it one of the things which oppressed me was the fact that on the world as well as on the other papers were men as young as myself who were apparently of a very different texture mentally if not physically life and this fierce contest which i was taking so much to heart seemed in no wise to disturb them by reason of temperament and insight perhaps possibly the lack of it or what was more likely certain fortunate circumstances attending their youth and they were part of that host of professional and yea chorus like in character which for thirty years or more thereafter in american life was constantly engaged in the pleasing task of the possibilities of success progress strength what not for all in america and elsewhere while at the same time they were humbly and before the strong the lucky the prosperous on the alone at this time to say nothing of the other papers were at least a dozen ing about a book about myself in the best of clothes their manners those of a of or or their minds with all the noble of the there was nothing wrong with the world that could not be easily and quickly once the honest just true kind turned their giant and selected brains to the task this type of newspaper man was to have no traffic with evil in any form he was to concern with the good the true the many of these young men pretended to an intimate working knowledge of many things society politics and what not else several had evidently made themselves indispensable as ship of arriving and departing and these were now pointed out to me as men worthy of envy and one of them had at the of the world crossed the ocean more than once seeking to expose the in a growing and scandal there were those who were in the confidence of the mayor the governor and some of the lights in wall street one a of one of the best families was the paper s best adviser as to social events and the grand air with which they swung in and out of the office set me beside myself with envy and all the time the condition of my personal affairs tended to make me anything but i was in very serious i sometimes think that i was too new to the city too green to its and to be of any use to a great daily and yet seeing all i had seen i should have been worth something i was only five years distant from the composition of to s nothing of many short stories and magazine articles yet i was haunted	43
to a shelf of drawers reaching from the to the chest height of a man or higher and two sides of the room and opening those containing the latest supposing yoa were interested to look allow yon to gaze the last of that strange which once as a being here on earth the faces the l the clothing i stared in sad horror and promised myself that i never again look but duty to the compelled me so to do again and again and then there was itself that gray black of brick and stone with connecting bridges of iron which faced in winter time at least the gray icy waters of the i have never been able to forget it so and bleak was it all the of in their brown cotton to be seen wandering here and there or over the large number of half well charity about in gray green their faces sunken and pinched their hair poorly i and the and yet often coarse and vulgar and always young doctors and nurses and paid attendants generally i one need but remember that it was the of the moat corrupt period of hall a political control of new york mr being still in charge quite all of those old buildings have since been replaced and surrounded by a tall iron fence and bordered with an attractive lawn in those days it was a little different there was the hospital proper its wards it for a book about the criminal or or both the e and a world of along the and connected by walks or covered or iron bridges bat lacking the dignity and care of the later there was too the dark which any badly or managed institution that something which as a over all and at that time had that air and that it more of a jail and a combined than of a hospital and so it was i think at that time it was a world of medical and political and social a kind of hell or those poor fish who live in comfortable and protected homes and find their little theories and ready made for them in some or social atmosphere be permitted to take an occasional peep into a world as this was then at this very time there was an investigation and an exposure on in connection with this which had revealed not only the murder of helpless but the in connection with food clothing etc furnished to the called charity officials and and brutes of nurses and attendants of course the number of and or complaining or troublesome or beaten or thrown oat and even killed and the number and quality of operations conducted by or was known and shown to be large one need only return to the of that date to come upon the of this but the place was so huge and crowded that it was like a city in itself for one thing it was a ground for all the gathered by the police and the charity to say nothing of being a realm of soft for political of all kinds on days aa relatives and friends of charity or those detained by the police were permitted to call the permit room fairly people who were pushed and here and there like cattle and always like slaves i myself visiting as a stranger was often so treated a book about myself f his talk a little cant a t matter with your over over there oat that door so came procured oar little cards and passed in or oat and the wretched who were or written down to walk and so before a had been properly treated and because they were not able to pay were ont into the world of the well and the strong with whom they were supposed to once more and make their way i to see them coming and going and have talked to scores men and women who had never had a dollar above their needs and who once illness overtook them had been swept into this only to be oat again at the end of a few weeks or months to make their way as best they might and really worse off than when they came for now they were in a weak condition as well aa and as i noticed on the day of their going the weather was most and the old wrinkled ont clothing ont to them in which they were to once more wander back to the to do there was a local charity organization at the time as there is today bat if it acted in behalf of any of those i never it they wandered away west on twenty sixth street and along first and second those dismal streets to where bat by far the most of all the phases of this to me at least were the officials and dancing and in their white the latter too often engaged in with one another or or reading in some warm room their feet planted upon a desk the they smoked and the while the great with all its company of its indifferent w when not visiting their one always find them so somewhere reading or smoking or talking or in spite of the world of misery that was about them they were aa comfortable aa may be and to me when bent npon the details of some particular case they always seemed a book about oh that old nut f what f him t don t expect to dip up interesting him do he s been here three weeks now no we don t know thing about him don t the records or he had died i knew he t live we t give him the necessary attention here he didn t have any money and there a too many here as it is see an interesting and then one	43
might be led in to some wretch who was ont of his mind or had an of some kind funny bnt there s no hope hell be dead in a or so i think the most sickening thing i ever saw was cash gambling among two and a young nurse in charge of the receiving ward as to whether the next patient to be brought in by the which had been sent out on a harry accident call arrive alive or dead fifty that he s dead i fifty that he isn tl i say i say dead i well hand me that i m not going to be by looks this time t tearing in came the its b the of the wheels barely missing the walls of the and as the was pulled out and set down on the stone step under the the three pushed about and over feeling the heart and looking at the eyes and tips now pale blue as in death quite as one might crowd about a specimen of plant or animal he s he s i say he s look at his eyes to illustrate which one eye was forced open aw what s listen to his haven t i got the on listen for yourself the man was dead but the lasted a laughing minute or more the while be lay there then he was removed to the a book about myself and the to come or fork one of the who occasionally went oat on the wagon aa the was called told me that once picked np a badly injured man who had been knocked down by a ear this same on racing with this man to the hospital had knocked down another and all but killed and what did yon do about i asked stopped the boat and him into it of coarse on top of the other side by side sore it was a little close well did he diet bat the other one was all right we couldn t help it it was a life or death case for the first one a fine deal for the merry was all i the very worst of all in connection with this great hospital and i do not care to dwell on it at too great length since it has all been exposed before and the records are available was this the hospital in the capacity of door men errand boys and what not were a of down and oat ex or of so old and feeble and generally mentally and as to be fit for little more than the scrap heap their main desire in so far as i see was to sit in the or safely within the warmth of a room and do nothing at all if yon asked them a question first impulse and greatest delight was to say don t know or refer yoa to some one else they were accused by the half dozen who daily here to be of the lowest so low indeed that they could be persuaded to do anything tor a little money and in of this theory there was one day l a little red headed irish police who to hang about there that he would bet anybody five dollars that for the sum of fifteen dollars he could hire old who was one of the and looking of the hospital to kill a man according to him a book about myself and be had bis information from one of tbe st in tbe was an ex who had done ten ear time for a crime now old and he was here finishing np a existence the of some to whom he had rendered a perhaps at any rate here he was and as one of several who heard tbe boast in the news room near the gate i joined in the of derision that went np well yon re the limit however as events proved it was not so talk as fact i was not present at tbe bnt from amazed by other newspaper men i learned that being approached by and one other first then the two of them together agreed for tbe of twenty five dollars a part of it to be paid in advance to lie in wait at a certain street comer in for an of a given description and there to strike him in a way as to dispose of of course tbe went no than this bnt somehow true or no this one incident has always the spirit of that hospital and indeed of all political new york to me it was a period of and and and tbe department constituted tbe back door which gave the river the a tbe s field and all else this side of complete dissolution chapter due to a weak and or a mind which itself with the evidences of a done too working of the impulse and its machinery or whether i had merely bad my fill of work as such and could no more or whatever else might have been the cause i finally determined to get out of the newspaper profession entirely come what mi t and cost what it might although just what i was to do i was out i could not guess i had no trade or profession other than this and the thought of or writing for anything save a newspaper was as far from me as or painting i did not think i could write anything beyond news and with this conclusion many will no doubt be glad to agree with me even unto this day yet out of this and heartless world in which i was now working i did occasionally extract a tale that was only so low waa my credit that i rarely won the privilege of writing it myself had i imagined that i could write i might easily have built up stories	43
ma la pi ce n est ce pas oh pas du ah t eat bread an ah t eat nor yet nor tea oh dear no sir you won t find that class of goods at any respectable shop a pastoral a of a wet july argument mr and mrs brown of north roused to by certain recent open air performances have invited their friends to witness a selection from the tempest in the garden of their villa which its title from two remarkably fine plane trees at one end of the lawn scene tke mr and mrs b b discovered in readiness to receive their guests mrs b b with a desperate cheerfulness do you know dear i really do believe we shall have fine weather after all b b not a pastoral i shouldn t be surprised if it did clear up about midnight mrs b b well if it doesn t rain any more till all the people are here shall be satisfied she says this with a dim notion of the powers that be by her moderation b b why you won t do it out here if it rains will you mrs b b with a deadly where do you suppose we shall do it then b b feebly why not in the ar drawing room mrs b b really you are too trying for anything a pastoral play in the drawing room have you no sense of the ridiculous do you know what a pastoral play is b b grimly i m beginning to find out my dear the p as they make their way down the little staircase to t ie which is over with sail cloth and provided vith seats and chairs they can t possibly mean to have it this evening we shall be able to get away all the sooner to their hostess oh mrs brown how unfortunate such hopeless weather for it we really ought not to have come at all mrs b oh but indeed we re not afraid of a few drops of rain you sha n t be disappointed general fall of jaws we re going to begin as soon as ever a few more people come you sha n t go away without your te i guests t t are in for one at the very least seat themselves with expressions of delight behind the curtain under the plane trees the king of to i say old fellow if we re to lie down and go to sleep here we must have a little thrown down first the ground s also stage manager oh don t bother me my dear fellow where the am to find the k n thought you might have spared us some out of your have to go to sleep too and that couch is simply soaked soaked of course it s soaked it s pastoral we must put up with it that s all my dear child what on earth have you got on your feet regarding her they re mother s she made me promise to wear them if the ground was at all damp to maid who has come round by the path well what is it now a pastoral play maid your aunt s love miss and she must insist on your putting on this what a shame to king i can t act in a can i the k n oh why not we must try and borrow an old sou for though or he ll be out of the picture angrily aside to hang it all we d better do the whole thing under at once to all know is i hope we shall begin soon if i stand about in a damp much longer i shall be ill just feel it j his delicately and him never mind your see if you can tell me how to make this confounded beard of mine stick on the rain s washed off all the in before play begins mrs smith oh i shall see splendidly here thanks dear mrs brown how well you have arranged it all it s really not at all cold well if you would go and fetch my cloak perhaps it might be more miss hill to mr green such a charming idea these garden so different from a hot theatre mr green putting up his coat collar it certainly is the reverse of here plenty of air s mother i do wish they would begin i can t bear to think of my poor girl standing about on that nasty wet grass all this time so bad for her s aunt if i had guessed it would turn out such a night as this i would never have allowed my niece to accept the part and even as it is the curtain s aside and play begins concerning the family history in the midst of heavy one of s shoes comes off in the mud miss hill how well they did the lightning then didn t they mr k g oh it s all genuine the are determined to do the thing well thunder too you see t there s nothing mean about brown s mother that dreadful lightning oh mrs brown do please tell them to come away from the trees it is so dangerous s aunt oh do they might be struck down at any moment it s tempting providence mrs brown in despair it it s only j lightning ds please don t say anything about it to them now it will only put them out they re getting on so nicely enter on stage but as wicked dew as e er my mother brushed drop on you both a south west blow on ye with feeling for this be sure to night thou shalt	44
have mr k g if don t have them i shall enter on stage if it should thunder as it did before i know not where to hide my head same cloud cannot choose but fall by alas the storm is come again c c thunder rain mr k g really a triumph of stage management enter on bearing a log he it down with a heavy splash there be some sports are painful mr k g who has been sitting for some time with a stream of water from the roof down the back of his neck pastoral plays for example scene with is proceeding in rainy most of the lamps which light the scene when s mother rises i can t help it mrs brown flesh and blood can t bear it i can t sit here and see that poor child catching cold under my very eyes dear come in under the tent out of the rain this instant do you hear i order you sensation in audience on the whole hardly of a pastoral play in a minute mamma i am a fool to weep at what i am glad of to i really must go it s no use when mamma once makes up her mind s aunt i was just about to say the same thing dear mrs or no i can t let my sister s child commit suicide come too and bring your helplessly but i say how are we to get along without and s mother that i can t pretend to decide but i should have thought you gentlemen could have finished it alone somehow or i don t object to s acting provided she keeps under the tent and speaks her part from there s aunt makes similar concession with regard to her niece no i don t think that would do to mrs brown perhaps we better stop for this evening there doesn t seem to be much chance of the weather improving and candidly i m afraid it really is a little damp for the ladies eh brown mr brown well if you ask me i think we ve all had about enough of it mrs b her mortification guests eagerly it s been too charming too delightful we mustn t be selfish must we t it would be cruel to expect them to do any more and they are so wet poor things they with ill disguised relief and expressions of gratitude in the drawing later mrs brown is shedding a quiet tear by mr brown is humming as he lights a candle with one of the mr b b with offensive do you know i shouldn t wonder if we had a fine day to morrow the glass is going up again mrs b b in a muffled voice it may if it likes mr b b come come tm sure everything went off very well considering i only hope none of the people will get after it that s all mrs b b i don t c care if they all die scene interior of third class smoking first passenger apparently a small of a full and comfortable habits seated by window to him enters a but stranger in a state of ability with an under suggestion of the stranger leaning forward mysteriously yer saw that gentleman i was a to as i got in did yer know oo he was first passenger without but with the air of a person who sets a certain value on his conversation well he didn t look much like the of the s he s a better man than hm i that was the weight he me the straight about and he did first p interested as a lover of the noble art of self defence ah did he though the s he did i went up to him and i excuse me i like that but are you an american or a german first p with superiority he wouldn t like that being taken for a the s solemnly those were my very words and he no i m a and then i oo he was d ye see and so one word brought up another and we got a if i was to tell you i d seen i should be yer a lie first p well i won t ask you to do that the s firmly nor i wouldn t but you ve on y to look at to see e s never ad a on the ed now there s e s di good man u e is a good man look ow that about but if i was to pass my opinion it ud be this s in it for science he ain t in it to take anything you may take that from me first p to be treated as an ing it s not the first time i ve heard of it by a long way the s ah and it s the truth the bible truth putting his hand on the first p s knee now you b what i m a going to tell yer first p his dignity a little ruffled i will if it s anything in reason the s it s this my opinion of and s this brought out i m on y yer from like but i this myself one lived in and the other down way e s got a nice little butcher s business there at this present moment and e s a if e turns it up first p every man s a if he turns a good business up the s yer right and it ain t all with that sort o people neither i can tell yer i now when all s put to the test you	44
re not a man no more than i am myself first p not altogether flattered well that s as may be the s but i b yer to be a man o the world although i don t know yer first p modestly i used to be in it at one time the s i m in it now i don t get my by it though mind yer i m a i am to a certain extent i ve been in america there s a country now they don t over tax like they do ere first p there you ave touched a point we re past all common sense why this very tobacco i m smoking is charged the s of i don t mind a pipe along with yer myself first p handing his with a happy mixture of cordiality and con there you arc then the s afflicted by sudden as he fills his pipe i i m not a in yer third class first p liberty rubbish i m not one to make distinctions where go i d as soon talk to one man as i would another you re setting your coat alight vou re a the s i set fire to myself once and i never live in of doing so it s a funny thing with me i can smoke a cigar just as well as i lo could a short pipe vm no lover of a cigar if you understand me but i can go into company where they are d ye see first p shortly see the s with fresh you ll excuse me if ive taken with yer first p with a stately air we settled all that just now the s after a scrutiny i tell yer what my of you is that youve a first p this distinction a little uneasily no no there s nothing of the about me i the s well you re a gentleman anyway first p but uncomfortable we can all of us be that so long as we behave ourselves the s much pleased by this sentiment give us yer and if it s not a one of them as can t bear to take a with no matter oo yer know it s a real pleasure to me to be ere comfortably to you without no thought of either of us out there s some people as wouldn t feel not without they was a row now you and me ain t like that first p shifting about quite so quite so of course the s not but what if it was to come to a row between us i could take my part first p wishing there was somebody else in t ie i i hope we ll keep off that the s devoutly so do i we ll keep off o that but yer never know what may bring it on and there it is d ye see you and me might fall out without intending it bin a bit of a in my day do you doubt my word if so say it to my face first p i ve no wish to offend you i m sure the s i never take a lie straight from any man and there you ave mc in a word if you re bent on a row you ll find me a that s all i can tell you first p giving himself up for lost but i m not bent on a quite otherwise third class the s you should ha said so afore because when my back s once put up tm we re stopping i get out ere don t i first p eagerly yes make haste they don t stay long anywhere on this line the s completely then i ll say good bye to yer tenderly p we may meet some day first p we we ll hope so good day to you wish you luck the s solemnly lord love yer pausing at door i you don t think me the man to fall out with nobody i never fall out falls out into the arms of a porter whom he as the train moves and first passenger settles into a corner with a sigh of relief at a dinner in the hall guest discovered re coat and which are taken by a man with a eye amidst a grieved silence butler to in ghostly whisper tell em they can send up as soon as they now the guest to himself on the stairs i am the last man then kept them all waiting too i shouldn t wonder don t care they shouldn t ask a man to dine out the very evening he s been catching sight of himself in the mirror jove i mustn t go in looking like that though or they ll see what s the matter a in the drawing room chorus of starving guests in too bad you know cant understand it no one has any right to do this sort of thing don t care who he is generally so punctual here i make it a rule never wait over five minutes past the hour for any one quite right too c c butler mr st john enter last guest under concentrated glare from surrounding eyes which he see ns rather to enjoy than otherwise hostess with implied i began to be quite afraid something had happened to you mr b thinks that she is not far wrong and apologies at a dinner party i butler re appearing after a moments pause outside the door dinner is served hostess to mr b let me see do you know miss mr b who has been rejected by the young lady	44
in question that very afternoon i ah do know miss adds at last to himself bitterly and feels better hostess then i want you to take her in please you won t mind being close to the fire mr b thinks he has been very close to the fire already a paternal old gentleman a most charming young lady i congratulate you sir mr b advancing to miss with elaborate indifference i believe fm to take you in miss f looking down and hoping he mean to be silly i believe you are on the stairs mr b thinking hid better say something have you been out at all to day miss f only in the morning such a wretched day hasn t it been wishes she d said something else mr b has it well it was rather a dismal afternoon now i come to think of it miss f deciding to take this literally oh very but after all one must expect a little just at this time of the year mustn t one mr b oh yes you can get used to anything if you only make up your mind to it thinks he is carrying it off rather well at the dinner table miss f how prettily the table s arranged isn t it though i never quite like to see flowers strewn carelessly about do you i mean it seems such a pity you know h mr b with a feeble attempt to be cynical oh i don t suppose nd after they re once plucked sooner they get the end over the at a dinner party better for them i should think is afraid he has gone too far aren t you taking you should it s capital some with an effort miss f i m glad you re enjoying it she bread mr b i had no luncheon this morning you see and so lays down his knife and fork that gives a fellow an appetite you know to footman who says or sir rock miss f to herself i don t believe he minds a bit and yet he hasn t finished his fish after all mr b in answer to his other neighbour well no there isn t much doing just now i ve been meaning to get away for a long time go abroad and rough it a bit don t you know he has raised his voice unconsciously for the benefit of miss f start next week at the latest i hope miss f to her other neighbour who is telling a funny story about smith how very interesting and you saw that yourself the neighbour puts her mentally as a pretty idiot miss f to mr b did i hear you say you were going abroad just now where did you think of going mr b u ho has only just thought of it well i shall run over to the and shoot miss f do you think you could lower that candle shade a little thanks shoot you will like that won t you mr b immensely to footman champagne please miss f i suppose you have friends out there mr b i had a friend who went out some time ago miss f and you are going to join him mr b carelessly shouldn t be surprised if i did sooner or later miss f is he settled out there then mr b settled oh yes he s settled miss f and he likes the country mr b he wasn t there long enough to tell fell down a cliff or something and was killed out shooting poor chap miss f after playing with an e i hope you ll be careful mr b i oh shall be careful enough one takes one s chance you know by the way will you let me send you home a skin if i have any luck with the you d rather i didn t i suppose i t to have offered i never know about these things i must wait then till till i hear news of you were you looking for something miss f only a little water please over the host to mr b and how did you get on with that miss eh nice girl isn t she mr b very helps himself to which he doesn t like host now that s a girl now a young fellow like you chance for you might do worse eh mr b taking a and wishing his hand wouldn t shake so well you see sir as to that laughs awkwardly well there are two sides to every question aren t there host i tell you what you young men are too selfish nowadays you don t like to give up your clubs and chambers and all your bachelor not if it s to marry the girl in the world that s what it is mr b laughing again that s about the truth of it sir we re a poor lot upstairs the hostess to miss f and so you have met your neighbour before t he s quite a favourite of mine only he shouldn t come so late to dinner i hope you found him amusing miss f oh extremely he s going out to america he says to to shoot bears or something hostess he never said a word about it to me what can he want to rush off like that for at a dinner party ij miss f he didn t tell me that she watches the door under her as the men enter mr in an animated conversation with a lively young lady at the other end of tjie room the paternal old	44
gentleman comes tip and miss with elderly attentions for rest of the evening which she appears to appreciate highly in the hall mr b who by merest accident has taken his leave the moment after miss f are they getting you a cab coldly to miss f whom he finds below miss f it s outside i m only waiting for my maid good night or i suppose i ought to say good bye mr b stiffly after this afternoon i should imagine good bye was the only thing to say miss f and you couldn t manage to come and see me just once before you go away to your bears turns aside to arrange her hood mr b i could of course only i don t exactly see what the good of it would be miss f of course you are the best judge of that i only thought you might find it worth while perhaps mr b do you mean miss f as she gets into cab i mean that i don t always quite know what i do mean good night mr b on pavement if i do go she ll only make a fool of me again i won t give her the chance at least i ll think over it walks ie and thinks over it d an poultry bow scene the people s palace in building set apart for poultry pigeon and rabbit show stream of visitors animals in and wire pens to coming to a halt before cage containing looking fowl with appearance of having been sent out on a pair of legs several sizes too tall for it they ve commended yer see m who does not converse with facility um looks at bird seeing it yes they must ha thought of im before they d commend him like that yer know wishing she was of response ah the fowl slowly at her with his lower come away i don t h ke him they move on the coming up and the bird with pride ere joe fowl both eyes with a bored expression b to me that bird sir to visitor from the west anxious to be agreeable ha a fine bird magnificent bred im myself sir he s a bit sleepy just now wake up chap fowl half one eye and it immediately on perceiving proprietor knows mc yer see visitor with fatal a a isn t he t wonders what made him say that arid tries to think are like when they are not locks an east end poultry show in tone of pitying reproach sir no black red sir visitor wishing lie had remained vague oh ah just so good evening a cock at the rabbit pens another accompanied by with catalogue i ain t come across my buck yet he took a prize i stops at cage ah this looks like him third prize yer see not so bad eh the friend hold on a bit to catalogue number seven and two buck eight months your name ain t then it s mine in the next second prize better n third that ain t it the friend they ve got that down as s too well i thought some ow as this is him anyway look ere first prize and deserves it though i it myself friend not without a certain satisfaction no no you re wrong again i ll show you where you are see seven and five w buck ten months you that that ain t never my cream buck the rabbit remains in meditation i ll soon show yer blows in face mutual recognition it is my buck and only commended recovering himself well i you if he t to ha done the other him as they ve given the first prize to why there ain t no comparison between them two the cock the friend losing all further interest well it s all chance like let s go and ave a look at them crowd of admirers around pen containing gigantic first admirer that s that is second admirer a fine grown bird i will say handsomely as if he would hardly have expected such a person as to produce anything as good as that third admirer monster ain t he why yer might r on him small child pointing at the duck fond parent i declare it s wonderful how quick he gets the names it is a fine duck the cock a touch of a pigeon now a nice pigeon that is a nice pigeon but i tell yer what it is he ain t got the space to do justice in there give him a bigger pen and a brick to stand on and you d soon see the fellow they ought to ha give him more room to show off his tail in else what s the good of a bird a tail come to that first ah you ve it it apparently unsuccessful i y with bitter sarcasm ave yer seen the pair as take a birds i wouldn t pick up if i found em in the street no that i wouldn t prize to them well the world s to a pretty pass i must say that eloquent to well are pretty much alike unless you ve been brought up to know the differences i ad a uncle a feeling that her ignorance is no longer a then o course you d know they go out arm in arm silent but sympathetic picture scene the of that and ambitious young painter usual three completed pictures on draped discovered receiving sunday visitors y and trying to conceal his utter of ever having seen any of t before in his whole life model at the door mrs	44
mr colonel and mrs mr and mrs mr mechanically to each how are you so kind of you to come you ll with a nervous laugh find a picture or two over there the visitors drift vaguely about nervously at the and examining the and or anything else by preference model mrs le mrs and miss mrs i to find he knows somebody mrs how charming of you to find time to look in i really am delighted mrs i found i could just manage to squeeze you in so many places one must go to don t you know like a small boy who has just smashed a window will you a let me show you what i ve been doing this is my academy picture i think you ll get a better light if you stand a little farther off as she is apparently to rub noses the principal figures on the canvas mrs p retiring ah that is better much better that the subject is classical mid that must be careful not to commit herself yes draws in her breath reverently i couldn t have believed it was possible to such a situation as that and yet one feels that it must have been just so i highly gratified you do think it tells its own story then mrs p telling her own oh indeed i do you can t help seeing it her conscience by the reflection that she means tlie picture which being lo ft by y is indeed distinctly visible a crowd gradually around the principal canvas in awed silence each person waiting to discover what it is intended to represent before a re mrs p rendered bolder by success i don t think i ever quite felt before how splendid ancient rome must have been ah exactly yes but was not a roman province at the time came to mrs p plunging more wildly aided by desperate recollections of a course of lectures on oh no of course that was later let me see wasn t one of the early in resigned disgust you must really excuse me from offering any opinion the are much impressed and mrs p immensely pleased by her takes her leave model mr mrs and friends enter mrs with a little run two friends following reluctantly in her train she falls into a pose of adoration before the principal canvas mrs oh mr how you t what am i to say what a picture mr from behind ah she s right there what a picture mrs mar i mustn t look i positively must not i i m blinded dazzled it makes me want to hide my eyes sympathetic murmur from und why when it s hung it will kill everything near it und aside to fair neighbour at all events it s done nothing to deserve hanging yet it won t be hung till it s cut down and if it s cut down it ll be cut up regular mad irish bull of a picture that fair neighbour who an idea what he means oh mr don t you re too killing i mrs mar bringing up friends oh but i mustn t forget i want to present mr in a whisper to s the you know s and tries to look as if this description conveyed some definite idea to his mind mr d and mrs mrs y a as if she was in the presence of a old master at the very least now with much tact do tell them the story of the picture in your own words as if wouldn t spoil it by telling it herself who begins to see that it may be as well well it s from you know the of to the on the steps of the temple of universal chorus of pleased recognition mrs that dear so like him i do love have you ever heard foe f colonel to mrs in a cautious whisper might i ask i didn t quite catch what is the subject supposed to be mrs mar who has a good ear but a short memory oh don t you know it s desperately the to discover a lost tune under the steps of the temple of au kissed us you remember col c yes yes to be sure astonishing how one forgets these things so he did mrs to her daughter what is it all about miss r r i m not quite sure mother but think it s with his somebody of exciting the by a lost tune out of picture sunday mrs r r satisfied oh the lost ah yes i see i d forgotten that was his advancing to do you know my dear sir that that s a very remarkable picture it ah reminds me of an anecdote i once him indeed then my work has not been altogether wasted mrs after gazing long at the canvas to s in a deep solemn voice allow me to ask do r take your own gasping and then recovering his presence of mind generally dear lady wherever i can come across them mrs profoundly quite right it is the only way to succeed s deeply to mrs mar oh are you looking at that that s in a style you see child nursing a sick monkey mrs mar do you know though of course the other picture the the is one of the finest i ever saw i think this is more striking somehow how sick that monkey looks and the child too de so glad you like it just an idea of mine an idea i tm a little doubtful what to call it must have a good name for it can you	44
suggest a title for me und as before give a bad picture a good name and they may hang it mrs mar to s oh yes i call it well with a brilliant inspiration how would sick monkey do t charming admirable but just a trifle too subtle eh und why not a pair of em mrs mar brightly no know and child sounds quite old mastery und to won t get beyond sounding better each to prevent confusion mrs mar well i must tear myself away mr i can t tell you how youve stimulated me e not at all have you had any coffee mrs mar thanks not any good bye good bye and vm sure if those naughty unkind would only come and see your pictures they would understand how far show sunday is from mere und they would indeed aloud to s good bye old fellow youve going to astonish us all this time that s plain outside confused chorus of departing visitors did you ever see such dreadful things what pity it is isn t it mrs mar to friend i assure you my dear i never found so much difficulty in saying anything at all decently civil about a picture in my life really too shocking they can t get in now where shall we go next t it will be quite refreshing to see picture again a bow place scene a castle party of discovered waiting in the entrance hall enter the head butler an imposing person with sandy hair and pale blue prominent eyes the h b with condescension if you ll ave the goodness to wait a little i shall be able to go round with you myself with mysterious solemnity leaving the party overwhelmed a matron who to none in reverence for the aristocracy to her daughters doesn t everything look stately i wonder where they keep all the hats and a wife to her husband now for goodness sake charles don t try to be funny here remember where you are the party converse in whispers a in a flannel shirt a man in familiarly on the causing him to a hollow ring the rest look at him reproachfully he returns their gaze with defiance but edges away from the armed figure as the butler returns the h b now please if you ll follow me and keep together after him each in deadly fear of his eye the man in tjie flannel shirt the under his breath the all the ly takes all their meals ere when at party repeat this to one another in hushed voices the along the walls is charles ha very bad example for the family the h b did you speak sir charles turning red in the face only to my wife with a taste for architecture and a desire to air his information er this portion of the building is ah early decorated is it not the h b severely no sir decorated quite lately by a london firm the falls to the rear the others conceive a poor opinion of him a show place a himself to ask a question will be many dining here this evening the h b with a lofty well no we t many staying walls is with us at present i should say we shouldn t set down more than twenty or so to night or thirty at most a with a air your company a party the h b there s no deer forests in this part of the country the with a clapping him on the shoulder and laughing i see you don t understand our national the h b i don t understand any bein took with me he moves away with dignity this opening door is the h room a door on the opposite side is seen to shut as the party enter the matron come over here a minute whispers she was sitting in this very chair do you see i wonder if it could have been the that s the mark left in her book if i only dared reading title the mystery of a bathing machine we ll get it at the as we go back the h b coming to a stand and fixing his eye on a nervous who opens his mouth feebly the pair of on the was brought over by the grandfather of the present duke of and are valued at five thousand pounds apiece we ave been nine thousand five for the pair and refused t man in the flannel shirt groans ow long to himself in bitter indignation at the unequal distribution of wealth the nervous did you though regards the h b with intense admiration for his judgment and resolution a comic i wish some one ud offer me nine thousand pounds for the on my i wouldn t over it the h b him the picture in the above the is a subject representing and the fine arts the first duke of on the completion of the new private chapel by in the corner old woman a by a thinks it is time he made a remark let me see wasn t he one of the dutch school i seem to know the name a show place the h b no no sir you didn t what i said it wasn t the name of the it s what the old woman is the by in a cellar the cellar and the is considered a young lady what a very curious method of cooking fish isn t it the party move on h b this is his grace s own study his grace sees his tenants at that table general interest in the table except on part of the man in the flannel who a charles s wife	44
fancy charles the duke uses j pens charles not even gilded this is a severe blow to be overcome his wife if you go on in this foolish manner i will not be seen talking to you the matron in a whisper see if you can manage to pick up a when no one s looking there are plenty lying about a anxious to the butler an excellent landlord the duke i believe the h b coldly we ave not of any complaints on the estate leads the way to the gallery the gallery formerly the when we ave a large party they sometimes comes up ere after dinner and as games expressions of pleased surprise always excepting the man in the flannel who something about dancing on a with a thirst for information what sort of games the h b with dignity that i can t tell you bein no part of my to halting before a picture portrait of second of on tower by sir peter charles the do you mean to say that sir peter took his head off the h b solemnly he took his off full length sir as you can sec by looking to the matron whose has not escaped if you like to stop be ind and let the rest go on a bit i can show you something that s not generally open to the public mysteriously it s the room where all his grace s boots are he has over a pair of them the matron the rest in a state of solemn ecstasy j and can hardly refrain from betraying how highly she has been privileged the party return to the hall a a student of the society in a sunday paper to butler is lady at home just now the h b her is away visiting at present sir expected back saturday week sir the society t as if he felt this as a personal disappointment not till saturday week really ah the rest regard him with increased respect and listen attentively i suppose it s quite true that the match with lord george is broken off going to marry lady isn t he very sorry when i heard of it the h b was you with is sir the s t with a modest reserve oh i ve stayed with him you know and that sort of thing he has at a hotels when lord george took him for a but what of that the h b then i should recommend you to inquire of lord george in sir that s his coming up the terrace now s t utterly coming up to her mother oh mamma what do you think we looked in at a window as we passed and we saw them all having afternoon tea and the was actually eating toast she didn t see us for ever so long we had such a good view scene in upon the majority of tjie party anxiously discussing in the propriety or ot of offering and fee to the butler who stands apart in a study with a distinct effort to the severity of his i as far as the man in the flannel shirt is concerned t problem bt a scene middle room of a bath subdued light on and in folding chairs are vaguely seen extended in various stages of the usual bathing bore is heard to any one he can induce to listen in a remote corner is a who knows him but by lying low to recognition the b b yes more thoughtfully y yes extraordinary the freedom with which my act i assure fm not here one minute before proceeds to describe result in detail enter an elderly le feels shy and strange it being his first appearance and owing to the gloom and his own seats himself upon tlie s legs the s b roused really sir think you ll be more comfortable somewhere else the b b why bless my soul i ought to know that voice it is to think of our being in the same room all this while and never suspecting it wish td known before makes it so much less tedious meeting with some one you know eh s b yawning exactly oh very much so crosses hands behind head and eyes b b difficulty is to recognise fellows here y know s b to himself can t hole em at any rate to tjie b b you seem to manage it b b oh i knew your voice in a minute that s s voice ril lay a hundred pound note i thought the wonder is you didn t recognise mine ive been talking all the time more or less s b i have you though it is odd as you say b b often found that some people s ears have an astonishing lack of delicate perception for instance there s a very dear and old friend of mine j ou may know him tells him a long history about his in t ie meantime the elderly has established himself in some on a with his head resting on a little wooden blocks which lie tries hard to think comfortable he has a dry roof to his a nose and a general sensation of as bore s voice ceases a silence falls which the e n finds a stout gentleman i occasionally a clock and water in distance a head close to the e n s sighs in a heart broken manner and a restless rises and begins to up and down like a wolf enter an attendant with cups of water the e n one like a and has another the b b for the general benefit never drink when tm in the bath the mouth out yes but drink no i had	44
an old aunt relates a fearful story of the effect of cold water taken upon an old the e n begins to be alarmed the b b taking advantage of silence thing man ought to be most careful about and that is never take bath under medical advice now when went to my medical man describes interview at length the e n with terror that lie has omitted to consult his doctor my dear fellow you re getting drowsy very dangerous practice that slightest thing the matter with your heart and it s all over with you why knew a man once gives an account of a man who nearly died which the e n who has been just dropping off to keep awake at all you can always tell if it with you if you ve any singing in the ears or or of breath or at a bath anything of that sort well the sooner you re out the better that s all e n my symptoms thinks he would be at once if he was a little more sure what it was like to let some one else be on first drawing curtain at arch with a certain ready for two gentlemen now two rise with the air of ci summoned to the and pass between the curtains e n anxiously for what can be heard first apparently an austere character on that sir please lay right down the subject of a disposition eh oh yes i see to be sure yes yes a dull hissing is heard the s soon have summer on us now i a was noticing only yesterday how his voice is suddenly extinguished by what seems to be a bucket of water over him and uneasiness on of e n who to hear him speak again this opening on your back sir it s your right leg want second a to his subject who seems slightly reserved you ve ad a lar fine turn of it to day sir off o you beautiful reluctant growl of assent from subject now over sir please bin to this sir they tell me it s rate inarticulate from s water too ot for you sir tremendous with some puffing and blowing no time for goin myself sir got enough to do ere sir looks a little tender that foot sir on the premises sir send him to you no sir very good sir now on your face if you ll be so good the s i er ha suppose you re pretty f full just now eh shortly always busy ere sir sit up talk affectionately ave a little soap on your ed sir some of our gentlemen don t care for soap on their sing isn t it the b b bursting out again suddenly capital cold plunge got here one of the longest in london go in directly done you swim across and close your come out the other side fresh as a that s what do e n jo himself cold water and i can t swim ok lor from the chamber are now proceeding sounds more alarming than ever lively tune being vigorously with fists upon an body followed by what is apparently a smart the b b you d think a man would be black and blue all over after that wouldn t you but except in a very few cases i don t know that such an effect ever actually follows i m not sure though that the pressure on the ribs the his hands suddenly first appears order ity sir stout gentleman calls for water and is served by second cries of distress are heard from the chamber the e n drawn by a horrible fascination approaches the arch and looks in t ie interior presents a like appearance and on a grey marble the reserved subject is sitting from head to foot awaiting the return of the in sullen resignation the person is also neglected for the moment and may be faintly perceived under the staggering blindly and gasping out that will do the two returning by different doors called away for a moment sir they perceive the e n standing in centre of take you next sir in another minute sir the e n feebly er very well with a desperate resolution i i m going upstairs to get my watch i mean my eye glasses back again presently rushes upstairs flies into his box and dresses for dear life as in square scene square several thousand and discovered asserting right of free speech free meetings and free procession a few hundred genuine out of work standing about lines of drawn up in reserve look on a lover of liberty as an englishman sir i m disgusted it s un english ki i s what it is an assembly like this i used to think freedom of speech and action was the right of every but it seems we re to be by the police now confounded impertinence on the part of the government i call it an orator leaping suddenly on citizens are you men that you stand by with folded while unlimited food and wealth lays within a stone s throw i want yer behind ah and we v a nt you off you go disappearance of orator in direction of police station lover of liberty shame is a man to be punished for his opinions oh england england person in search of sensation well there doesn t seem much doing so far vagabond whom he has apparently met before in a professional capacity ow are yer pretty to show he bears no malice good i m much as usual companion to s c well you do know some rough	44
i must say m w li pretty eh square i i i i y i i m c go on that gentleman s a west professional hook to line of o you re ere are you well me and my must take our little some bother that s all to and so youve actually been out of employment since last january monstrous the government ought to work what say nor let em work and til do it fast enough don t want ter be idle i ain t on y my one trade to earn my bread by but i ll work at that if i m let exactly my poor fellow and what is your trade why i m a i am puts on parties for em and ere i am not ad a job for months to quiet observer quiet at present t r too many o them about to my mind i d like to the lot they re the ruin of our quiet ah you re right t i to police now don t you interfere that s all ask speak to them i have them thoroughly in hand just now but if you offer them the least opposition i with much solemnity well i won t be responsible for what happens he is allowed to address the multitude friends you are met here in this peaceful but imposing manner in the teeth of a brutal and to show the who are now trembling behind their that we mean to be taken seriously yes in our and our rags throws open fro k coat and thick gold watch chain mob pitch us over yer red take that ere coat complacently it is true that i myself am not in absolute but what of that my friends can not feel here a strikes him in the eye of down with him duck him i spy traitor i mob him down and attempts to take him to pieces faintly here hi help why the devil don t you use your a rescued and assisted home by police a rough to policeman keep moving ah move him on the knee cap policeman draws and back crowd indignantly coward a man down with him they beat brutal to a the to quiet are you game for a merry lark quiet you try that s all t r then as them of ave as much on their as they kin do with now s the time for a bit of a pass the word to them mates o pall and no tyranny quiet i ve done it they re only waiting for you t r suddenly producing red handkerchief there now boys remember and no brutal me quiet him no you ll follow us please you won t do no good kicking all right mates we ve got him t r oh please i didn t know you was a policeman sir or i shouldn t ha spoke strike me dead i was on y in fun and i ve a good mother at ome sir the person in search of sensation what another arrest and simply for showing a red handkerchief i shall write and describe these how these police are actually defending themselves the a policeman accidentally lifts his arm whereupon about fifty youths like in the rush the person in search of sensation is and slightly trampled on he becomes annoyed and out right and left eventually striking a in his excitement has been without sleep for the last two days and has just had his laid open by a stone ere you come along with me you re one of the you are the person but i assure you just came to see what there was to be seen square well you come along with me and you ll see a presently the person struggles arrival of exit party in s marching order conveying him to fresh sensations the lover of liberty emerging from crush my hat ruined my coat split down the back and my watch gone i told the crowd i was with them heart and soul and they hit me in the stomach what do we keep our police r i want to know professional emerging in opposite direction three red two and a white i ain t done so dusty for the right o free genuine well i as i see what good all this ere is a goin to do i g at a e in the horses being led round in circle receiving final directions owner to now you know where youve to go down the hill over the with the white flags nod of intelligence from red flags owner i mean red flags then keep along by the flying course and take the bank between the red flags white and r d first time owner red and white flags through the gap when you turn not through the gap till the second round owner oh isn t it well over the hedge then white flags not white flags for the course sir owner and the will tell you the rest i j goes off to saddle mount there if that fellow makes any mistake now he sha n t ride for me again an owner with a grievance to anybody who will listen to him it s a o they passed and gone and my mare for being over height see for yourself stands higher by a inch look at the teu together i ask any fair minded man they re all of her as often as he sees a member of the committee he his mare up to and bitterly en	44
decline with one accord to the question and leave owner to his grievance outside which he does at intervals throughout the day at a hunt chase on the course young lady on to of oh ought i to pay you a shilling i didn t know and take one of these tickets out of the hat you must tell me which may i open it yet number two which is that oh white and silver i must try and remember that on drag that s cherry and best horse running to day by a long chalk regular wish i could have got on at a better price there s action for you the one he looks such a thing and his s wearing i m sure he won t win is that man with the red flag to race too why is he riding down there with them receives her which is intended to be very engaging with silent contempt rustic spectators they re no false start they be oft sure a over i pretty s ben t a of en well done my go on look at he s away from em all i lady why doesn t s let him out her husband well it rather looks as if he was going to let the public in i look at that i deliberately waiting for a sage in market tell ee what if that as is don t lose any more than that e u win you mark my words crowd on grand stand s down has gone outside the flag there he ll to go back he ll a job to get up to them now look at he s ahead again ben t he don t ee fall now my darling a ah s on him again he s passed en the young lady oh isn t it exciting looks to see if any one is looking at her and is disgusted to find that everybody is absorbed in the racing i don t see my horse jumping why the coldly possibly because he came to grief at the second bank and is being walked in one with a charming how perfectly horrid of it why do they all groan at so don t they want him to win the s because his s doing all he can to let pass him one but i think that s so nice and of him the s i doubt if the will take your view of it there at a hunt chase pulling the poor brute s head off it s all over and ought no more to have won than his feelings fail him crowd groan as he a bad second affects a pained surprise in the chorus of disgusted well after that i ain dashed ever see anything more in all your life so badly done too no wonder these country meetings are going down if this was under grand national rules c c excited forcing his way in and up to owner of it s a shame and a disgrace mr you ought to be warned off every course in england if could ha broke his reins he d ha won easy it t to be allowed t english no nor yet honourable i tell you to your face you re a scoundrel and you know it it s all your doing owner tries to look as if such were beneath his notice and walks away pursued by indignant as he rode foul ye did ye re a ye d the by the when e was s ride better if ye like but don t say i d the i b i do say it ye re a man to ride on any course ye did the ye did j s j ith warmth don t call me a man i b i do call ye a man ye done wrong j s j then don t say i d the and so on ad the on the course saw it it s a scandalous thing and there ought to be some notice taken of it fair is fair all the world over tis a word but e don t ought to cast first stone at en no good the boy he had to ride to orders or be turned oflf next day ah here comes the admiral now for a row outside the weighing room inquiry proceeding secretary keeping door against crowd secretary to a tall man who is trying to look through a don t ee now sir don t don t take an unfair advantage of your superior height the proceedings are strictly private the tall man you be i ve paid my half crown and i mean to see all i can for the money crowd through window they ve got the boy in there he s getting a rare good door opens a voice send mr here the sec mr wanted by the policeman pass the word for mr crowd with relish catch it now policeman with a grin mr gone ome sir mr c s discretion inquiry over come out of weighing room freely crowd press around to hear result you ll see our decision in the papers to morrow you won t hear any more to day so it s no use here let s get out of this stable boy to will be wanted any more to day sir gloomily you can take him home soon as you like after the last race first owner of losing horse you see it was this way had a strange boy on his back and so o course second that boy s bin many races he at a hunt chase they weak so much i told en not to let bolt with en he will bolt at times third didn t fell twas her failed	44
off o she she was away from them all she d a come in teu ahead that fourth oh that other was ridden very jealous and so old she got at the bank if there d a bin another she d ha em all a proper sure fifth ive sin run a deal nor that she run away from a field o fourteen two in a flat race once she did she worn t in form to day that s all they go each with a comforting conviction that he has won what the leader writers on bye would call a moral victory at a scene interior of wedding guests arriving and exchanging airy as t settle down in their places in various states of self consciousness collected at door loud and sustained of feminine whispering policeman on guard at another door to people with a for seeing complete strangers married very sorry ladies but if you re not provided with tickets i can t let you in the people with a c but this is a public place isn t it policeman not feeling competent to argue the point those are my orders the people c depart to guests with pink tickets any of those seats there pink guests attempting to pass a crimson rope which bars the central passage we want to be near the altar we can t see here in a superior manner the higher seats are set apart for parties with white tickets pink guests to one another indignantly j and after we d sent that girl a bowl too they employ themselves in picking out white guests ought properly to have been remark that it is the most managed wedding they ever saw and bitterly at to the bowl mrs who always comes early to see the people oh at a wedding there ll b a tremendous crush of course they know ev ay look the de have just come in what a pity it is that eldest girl has such a red nose she d be quite without it there s you see him everywhere and smiles at him horrid creature and how fat he s getting do you know who that is that s miss of the you know looks ever so much older by daylight doesn t she i suppose she s not one of the friends by the way have you ever met him this man the bridegroom i mean oh my dear a perfect horror ten years older than she is and one hears such stories about him in fact it was only his money that but her people were delighted of course ah she s coming now look how the are all themselves that s the j he look yellow best man in a whisper to bridegroom pull yourself together old you are looking so bridegroom i y too fact is those farewell are a mistake i ll never give another mrs now the choir are going down to meet them don t you wish they d invent a new hymn for i m so tired of that one there she is i always think this is such a solemn moment don t j can you see whether it s silk or gloves the are wearing that s her father whose arm she s on they say he but he doesn t count her mother s behind with the hook nose why on earth should cry i don t know it s all her doing she makes a pale bride doesn t she but white satin would be trying even to a beauty i hear she threw over poor young most why does that tiresome old bishop so i can t hear a word belonging to bride s family to nurse i wonder at that jane taking on herself to cry when she only came fortnight now you and me have got some claim to cr the nurse them kitchen maids can t be expected to know their place or what s required of them h in the general congratulations compliments kisses and bridegroom to best man i say dear boy i look to you to square all these you know which is his mode of the bishop and his assistant in church during the interval mrs very daring of them to be married in may isn t it i knew a girl who was married in may once and the very first time they gave a dinner party her cook came up drunk soon after the salmon and gave her warning before everybody dreadful wasn t it i suppose you ll go on to the house and see the presents do going oh you ve seen mine t it is handsome isn t it i was going to get her quite an ordinary one at the stores but that was when i thought she was only going to be mrs ah there s the wedding march at last here they come bride and bridegroom pass slowly down central passage their friends at hazard several are left unnoticed with their prepared smile wasting its sweetness t the bride s brothers a young ma i rather dressed who has been standing behind mrs the whole time forces his way to the front the y m to himself she shall see me if she has the courage to meet my eye after her conduct the bride what mr i d no idea you were in town we shall see you presently i hope s he passes on leaving the y m think of all the replies he might have made an old maid peeping in the gallery she has got in as the bridegroom s a character in she every wedding poor things to think of all the troubles before them at a wedding i bridegroom s friends pretty wedding wasn t it bride s friends	44
not a pretty wedding was it in the carriage bridegroom finding the silence embarrassing hope they ll give us time enough to change and all that horrid bore if we missed our train and had to wait bride oh if you are going to find everything a bore already i bridegroom well isn t it t silence in the drawing room presents laid out guests wandering rounds keeping a look out for their own and feeling deeply if they are not displayed others consult the as though they were of european interest a noticeable by his get up and his uneasy bearings watches the old gentleman friend of the bride s approaches and by s y attire takes him for the bridegroom the s o g with emotion this is a great responsibility you have undertaken to day sir i hope you will be ah worthy of it sensitive thank you but it s not the first time undertaken such a job not by a very long way the s o g moving off aghast this is dreadful they can t know how many times and where are they all now oh some one ought to speak to her mother i would myself only goes in search of some champagne the bride s mother to guest so kind of you to remember my girl and to send her that charming she suddenly forgets whether she is speaking to the of the nineteenth carriage clock or the that charming er quite the prettiest er i ever saw but you always have such taste mild surprise of guest conscious of having presented in despair a toast rack of design i undertaken such a not by a at a wedding mr who has come on after all bitterly to the bride all i can wish you mrs choking mrs is that you may be as happy as as you deserve the bride sweetly thanks awfully that s the prettiest thing i ve had said to me yet to neighbour oh mr how am i to thank you that lovely plate warmer mr o baffled and committing suicide with a piece of wedding cake in the carriage the bridegroom well y over bride i wish you would contrive not to so bridegroom when a fellow has about a stone and a half of rice down the back of his neck it makes him rather restless what arc all the staring at us i m sure we don t look as newly married as all that bride complacently you would not notice such trifles but has really surpassed herself over my going away dress bridegroom no by jove i m hanged if it s that i bride perhaps you think are the attraction t bridegroom spotted it as we passed that shop window i say cr i m not joking really i m not there s a beast of a white satin on the roof of the at a street scene exhibition rooms of a known art dealer s where tjie main attraction is a very charming collection of impressions by a rising painter in first room are displayed miscellaneous and figure subjects by other painters y which two persons are in puzzled silence first person after examining pictures of coast scenery by mr william of i it s all it s not my idea of feels vaguely second p p sensibly i expect if the truth was told most places are pretty much alike seems to be something going on in the further room though better go in and see if there s anything to be seen there eh they enter the inner gallery which is draped in dull and pale yellow and hung with sketches framed in old gold and dead copper arranged in somewhat irregular order visitors are moving slowly from one picture to the other making enthusiastic comments in a whisper first p p a little this looks more like it very eccentric though sticking the pictures about in patches like this second p p oh they naturally want to make em go as far as they can but they might have hung em in patterns much than this will you get a catalogue or shall first p p without feeling his pockets well i m not sure whether i have any silver about me at a bond street gallery second p p that little girl who them will give you change if you ask her first p p annoyed how the am i to ask for change when i don t know the language second p p oh get it then til make her understand somehow goes up to little lady and proceeds to with a shilling you give me one book i give you this you understand lady i well but the catalogue is only i can give you change second p p returning to friend with catalogue wonderful how you can get along with signs i never have any difficulty wherever go they proceed to examine the pictures first p p i wonder why they ve all got a little red spot on the frame second p p oh they put that on to show they re sold same as a star you know first p p but some of them are sold second p p staggered well you may depend on it it isn t done without some reason pity he finish his things more isn t it first p p i he wasn t given time i ve heard the authorities are very particular out there pointing to sketch of village street those chinese aren t bad though second p p n no but you can get them anywhere now an ancient amateur loud voice to manager i congratulate you very attractive exhibition you ve got here exceedingly so	44
indeed manager a it s having a great success certainly have you seen the press notices shows mounted on pieces of the a a waving away i don t require any papers to tell me what to admire and i say again there is some remarkably good work here i don t care who hears me manager quite so now here s a fine one look at the purity of that colour now and not expensive the a a isn t it though well if mr mentioning name of rising at a bond street gallery painter was here i could tell him something he might find worth his attention manager i think he is in the gallery ah there he is would you like to be introduced to him the a a with condescension certainly certainly by all means introduction effected accordingly rising painter slightly how are you i how are you very glad to have this opportunity always glad to see the younger men succeeding rising painter more than ever wonders who the deuce he is i know all about these things i you ll know my name when i mention it vm sir i ve een to as if the r p by this time a small crowd has collected under the impression that the a a is the painter himself the r p courteously vague oh to be sure of course and you have been out there the a a louder than ever i have and i may say i know something of the effects it is possible to get with that atmosphere i a good deal while i was there purely for my own amusement you understand the r p bows and i can give you a hint you may find useful next time you go you get some rice plain ordinary rice you follow me general interest on part of public well you boil it strain off the water and put in your skies with that d ye see suppressed fury on part of p you ll find it ll give a sir that it would take you a lifetime to get in any other way and there s this further advantage when you ve done there s your rice as good as ever now you take my advice and try it good day most happy to have been of any service to you exit a a leaving r p perfectly speechless with indignation a well meaning lady visitor they re simply too lovely all of them i could quite fancy myself in the village at you know first p p to second you ve got the catalogue what s no second p p the tea house of the slender trees at least cautiously that s what it s down as i first p p oh a fancy title i suppose and the next second p p referring to catalogue as before a at the fair first p p a what at the fair second p p seems to be the native name for a girl out here here s an odd subject now two singing girls waiting for a don t understand what that means sounds like nonsense to which is his way of saying that it is nonsense first p p no subject in that i like a picture that tells you at a glance what it s all about but what are you to make of a what s this one with the umbrella second p p reading ttie child and tjie umbrella the umbrella is pitched by the side of the stall to shade it from the intense sunlight first p p suspiciously is that in the catalogue second p p hurt you can read it for yourself if you like first p p well he needn t have gone to to find out that have you had enough of it second p p don t want to see any more and with a show of humility it may be my bad taste perhaps it is but i d rather have one good honest english than a dozen of these things proudly i would indeed they make their way out with glances of wondering pity at the other visitors who not being persons are showing a very evident appreciation of the exhibition a circumstance which possibly the rising painter and his manager for any exceptions to the general rule at a bar scene a in the neighbourhood of the courts of justice at the bar members of both branches of the legal profession discovered on high behind bar bustling staff of kitchen maids and small boys in white caps by energetic manager of a familiar disposition voices behind the bar small roast beef cut lean robert when does that mutton mean to come plates look alive there were you the sir oh the and plain i beg your pardon more this last a pleasing for from the manager clerks before the bar can t let you have that further abstract yet but it s being attended to we ought to have had notice of that last they filed costs on higher scale not the practice to give copy without the told em so notice to produce all their books for the last sixteen years c c shower just ceasing enter a surly man umbrella less and jo him pleasantly the rain has been coming down sir hasn t it the surly man never saw it coming up did you the energetic manager to s m good morning sir you ve brought the sunshine in with you savage growl from the s m but that politely i m sure you always do new or stale bread sir presenting plate with squares of bread and indicating one of them stale is this chap let me the sunshine in with you at a legal	44
unless they put one of his tin soldiers on the piano i think that s so charming of him in tlie front row to his infant daughter a still more surprising p who is coming out next week remember you clap your hands the instant the first movement is over but the flowers you will throw when i tell you a mother to master who has just begun the piano and has been brought here to rouse his ambition now you see what a little boy can do when he tries who has instantly conceived a violent aversion to t te y p it s all very fine but hke to see him sit down to play some of my scales he wouldn t look so then i to school girl just think my dear how he practised to be able to play like this the musical the s s with a shudder it s too awful to think of the person his playing is simply too wonderful i like him better than little or even he s much prettier p well he has less firmness than young but more dash less delicacy perhaps than little but he makes up for that in feeling and besides he s their junior by several years a i assure you i ve heard that played by all the first in europe and not one of them not one entered into the yearning discontent the dreamy despair the hopeless passion with such feeling and perfect comprehension as this little a child of seven and a half sir marvellous end of first part master off with evident relief and is recalled again and again amidst little miss throws flowers when no one is looking and fall unnoticed under the piano to intense annoyance of her parent who liad counted upon a paragraph in the papers the matron with the family to male occupants of might i ask you kindly to allow my daughters to take your seats for a short time they are quite unused to standing so long thank you so much male occupants rise and feeling a delicacy in their seats remain standing for remainder of performance the person they say little the intervals in playing with his s ark and sweets here he comes again look his little cheek is quite out i shouldn t wonder if he had a bull s eye in it isn t he a duck do you notice how he always sticks his little legs straight out when he comes to the the concert by little taking the lead in a with two full grown as his more general as the audience breaks up into calmer criticism first after all you know i think i prefer de this boy took the rather too slow thought second and it s so easy to substitute single notes for i don t call it legitimate either for my part an genius too sickening i call it all this fuss about a kid why i might play and till i fell under the piano and none of these people would give me a hand would they his friend well not unless you could get yourself up in a frock and bows the musical humble friend to wealthy well my dear i always say just what i think as you know and i do say that your little plays with quite as much as this little russian boy and y r more brilliancy of execution the w p do you really think so of course she has been thoroughly well taught and now i think of it if youve nothing else to do to morrow evening you might like to come in about ten i can t ask you to dinner because our table is full but humble friend y herself rewarded a proud mother ive been thinking of such a charming plan if we can only manage it i wonder if we could get this little to come to us one evening and play that from with our she s very nearly perfect in it now to his daughter by this time to morrow week there shall be one little boy my with the nose out of joint professional ex phenomenon and so you are no longer playing ex i am too big become i can now stretch the of scene a near park shortly before scene opens an elderly gentleman has suddenly stopped t ie cab in which he has been driving and without offering to pay the fare has got out and off with a the has descended from his seat and overtaken the old gentleman is now perceived to be the usual crowd springs up from now and follows the dispute with keen and delighted interest look ere you ain t goin not without me you know s my two shillings the elderly gentleman smiling sweetly and himself on his heels against some i m well look can t yer don t keep me ere all day feel in yer pockets come the old gentleman makes an effort to find a pocket about him somewhere and then into abstraction crowd let im take is time he ll pay yer right enough if you let the man alone a woman ah pore gentleman the best of us is took like that sometimes murmurs of sympathy i don t want no more than what s my own e s rode in my and i want my fare out of im an i mean it too here the old gentleman who seems bored by discussion abruptly off again and is immediately overtaken and surrounded the of the the e g d ye mean founded lone pay me my fare or til have your bag bag the elderly gentleman resisting feebly and always smiling crowd why can t yer pay the man his fare and have done with	44
it there he s feeling in his pockets he s going to pay yer now elderly gentleman vaguely in a and eventually produces a bit which he ain t no good to me two shillings is what i want out o you a j ear me the e g after another fishes three all you re to go way go way crowd soothingly to e ll make it up in time don t im d ye think i kin stand ere my while he s me a y every our i ve got my living to earn same ave crowd ah he s right there to elderly gentle man ere nor fork out like a man the old nor shakes his head at them with a knowing expression well i sha n t let go o this ere bag till i am paid that s all here a policeman arrives on scene policeman now then what s all this move along ere all of you don t go up the like this what are yer all at the crowd feeling this rebuke move away some three paces and then linger ere you ve no right to lay old on that gentleman s you know that as well as i do somewhat by this tribute to his legal knowledge bag well he ain t got no right to ride in my and do a without paying as he policeman all i tell you is you ve no right to detain his bag let im pay me my legal fare then two shillings it is e owes me i don t want to with im if he ll pay me with a magnificent to the e g what have you got to say to that the e g with a dignified wave of tlie hand why tha vm a n his gradually into official disgust well all i can say to you is if you are one don t abuse it where are you going to the e g over with happy laughter i deciding to work on his fears don t you well i do then i know where j d re goin to ah and where you ll too afore you re much older the station us with a slight lapse into in concession to his audience for one night that s r direction unless you look out with virtuous indignation ere you are calling yourself a gentleman and old enough to know better riding in this man s and trying to him out of his money why you ought to be ashamed o yourself a now policeman why do you interfere why can t you leave them to settle it between them turning on him with awful dignity i don t want no suggestion sir i know my and them as tries to me ll get no good by it i m not ere to take one man s part more than another well ain t you goin to do something now you are here what s the good of a copper if he won t a man to his rights eh murmurs of sympathy from crowd now you mind j that s what better do or you ll be into trouble next i ve told you i can t interfere one way or the other and generally to crowd you must pass along ere please or i shall ave to make crowd to e g give the man his money can t yer pay im come look sharp just you pay me the e g how c n i pay man p go to again and is once more overtaken by the indignant following up now then don t go him crowd s sympathy round to the e g again the of the i ain t laid a finger on im i ve no wish to im from goin wherever he likes so long as he pays me youve no right to touch the man nor yet his bag so be careful that s all i tell you the e g with enthusiasm s ri always tries to pat policeman on back his disgust reaching a climax ere don t you go me about for i won t ave it if vm right it s more than what you are anyhow now be off with you wherever it is you re going to desperate but look ere can t you take his name and address rising to the occasion ah that s what i was for now you ve me now i kin act out a pocket book full of dirty and a pencil now then sir your name if you please the e g thing a do but qui forgot come out mi name sternly that won t do with me you know what s your name out with it the e g evidently making a wild shot at it smiles as if he feels sure the policeman will be pleased with a name like that john t george james or what the e g you can em all down t me it don briskly where do you live mr the e g mechanically one street park writing it and giving leaf to there will that do for you that s all want to the e g you ll ear from me later on the e g affectionately d you any time too can t o which way do you want to go the e g court then get there if youve capable of it and now you boys clear the road will you the elderly gentleman smiling in the full conviction of having himself from a difficult situation with tact and goes off in tlie direction of y accompanied by a of small boys have kindly resolved to	44
see him through any adventures that may await his progress the remains to discuss the affair at great length on the the policeman paces slowly on conscious that he has maintained the dignity of his office h of scene a hotel room anywhere mr and mr discovered about to begin a game captain hazard and mr who have come in just too late to secure the table seat themselves on bench and look on a friend of mr s is smoking in ttie background hazard in an to mr s they won t be long we shall get a game before they close it s only a quarter past ten now mr a limp man with spectacles and a mild expression it s ages since i ve touched a cue you ought to give me something really mr short stout and self satisfied all right how much will seventy do mr f a little hurt oh i m not so bad as all that say twenty five chooses a cue with great mr s friend i shall put a shilling on you my boy so play up mr i ll break i always make it a rule to play for safety tries to make a miss in but somehow to leave his ball near ce it re pocket ah with an air of somebody else too hard too hard mr f his cue you ve left me a chance there let me see perhaps td better leave you where you are for the present hit the red first and come back to you afterwards i think that s the better game m h aside to mr s seems to think he s playing parlour mr f after shifting the position of his left hand several times and the end of his cue red ball and lands himself eventually in comer pocket ive let you off you see now how the did i do i wonder mr b can t say i m sure that s three to me after playing ha i ve left em for you again mr f can t do anything there didn t i tell you so but ive saved my miss anyway mr b walking round table i ought to do something here yes i shall hit the red very fine and go in off him into the left hand top pocket that s the proper game plays te too much side on h he s right there mr my turn is it er s my eh mr good why you see you got into one of the pockets old fellow out of my way mr f ha ha so i did i i thought it was the best thing to do what s the game twenty seven three mr f i don t like my adversary s ball but you leave mc no choice plays three twenty seven mr very near very near sir well you haven t left me much mr f laughing feebly no i i couldn t afford to mr makes an easy cannon oh good shot i mr b complacently ah i m getting my eye in now strikes sharply and sends ball off tlie table h aside he ll be getting somebody s eye out presently mr b receiving ball thanks much obliged to i put rather too much screw on that time mr f with pride that s another to me makes a cannon te hke too much e o mr b there you see you can hit em when you take a little trouble not a bad stroke at all mr f modestly i m afraid it was a bit of a oh i go on playing don t i that s two to me after playing again and another to this gentleman mr b and makes another cannon i played for that creeping up to you eh later mr s score is thirty five mr s nineteen mr is mr gloomy and inclined to mr f beaming with honest pleasure five more to me i hope you re keeping the score correctly mr b well you aren t going to tell me you tried for that two more come i say it s impossible to play against such as that you played to go in off the red mr f oh n not altogether there you can t say i didn t try for that mr b the cloth um don t like this at all sha n t score this time he doesn t now you ve got me gloomily mr y and makes three mr b there i never saw the balls run as they do for you in all my life mr f generously well you re not in form to night i can see that mr b form what good s form against such infernal there go on it s you to play mr f i was just looking round the table that s all well i shall have a shot at the double event oh hard luck i mr b growling hard luck hard stroke you mean plays was that a cannon no sir nothing sir mr b hopelessly it s no use they won t run for me to night mr here please is the red ball clear of the cushion a game of it good half inch sir mr f then that s my game after playing a mile off you may beat me yet old fellow mr b not to night can t do anything there ever see anything like that in your life h in an i m hanged if ever did they ought to rent a table by the week if they want to play a game out mr f long game this tell you what if you like	44
to take that twenty five back i ve no objection mr f s friend oh i say and how about my shilling mr b annoyed don t be too confident i shall catch you up yet i play a waiting game h jove and so do we mr b i wouldn t make too sure of that shilling jones the game isn t over yet by a long way beg pardon gentlemen but it s getting late and those other gentlemen are waiting to play would you mind playing fifty instead of a hundred up t makes a shorter game gentlemen mr f well fm quite willing mr b of course you are but i never meant to give you twenty five in fifty i d give nobody such long odds as that mr f then look here suppose v e play fifty up and you take that make you forty six to my forty seven mr b brightening visibly that s fair enough all right forty seven i shall have a chance now lies on table and in making stroke mr f in waistcoat i shall have that stroke over again mr f removing to a safe distance i shall take good care don t mr b after missing again of course i knew i shouldn t bring a stroke like that off twice running bitterly you ought to run out easily now mr f trembling with excitement oh i m not so sure about that aims jones his friend mind what you re about old fellow remember i ve a shilling on you mr f after missing hang it jones i wish you d wait for the stroke it s enough to put any fellow out mr forty seven all plays what was that nothing sir miss sir mr i ll make it safe this time plays never got near it mr now then plays tut tut not legs enough h aside legs a wouldn t have enough for mr forty nine forty eight this is getting devilish exciting plays ah too fine that s another to you i must be careful now mr oh you re all right i sha n t get anything to night mr as mr b is have some more chalk mr b angrily chalk what the there it s all your wait a bit it s not going to be a miss anyway it s hi go on go on can t you ball a few seconds and drops into pocket game to me well you play a finer game than i thought you did but i fancy i should beat you by more than this on a better table and then you started twenty five to the good you know capital exercise the king of games mr y puts on his coat to h and mr s who have risen eagerly yery sorry gentlemen close on eleven gentlemen closing time mr f to mr jones well old fellow if i didn t quite pull it off you ll admit you had a good run for your money mr walks out with restored complacency mr follows with mr jones in a more resigned frame of mind the captain and his reserve their remarks until they are alone lights extinguished as scene afternoon in ib scene tlie open space between the and marble arch demonstration in progress calling upon the government to resign instantly intense heat hot hoarse men are to be observed from breaks all the indignation and enthusiasm proceed from that portion of the crowd nearest the those at a distance are either or languidly amused in the breaks persons of both sexes sit beaming warm approval of the speeches men hold up huge with the air of stage on the turf as far away from the as practicable smoking clay pipes at no great distance from the demonstration an elderly is a new philosophy which is to society to a few boys and an close by a is on a stool and a field p is delivering an address while an open air in vain to retain an audience which has somehow formed an impression that he is the eight hours labour bill all these various are audible at the same time and much to the effect indicated below orator in first break educated voice carefully attired in white hat and waistcoat frock coat button hole c addressing crowd of well fed and comfortably clad i s well gentlemen there s one court these precious have all to themselves and i wish them joy of it pauses for effect i refer gentlemen to the divorce court of laughter far be it from me to contest their right to such a we will leave them that scornful groans but i ask you he drops all and becomes sinister if we the down trodden slaves of the aristocracy were to go to them as they roll round this park ay gentlemen savage as the accuracy of this picture of high life is recognized if we were to go to them in our out a silk in our button hole our poverty our rags buttons coat how would they receive us would they take us to their crowd with conviction not t i the orator fiercely not they indeed why gentlemen they would laugh yes laugh laugh in our desperate faces but let them take heed to themselves and so forth another orator those among you who have access to blue books from his who imagine that this particular of light literature is being held up for third orator an and td just like to ask ye now as liberty loving englishmen how would ye would ye think would ye do if here in this great ye	44
to f r done je de at the french play ce n est ce pas ttie visitor comment done e est au qui c c in the dress circle first with a smile of subtle very written this dialogue eh that last bit he second who has been secretly wishing they wouldn t speak so fast full of of we re no match for them there i an aside is spoken on stage which the both a little late in laughing and resolve to watch one another s face in future result being that before end of second act each darkly the other of being a on the stage de la to m aside ah non par of laughter british who is determined john shall not think her dull behind her handkerchief isn t it killing john who has been beginning to think her rather too lively a slight well some people might find it a trifle broad but so long as youve amused b f in extreme confusion oh i thought this piece was all right or i wouldn t that s the worst of french you never know wishes they had gone to instead between the acts lady in box to her friend enjoying it dear the friend oh so much it s perfectly delightful with a sudden impulse to you know i didn t quite follow everything they said first lady oh but one does i t you get into it by degrees you know you ll find yourself beginning to get more accustomed to it by the time they come to the end of the last act at least that s my experience in the pit plain man to quiet neighbour kind o piece eh find you manage to catch the drift of it a t the q n has spent much of his time abroad oh j es i a think so the p m so did i first rate and without knowing a single word o french either mind you i manage to pick up what it s all about as i go along and i ll lay fm not far out i knew at once that that old chap in the smoking cap was put out about the way his daughter carried on that wa very good and then his old wife she came in and there was a the q n oh pardon me but you re wrong there the old lady was his mother in law and the girl his young wife he has no daughter in the piece and the idea is the p m well made it out different myself any way he evidently prefers his interpretation which q n does not make any efforts to correct during second act on the stage as the inevitable si je m amuse she says something very indeed which is received with merriment in the young wife is always meaning to take up her french again to her husband to understand that he is perfectly at home in the language but harry what was there so very funny about that harry who has been laughing solely to keep up his reputation well you see it s impossible to these things which it is for him it s you know very close of act m after peering through curtains la dame de opens door and it sharply a opens another same business le general ou me ah le starting back wildly ma sits down on a basket other characters rush on and form as curtain falls chorus of in it s all so perfectly isn t it so unlike our noisy f you notice how neatly they do all their business p and the how easy he was when he kicked the butler yes and wasn t he funny when he came down to the and told us what he meant to do so la thoroughly artistic i shall never forget him trying photograph under his waistcoat and so on in the upper boxes to is laughing at everything to la piece n est ce pas the who has a vague idea thai the vi is for being about par de too at the french play the astonished comment pas du et qui de the le c est en i i mean au the ah done un original the who feels that he may expose himself if he goes on much longer say escapes to and hears remainder of the piece from the back of the dress circle two acquaintances meeting at refreshment bar first wonderful actor how good he was in that first scene when he was explaining that about the you remember the part i mean he doesn t mean any part in particular second quickly oh very funny very funny and not to be y and then that scene with the with the bless my soul where they you know first who doesn t of course yes yes but it s all capital by the way is there a book of the words to be got anywhere second just what been looking out for during third act the british parent to his daughter what did he say then the daughter oh papa i can t explain everything th y say b p you explain i believe know more about it than you the d then you can explain to me papa b v he hasn t heard triumph daughter at the close critical who has understood on an average about one word in fifty i must say i was a little disappointed with the dialogue nothing like so witty as i expected his friend whose average was one in a hundred there were one or two good things in it though but of course it s one goes to see o ht a t able	44
t te scene a long dinner table y with plants in native pots visitors discovered consulting wine list y which they do with brows for some minutes y and order and german get in one another s y quarrel in late comers enter y either as if inclined to to the or as if they care particularly about but had just looked in conversation is conducted in a low and tone the to politely might i trouble you for the ah the neighbour eh the d d would you kindly pass the er changes his mind about the m ay n u the neighbour vm not of it here the d d i was only asking you if you could reach the to alter it once more m the neighbour i ye the the d d meekly the bill of fare please the old maid to elderly bachelor and what have j been doing to day the elderly bachelor well i took the train to something or other and on by coach through gives it up um to bless my soul i shall forget my own name next and by the falls of glare falls of bower i can t remember all the at a table confounded names and back by the pass at the other end of the y know the o m a charming trip tm quite longing to do it myself provincial across the table to friend oh yes i ve got all my here they like the knocking about from coach to steamer and that i that they notice the scenery much but it does em no arm i a pretty sister to plain don t look that way there s that man who sat next to us at don t you remember i don t want to have to bow to him the plain sister why i thought you rather liked him i m sure you talked ever so much to him that evening the pretty s i know but i shouldn t have if i d known he was going to turn up again in this ridiculous way the who early when lu is at home generally on i give you my word i ve not tasted salmon or not once all the time i ve been in scotland a stout man nor have i sir that is at the hotel they did give us what they were pleased to call a of but what d ye think it was four backs as bare as my hand and the rest of it rabbit german waiter you fish or fish the oh whichever you like to the stout man they put it down as and de sole and all but it s never anything but all the time the stout man i ll tell you a thing that happened to me at the hotel i asked for some at breakfast and you ll never guess what they brought me sir as i m a living man they brought me and so on ad the visitor what charming with pictures on them too and see what s printed on the top a gift lo the guest i do call that so nice of them george don t you george i do indeed my dear i should feel uneasy at by such reckless and almost oriental hospitality if i was not loo reassured by observing an advertisement of somebody s beef tea on the back the newly married wife to husband jack jack well n m w wasn t it of me to go and leave my umbrella behind like that jack tenderly not a bit n m w jack i won t have you saying tm not when i know i was now say i was like a good boy jack sha n t the n m w then you sha n t have any melted butter till you do dispute lasts throughout and is in danger of in a serious until jack finally admits in a very handsome manner t perhaps she had acted rather an himself what a lovely girl that is next to me how superior she seems to all these other people no wonder she is so silent i must speak to her if only to hear her voice til try it she can but me aloud to fair neighbour what a wonderful view you get here of waiter suddenly with dishes or the divinity appears in the business of choosing to have forgotten that had been addressed the feels that the golden moment has flown for the present and his time till the sweets appear when she opens her lips for the first time the divinity to mother a lady aw m they ve pit much in th n the dream to spend his evening in the room as usual n a to an scene pier deck of the a m wearing air of chilly depression or unnatural common to people who have got up too early in the morning the knowing ones select chairs in comfortable corners the timid to hearty i suppose we shall not have much more motion than this anywhere to day sir hearty t oh this this is nothing we re shut in here you see when we get out of the sound of and meet the atlantic we shall get shaken up a bit and a good thing too we don t want a mill pond eh the timid t who would much prefer a mill pond no no of course not considers seriously whether he cares so very much about to after all steamer starts tlie knowing passengers discover have chosen seats facing the windy and change well read quote the lord of the out of t guide books y to	44
to see than i expected at some scene a in north on a rock above the public are perched as a poet present remarks like sea birds below an surrounded by rough seats local in and dog carts c on a platform a is seen round performing with infinite satisfaction to himself upon his instrument while a jury of three take notes solemnly in a tent in an adjoining field a small party are playing with an of any rival attraction that is possibly due to some private the ceases with the weird suddenness with which he began and off a rival in the dead silence that calls out well played at which mr seems to be inwardly his friend s impudence another the platform and apparently the same air other and compare first john played that a well but he was one or two slips he went wrong here and he did that second aye he bring out the to my thinking d ye play the o mar d first p oo ah i must be thinking after a silence i begin it this way in second s ear ee ah ee ah oo di di de ee that is how play the second p i do not it the same way this is mine in first s ear ee ee ah a a ah di first p after giving the careful consideration yes that a good way but i thinking there will be more of the music in mine p io third p at i gained first prize i do not care who hears me though it was only the second i getting fourth p it true i was quite ashamed of the myself third p they told me i was to play anything but a my favourite tune fourth p it is ill when the will no be playing all the tune a one of the so you t got your great man down ere this time the champion you know who considers himself second to none on his instrument and who he the c c why they tell me he got all the at last year did play the pipes i not hearing of it he puts the stone yes a little and the he can toss the too but i not hearing that he played the pipes the c c d yer know oo s now among you eh i suppose they give the to the who the most old cows shouldn t care about being on the jury myself yer know i d rather be set down to class the tom cats in my back garden at ome politely you will be understanding more about the tom cats and such things the c c ive though that the sound of the will call a dead back to life either that or the smell of you call it you know but between you and me now you don t call that row you make music do yer honour bright now i finds the turned away the c c tells a friend that he has just ad a very pleasant conversation with one of these very intelligent chap i like going among the natives yer know and to understand them and that the sports proceed t ie hammer is hurled and on one occasion causes infinite amusement to the sea birds by missing one of the at some sports the spectators nearest the show a less keen sense of humour the a rough fir trunks twenty one feet long is tossed that is lifted by six set on end and placed in the hands of the who after looking at it doubtfully for a it raises it a foot or two and runs several yards with it after which he it forward by a mighty effort so as to pitch on the thicker end and fall over in the direction from him a lady spectator y after a has at length succeeded in this difficult feat don t they toss it any further than that a native oh aye i tossed it three hundred feet and more myself the lady have you indeed and where was that native modestly over a cliff from the top right down to the bottom the egg and spoon race a contest peculiarly characteristic of the hardy north is about to be run the in line each youth holding a spoon in which an egg simple little wife but tell me alfred what happens if one of them drops the egg alfred readily oh he has to sit down and eat it instantly with the spoon simple little w how curious these old customs are the part of the sports are over by about o p m ana the and sword dances begin four have been danced and six sword dances mrs of to mr who finding that it is nearly six and there are eight more people waiting to dance the sword dance in turn is retreating quietly you really ought not to miss the fling it comes next on the programme io mr departing oh i won t i ll drop in to morrow after the dancing continues separate sword dances and fifteen for the fling local who are compelled by their position to drive off and the quality of the bag pipe ig have won a receive congratulations suspiciously fro n london outside the grounds other fine old sports putting the nut glass bottle and egg trying tjie weight are now in full s left sporting at a bi scene an immense drawing room lighted by gas y and furnished on a scale of imposing splendour it is after dinner tea and coffee have just been served in the corridor outside and persons of more luxurious habits have brought in their cups to at leisure	44
on in tlie centre sit middle aged ladies in grey red and white each politely admiring the other s work very young ladies whisper and laugh in the window seats all about nothing and exhibit the affection for one another others converse not unconscious of the distinction with the exceptional young men who have evening and who glide about with an agreeable air of feeling perfectly at home people who anybody sit apart in chairs the hotels of europe or anything else they can get hold of and wondering why other people are so a stout old lady in a comer is to a meek little old maid in a strong which from time to time the unwilling attention of everybody in the room the old lady s husband in vain to catch her eye from the background as her confidences threaten to become of an intimate nature in the two visitors have just discovered a bond of sympathy in the fact that neither of them has found scotch scenery quite what they expected first visitor delighted you weren t much impressed with the of you don t say so now that really is very curious no more was i now is certainly rather pretty as if he did not wish to turn its head bits of it you know but the what are the after all second v exactly feeling that this settles the what o are they and then some people tell you s so i went through it in a pouring rain and all i can say is couldn t see anything in the place and look at and why to hear some people talk first v in a large minded way well i didn t think was so bad myself i must say second v ah perhaps you re a good sailor now i m always ill on any steamer the lady in a slow voice an so ah said to ma husband ah t to on them cherry as they them it may be ah said when but if ah was ah d to an ma husband to me t be a j her husband drops a book in the background a young lady who likes excitement to one of the agreeable young men in evening dress oh mr don t they ever do anything here mr oh yes i m going to ask that lady in the blue spectacles to sing in a minute and there s somebody in the house somewhere who will play the if you go the right way to manage him the y l oh i didn t mean that i meant get up something a solitary stranger seizing the opportunity of speaking to somebody if you re fond of climbing there s a very nice mountain in the vicinity you can get up it easily in three hours and it s only eight miles by road the y l stiffly oh thank you very much to mr t i mean get up a dance n an ah you should have been here the week before last when the house was full there was something going on every evening in the room dumb thought reading and i don t know what all such fun we had the y l coldly really to mr t but why couldn t we dress up or something vaguely mr t doubtfully well there s not much point in dressing up unless you do something when you are dressed up is there at a north british the y l who would be quite satisfied with the mere dressing up i suppose not well then we might dance mr t who dance y but would if anybody were to ask him not enough men the y l oh some of the girls by which she means the other girls can dance with one another do propose a dance mr er well i must find out what people think about it before proposing anything you know at as wide a from her as possible while she to find out from the expression of those he addresses their to dance or otherwise an object in which she might be more successful if he were mentioning the subject at all the lady as before an ah went an ah on a and front an next ma legs swelled an expression in her s face warned her to lower her voice at this point another young man in evening dress approaches a group of young ladies all the young ladies now you mustn t come here mr you are such a dreadful you must promise to behave if we let you stop they make room for him with alacrity the y m taking a novel with an elegant carelessness is this very pathetic the owner of the novel i won t have you making fun of it it s lovely i ve wept over it i left off just at the most exciting part i m dying to know how it goes on i should be reading it now if i didn t want to finish this calmly the y m to young lady aren t we to have a song this evening the y l how can you ask me why you know how i broke down last night the y m gallantly well i d rather it you break down than other people f i know that proud mother from there s my daughter here will be happy to sing if you like to ask her she s had a first rate teaching and people who know what good singing is tell me the daughter in modest confusion how can you go on so mamma you ll make the gentleman think i m something wonderful she is induced to consent to sing well what will you have i	44
ve got only the moon and love i looking up under some of my songs are rather soft and there s say but one word and i am thine that s a hint to some of you young gentlemen will you have that or this is a pretty one one kiss t ten we part the y m after looking through tier music i think if you wouldn t mind singing the better land she is disappointed but sings it without interrupting either the reading or the conversation the lady speaking through music so ah said to th ah want you to tell ma it is ah m is it ma ah said or ma chest or ma the singer with solemn feeling not there not they ere my song amidst faint and absent minded applause the young lady who likes excitement to herself over thank goodness there s plenty of time for a dance still if they only make haste i m sure i can hear playing a in the room what are they waiting for t two men enter and look around have they come in to find partners then there is dancing the two men bring out a board and begin to play pigs mr after conversing in various quarters goes out with mr they re going to arrange about it at last waits for some time the lively yoimg ladies collect their work and go out too oh those girls are going now i d better ask some one perhaps crossing to matron do you know where those gentlemen in evening dress have gone matron i heard them say something about a game of and a cigar the y l oh but all those young ladies where have they gone to t at a north british matron the young ladies oh ihe ve gone to bed we keep early hours here you know the lady an he gave ma a o things that ah wasn t to ah n t eat bread an ah n t eat ah t sat bread ah t eat nor nor tea nor yet nor tea nor no nor boot ah a sweat ah and so on drawing room gradually till the is left alone with the little old maid who throws in an yes at intervals and wonders if it will be rude to say she is rather tired q scene entrance to t te castle a small party of have just retained t te services of an official guide guide in a tone and without any stops whatever fixing his eyes on having apparently committed his discourse to memory before our round of the castle lady and gentlemen i will ask your attention to a few remarks upon the below the where we now stand most parties are apt to run away with the impression of its being the ancient moat which a moment s reflection will show us how absurd this is being more than one feet above the base of the solid rock before us is the exercise ground formerly the scene of countless and other spectacles common to that age now for ever past from us first desirous to gratify the guide and display his military knowledge you could hold this place against any odds eh practically i suppose guide well sir as a fortress it is quite being commanded by arthur s seat a s who did you say commands the castle that lie is cut off from guide by a body of soldiers marching down to by time he comes up with him again guide is already explaining something else and question allowed to drop guide above the same eye arch under which we are now about to pass you will observe the arms carved above with the motto me no one me with doing castle the s in a whisper what did he say provoked him guide continuing in the chamber above the last and gate making seven in all and lighted by a single grating it formed the place of confinement for the previous to his execution there the original study was made by ward for his picture the last sleep of now in the of parliament who have never seen the westminster really painted was it they regard the grating with dawning interest the s s singular thing to do sending an artist to paint him asleep before they cut his head off curious days those sir curious days on the past guide the portion above i modern having been re erected in recent times in the latest style on your left as you go forward lady and gentlemen you will observe a flight of steps formerly at once the route for persons of royal and noble blood and the only means of access from the condemned to the place of execution a striking contrast thus we see afforded between the two sides misery and splendour the and the lowest in an impressive manner prepare in limp attitudes to receive information you follow the direction of my staff to the corner of the where the projects it was there that a rather romantic an old lady hurriedly are you the guide can you explain the castle guide yes ma am that is what i am here to do placidly it was there that a rather romantic but strictly the old lady wait a minute i want my friend to hear this ril fetch her starts in search who is drifting about amongst tlie cannon y and comes under protest guide proceeding a rather romantic but strictly according to our historical records a curious took place the manner in which the castle was taken by surprise by with only thirty picked men ascending the well nigh rock the or as we now call it the was at that moment being relieved and	44
the in mere or pure folly seizing one of the stones with which in those days for purposes of defence the was then and shouting away i see ye well it over the upon the of the crouching the s s the crouching which guide repeating with relish the crouching fortunately without injury to any of the party which waiting till the had gone by clutching the ivy in their they reached the summit overpowering the and taking the castle by surprise the feat being counted as one of the most daring known to the s s and were t there guide no sir it took place in thirteen and twelve sir before i was born sir continuing as before in yonder building now the the entertained the at a banquet the cover being removed revealed the black bull s ed symptom of violent and immediate death struck with at the sight they begged for their lives being refused and slain on the spot the iron on your right as you ascend is comparatively modern and constructed to old water in the event of a siege to provide against the garrison being reduced by thirst the water is forced up into the each day by from the ills i may here mention that the piece of we are now passing is the famous ladies and gentlemen it is unnecessary for me to explain the cannon the on the carriage being its the s s is that the gun they fire every day by guide it was last fired in sir being burst by the discharge and consequently now even for peaceful purposes the party pass into the and face the royal apartments guide the wing on your right was set apart for the court and royal in front stands the ancient a here and with at the death of charles the first that doorway leads you to queen mary s room the of james the sixth afterwards james the first of england ladies and gentlemen mysteriously am now going to explain something which you will find doing castle i r i i in none of the guide books or records will you all remain kindly where you now are for a few minutes and keep your eye fixed on me walks slowly to a doorway arid a stone above it with his look apparently in expectation of some startling trick guide returning with subdued importance a curious discovery never yet cleared up was made some years ago in the exact spot which you saw me touch with my stick some workmen making alterations came upon a coffin of oak which being opened proved to contain the skeleton of an infant of great the s s old did you say the infant was guide its exact age is unknown but it was of a great and enveloped in a covering wrought with two one of them an i being distinctly visible being reported to major general then in command of the royal he gave orders for the skeleton to be replaced and the sealed up which accordingly was done though what or the infant was it is a mystery solemnly will ever remain a mystery but that is where the infant was found and where it now is the s s did you say that james the first was born in there guide yes sir we have record of that being so the s s very well triumphantly your mystery s accounted for at once looks round to discover effect and that his theory does not seem to be generally understood and for the first time that he does not understand it himself guide declining to pursue the subject here ladies and gentlemen my duties you will now inspect at your leisure for there is no occasion to hurry taking your own time about it the crown room the st margaret s chapel and the view from the castle the official charge i may here remind you is sixpence each person thank you sir i am much obliged to you scene on up staircase in varying states of contented as to what they are going to see when they get up ht tbe ri ai or the thames crowd discovered waiting for lord mayor s show i pleasure whose temper is apt to be a little uncertain on these occasions to her husband we ought to have started at an hour earlier just look at the number of people here already you would and it wasn t for want of speaking to sure her mildly it certainly was not only as the show can t possibly for two hours at least she hours i am i to stand about in this crowd all that time v a feeble unless you prefer to climb a tree she then john all i can say is i wish i had stayed at home john murmurs a silent but fervent assent a practical pleasure now i tell you what we ll do maria you take and keep close to me and til look after and we ll just stroll comfortably up and down till the very last minute and drop comfortably into front places and there we are patriotic p what i like about occasions like this is the spectacle of a thoroughly good humoured well behaved british crowd you don t see that on the continent y know more patriotic p thoughtfully no that s perfectly true and what i say is we don t want all these police about trust more to the general spirit of decency and order let the people feel they are trusted a ah you re right did you year what one of the said in the square the other afternoon he told em sir charles would ave to be as wide awake as what he was to prevent a demonstration to	44
day let him remember says he it s at the lord show in our power to do that within a mile of the mansion house which would make the civilized world ring with he says and it s men like that as they re trying to silence and the p p s away a little nervously to one another well i hope the police are keeping a sharp look out i i don t seem to see so many about as usual eh a with two and a board to female p ere you are two fur a rate stand you won t see no better if you was to pay a female p you may say what you like but i m not going to tramp about any longer and if you re so mean as to grudge two shillings why i can pay for myself oh hang it get up if you want to the practical p well maria it s no use worrying now we must go and ask at the police stations afterwards it was a mistake to bring them the patriotic p of course one is told there s a deal of rough horse play on these occasions but anything more entirely a comes up behind and his hat in a string of playful youths seize each other by waist and rush in single file through crowd everybody in their way both the patriotic pleasure go home by the without waiting for the procession the female p on the stand john i m sure this board isn t safe we should see ever so much better on one of those carts they re only asking sixpence john you are the worst person to come out with you never give yourself the smallest trouble have to do it all you can stop here if you choose fm going to get into one of those carts she and n descend and mount upon a coal cart which is being driven slowly along route later procession approaching distant music crowd jumping up and down like to see better ere they are they re coming the way is cleared by trotting mounted i stout lady well if i wanted to faint ever so i couldn t now where are you my dear another stout lady cheerfully fm all right mrs porter i ve got tight old of this nice young s belt don t you fret yourself about me experienced catching hold of little and placing him in fronts then pushing forward make for this little boy please i want him to see crowd good make way affording view of procession to and tlie experienced who troubles himself no ter a superior to think of the traffic of the first city of the world being stopped for this contemptible fights hard for a front place procession passing impertinent female to gorgeous coachman ow you ave altered well informed person pointing out city that s sir charles that is with sense of recent wrongs the c m beams with gratification open carriages pass y containing in tall hats and fur coats critical crowd brush yer there s a nose oh ain t he bin a go at the afore he started neither ere comes old sir ben that s im in the white pot at they cheer sir ben without however any clear notion why cars pass crowd don t they look chilly up there old on to your globe sir don t cold in them miss they ve run up that lot ave see where it s all bent in eh a t the lord mayor s show lord mayor s coach passes crowd that s im with the on no it ain t yer soft ed it s im in the at a back w don t yer let im sit on yer lap nor c c a block lady s coach stopping crowd there s dresses they must ha cost a tidy penny wrung out of the pockets of the pore working man i d dress em i would why should as you and me keep the likes o them in if we had our rights it s us ud be riding in their places after a glance at him as the show d be much the prettier to look at for mate after procession practical pleasure has been pushed into a back row and seen nothing but the to and recovered thank heaven they re found children let this be a lesson to you in future never to what seen the show beautifully have you boiling over oh very well wait tell i get you home the female p now don t say another word john anyone but an idiot would have known that the cart would be turned down a back street if i hadn t insisted on getting out when i did we should have missed the show altogether policeman is the show ever coming shall we get a good view from here policeman capital view if you t mind waiting till next november curtain r n an scene an italian anywhere in the metropolis only a few of the small dining tables are occupied as scene opens near is a small lift communicating with tlie kitchen and by the lift a enter an with his adored he leads the way down the centre of t ie flushed and he has not been long engaged and this is the very first time he has dined with her like this beaming where would you like to sit a fine young woman but past the stage oh it s all the same to me i catching an note in her tone why you don t really think i d have kept you waiting if i could help it there s always extra work on foreign	44
nights turns away and hat before mirror waiter a waiter who has been reading the globe in the corner presents himself with what shall we have to begin with eh the waiter himself appealed toy the responsibility a and privately that these stiff englishmen can be strangely familiar at times oh i don t feel as if i cared much about anything now well i ve ordered soup and sole au now you must try and think what you d like to follow a with infinite contempt for such want of originality a the idea i in an italian abashed i thought perhaps but look down the glances down it with eyes which she tries to render vol au vent d that looks as if it would be rather good shall we try that you may if you like i sha n t touch it myself well look here then you you like do i i was not aware of it come it s for you to say reads from list hare and of who is still suffering from offended dignity all these suggestions with scorn and don t like any of them well helplessly can t you think of anything you would like nothing except with decision a relieved by this condescension the very thing i tenderly we will both have waiter who has been waiting in dignified submission two well sharply what to waiter yes to aside in same breath potatoes darling the waiter he is being with do you prefer them or in or what with the lofty indifference of an nature tm sure don t care how they re done then waiter as waiter not for me i ll have mine i when they are alone leaning across table i ve been looking forward to this all day didn t you have any lunch then i don t mean to the dinner but to having you to talk with quite alone by our two selves ho has her dignity to consider oh i i wish you d do something for me fervently only tell me what it is darling it s only to get me the vm sure that gentleman over there has done with it the it with a face behind tlie leaving him outside in solitude at length he himself by which he happens to have seen from an adjoining table a bachelor dining alone and on the opposite side of the room watches t with growing sense of consolation at the speaking waiter fa at least it sounds something like this a little cupboard arrives by the lift a dish which tlie waiter to receive the new arrival is apparently of a nature returns it indignantly and rushes back to la ci la a voice fro n bottom of lift la waiter losing his temper the voice d o waiter e k up with the air of a man has had the best of it at another table two brothers are seated here who may be distinguished for the purposes of dialogue as tlie good brother and the bad brother the good b appears somewhat against his will to be acting as host though he his own refreshment to orange which he eats with an air of severe reproof the bad b who has a sullen look and a appearance generally is cold meat with the intense solemnity of a person conscious of more than three parts drunk both attempt to give their remarks an ordinary tone in an italian the bad b suddenly with his mouth full will you lend mc five shillings good b no i won t i see no reason why i should the b b in a low passionate voice will you lend me five shillings the g b endeavouring to maintain a virtuous calm i don t think i will b b you ve been giving money away all the afternoon to people after asked you for some g b roused i was not it s dashed impertinence of you to say such a thing as that i m sick of this dashed nonsense sick and tired of it if i hadn t some principle left still i should have gone to the east long ago b b i m glad you didn t i want five shillings g b want five shillings you keep on saying that and never say what you want you must have some object do you want it to go and get drunk on b b with a lend me five shillings g b i don t intend to b b in a tone of compromise then lend me a sovereign g b changing subject with a hospitality would you like anything after that beef b b i should like five shillings g b look here i at once admit that you ve got more brain than i have b b handsomely not at all it s you that have got more brain than me g b this suspiciously i ve more principle at any rate and to tell you the truth tm not going to put up with this dashed impertinent treatment any longer b b you re not eh then lend me five shillings g b desperately here waiter bill i pay for this gentleman waiter after adding up the one and four if you please t ie g b pays b b and dashed cheap too a small cook boy in white up to waiter and whispers waiter boy say pointing to b b tell him to give for him to cook in mi italian g b i have nothing to do with that he must settle it with him b b with fierce indignation it s a lie i gave the boy the money it was a penny waiter boy say you did not give b b	44
to g b be d d don t you pay it it s a see i ll tell you in french j ai le holding up two fingers pour d g b i m sorry to have to say it but i don t believe your story to the b b b b rising i m going to have it out with cook up to door leading to kitchen and exit sounds of below re enter b b pursued by voice b b turning at door what did you say voice i say you are y va b b well s just as well you didn t say any more goes up to waiter that man down there was but there i ll give you the penny there it is presses that coin into waiter s hand and his fingers over it put it into your pocket quick say no more bout it ni only remember pausing on threshold d la charles the first if any one row with recollection of duke s motto i m here that sh all to g b i shall say ni to you outside exit b b the g b solemnly to waiter i tell you what it is i m ashamed of him there i am i m ashamed of him he after his sounds argument without as scene in scene a s large boxes full of cards occupy ttie behind them are young wo more or less of temper double row of customers enter the conscientious a companion this is a cheap place to go to you only pay three here for a card they d ask as much as for at some shops s c with fi how very nice dear c p now let me see have you got the list i always like to make sure that all my cards have something appropriate about them s c but then you have such wonderful taste dear c p modestly i take a httle pains over it that s all we ll begin at this tray shall we and work round would you send one to the or not i see ive put them down but really it s so long since they asked us to dinner well i can settle that afterwards can t just tell me when you come across anything you like and put it aside s c don t you like this isn t it perfect c p a little commonplace think s c yes perhaps it is but rather a striking kind of commonplace in its way don t you think no well perhaps you re right dear a simple old gentleman to bland look here i want a card to send to a little girl b s certainly sir now here s a card we re selling a good many of ye in two subjects represented as eating and playing blind man s you see the pair for sixpence three sir choosing christmas cards s o g doubtfully um haven t you got anything b s surprised sir those are considered very lively this year i assure you s o g don t seem to me quite suitable for a child b s think not sir do you like this churchyard and ruined tower with moonlight effect we find that a popular design s o g no no haven t you got something more more that kind of thing b s with pity oh dear no sir you won t find that class of article at any respectable shop c p i want something for mrs green not a bowl my dear she only came out of that retreat place last friday to assistant what are we doing those angels playing the at assistant three sixpence the set of three but we re sold out of angels o s well give me some of those cats with will you c p now tell me would a r think i meant any thing personal if i send her a cat it won t do to send and by the fireside if it s true he s filed a petition will it i think on the whole a snow scene will be safer a vague oh i want one of those new art cards those with a kind of little well not a sketch exactly but dear me i could explain what i mean exactly if you were to let me see one it s too provoking i can t think of it not in the least like that it s published by those people who brought out so many of the same last year to a friend if it wasn t a s they d know directly i a meek if you please have you a penny one with two clasped b s not at this time of year they don t come in season till february clasped don t simple minded old leaving shop with purchase i m not s i sure even now that a photograph of two stuffed kissing under the is exactly the sort of thing to please a child as young as little c p and you ve got me to fit them all very well how much did you say five and oh then i must find some others not quite so expensive no i won t take any i chose choosing christmas cards first thank you let me see yes you may pick me out a dozen from this penny tray it doesn t matter which companion trouble doesn t it s c much the most sensible way of doing it dear i should never have thought of it myself but you are so full of clever ideas tm sure you must feel this a great tax upon you c p	44
that his attachment to her was robust enough to bear the test and to that test she was determined to submit him she consented to an engagement on one condition that he was to take a long voyage if he returned in the same mind she would be sufficiently sure of his constancy to marry him as soon as he wished if he did not her would be amply justified there was very little sentiment about she took a practical and philosophical view of the marriage union as became a of i like you peter she told him frankly sl e yon have many that yon to me bnt i don t feel that i can depend npon yon at present and from what i know of yon i fear it is only too probable that absence and the attractive society of a passenger ship may lead yon to discover that yon have mistaken the depth of the feeling yon entertain for me bnt look here he had if yon re afraid of that why do yon make me go because she had replied with her admirable common sense because if my fears should prove to be unhappily only too i shall at least have made the discovery before it is too late and in spite of all his peter had to go sought to reconcile him to this necessity by pointing out the advantages of travel the effect it would have upon his mind and the opportunities a long sea voyage afforded for regular and study on the lines she had already out for him but despite these he went away in low spirits when the moment came for parting even the strong s minded was seized with a kind of something tells me peter she said that the ordeal will prove too much for you in spite of your good resolutions you will sooner or later be drawn into some which will make you forget me i know you so well peter i wish you could show a little more confidence in me he had answered in a wounded tone since i met you i have ceased to be the butterfly i was but as you seem to doubt me it may relieve your mind if i promise faithfully that while i am away from you i will never under any allow myself to the limits of the most ordinary civility toward any woman with whom i may be brought in contact i swear it are you satisfied now perhaps he had a secret that a time might come when this oath would prove a restraint upon his fancy and it certainly had an immediate and most effect upon had gone out to had seen something of the country during his stay si e in the colony and was now as we have seen on his return and during the whole time his oath to his great credit had been literally and faithfully kept during the voyage out he had been too persistently to be inclined to with sentiment but in his subsequent wanderings he had avoided or rather escaped all intercourse with any ladies who might by any possibility his to whose image consequently still held possession of his heart in case he should feel himself wavering at any time he had been careful to provide with a in the shape of a photograph the mere sight of which would be instantly effectual but somehow since he had been on board the the occasions on which he had been driven to refer to this photograph had been growing more and more frequent while at the same time he had a consciousness that it took an longer time to work he brought it out now and studied it attentively it was the likeness of a girl without any great pretensions to beauty with dark ll hair rolled neatly back from a massive brow that shone with penetrating eyes whose was generally tempered by folding glasses a large firm mouth and a square chin altogether the face of a young woman who would stand no trifling he put it back respectfully in his pocket but the impulse to go across and drop in an accidental fashion into a vacant seat near one of those two girls was still he was feeling so dull he had got such a very little way into the history of civilization a work which he was reading rather for s satisfaction than his own and there was such a lot more of it might he not allow himself a brief holiday and the long weary morning with a little cheerful conversation it was most unlikely strict etiquette being by general consent suspended on board ship that either young lady would resent a remark at all events he could but try but then his oath rash and voluntary oath to what of that he had not it was true himself from ordinary civility but could he be sure of keeping r l always within those bounds if the was once established he had reasons for doubting this very seriously and besides had not more than hinted in her last letter that as a reward for his fidelity she might join the ship at with her mother and so put an earlier end to his term of he could not be too careful after holding out so long it would be madness to his precautions now no he would resist these like a modem though in the latter s case the were not actually on board and even then the hero had to be lashed to the mast but felt confident notwithstanding that he would prove at least as as the greek he was not a strong minded man but he had one quality which is almost as valuable a against temptation as strength of mind namely timidity his love for his was by a considerable dash of awe and	44
he was resolved not to compromise himself in her eyes just for the sake of a little temporary distraction at this point of his he looked at liis watch it was close upon twelve only one hour to be got through before why an hour was nothing he could surely contrive to it over a little courage a little and he would certainly attain to an interest in the laws which govern human actions the ship s bells were just striking he counted the strokes one two three four five and no more there must be some mistake it could not possibly be only ten why it was hours since breakfast looking at your watch eh said his friend as he reached peter s chair for about the time ah you re fast i see haven t altered your watch yet they ve put the ship s clock back again this morning nearly half an hour it was this it was rather less yesterday and the day before we shall go on gaining so much extra time a day i suppose till we get to you don t mean to tell me that exclaimed peter with a half suppressed groan if the time had seemed tedious and interminable enough before how much more so ai e was it now how infinitely greater would the effort be to fix his thoughts resolutely on and the very existence of his neighbors now that it was to be daily prolonged in this manner you don t seem to appreciate the arrangement remarked the manager as he allowed himself to drop cautiously f or he was a man into a chair beside appreciate said peter with strong disgust aren t there enough half hours and long ones too in the day as it is without having extra ones forced on you like this and giving it to us in the too they might at least put the clock back at night when it wouldn t so much matter i do think it s very bad management i must say his companion began a long explanation about the and sun s time and ship s time and time to which peter gave but a very attention so did he feel at this unwelcome discovery it s a curious thing to think of the other was saying thoughtfully that a man by simply making a voyage like this should d make a clear gain of several hours which he would never have had at au if he had stayed at home i i would much rather be without them said peter i find it quite difficult enough to spend the time as it is and how on earth i can spend any more i don t know why spend it then asked his friend quietly what else am i to do with it what else see here my friend when you have an amount of spare cash that you ve no immediate use for you don t let it lie idle at home do you you pay it in to your credit at a bank and let it remain on deposit till you do want it eh well then why not treat your spare time as you would your spare cash do you see what i mean not altogether confessed peter considerably puzzled it s simple enough nowadays for instance the i have the honor to be connected with the joint stock time bank limited itself as you are doubtless aware almost entirely to that class of business sl e ah said peter no more enlightened than before does it indeed would you mind explaining what particular class of business it carries on i don t quite understand bless my soul sir said the manager rather you must be uncommonly ignorant of financial matters not to have heard of this before however i will try to make it clear to you i dare say you have heard that time is money very well all our operations are conducted on that principle we are prepared to make advances on good security of course of time to almost any amount and we are simply overwhelmed with for business men as you may know are perpetually pressed for time and will consent to almost anything to obtain it our transactions in time sir are immense tlie amount of time passing through our books during tlie last ten years ah about sixty centuries that s pretty well i think sir he was so perfectly business like and serious that peter almost forgot to see anything preposterous in what he said d it sounds magnificent he said politely only you see i don t want to borrow any time myself i ve too on my hands already just so said the manager but if you will kindly hear me out i am coming to that time is only one side of our business we are also ready to accept the charge of any spare time that customers may be willing to deposit with us and with our experience and i need hardly say that we are able to employ it to the best advantage now say for example that you wish to open an account with us well we ll take these spare of yours that are only an to you at present and if you choose to allow them to remain on deposit they will carry interest at five per cent per month that is five minutes on every hour and three quarters roughly for each month until you withdraw them in that way alone by merely leaving your time with us for six months you will gain now let me see over three additional hours in compound interest on your original capital of ten hours or so and no previous notice required before i let me tell you e sir you will not find many banks do business	44
on such terms as that no said peter who could not follow all this so i should imagine only i don t quite see if you will pardon my saying so what particular advantage i should gain if i did open an account of this sort you don t you surprise me you really do here are you with these additional hours lying idle on your hands you didn t expect em and don t want em but how do you know that you be glad of em at some time or other just think how grateful you might be hereafter if you could get back a single one of these half hours which you find so tedious now half an hour on board a fine ship like this splendid weather perfect rest pleasant company and so on why you d be willing to pay any money for it i well bank your extra time and you can draw every individual hour in quarters or when you please and as you please that the advantage of it sir i think i see said peter only how am i to make the deposit in the first instance that s easily arranged the captain can t compel you to accept the time now by merely putting back the hands of the clock can he so au you have to do is to from your watch so long as you are on board and to fill up a little form after which i shall be happy to supply you with a book of time which you can fill up and present whenever you wish to spend a given number of minutes in the possible of ways but where am i to present these inquired peter oh said the manager there will be no whatever about that any clock will cash it for you provided of course that it hasn t stopped you merely have to slip your underneath or behind it and you will at once be paid whatever amount of time the is drawn for i can show you one of our forms if you like here he brought out a leather case from which he extracted a printed document which he handed to peter peter however being naturally cautious felt a hesitation which he scarcely liked to confess ll ij you see lie said the fact is i should like to know first i ve never been engaged in a a transaction of tliis kind before and well what mean is do i any risk of er a supernatural character it isn t like that business of s eh don t you know the manager took back the paper with an which showed that his temper was ruffled by this suspicion my good sir he said with a short offended laugh don t on any account imagine that care two pins whether you become a or not i dare say our house will continue to exist without your account as for ours is a limited concern and besides a deposit would not constitute you a if you meant anything more well i have still to learn that there s anything about me sir i simply thought i was doing you a good turn by making the suggestion and besides as a business man i never neglect any opportunity however small but it s entirely as you please i m sure there was nothing in the least o even in his annoyance and peter was moved to and apology i i really beg your pardon he said i do hope i haven t offended you and if you will allow me i shall consider it a personal favor to be allowed to open an account with your bank it would certainly be a great convenience to draw some of this superfluous time at some future day instead of wasting it now where do i sign the form the manager was appeased and produced the form once more indicating the place for the signature and even providing a pen for the purpose it was still somewhat of a to peter s mind to find that the ink it contained was of the ordinary black hue and now about said his friend after the signature had been obtained how many do you think you would require i should say that as the deposit is rather small you will find fifty more than sufficient we shall you with fifty seconds to cover the book and we always recommend bearer as on the whole more convenient e peter said he would have fifty bearer and was accordingly given an gray green book which except that it was a trifle smaller was in different outwardly from an ordinary book still his curiosity was not completely satisfied there is just one question more he said when i draw this time where will it be spent naturally on board this ship explained the manager you see that the time you will get must necessarily be the extra time to which you are entitled by virtue of your passage and which you would have spent as it if you had not chosen to deposit it with us by the way when you are filling up we much prefer not to be called upon to honor for less than fifteen minutes as much more as you like but not less well then we may consider that settled i am extremely glad to have had the opportunity of obliging you and i think i can promise that you will have no reason to repent of having made such a use of your time i ll wish you good by for the present sir the manager resumed his tramp s round the deck leaving peter with the in his hand he was no longer surprised now that he was more familiar with the idea it seemed a perfectly natural and matter of fact arrangement	44
he only wondered that he had never thought of so obvious a plan before and it was an immense relief to know that he had got rid of his extra hours for the present at all events and that he could now them to a period at which they would be a boon rather than a burden and very soon he put the book away and forgot all about it the chapter i s first and how he took it fidelity rewarded lovers a recollection the and some results time dear friends a compromise peter was at an end and what was more he had come through the ordeal triumphantly how he managed this he scarcely knew no doubt he was aided by the consciousness that the extra hours which he felt most liable to mis spend had been placed beyond his disposal at all events when he met again he had been able to convince her that her doubts of his con d s even under the most trying conditions were entirely now he was receiving his his engagement to was no longer but a recognized and fact it is superfluous to say that he was happy had set herself to repair the in his education and culture she took him to scientific lectures and classical and made him read standard authors without he felt himself daily acquiring balance and seriousness and an accurate habit of thought and all the other qualities which wished him to cultivate still there were moments when he felt the need of halting and recovering his wind so to speak in the steep and climb to her superior mental level times when he felt that his brain absolutely required of some sort he felt this particularly one dreary morning late in november as he sat in his london chambers staring with lack eyes at the letter he had that day received from his for although they met nearly every day she never allowed one to pass without a j i s l letter no fond and foolish be it understood but a kind of examination paper to test the progress he was making this one contained some searching questions on s history of which he was expected to answer by return of post he was not supposed to look at the book though he had and even then he felt himself scarcely better fitted to floor the tremendous devised by s care the day before he had had search questions in english poetry from to mr which had and his hair but this was if possible even worse he wished now that he had got up his more thoroughly during his voyage on the and with tlie name his arrangement with the manager suddenly rose to his recollection what had he done with that book of time if he could only get away if but for a quarter of an hour away from those rooms with their outlook on dingy house tops and a colored sky if he could really exchange all that for tlie and warmth and delicious idleness which had once seemed so tedious what a rest it would be i and would he not return after such an with all his faculties and better able to cope with the task he now found almost the first thing was to find the book which did not take him long though when he had found it something made him pause before filling up a what if he had been made a fool if the time bank never existed or had suspended payment but that was easily settled by presenting a why should he not just by way of experiment his balance was as yet he was never likely to need a little ready time more than he did just then he would draw the amount fifteen minutes and see how the system worked so although he had little real confidence tliat anything would happen at all he drew a and slipped it behind the frivolous and rather little clock upon his piece the result was and altogether beyond his expectations the four walls of i his room assumed the of for a second before fading entirely away the olive fog changed to blue there was a breath in the air and he himself was leaning upon the rail at the forward end of the deck of the which was riding with a slow and stately rise and fall over the heaving swell that was surprising enough but more surprising still was the discovery that he was apparently engaged in close and confidential conversation with a lovely person in whom he distinctly miss yes i forgive you mr she was saying with an evident effort to suppress a certain agitation but indeed indeed you must never speak to me like that again now as peter was certainly not conscious of ever having spoken to her at all in his life this was naturally a startling and even beginning but he had presence of mind enough to take in the position of affairs and himself to them this was one of the quarters of an hour he would have had and it was clear that in some portion or other of his spare i c time he would have made miss s acquaintance in some way of course he ought to have been paid that particular time first but he could easily see from her manner and the almost tender friendliness which shone in her eyes that at this period they had advanced considerably beyond mere there had been some little mistake probably the had been numbered perhaps or else they were honored without regard to which was most still he had nothing to do but conceal his ignorance as well as he could and pick up the loose threads as he went along he was able at all	44
s own daughter i hope he said with a gravity which he intended as a rebuke i hope i treated him with all the respect and consideration possible s under the er circumstances i am sorry that that remark appears to amuse you i for miss was actually laughing with a merriment in which there was nothing forced how can i help it she said as soon as she could speak it is too funny to hear you talking of being and considerate to a horrid monkey a monkey he repeated involuntarily so it was a monkey that was under restraint and not a judge of her majesty s supreme court of a discovery which left him as much in the dark as to what particular service he had rendered as ever and made him tremble to think what he might have said but apparently by singular good fortune he had not committed himself beyond recovery for miss only said i thought you were speaking of the monkey the little wretch that came up behind papa and snatched away all his notes the notes he had made for the great case he tried last term and has to deliver judgment upon when the courts sit again surely he told you how important they were and how awkward it s would have been if the monkey had escaped with them and torn them into pieces or dropped them into the sea as he probably would have done but for you oh ah yes said peter feeling slightly crest fallen for he had hoped he had performed a more dashing deed than catching a loose monkey i believe your father sir john he sir william of course thank you did mention the fact but it really was such a trifling thing to do papa didn t think so she said he declares he can never be grateful enough to you and whatever it was she added softly and even i at least can never think lightly of a service which has made us what we are to one another what they were to one another and what was th a dreadful seized upon peter was it possible that in some way he did not understand he was engaged to this very charming girl who was almost a stranger to him the mere idea his blood for if that was so how did it affect his position toward at all he must know the worst at once s tell me he said with trembling accents i know you have told me already but tell me once more precisely what we are to one another at present it would be so much more satisfactory to my mind he added in a tone to have that clearly understood i thought i had made it quite clear already she said with the least suspicion of coldness that we can be nothing more to one another than friends the relief was almost too much for him what a dear good sensible girl she was how perfectly she appreciated the facts friends he cried is that all f do you really mean we are nothing more than friends he caught her hand in the of his gratitude and she allowed it to remain in his grasp which in the altered state of things he found rather pleasant than otherwise ah she murmured don t ask me for more than i have said more than i can ever say perhaps let us be content with remaining friends dear friends if you like but no more s el i will said peter promptly i will be content dear friends by all means but no more no she assented unless a time should come when yes said peter as she hesitated you were about to say a time her lips moved a faint flush stole into her cheeks she was about to complete her sentence when her hand seemed to melt away in his own and he stood grasping the empty air by his own the upper deck the heaving bows the blue miss herself all had vanished and in their stead were the familiar surroundings of his chamber the london and s list of questions lying still upon his writing table his fifteen minutes had come to an end tlie was nowhere to be seen the minute hand of his clock had not moved since he last saw it but this last circumstance as he saw on reflection was only natural for otherwise the time deposit would have conferred no real advantage as he would never have regained the hours he had temporarily for some time peter sat perfectly still with his head between his hands occupied in a mental review of this his experience of the book system it was as different as possible from the spell of perfect rest he had anticipated but had it been unpleasant on that account in spite of an element of at starting which was inevitable he was obliged to admit to himself that he had enjoyed this little adventure more than perhaps he should have done with all his attachment to he could hardly be insensible to the privilege of suddenly finding himself the friend and more than that the dear friend of so delightful a girl as this miss there was a strange charm a peculiar and quite tenderness about an intimacy of this peculiar and nature which increased at every fresh recollection of it it increased so rapidly indeed that almost unconsciously he drew the book toward him and began to fill up another with a view to an immediate return to the but when he had torn the out he fi l hesitated it was all quite harmless the most severe could not him of even the most shadowy toward his if he chose to go back and follow up	44
was night and he could not clearly distinguish any objects around him for some uttle time owing to the darkness but from a glimmer of white that was faintly visible close by he easily inferred that there was another chair adjoining his which could only be occupied by miss he could just hear the ship s band playing a at tlie further end of the ship it was one of the s evenings when there had b en dancing and he and miss were sitting ont together all this he realized instantly and not without a thrill of interest and expectation which however the first words she uttered were sufficient to reduce to the most perplexity what have i said she was moaning in a voice hardly from emotion and the wrap in which her face wa muffled j oh i what have i said peter was naturally powerless to afford her any information on this point even if she really required it he made a rapid mental note to the effect that their intimacy had evidently made great progress since their last interview i m afraid he said deciding that was his only course i can t exactly tell you what you did say for as a matter of fact i didn t quite catch it ah you say that to spare me she murmured you must have heard but promise me you will forget it willingly said peter with the greatest readiness to oblige i will consider it forgotten if i could but hope that she said and yet she added why should i care what i say to be sure agreed at random why should you you know you must have seen from the first that i was very far from being happy i confess said peter with the air of a man whom nothing escaped that i did observe that and you were right was it unnatural that i should be nothing but grateful to the chance which first brought us together not at all said peter delighted to feel himself on solid ground again indeed if i may speak for myself i have even greater reason to feel grateful to that monkey to what monkey she exclaimed why naturally my dear miss to the animal which was the unconscious instrument in making us acquainted you surely can not have forgotten already that it was a monkey she half rose with an impetuous movement the fell from her face and even in the faint he could perceive that beau d l te ul as that face undoubtedly was it was as certainly not the face of miss i you seem to have forgotten a great deal retorted with a suppressed sob in her voice or you would at least remember that my name is why you should choose to call me miss whom i don t even know by sight i can t conceive i here was a discovery and a startling one it appeared that he had not merely one but two dear friends on board this p and o steamer and the second seemed if possible even dearer than the first he mast have made the very most of those extra hours there was one comfort however miss did not contrary to his impression know miss so that they need not necessarily clash still it was awkward he had to get out of his mistake as well as he could which was but why of course he protested i know you are miss most stupid of me to address you as miss the the only explanation i can offer is that before i had the pleasure of speaking to you i was under the impression that your proper name was and so it out again just then from habit this though the literal if not the moral truth did not seem to satisfy her entirely that may be so she said still it does not explain why you should address me as miss anybody after asking and receiving permission only last night to call me by my christian name obviously their relations were even closer than he had imagined he had no idea they had got as far as christian names already any more than he had of what hers might happen to be there was a painful want of method in the manner this time bank conducted its business as he could not help remarking to himself however peter perhaps from the very timidity in his character developed in a situation of some difficulty so you did i he said you allowed me to call you by your er christian name but i value such a privilege too highly to use it er you are very strange to night she said with a plaintive and almost childish quiver of o the lip first you call me miss and then miss and then yon will have it that we were introduced by a monkey as if i should ever allow a monkey to introduce anybody to me is saving a girl s life such an ordinary event with you that you forget all about such a trifle this last sentence peter for all that had gone before here was a whose life he really had saved and his heart warmed to her from that moment a girl from imminent bodily peril was a more heroic achievement than the most mischievous of and besides he felt it was far more in his style so it was in his best manner he replied to her question it would be strange indeed he said reproachfully if i could ever forget that i was the humble means of preserving you from from a watery grave he risked the epithet concluding that on a voyage it could hardly be any other description of grave and she did not challenge it so he continued a	44
watery grave but i had hoped you would appreciate the motive which restrained me from er seeming to dwell upon such a circumstance t this appeal as it was subdued her instantly oh forgive me she said putting out her hand with the prettiest i might have known you better than that i didn t mean it please say you forgive me and and call me again belief at being supplied with a missing made peter reckless indeed it is to be feared that had already set in he took the hand she gave him and it did not occur to him to let it go immediately then he said i forgive you it was a prettier name to pronounce than how curious it is she was saying as she comfortably in her chair beside him that up to the very moment when you rushed forward that day i scarcely gave your existence a thought and now little we ever know what is going to happen to us do we or what has happened for that matter he thought this time he would not commit himself to details until he could learn more about the precise nature of his act which he at once proceeded to do i should very much like to know he suggested what your sensations were at that critical moment my sensations i hardly know she said i remember leaning over the is it peter said it was the watching a sailor in a little balcony below who was doing something with a long heaving the lead said peter so ho was go on lie was intensely excited it was all plain enough she had lost her balance and fallen overboard he had plunged in and gallantly kept her above water till help arrived he had always known he was capable of this sort of thing now he had proved it when all at once she continued i felt myself roughly dragged back by somebody that was you i was rather angry for the moment for it did seem quite a liberty for a total stranger to take when that very instant i saw the line with a great heavy lump of lead at the end of it whirled round exactly si e i where my head had been and then i knew that i owed my life to your presence of mind peter was more than disappointed he was positively disgusted at this exceedingly tame conclusion it did seem hard that even under conditions when any act of daring might have been possible to him he could do nothing more brilliant this it was really worse than the monkey business i i m afraid you make too of the very little i did he said do i perhaps that is because if you had not done it we should never come to know one another as we do i so far it was a very one sided sort of knowledge peter thought and yet she added with a long drawn sigh i sometimes think that we should both be happier if we never had known one another if you had stood aside and the lead had struck me and i had died i no no said peter alarmed at this morbid reflection you mustn t take such a gloomy view of it as all that you know why not she said in a tone d it is gloomy how gloomy i know better than she might well do that thought why did i not see that i was slowly drifting drifting well said peter with a levity he was far from feeling if the drifting was you naturally see it you know i you might have spared a joke at such a time as this she cried indignantly i i wasn t aware there was a close time for jokes he said humbly not that it was much of a joke indeed it was not she replied but oh peter now we have both drifted have we he exclaimed i i mean ha ven t we i was so blind so foolishly blind i i told myself we were friends surely we are he said possession of her hand he had entirely forgotten in the department at court i i understood we were on that footing no she said let us have no any more we must look facts in the face e l after what we have both said to night we can no longer deceive ourselves by words peter she broke suddenly i am going to ask you a question and on your answer my fate and yours too perhaps will depend tell me her voice failed her for the moment as she bent over toward him and clutched his arm tightly in her excitement her eyes shone with a wild intense eagerness for his reply would you she repeated would you have the bottle jack all brass or the brass ones are a shilling more peter gave a violent start for the voice in which this most and question was put was that of i miss with her hysterical appeal the steamer chairs and the all had fled and he stood supporting himself by the arm of the chimney nook in the s staring at who stood there and practical inviting his attention to a couple of bottle which an assistant was displaying with an smile the transition was rather an abrupt one oh i think the brass one is very nice he stammered feebly enough then that settles it remarked we ll take one please she said to the assistant aren t you feeling well peter dear she asked presently in an ton look so odd i quite well he said i ah was thinking of something else for the moment and you	44
startled me that s all you had such a far away expression in your eyes said and you did jump so when i spoke to you you should really try to conquer that tendency to let yourself wander peter i will my love he said and he meant it for he had let wander farther than he quite intended chapter m the a farewell small profit and a quick as the reader may imagine this second experience had an effect upon peter that was rather than encouraging it was a painful piece of revelation to find that had he chosen to avail of the extra hours on board the as they occurred he would have so employed them as to place in relations of considerable toward two distinct young ladies how far he was committed to either or both he could not tell but he had an uneasy suspicion that neither of them would have been quite so had he conducted himself with tlie same prudence that had marked his g behavior throughout the time which he was able to account for and yet his conscience him of any actual if he had ever really had any passages at all approaching the sentimental with either miss or miss his mind could hardly be so utterly blank on the subject as it certainly was no at the worst his were only the kind of weaknesses he might have given way to if he had not wisely postponed the hours in which the occasions were afforded he had had a warning a practical moral lesson which had merely arrived as such often do rather after date but so far as it was possible to profit by it he would at least he would from making any further upon the balance of extra time which still remained to his credit at the bank he would draw no further he would return to that p and o steamer no more for an engaged man whose was approaching by leaps and bounds it was however innocent too disturbing and exciting a form of distraction to be quite safely indulged in the resolution cost him something nevertheless peter was not a man who had hitherto been spoiled by feminine adoration was fond of him but she never affected to place him upon any sort of on the contrary she looked down upon him and from a moral and intellectual of her own he had not objected to this in fact he rather liked it but it was less gratifying and to his esteem than the romantic and sentiments which he had seemingly inspired in two exceedingly young persons with whom he felt so much in sympathy it was an agreeable return from the bread of engaged life to the of semi after all peter was but human and a man is seldom esteemed for being otherwise he could not help a natural regret at having to abandon experiences which judging from the he had obtained promised so much and such varied interest that the interest was not only made it the more amusing it was a living puzzle picture the pieces of which he could fit together as he received them it was ing to look at his book and feel that upon its leaves the rest of the story was written but that he must never seek to it it became so that he locked the book up at last but already some of the edge had worn off his resolution and he had begun to see only the more side of which at the time had not been free from difficulty and embarrassment having put himself beyond the reach of temptation he naturally began to cast about for some excuse for again exposing himself to it it was the eve of his wedding day he was in his chambers for the last time and alone for he would not see again until he met her in array at the church door and he had no bachelor friends whom he cared to invite to help him to keep up his spirits peter was horribly restless and nervous he needed a of some kind and even trying on his wedding garments failed to soothe him as he felt almost certain there was a between the shoulders and it was too late to have it altered the idea of one more visit to the i i i i i i i ii i i m one more interview the last with one or other of his amiable and fascinating friends it did not matter very much which presented in a more and more attractive light if it did nothing else it would provide him with something to think about for the rest of the evening was it courteous was it even right to drop his friends without the slightest apology or explanation ought he not as a gentleman and a man of honor to go back and bid them good by peter after carefully considering the point discovered that it was clearly his duty to perform this trifling act of civility as soon as he had settled that he got out his book from the box in which he had placed it for his own security and sitting down just as he was drew another fifteen minutes and them like the first at the clock this time he found himself sitting on a bench in the music room of the it was shortly after sunset as he could tell from the bar of dusky crimson against the violet sea which framed in the ports opposite rose and sank with each roll of s the ship there was a swell on and she rolled more than he could have wished as he expected he was not alone but as he had not expected his companion was neither miss nor miss but a grim and	44
matron who was him with a look of strong which made peter wish he had not come what he wondered was he in for now his uneasiness was increased as he glanced down upon his trousers which being new and of a delicate tint reminded him that in his impatience he had come away in his wedding garments he feared that he must present rather an odd appearance on board ship in this attire but there he would have to stay for the next quarter of an hour and he must make the best of it i repeat mr said the matron you are doubtless not unprepared for the fact that i have requested a few minutes private conversation with you pardon me said peter already at this alarming opening but i am very much unprepared surely he thought this could not be another dear friend no l e sl that was too absurd he must have drawn the line somewhere then permit me to you she said i sent for you at a time when we are least likely to be interrupted to demand an explanation from you upon a very delicate and painful matter which has recently come to my knowledge oh said peter and nothing more he guessed her purpose at once she was going to ask him his intentions with regard to her daughter he could have wished for some indication as to whether she was lady or mrs but as he had none at present oh seemed the safest remark to make life on board a large passenger ship mr she went on to observe though relaxed in some respects is still not without which a gentleman is bound to respect quite so said peter unable to discover the bearings which lay in the application of this observation you mi quite so but what has your been sir ri ei that said peter is exactly what i should like to know myself a true gentleman would have considered the responsibility he incurred by giving to idle and malicious gossip his apprehensions were correct then it was one of the young ladies mothers but which f i can only assure you madam he began that if unhappily i have er been the means of furnishing gossip it has been entirely she seemed so much by this that he proceeded with more confidence as to anything i may have said to your daughter when she almost bounded from her seat with fury my daughter sir do you mean to sit there and tell me that you had the audacity to so much as hint of such a thing to my daughter of all people so so much depends on who your daughter is said peter completely losing his head you dared to strike this cruel and blow at the respect of a sensitive girl to poison her ears with your false and you can actually admit it i don t know whether i can admit it or not yet he replied and and you do put things so very strongly i it is like this if you are referring to any conversation i may have had with miss miss f you have told her too exclaimed this terrible old matron thereby that at least she was not lady t i should have said miss said peter himself miss as well upon my word and pray sir may i ask how many other ladies on board this ship are in possession of your amiable confidences he raised his hands in utter despair i can t say he groaned i don t really know what i may have said or whom i may have said it to i i seem to have done so much in my spare time but i never meant anything it may be so she said indeed you hardly seem to me for your actions or you would not appear in such a d costume as that with a of in your hole and a high hat too i quite feel said peter blushing that such a costume must strike you as but but i happened to be trying them on and rather than keep you waiting well well sir never mind your costume the question is if you are anxious to repair the wrong you have done what course do you propose to take i will be perfectly frank with you madam said peter i am not a position to repair any wrong i have done if i done any wrong which i don t admit by taking any course whatever you are not she cried and you tell me so to my face after all reflected peter why should he be afraid of this old lady in a few more minutes he would be many hundreds of miles away and he would take very good care not to come back again he felt master of the situation and determined to brazen it out i do madam he said crossing his legs in an easy fashion look at it from a point of view there is safety in numbers and if i have been so unfortunate as to give several young ladies here an entirely impression i must leave it to you to as but distinctly as you can for me to make any selection would only create ill feeling among the rest and their own good sense will show them that i am forbidden by the laws of my country which i am the last person to set at defiance that i am forbidden even if i were free in other respects which i am not to marry them all the only possible explanation of your conduct is that you are not in your right mind she said who in the world spoke or dreamed of your marrying any one	44
of them certainly not oh i said peter hopelessly once more i thought i might have given them grounds for some such expectation i m very glad i was mistaken you see you must really make for my utter ignorance if this behavior is not a mere sir i can make for much but d surely you are at least in your proper senses to see how you have behaved have i said peter i don t wish to contradict you if you say so i m sure and as i have some reason to believe that my stay on board this ship will not last very much longer i should like before i go to express my very sincere regret there is an easy way of your sincerity sir if you choose to avail yourself of it she said i find it very to believe from the evident of your intellect that you can be the person chiefly responsible for this scandal am i correct in my supposition you are madam said peter i should never have got myself into such a as this if i had not been talked over by mr i don t know if i can succeed in making myself clear for the whole business is rather complicated but i can try to explain it if you will only have a patience you have said quite enough she said i know all i wish to know now so it was mr who has been using you as his instrument was it certainly said peter but for him nothing of this would have happened you will have no objection to repeating that statement should i call upon you to do so no said peter who observed with pleasure that her wrath against himself was almost entirely but you will have to call soon or i shall have gone i i don t know if i shall have another opportunity of meeting mr but if i did i should certainly tell him that i do not consider he has treated me quite fairly he has put me in what i may call a false position in several false positions and if i had had the knowledge i have now i should have had nothing to do with him from the first he entirely me over this business very well sir she said you have shown a more gentlemanly spirit on the whole than i expected i am glad to find that your evil has been wrought more by want of thought than heart it will be for you to complete d your when the proper time arrives in the mean time let this be a warning to yon sir never to but here peter made the sudden discovery that he was no longer in the music room of the but at home in his old by his bachelor fireside he muttered to that was a bad quarter of an hour while it lasted what an old she it was but she s right it i a warning to me i mustn t i really must not draw any more of these confounded time made that ship too hot to hold me already i d better remain forever in contented ignorance of how i spent that extra time than to go on getting into one mess after another like this it was a wonder i got out of this one as well as i did but evidently that old woman knew what is and saw wasn t to blame now she ll explain the whole affair to all those girls whoever they may be and pitch into and serve him right i out of it at any rate and now thank goodness after to morrow i shall have nothing to do but live and happily with dearest i d better burn this book i shall never want it again it would have been well for peter if he had burned that book but when it came to the point he could not bring himself to destroy it after all it was an interesting of some very curious if not unique experiences and as such he decided to preserve it iv the a blue moon felicity in a flat practical my temptation and a the difficulties of being completely candid a slight ing the peter enjoyed his extremely in a sober and rational manner discouraged rapture but on the other hand no one was better fitted to inspire and sustain an intelligent interest in the wonders of and catching her scientific enthusiasm peter spent many happy hours with her along the searching for remains in fact the only cloud that threatened to mar their felicity at all was an unfortunate tendency on his part to a with a a blunder for which had no he was about his periods too she sent np to town for s great work on the subject as a birthday surprise for him and he read it aloud to her on the sands altogether it was a peaceful happy time and never once in the whole course of his did he seriously entertain the possibility of making any further use of his book of blank time if he had contemplated it no harm would have been done however as the book was lying among his neglected papers at his former chambers he felt no regret when the month came to an end and they returned to town to take possession of their flat for what was it but the scene of their happiness and after this had taken place peter was still too much occupied to have leisure for idle and mischievous thoughts marrying was indeed like loving sir s fair lady a liberal education and peter enjoyed the benefit of her rare talent for instruction he had been giving his attention to of late an remark of his having betrayed to the	44
days for the moment peter had forgotten the want of in these eccentric time this interview should by rights have preceded the first he had had with her he felt annoyed with himself and still more with the like behavior of the bank i i was perhaps he said but i assure you that we shall certainly ie friends i may even go so far as to say dear friends sooner or later you see if i am not right miss smiled are you sure she said with her eyes lowered are you sure that there is nobody who might object to our being on quite such intimate terms as that peter started could she possibly have guessed and how much did she know there could be nothing for anybody to ob to he said are yon er referring to any person in particular she still kept her eyes down but then she was occupied just at the moment in removing a loose of from the arm of her chair you mustn t think me curious or or if i tell you she said but before i knew you to speak to i i couldn t help noticing how often as you sat on deck you used to pull something out of your pocket and look at it my watch suggested peter feeling uncomfortable no not your watch it looked more like well like a photograph it may have been a photograph now you mention it he admitted well miss well she said i often amuse myself by making up stories about people i meet quite strangers i mean and do you know i made up my mind that that photograph was the portrait of some one some lady you are engaged to i should so much uke to know if i was right or not sl e here was peter s opportunity of revealing his real and preventing all chance of future misunderstanding it was not too late but still it might be best and kindest to break the news gradually you were partly right and partly wrong he said that was the portrait of a lady i was er once engaged to unless peter was very much mistaken there was a new light in her face an added bright ness in her soft gray eyes as she raised them for an instant before her labors upon the chair then you mean she said softly that the engagement is broken off peter began to recognize that explanation was a less simple affair than it had seemed if he said that he was no longer engaged but to the original of that photograph she would naturally want to know why he had just led her to believe as he must have done that he was still a careless and bachelor she would ask and where he was married and how could he give a straightforward and satisfactory answer to such questions i and then another side of the case struck him as a matter of fact he was married but would he be strictly correct in describing himself as being so in this pa r interview f it belonged properly to the time he had made the voyage home and he was certainly not married then in the difficulty he was in he thought it best to go on telling the truth until it became absolutely impossible and then back on invention the fact is miss he said that i can t be absolutely certain whether the engagement is ended or not at this precise moment her face was alive with the sweetest sympathy poor mr she said how horribly anxious you must be to get back and know ah i said peter yes i i shall know when i get home i suppose and he sighed for the orange once more to his reluctant memory don t tell me if it pains you too much she said gently i only ask because i do feel ip so sorry for you do you think that when you do get home you will find her married i have every reason for believing so he said that will be a terrible blow for you of course a blow said peter forgetting himself good gracious me no why should it be i i mean i shall be prepared for it don t you know then it s not so bad after all she said it s not at all bad said peter with a vague intention of loyalty to i like it i think i understand she said slowly you will not be sorry to find she has married but she may tell you that she never had the least intention of letting you go so easily yes said peter she may tell me that certainly if she finds out where i ve been he added mentally and she continued what would you do then i suppose he said i suppose i should have to do whatever she wished yes she agreed warmly you wiu do that even if it costs you something won t you because it will be the only right the only honorable course to take you will be the happier for it in the end mr i am sure you will i after all it seemed to him that she must understand about the time or why should she urge him to give them up if demanded such a sacrifice no i shall not he said i shall miss these times terribly you don t know what they are to me or you wouldn t speak like that mr she cried i i must not listen to you ton can t possibly mean what you seem to mean it is wrong wrong to me and wrong to her to say things that that for all	44
you know you are not free to say don t let me think badly of you peter was absolutely wliat had he said to her like that he had merely meant to express the pleasure he found in these brief and stolen visits to the and she had him hke this i at all he must explain now if it took him days to make it clear l e ll my dear miss he protested you quite misunderstood me you did indeed pray be calm and i will endeavor to make my position a little clearer than i m afraid i have done the worst of it is he added that the whole thing has got into such a that for the life of me i can t exactly make out what my position is at the present moment you can if you will only recollect that you are this mourning pin said a familiar voice and with the characteristic of the time system he was back in his study staring at the ground glass globe of the lamp and the orange the clock behind him was striking nine and was offering him a pin with a big black head oh am i the mourning pin he repeated helplessly really peter said i think the pin just at this moment has the more intelligent expression of the two do try to look a little less now see you stick the pin into the orange to represent your point of view and then keep on it slowly round o so peter the orange slowly round for tlie remainder of the evening though his thoughts were far away with miss he was wondering what she could have thought of him and worse still what she would think if she could see him as he was employed at that moment i tell you what we must do peter when you get a little more advanced said that evening we must see if we can t pick up a small somewhere it would be so nice to have one i oh delightful he said he was not very clear as to what an was unless it was the dusty machine that was worked with handles at sundry lectures he had attended in early youth but of one thing he felt grimly certain that it was something which would render it necessary to draw more time chapter v drawings a series of their advantages and an confidences with intervals a disappointment a search question from confidence restored whether it was natural sin on peter s part or an spirit of revolt against the oppression of an which succeeded in picking up a great bargain at an somewhere his on the time bank did not end with the one recorded in the preceding chapter and which was more still he no longer pretended to himself that he meant to stop until his balance was completely exhausted his only care now was to to his expenditure by spreading his drawings over as long a period as o ble with this object he made a careful calculation and found there were stiu several hours to his credit whereupon lest he should yield to the temptation of drawing too much at any one time he made out a number of for fifteen minutes apiece and limited himself to one a week an allowance which even under the provocation he rarely permitted himself to exceed these weekly excursions short as they were were a source of the greatest comfort to him especially now that he had thrown os any idea of moral responsibility by degrees he possessed himself of most of the back numbers if they may be so termed of his romance at one time he found himself being presented by the grateful sir to his daughter and now that he knew what service he had rendered the judge he was less at sea than he would certainly have been otherwise another time he discovered in the act of dragging miss back from the but here again his memory furnished him with the proper excuse for conduct which considering that he was not supposed to be acquainted with j her he might have found it difficult to account for satisfactorily so after all there did seem to be a sort of method in the operation of the time arbitrary as it appeared one fact that went far to reconcile him to his own conscience was the circumstance that though the relations he stood in toward both young ladies varied at each interview with the most bewildering uncertainty so that one week he would be upon the and most confidential terms and the next be thrown back into the conventional formality of a first introduction these relations never again approached the dangerous level of sentiment which had so alarmed him he flattered himself that the judicious attitude he was to both was the false impressions which might have and for that matter actually had been given he was always pleased to see them again whichever one it was they were simply charming frank natural girls and not too clever sometimes indeed he recognized and did his best to symptoms of a dawning tenderness on their part which it was not in his power to s peter was in no danger of losing his heart to either possibly the attractions of each served as a conductor to protect him from the influence of the other he enjoyed their society their evident appreciation of all he said and did but that was all and as they recognized that there could be no closer bond than that of cordial friendship between them he was relieved of all surely it was a and legitimate manner even for a married man of spending the idle moments which belonged properly to the days of his i still he	44
allow himself to be caught so near the clock again he was not a little disturbed by the tenor of this last interview it was bad enough that in some way he seemed to have seriously displeased miss but besides that he could not contemplate without uneasiness the probable effect which her confidences whatever their exact purport might have upon l miss for hitherto he had seen no necessity to mention to one young lady that he was even acquainted with the other as he never by any chance drew them both together there seemed no object in such information but this only made him more apprehensive of a scene when his next turn with miss arrived perhaps he thought it would be wiser to keep away from the for a week or two and give them all time to calm down a little however he had the moral or rather the courage to present a check as usual at the end of the next week with results that were even less in accordance with his than ore it came about in this way he was comfortably seated by the fireplace opposite in a fashion and was reading to her aloud for he had been let off the that evening the book he was reading by s particular request was s house and it was not the fault of the subject which interested her deeply but of peter s which was poor that on drawings glancing from the text he found that she had sunk into a profound and peaceful slumber it was a chance he had been waiting for all day he was rather tired of with her innocence and her her and her her and her fancy dress and he had the by him in readiness so he stole on to the slipped the paper under the clock and was just in time to sink back into his easy chair before it turned out to be one of the revolving seats in the dining saloon on the there was a of and on the table in front of him and he was sitting in close with his former acquaintance mr the bank manager that s precisely what i don t know sir and what i m determined to find out i were the first words he heard from the latter gentleman who looked flushed and angry but it s a scandalous thing isn t it very said peter rather bored and deeply disappointed for the manager was but an indifferent substitute for the companion he had been counting upon oh very i l have yon happened to hear anything said about it inquired his friend not a word said peter with the he always endeavored to maintain on these occasions to go and shift a statement of that kind on to my shoulders like that it s like the fellow s confounded impudence for the moment peter felt a could the other be referring to anything he had said himself in the music room but the manager was evidently not angry with hi m so it must be some other fellow only peter decided not to allude to the working of the time as he had half intended to do was not in the mood for just then most impudent i must say he replied by the way he added carelessly what was the statement exactly why god bless my soul sir cried the manager with unnecessary vehemence haven t i been telling you the whole story didn t you just ask me who the fellow was who has brought me into this business so i did said peter and and who was he your attention seems very wandering this evening why i told you the old woman wouldn t give me his name peter s alarm returned at this allusion to an old woman what old woman could it be but the terrible matron whom he had encountered in the music room however it was fortunate that she had not mentioned any names if knew that he had put all the blame of his upon the manager s broad shoulders he would certainly consider it an ul return for what was intended as a kindness so you said before he remarked some old women are so obstinate i obstinate that s the first sensible remark you ve made for a long while said his candid friend i should think she was obstinate why i talked myself hoarse trying to make that old believe that i was as innocent as an babe of any responsibility for this precious scandal that i d never so much as heard it breathed till she told me of it but it wasn t any good sir she would have it that i was the so you were thought peter though he refrained from saying so she s going to kick up the s own delight as soon as she meets her brother and all i could get her to say was that then and not till then she would give me an opportunity of having it out with the cowardly villain whoever he may be that has dared to lay all this gossip at m i door peter did not quarrel with this arrangement of the old lady s for he would certainly not be on board the when she arrived at ah he said with as much interest as he could display in a subject that did not concern him he ll find that unpleasant i dare say think he will said mr emphatically unless he his infamous i i ll kick him from one end of the ship to the other i involuntarily peter s eyes sought his friend s boots which as he sat in a comer seat with his feet extended were much in evidence they were strong suitable boots than those generally worn on a sea voyage and peter could not repress	44
a slight shudder from one end of the ship to the other he repeated that that s rather a long way quite long enough for him though not nearly long enough for me i said the manager i u teach him to mix me up in these when i find him sir when i find him here steward bring some more of these dry you ll have some more won t you i but peter was not in the vein for dry at that moment and the manager continued by the by you might help me in this if you only will i want to find out if i can before we reach who this fellow is but the less i talk about the affair the better oh yes said peter i i wouldn t talk about it at all if i were you no i dare say you re right can t be too careful with an old cat like that well what i want you to do is to try and find out quietly you know who this infernal fellow is well i dare say i do that said peter no one would think a mild innocent looking little chap like yon had any particular motive for asking you might ask some of the men in the smoking room and pick up some or other so i might said peter good ideal or i ll tell you what you might pump the old lady for me eh i don t think i quite care about the old lady said peter but anything else ru do with pleasure thanks said the manager that s a good fellow i knew i could depend upon you tou can replied peter though i fancy he added soothingly indeed i am sure you will find that the old woman has made a good deal out of nothing at all what old woman peter asked drowsy not mrs surely mrs was that the name of the old she of the music room why of course not he was in his arm chair by his own fire reading to his wife i don t know indeed my love it be mrs he answered cautiously nonsense said she s not meant to be old in the play and who says the old woman has made a good deal out of nothing or doctor bank or or who you do read so badly it s quite impossible to make out j o one says it my dear at least it s not in my edition of the text you you must have imagined it i think i i certainly thought i heard you read it out she replied but your voice is so monotonous that it s just possible i dropped off for a minute or two i dropped off myself about the same time he confessed you wouldn t drop i ff or allow me to drop off either peter said who was now thoroughly awake again if you felt a more intelligent interest in the tremendous problem has set in this play i don t believe you realize in the least what the lesson is that he means to teach now do you peter well i m not sure that i do altogether my love he admitted i thought as much what upon is tl absolute necessity of one ness between man and wife peter they must belong to each other complete each other they must be t souls are you a twin soul peter upon my word my dear i can t say he replied in some perplexity in the present very divided state of his sympathies he could not help thinking that his soul was more like a but think persisted earnestly have you shared all your past with me is there nothing you have kept back no feelings no experiences which you confine to your own bosom when you left me to take that voyage you promised that nothing should induce you to be more than civil to any woman however young and attractive with whom fate might bring you in contact i want you to tell me peter whether when you were returning home on board the you kept that promise or not fortunately for him she put her question in a form which made it easy to give a satisfactory and a truthful answer when i was returning home on board the he said i did not to the best of r ill my recollection and belief exchange two words with any female whatever attractive or otherwise until he added with a recollection that she had come on board at until i met you you pain me with these suspicions you do indeed i i believe you peter she said moved by his sincerity which as it may sound was quite real for his intentions had been so excellent throughout that he felt injured by her doubts you have never told me a falsehood yet but for some time i have been tormented by a fancy that you were concealing something from me i can hardly say what gave me such an impression a glance a tone trifles which i am glad to think now had not the importance i invested them with ah peter never treat me as did never shut me out from the serious side of your life and think to make amends by calling me your little lark or your you must not look upon me as a mere doll i my r he exclaimed i should never think of addressing you as either a or a lark and any one less like a in every respect i never met i hope you will always think so peter she said for i tell you frankly that if i once discovered that you had ceased to trust	44
me that you lived in a world apart into which i was not admitted that very moment peter i should act just as did i should leave you for our marriage would have ceased to be one in any true sense of the word the mere idea of being abandoned by made him shiver what a risk he had been running after all was it worth while to peril his domestic happiness for the sake of a few more conversations with two young ladies whose remarks were mostly and for whom he was conscious in his heart of hearts of not caring two he said don t talk of leaving what should i do without you who would teach me and things you know i don t care for anybody but why will you dwell on such unpleasant subjects i was wrong peter she confessed indeed i doubt you no longer it was all my morbid imagination that led me to do you such injustice forgive me and let us say no more about it i do forgive you was his generous reply to this appeal which coming from was a very handsome apology and we wiu say no more about it and upon the whole peter thought he had got out of a particularly tight place with more credit than he had any reason to expect a conclusion in which the reader however much he or she may of his conduct on moral grounds wiu probably be inclined to agree with him foil and the duties of peter s continued and its results alfred the tragic note an interrupted crisis a domestic surprise it would be more satisfactory to an author s feelings especially when he is aware that he will be held by an indignant public for the slightest on his hero s part from the narrow path of ideal it would be more satisfactory to be able to record that this latest warning had a permanent effect upon peter s rather disposition but an author even of a modest performance such as this can not but feel in a position of grave responsibility he must relate such facts as he has been able to collect without on the one side or tion on the other it is a duty he can not and dare not under penalty of the confidence of his readers peter did draw more time he did go back to the and it would be useless to assert the contrary we may be able to him to some extent before this story at present we can only follow his career with pain and some must be made for the peculiar nature of the case to a person of peter s natural inclination to the study of there was a strong fascination in watching the gradual and revelation of two characters so opposite and so interesting as those of miss and miss that was the point of view he took and it is to say that such a plea is wholly without then too he was intensely curious to know how it would all end and he might ascertain that in the very next quarter of an hour he drew there was absolutely no telling as for s threat that soon lost all terrors for him she would abandon him no o doubt if she ever knew but who was going to tell her and how she possibly discover the truth especially now that her awakening suspicions had been his secret was perfectly safe and he could the tangled thread of the history of his remain ing extra hours on board the without any other than that of his own scruples which practically amounted to no at all so peter continued to be the slave of his clock and his book from the of which he was surprised to discover that he had drawn more frequently and in consequence had an even smaller balance left to his credit than he had supposed however he consoled himself by concluding that one or two had probably been and were still while he was entitled to some additional time in respect of compound interest so that he need not himself at present fifteen minutes a week was not an extravagant allowance and sooner or later even with the utmost economy a day would come when his balance would be exhausted and his returned from the clock marked no effects er to drawer or some equivalent intimation but that day was still distant and in the mean time he went on drawing with a light heart it was a saturday evening the day on which peter generally presented his weekly but although it was nearly half past ten he had had no opportunity of doing so as yet he was in the drawing room and was reading aloud to him this time an article on bi from one of the for she had been an ardent bi from early and she naturally wished to win peter from his on so momentous a subject he listened with surface resignation although inwardly he was in a fever of impatience to get back upon the where miss had been more interesting than usual on his last visit but he could hardly rise and slip a under the clock before s very eyes without some decent pretext for such an action and bi had ed him to a mental condition which was no longer fertile in suddenly stopped reading and remarked fi i if i remember right professor stated the argument more correctly in bis little book on it would be interesting to compare the two i ll get it as professor s work was apparently on a in the study took the lamp into the further room now s my time thought peter as he brought out the from his i t get such another chance this evening even	44
if could lay her hand on the volume at once he would have had his quarter of an hour and be comfortably back long before she could pass the arch which separated the two rooms for as we have seen this action was one of the chief of the time so he his and was at once transported to the secluded passage between the deck the identical place where he had first conversed with miss he was on the same steamer chair too and she was at his side the wind carried the faint strains of a set of to them from all of which circumstances he drew the infer soil ence that he was going to be favored with to the conversation that had been so broken in upon by s question respecting the comparative merits of bottle in the court this was so far satisfactory indicating os it did that he was at last after so much trying back to make some real progress what i want to know first miss was saying is whether you are capable of facing danger for my sake i thought he remonstrated mildly that i had already given proof of that the danger you faced then threatened only me but supposing you had to meet a danger to yourself you be firm and cool much will depend on that i i think he answered frankly that perhaps you had better not count upon me i have never been a man to court danger it might find me equal to it if it came or it might not he did not mean to give it the opportunity then we are lost that is all i she said l with gloomy conviction lost both of ns peter certainly intended to be lost if the moment of trial ever arrived even now he was for about the twentieth time that this positively should be his very last for he by no means liked the manner in which the situation seemed to be developing but seeing that the danger whatever it might be was still far enough off he thought very sensibly that it be a pity to cloud this last interview by any confession of knowing that he would return no more he could surely afford to treat with contempt any consequences his might have so he laughed as he said you t conclude that i m a coward because i don t care to boast on the contrary i believe i am not exactly deficient in physical courage you are not she cried relieved then then you would not be afraid to face a desperate man not a dozen desperate men if it comes to tliat said peter supported by the certainty that it would not come to so much as a desperate man then i can tell you now what i have scarcely dared to think of before peter you will have to reckon with alfred well not much alarmed at alfred may do said peter wondering who the deuce alfred was he will come on board he will demand an explanation he will insist on seeing you i she cried let him said peter you are brave even than i thought but ah peter you don t know what alfred peter did not even know who alfred was but he was unmoved you leave alfred to me he said confidently settle um i but i must tell you au i i led you to believe that alfred would raise no objections that he would quietly accept facts which it is useless to contend against he will do nothing of the sort he is a man of violent passions fierce and when wronged in the first burst of fury at meeting you when he comes on board he is capable of some terrible vengeance which nothing but perfect coolness on your part perhaps not even that will be able to and i i have brought this upon you don t cry said peter you see i m perfectly calm don t mind it if alfred considers wronged by me though what i have ever done to give him any reason for by personal violence i must say i can t conceive she stopped him ah you have given him cause enough she cried what is the use of taking that tone to me i want to see alfred s point of view that s all said peter what does he complain of what does he off you ask me that when peter she broke off suddenly there is somebody round the corner listening to us a woman i m sure of it i heard the rustle of a dress go and see if there is not i go and see and find himself face to face soil with miss who might faint or go into peter knew better than that it s merely your fancy he said soothingly who can be there they are all at the other end of the ship dancing go on telling me about alfred i don t yet understand how i have managed to offend him are you really so dull she said with a slight touch of temper that you can t see that a man who thought he was going to meet the woman he was engaged to and finds she has learned to care for for somebody else is likely even if he was the man in the world which alfred is far from being to betray some annoyance no i see that said peter but but he can t blame me couldn t help it he said this although her last speech had opened his eyes considerably he knew now who was and also that in some moment of madness which was in one of the quarters of an hour he had not yet drawn he	44
must have placed himself in the position of s rival what was he to do he could not without tell this poor girl that he had not the smallest intention of alfred of her affections it was better and easier too to humor her for the short time that remained alfred will not take that as an excuse she said it is true we could neither of us help what has happened but that will not alter the fact that he is quite capable of shooting us both the instant he comes on deck is like that i well said peter unable to from a little more of such very cheap heroism i do not fear death with you i say that once more she said which peter very did oh peter how i admire you now how little i knew you were capable of going so calmly to your doom you give me courage i feel that i too can face death only not that death it is so horrid to be shot it would be unpleasant said peter placidly but soon over no she said i couldn t bear it i can see him pointing his revolver for he always carries one even at a first at your head then mine no peter since we must die i prefer at least to do so without i so do i he agreed very much yon do she cried then oh peter why should we wait any longer for a fate that is inevitable let us do it now together do what said peter slip over the side together it would be quite easy no one will see us let us plunge arm in arm into the merciful seal a little struggle a moment s battle for breath then all will be over i yes i suppose it would be over then he said but we should have to swallow such a lot of salt water first i he reflected that even if he emerged from the agonies of drowning to find with the experience would be none the less unpleasant while it lasted there really must be some limit to his and he set it at suicide no he said i have always held that to escape a difficulty by putting an end to one s own life is a cowardly proceeding i am a coward she said but oh peter be a coward with me for once ask me anything else he said firmly but not stoop to cowardice there is really s t no necessity for it yon see he added feeling that he had better speak ont plainly i have no that alfred will listen to reason and when he is told that although as is enough with two natures that have much in common we we have found a mutual pleasure in each other s society there has been nothing on either side inconsistent with the the most ordinary friendship when he hears that where are you going for she was rising from her chair where am i going she replied with an unsteady laugh why overboard if you care to know i but you mustn t i he cried scarcely knowing what he said the the captain wouldn t like it there s a penalty i m sure for leaving the ship while it s in motion i ve seen it on a notice there is a penalty for having believed in you she replied bitterly and i am going to pay it she broke away and rushed out upon the deck into the with peter in pursuit here was a nice result of his he thought bitterly and yet what had he done how could he help the consequences of follies committed in time he had not even spent yet however what he had to do now was to prevent miss from leaping overboard at any cost he would even promise to jump over with her if that would soothe her and of course he could some time next day say after breakfast for the performance he ran down the shadowy deck until he overtook a flying female form whose hand he seized as she crouched against the miss if you will only just he began when without warning he found himself back upon his own hearth rug holding firmly by the wrist i he felt confused as well he might but he tried to pass it off did you find on my dear he inquired with a ghastly smile as he dropped her hand i did not said gravely i was otherwise engaged peter what have you been doing what have i been doing he said why it s not a minute since you went into the study to get that book look at the clock and see don t appeal to the clock peter answer my question how have you been occupied i ve been waiting for you to finish that article on bi he had the to say weu written article it is too so clear i don t refer to what you were doing here said what were you doing on board the f it it s so long ago that i really forget he said i i read on deck and i talked with a man named nice fellow he was manager of a bank out in it s useless to peter she said what i want to know is who was that girl and why should she attempt to destroy herself he could hardly believe his ears girl he stammered how do you know that any girl attempted anything of that sort how do i know peter said i will tell you how i know i was on the too at this awful piece of intelligence peter dropped into his arm chair speechless and what would come next	44
satisfactory he found his voice at last well he said now that you know all what are you going to do about it i would rather know the worst i will tell you that in good time she replied but first of all i want you to tell me exactly how you came to have these and what use you made of them on previous occasions so slightly reassured by her manner which was composed peter gave her a plain account of the way in which he had been led to deposit his extra time and the whole story of his v ith miss he did not mention any others because he felt that the affair was quite complicated enough dragging in and matter i may have been he concluded but i do assure you that in all the quarters of an hour i have had as yet i never once behaved to that young lady in any capacity but that of a friend i only went on drawing the because i wanted a little change of air and scene now and then you have no idea how it picked me up i saw in what society it set you down peter was s answer you you t think she is like that he urged it took me quite by surprise it was a most painful position for me i think your own sense of will acknowledge that considering the awkwardness of my situation i i behaved as well as could be expected you do admit that don t you was silent for a minute or so before she spoke again i must have time to think peter she said it is all so strange so contrary to all my experience that i can hardly see things as yet in their proper light but i may tell you at once that from what i was able to observe and from all you have just told me i am inclined to think that you are free from actual in the matter it was quite clear that that very forward girl was the principal e i and that you were nothing more than an unwilling and most embarrassed this was so much more a view than he had dared to expect that peter recovered his ordinary that was all he said i am very glad you saw it my dear i was perfectly helpless and then said i was more than pleased by your firm refusal to commit suicide what you said was so very sound and true peter i hope so said peter with much complacency yes i was pretty firm with her by the way he added you you didn t happen to see whether she really did jump overboard i suppose i came away just at the crisis she said i thought you would tell me came away too said peter it doesn t matter of course but still i should have rather liked to know whether she meant it or not how can you speak of it so peter she may have been trying to frighten s you is just tlie kind of girl who would but she may have been in earnest after all you see said peter it doesn t matter whether she was or not it isn t as if it had ever really happened not really happened but i was there i heard i saw it nothing could be more real at any rate he said it only happens when i use those and she can t possibly carry out her rash intention until i draw another which i promise you faithfully i will never do if you doubt me i will burn the book now before your eyes with these words he went to the drawer and took out the book no said you must not do that peter there is much about this time bank that i don t pretend to understand that i can not account for by any known natural law but i may not my own eyes and ears these events that have happened in the extra time you chose to till now are just as real as any other events you ha ve made this girl s acquaintance you have i don t say through any fault of your own but l e still you ha caused her to transfer her affections from the man she was engaged to and being a creature of ill regulated mind and no strength of character she has resolved to put an end to her life rather than meet his just indignation she is now on the very point of this folly well badly as she has behaved you can not possibly leave the wretched girl there you must go back at once restrain her by main force and not leave her until you have argued her into a rational frame of mind peter was by no means anxious to go back at first it s not at all necessary he said and besides i don t know if you re aware of it but with the way these are worked it s ten chances to one against my off the right fifteen minutes i still he added with an i can try of course if you insist upon it i can take my chance with another fifteen minutes but that must be the last i am sick and tired of this ng business i am indeed shameful as it is to state he had altered his mind from a sudden recollection that he would not mind seeing miss for just once more he had not drawn her for several weeks said thoughtfully i see your objection fifteen minutes is not enough unless you could be sure of getting the to the last but i have an idea peter if you draw out the whole	44
balance of your time you can t possibly help getting the right fifteen minutes somewhere or other i think that s logical oh devilish logical muttered peter to himself who had reasons which he could not to her for strongly of such a plan the fact is my dear he said it it s rather late this evening to go away for any time you forget she said that however long you are away you will come back at exactly the same time you start but you have some other reason peter you had better tell me well he owned i might come across some one i d rather not meet you are thinking of the man that girl l e said she had been engaged to alfred wasn t it peter had forgotten alfred for the moment and besides he was not likely to up till the got to and he knew his extra hours stopped before that still alfred did very well as an excuse ah he said alfred you heard what she said about him a violent character with a revolver i but you told her you were not afraid of him i felt so proud of you when you said it and think you may be able to bring them together to heal the breach between them he s more likely to make a breach in me that won t heal said peter still as you said yourself it isn t as if it was all actually existing what does it matter even if he should shoot you i don t see any advantage in exposing myself to any such unpleasant experiences even if they are only temporary he said it is not a question of advantage peter rejoined it is a simple duty and i m surprised that you don t as such what l ever the consequences of your conduct may be you can not them like this you have chosen to begin and you must go on i am quite clear about that let me see here she took the book and made some rapid calculations from the y jo have two hours and three quarters at least still standing to your credit and then there s the compound interest i will tear out all these small and burn them which she did as she spoke and now peter sit down and fill up one of the blank ones at the end for the whole amount do you know said peter it occurs to me that this is just one of those matters which can only be satisfactorily arranged by er a woman s tact suppose i make the to you now eh tou mean that you want me to go instead of you she asked well said peter if it wouldn t be you my dear i perhaps it would be don t say another word she interrupted or i shall begin to despise you peter if i thought you meant it seriously i would go up i e stairs put on my bonnet and go back to mamma forever i could not bear to be the wife of a coward i oh i ll go said peter in much alarm i said what i did out of consideration not cowardice but wouldn t to morrow do just as well it is late to turn out i to morrow will not do as well she said fill up that to night or you will lose me forever i there said peter as he off the are you satisfied i shall be when i see you present it er yes he said oh i i mean to present it presently i i think i ll take a small glass of brandy before i go my dear to keep the cold out as you will certainly be in a summer if not tropical temperature the next moment she said i should advise you to take nothing of the kind i say he suggested suppose i find she has jumped overboard what shall i do then do can you possibly ask you will jump after her of course it s easy to say of course he said but i never could swim more than twenty strokes swim those twenty then and let come what will you will be back all the sooner but don t stand there talking about it peter go i m going he said meekly you ll sit up for me if if i m late won t you don t be absurd she said tou know perfectly well that as i said before you won t be away a second it won t be a second for you he said but it wiu be several hours for me and goodness only knows what i may have to go through in the time however he added with an attempt to be cheerful it may au pass off quite pleasantly don t you think it may how can i tell you will only find out by going i m going my dear i m going at once you ll give me just one kiss before i start won t you i will give you no kiss till you come back and i hear what you have done said e very well lie retorted you may be sorry you refused when it s too late i may never come back at all for anything i can teu i and little as he knew it he spoke with an almost prophetic anticipation of what was to come never again was he destined to stand on that hearth rug but he dared not linger longer as he could see from her expression that she would suffer no further trifling and he slipped his last under the clock with consequences that must be reserved	44
for the next chapter chapter paid in his own coin in suspense a gleam of comfort darkness returns the rock ahead sir william his of an old enemy a new danger out of the pa n peter found himself below this time in the broad passage furnished with seats and tables for writing and which divided the passengers above he heard a confused stir and bustle of excitement the of feet the creaking and rattle of chains orders shouted in english and from the absence of all in the vessel it was evident that she had been brought to why f peter guessed the cause only too easily the unhappy miss had indeed succeeded in carrying out her rash design she in had jumped overboard and the captain had stopped the engines and lowered a boat in the hope of picking her up before she sank and he himself why was he below hke this he had only too much reason to fear that he must have been a witness of the fatal leap and instead of plunging overboard to the rescue as a hero ought had rushed down here had he been observed was his connection with the tragedy suspected could he venture up on deck and inform himself he tried but his nerve failed him and he sank into one of the chairs in a state of almost suspense just at this moment he saw the skirts of a muslin gown appear at the head of the broad companion which led to the dining saloon some one a girl evidently was descending presently he saw her fully revealed it was miss perhaps he had never been so glad to see her before she was a friend a dear friend she at least would with him would understand that it was not his fault if he had been too late to a catastrophe she was coming to him her eyes were friendly and pitiful as they sought his she at least did not turn from him how pale how terribly pale you look she said you must nerve yourself to see her it can not be long now has she been brought on board yet he gasped is is there any hope we shall know very soon it is possible you may find that all is at an end ah i you think so but but no one will say it was my fault will they i i was ready to make any sacrifice only somehow when the moment comes i am apt to lose my presence of mind yes i know she said you are not quite yet but i know you would make the sacrifice if your duty demanded it but she may have taken advantage of your absence to free herself and you from all obligation may she not this suggestion comforted peter she mt t have done i he said yes of course i could not be expected to prevent it if i wasn t there and i wasn t when it came to the point but miss do you think in tain that it is really all over she she may come round after all she may but of course if it is true that she is engaged to another she can have no possible claim on what a sensible right minded way this girl had of looking at things thought peter not for the first time why of course she can t he cried and it is true she is engaged to a fellow of the name of alfred you know that as a fact she exclaimed i know it from her own lips and i need not say that i should be the last person to wish to er upset so desirable an arrangement why why didn t you tell me all this before she inquired i i didn t think it would interest you he replied here to peter s utter astonishment she covered her face with her hands not interest me she murmured at last oh how could you how could you keep this from me can t you can t you guess what a difference it has made in my feelings r ei it might be very dull of him but he could not perceive why the fact of miss s engagement to alfred should affect miss so strangely as this i may call you peter now she said oh peter how happy you have made me why did you keep silence so long it was too don t you understand even yet no said peter i m afraid i don t then if you are really so i i must tell you that if you were to ask a certain question once more i might i don t say i should but i might meet it with a different answer good heavens he ejaculated involuntarily but you must not ask me yet not just yet i must have time to consider i must tell papa before i decide anything you will wait a little longer won t you peter yes he said feeling limp wait rather she smiled upon him and then fled lightly up the companion leaving him with fresh cause for uneasiness he could no longer in t i coin doubt that for some reason she expected him to propose to her which it seemed he had already in one of those confounded extra minutes been enough to do now she had gone to inform her father the judge and he would have the disagreeable task of them before long at this point he started believing that he was visited by an apparition for a cabin door opened and miss came out and stood before him but she was so obviously flesh and blood and so dry that	44
he soon saw that all his anxiety on her account had been superfluous then you you didn t jump overboard after all he faltered divided between relief and annoyance at having been made to come back as it were on false you know who prevented me and by what arguments i she said in a low strained voice do i he said helplessly who should if you do not did not you me not to leave you and declare that if i would only have courage and wait we should be happy even yet and i did wait e for what i ask you peter for it s really no use asking me he said for i ve no idea i waited to discover that all this time you have had a secret understanding with another that you are about to transfer your affections to to that fair girl don t deny it peter i was listening i see it all all i wish to goodness he said i never was in such a as this in my life i can only assure you that if that young lady really that i am or can be anything more to her than a friend she is entirely mistaken i was just about to go up and explain as much to her father i you are not deceiving me she asked earnestly you are sure f i will swear it if you wish i he replied no she said visibly your word is enough i do believe you and i am almost happy again so long as you do not desert me even alfred loses half his terrors exactly he said and now if you will excuse me i ll just run up on deck and settle this other business ij in t i he went up to the deck and found the ship had in front was a huge barren rock with lines of walls and telegraph poles and at its base a small white town huddled they had arrived at which accounted for the absence of motion as he stood there taking this in he was by sir william who thrust his arm through peter s in a friendly manner my dear boy said the judge heartily has just told me the good news i can only say that i am delighted most delighted i have always felt a warm interest in you ever since that affair of of the monkey said peter i am very glad to hear it sir william but but i ought to tell you that i am afraid miss was a little premature she a remark of mine which in point of fact referred to somebody else altogether then you have no more reason than before for assuming that your has thrown you over am i to understand that no more reason than before admitted peter and your uncertainty still continues yery w unsatisfactory i must say i i do think my dear fellow that in your position you should have been more careful to refrain from betraying any interest in violet until you knew that you were free to speak as it is you may have cast a shadow upon her young life that it may take years to peter s heart sank into his boots for very shame at this gentle and almost paternal reproof yes continued the worthy judge violet is a high minded girl sensitive on points of honor and unless the young lady you are under a semi engagement to should release you of her own free will i know my daughter too well to doubt that she will counsel you to your contract and all hope so far as she is concerned peter felt a little easier i i am prepared to do that he said well i don t say myself that i go quite so far as she does but strictly no doubt a promise is a promise and should be kept at all you have done all that a man can do to put himself right you have written to this young lady so i understand in i i coin informing her of the change in your and offering nevertheless to redeem your promise if she insisted upon it i think that was the general purport of your letter here was one more evil fruit of his extra time what would think or say or do if such a letter as that ever came to her knowledge fortunately that at least was impossible you have some grounds the judge went on for assuming that the lady has already treated the contract as non a person called alfred i think my daughter said no that was a mistake explained peter alfred is engaged to quite a different person well in any case it is quite possible that you may obtain your release when you meet her and your suspense will soon be over now er is it will probably be on board the ship before many minutes i see the boats are putting out from the harbor already cried peter with the terrible conviction darting through his mind that sir william spoke the bare truth had said something about meeting d him at but if she had done so during the real voyage how could he have the meeting all over again with this ghastly if he could only remember whether she had come out or not it was singular incomprehensible but his memory was a blank on such a vital fact as this would you like to have my field glass for a moment said sir william peter took them and the next moment the fell from his hands he had seen only too clearly the familiar form of seated in the stem of a small craft which a spanish was through the waves toward the ng come courage said the judge kindly	44
as he picked up his glass and wiped the don t be nervous my boy you don t know what she may have to say to you yet you know t to i don t he groaned i i think i ought to go down to the and meet her he added not that he had any intention of doing so but he wanted to be alone before the judge could even express his approbation of peter s course was in l i coin down on the saloon deck seeking a quiet spot wherein to collect his thoughts before he could find the quiet spot however he almost ran into the arms pf the matron from whom he had not seen since the episode of the music room a word with you mr she said i i really can t stop now stammered peter i i m expecting friends i too she said am expecting a relation and it is for that reason that i wish to speak to you now my brother who has been staying at on account of his health will be as determined as i am to trace and punish the infamous upon the name and career of our honored parent i dare say madam said peter i dare say very creditable to you both but i really can t stop just now you appear to forget sir that unless you can satisfactorily establish your innocence my brother will certainly treat you as the person responsible for an a upon your father me f i d said the indignant peter why i never heard of the gentleman denial will not serve you now she said i have not only your own in the music room but the evidence of more than one witness to prove that you a report that my dear father one of the most honored and respected citizens of began his career as as a transported i after all as the peter instantly saw he might have said so for anything he knew in one of those still extra quarters of an hour if i said so i was he said just so and in our conversation on the subject you mentioned the name of the person who used you as his to his malicious what i wish to know now is whether you are prepared or not to repeat that statement peter recollected now that he had used expressions mr although w merely as the origin of totally different com ij in i can t positively go so far as that he said i i made the statement generally as you please she said i can merely say that my brother whom i expect is although an invalid in some respects a powerful and determined man and unless you repeat in his presence the sole excuse you have to offer he will certainly you in the presence of the other passengers that is all sir thank you it s quite enough i murmured peter thinking that himself could hardly be much more formidable and he slipped down the companion to the where he found miss anxiously expecting him he is here she whispered i have just seen him through the port hole what the old lady s brother he replied he has no sister who is an old lady i mean alfred alfred he almost alfred here of course he is here is not his stationed at you knew it we were to meet him here s hi i didn t indeed or i should never have come he protested don t let us waste words now he is here he will demand an explanation from you he has his pistol with him i could tell by the under his coat we must both face him and the question is what are you going to say peter thrust his hands through his carefully parted hair say he repeated i shall tell him the simple straightforward truth i shall frankly admit that we have walked and sat and talked together but i shall assure him as i can honestly that during the whole course of our acquaintance i have never once regarded you in any other light but that of a friend and you suppose that knowing how i have changed he will believe that she cried he will fire long before you can finish one of those fine sentences i in that case suggested peter why tell him anything at all why not spare him poor fellow at all events for the time it will only upset him just now let him sup l pose that we are strangers to one another and in coin you can break the truth to him gently when you reach england you know i m sure that s much the more sensible plan she broke into strange laughter your prudence comes too late she said you forget that the truth was broken to him some days ago in the letter i wrote from you wrote and broke it to him at cried peter what induced you to do that f why you she retorted you insisted that it was due to him and though i knew better than you what the effect would be i dared not tell you the whole truth i wanted to end the engagement too and i scarcely cared then what consequences might follow now they are upon us and it is useless to try to escape them since we must die let us go up on deck and get it over one moment he said alfred can wait a little i i must go to my cabin first and put on a clean collar and with this rather pretext he again made his escape he made up his mind what to do as he rushed toward his cabin he t could	44
hardly have been anything like an hour on board the ng as yet he had to get through at least another three before he could hope for his only chance was to himself inside his cabin and refuse to come out upon any consideration whatever until he was released by the natural of time he sped down the passage and found to his horror that he had forgotten the number of his berth however he knew where it ought to be and darted into an open door which he fastened securely with hook and bolt and sank breathless on one of the lower you seem in a hurry my friend said a voice opposite and peter s eyes unused at first to the comparative perceived that a big man was sitting on the opposite berth engaged in putting on a pair of shoes he had bolted himself inside the cabin with mr chapter ix compound interest back to ths fire again a return catching at two total strangers purely a question of hemmed in and surrounded the last chance the bank manager looked across at peter with an amused smile he seemed quite friendly whether he was in peter s cabin or peter in his did not appear and perhaps it was not of much consequence either way if the cabin belonged to mr he did not at all events appear to resent the intrusion you seem rather put out about something he said again as peter was still too short of breath for words oh no panted peter it s nothing there was so much bustle going on above that i thought i d come in here for a little quiet that s all fi d well said the manager i m glad you looked in for as it happens you re the very man i wanted to see i dare say you re wondering why i m putting on these things peter nodded his head which was all he felt equal to why i ve just been having a talk with that old she from perhaps you don t know that her brother is coming on board directly o yes i do said peter well it seems she means to me to him as the of her father she may if she chooses my conscience is perfectly clear on that score no one can bring anything of the sort home to me and i ve no doubt i shall soon satisfy him that i m as innocent as an babe still i want you as a respectable man and the only real friend i have on board to come with me and be my witness that you never heard such a from my lips and besides sir we shall have an opportunity at last of seeing the unutterable who has had the impudence to say i told him this precious story she s going to produce him sir and if he dares to rom j interest stand me out to my face well a ll know why i ve put on these shoes come along i can t let you off peter dared not refuse for fear of his friend s suspicions he could only trust to slipping away in the confusion and so the cabin door the manager caught the tightly by the arm and hurried him along the central passage and up the companion even miss would have been a welcome diversion at that moment but she was not there to him and he reached the upper deck more dead than alive where s that old now exclaimed the manager dropping peter s arm here just stay where you are a minute till i find her and her confounded brother he off leaving by the quite incapable of action of any kind in the presence of this new and awful he had been spreading a cruel and against an whose son was now at hand to demand with a he could only him by as ei s his and if he did that he would be kicked from one end of the ship to the other with a boot this was indeed and it was who had insisted upon his exposing himself to it what a fool he was not to fly back to that cabin while he could i he turned to flee and as he did so a hand was passed softly through his arm not that way peter said miss s voice a wild faint hope to him that he might be going to receive one of the back quarters of an hour the of the time were such that it was quite possible he would be thrown back into an earlier interview little as he felt inclined for any social intercourse just then he felt that it would afford him a brief would at least give him breathing time before his troubles began again i will go wherever you choose lie said i am in your hands i came she said to take you to her she is asking for you she said peter for heaven s sake miss of course i knew who it was directly i saw her face peter is it true as papa tells me that i misunderstood you just now that she is not engaged to alfred alfred no he replied if she is engaged to any one at all i have strong grounds for supposing it s to me then we must submit that is all said miss but we do not know her decision yet there is still hope i yes he said there is hope still let us go to her make haste he meant what he said could at least him from a portion of his difficulties miss and unselfish girl that she was in spite of her talent for was ready to resign him to a prior claim if one was	44
at door mr and mrs and miss i enter a old gentleman with light prominent eyes and a crest of hair in the wake of an imposing matron in velvet they are followed by an elderly in black and silver with jet miss after the usual i hope dearest maria you will excuse me if i am not quite in my usual spirits this evening but my whom i have had for ages has been in the whole afternoon and though i left him calmer done up in warm flannel on the rug in front of the fire and the maid promised faithfully to sit up with him and telegraph if there was the slightest change i can t help feeling i ought never to have come the man from aunt to host such a drive as it is here all the way from s park and in this fog i told that if he escapes to morrow mr and mrs mr i mr ditch yes dear mrs our opportunities for these meetings grow more and more limited with each advancing year seven dear friends at whose board we have sat and they at ours within the past twelve months carried off all gone from us mrs ditch eighty if you count mr though he only dined with us once mr ditch to be sure and never left his bed again well well it should teach us as i was remarking to my dear wife as we drove along to set a higher value than we sometimes do on such as we are still privileged to enjoy mr to mrs my poor wife would i am sure have charged me with all manner of messages if she had not been more or less all day but i am in no anxiety about her she is so often like that it is almost mr and mrs miss mr mr after mrs and myself have just been the victims of a most extraordinary mistake we positively walked straight into your next door neighbour s house and if we had not been by a on the first landing i don t know where we should have found ourselves next mrs a how very disagreeable such a peculiar thing to have about a house but we really know nothing about the people next door we have never encouraged any intimacy we thought it best mrs i told their man servant as we came away that i considered he had behaved in not telling us our mistake at once no doubt he had a motive people are so little drawing miss into a comer oh miss what do you think mother s going to let you dine down stairs with them won t that be nice for you at least she s the man from j i going to if somebody comes and you re to go down with him he isn t like a regular dinner guest you know papa hired him from s this morning and mother and he both hope he t come after all but hope he will because i want to see what he s like don t you hope he ll come you miss dear miss to then was why and i can t even refuse aloud my dear you shouldn t tell me all these things they re secrets and i m sure your mother would be very angry indeed if she heard you mention them to anybody oh it was only to you miss and you re nobody you know and i can keep a secret if i choose i never told how jane used to miss to check these uncle out of temper on t ie rug seven minutes past the hour and if there s a thing i m particular about it s not being kept waiting for my dinner are you expecting somebody else or what is it mr nervously well i half thought but we won t wait any longer for him he is not worth it ha there he is i think i heard the front door so perhaps i may as well give him eh uncle just as you like my dinner s spoilt as it is catching sight of the banner screen what have you stuck this precious affair up for eh mr to to keep the fire off maria s idea uncle she thought our hem crest and motto would look rather well made up like this uncle with a made up i should think it was though what you want to make yourself out one of those good for is beyond me you know my sentiments about cm i m a thorough going radical and the very sound of a title a fine combination of awe and incredulity lord t is a perceptible flutter in the company as a ruddy haired rather plain young man enters with an and even air pauses in evident uncertainty as to his host and hostess college library from the library of june richard clay sons limited london preface the author wishes to express his to messrs and to whom he is indebted for their permission to the present collection of sketches which made their first appearance in the pages of mr punch and also for their leave as the sole of the to mr s admirable illustrations without which the volume would have lost its principal attraction contents the man from s i one side of the the other side of the on the threshold of boat race day preserved at a at a with dinners more pot from the park the loo hair cutting and the race ill before the mechanical models ii at the wild west i art in the city i at the s i choosing christmas toys i illustrations don t say you went and ordered him i mr and	44
mrs t ft look upon him simply as a human being don t make a fuss you can take glass as he wishes it let me advise you to be very care u mrs rises slowly with indignation i i wonder whether i ought to k ss it some fellows would j you know ow to do it n but look i know the i m i am i m sure i m flattered but i m already suited a la i do lovely creature waiter could you spare me one moment of your valuable time sir a roughly dressed stranger a few words yer may sometimes a angel unawares you ave been your air it makes me feel too young i am perfectly aware of that how very distinctly you hear the dialogue sir don t you earnest youths with long hair i must have more than that here t er i want a toy of some sort for a don t you know i lo i so the man from s a story in scenes scene i breakfast room at no square and gilt paper with dark olive curtains of a brown black marble clock on grey granite tall book case containing volumes of the quiver mission work in a cheap and the popular history of europe time about a m mr is leaving to catch his mrs t is at in the window mr t from the door anything else you want me to do maria mrs t don t forget the and mind you choose it yourself and the for the oh and look in at s as you pass and remind him to be here at seven to help jane with the table and say i insist on his waiting in clean white gloves and be home early yourself and there if he hasn t rushed off before i remembered half mr t re appears at the door what is it i do wish you d start and have done with it instead of keeping jane at the front door when she ought to be clearing away breakfast i b the man from mr t very sorry my love i was just going when i met a telegraph boy with this for you i hope there s nothing wrong with uncle i m sure mrs t don t stand there holding it give it to me she il regret impossible dine to night lost great aunt very suddenly how provoking of the man and i particularly wished him to meet uncle because he is such a good listener and they would be sure to get on together as if he hadn t all the rest of the year to lose his aunt in mr t that s all over never can depend upon fellow gloomily now we shall be thirteen at table mrs t nonsense we be let me see uncle and aunt two the four six eight miss nine mr ten eleven and ourselves we are thirteen i and i know uncle will refuse to sit down at all if he notices it and anyway it s sure to cast a gloom over the whole thing we must get somebody mr t couldn t that miss what s her name dine for once mrs t the idea then there would be one lady too many if you can call a a lady that is and i do of taking people out of their proper station mr t i might wire to or but i rather think they re both away and it won t do to run any risk shall i bring home or very quiet respectable young fellows and i could let one of em go off early to dress mrs t thank you but i won t have one of your german clerks at my table every one would see what he was in a minute and he t even have a dress suit let me think know what we can do supplies extra guests for parties and things i remember seeing it in the paper we hire a man th re go there at once it s very little out of your and tell them to be sure and send a gentlemanly person he needn t the man from talk much and he won t be required to ell any anecdotes make haste say they can put him down tp deposit account mr t i don t half like tbe idea maria but i suppose it s the only thing left i ll go and s i they can do for us he goes out mrs t i know he u make some i d better do it myself she out the passage jane is your master gone call him back do it she calls after mr t s retreating form t ie never mind about s i ll see to it myself do you hear mr t s voice from tlie comer all right my love all right i hear mrs t i must go round before lunch jane send miss to me in the breakfast room she goes back to desk presently miss enters the room site is young and extremely with an air of dejected oh miss just copy out these for me in your writing and see that the french is all right you will have plenty of time for it as i shall take out myself this morning by the way i shall expect you to appear in the drawing room this evening before dinner i hope you have a suitable frock miss i have a white frock with blue velvet sleeves if that ill do it was made in paris mrs t you are fortunate to be able to command such luxuries all my dresses are made in	44
talk at all and she s rude i what did she ask me here for if she can t be civil if she wasn t my hostess i ll try her once more she may know something about aloud i suppose mr keeps his collection in a separate room i i was told he has some hunting of the that i am very curious to see mrs stiffly mr may keep all sorts of disagreeable for anything know to the contrary lord to himself in amazement i m hanged if i let myself be like this aloud i m afraid you have very little sympathy with his tastes mrs sympathy indeed i don t even know if he has any tastes i am not in the habit of troubling myself about my next door neighbour s affairs lord with a gasp your next door he him the man from self together to be sure of course not stupid of me to ask to himself good heavens these the i tm at the wrong dinner party and this awful woman thinks i ve done it on purpose no wonder she s so i and knows it too and won t speak to mc perhaps they all know it what on earth am i to do feel such a fool i miss to how perfectly is looking did he really think he was at the then what an idiot i ve been it s a mistake he doesn t come from s at all i must speak to him i must tell him how no i can t i forgot how horrid i ve been to him i should have to tell him i believed that and i d rather die no it s too late it s too late now miss and lord sit regarding the table cloth with downcast eyes and expressions of the deepest gloom and confusion scene vl lord to himself don t want to make a fuss but i suppose i ought to do something good little chap my host didn t like to tell me i d made a mistake but his wife s a downright better make it right with her to mrs i i m afraid i ought to have found out long before this what an intruder you must consider me but your husband mrs pray say no more mr chose to act on his own responsibility and of course must put up with the consequences lord to himself it s hard lines to have to leave like this but this is more than i can aloud after that of course i can only offer to relieve you of my presence as soon as mrs not for worlds i can t have my party broken up now i insist on your staying i i have no complaint to make of your conduct so far lord very kind of you to say so to himself pleasant woman this but i don t care i will stay and see this out it s too late to go in to the now and i won t leave till man from aloud miss fm in a most awfully difficult position do let me tell you about it miss oh i i know i heard i m so sorry i mean i m so glad t please forgive me for treating you as i did lord you did let me have it pretty straight didn t you but of course you thought me an impudent for calmly coming in to dinner like this and no wonder miss to herself he doesn t know the worst and he shan t if i can help it aloud it doesn t matter what i thought i i don t think it now and and do tell me all you can about yourself they converse with recovered confidence uncle to himself for all the notice that stuck up young swell takes of me i might be a block of wood i ll make him listen to me aloud my lord i ve just been telling my niece here the latest scandal in high life i dare say your has heard of that but young the of lord oh yes know him well sort of relation of mine never heard a word against him though uncle in confusion oh i i beg your s pardon i wasn t aware no doubt i got the name wrong lord ah or the facts great mistake to repeat these things don t you think generally lies he his conversation with miss s uncle it s all very well for you to stand up for your order my lord but it s right i should tell you that the country doesn t mean to that den of thieves and land i need hardly say i refer to the house of lords much longer we re determined to sweep them from the face of the earth i say so as the ah of a large and influential majority of earnest and enlightened englishmen lord to himself fancy the has had quite enough champagne aloud my dear sir you can begin sweeping to morrow so far as i am concerned i m no uncle warming no and yet you sit in the the man from upper house as one of our hereditary the will of the people do you mean to tell me there s no in that consternation among the company lord a good deal i dare say if i sat there only i don t haven t had the honour of being elected at present mrs he means he he has other things to do uncle don t excite yourself so to lord	44
as you did with that most ill bred and impertinent i miss indignantly he is nothing of the sort mrs you you don t understand please let me tell you about him mrs i have no desire whatever to hear i am only sorry i ever permitted you to dine at all it will be a lesson to me another time and you will be good to retire to your own room at once and remain there till i send for you she passes on miss following but i must tell you first what a mistake you are making indeed he is not mrs i don t care what he is another word miss and we part i she sweeps into the room miss outside i have done all can if i could only hope the worst was over but it doesn t matter much now i know i shall never see again she goes sorrowfully up to her room scene viii in the drawing room time about lo mrs and mrs water are talking in confidential tones on a miss s anxiety concerning her invalid already obliged her to depart miss is playing the music from softly in the back drawing room mrs is her niece on a couch by the fire while little is in a a picture book mrs in a whisper if he had condescended to make agreeable all round i shouldn t say a word but to sit there talking to that little forward and never an audible word from t he man from first to last well i quite felt for poor dear mrs being so neglected at her own table mrs ditch ah my dear if she will have the aristocracy to dine with her she must put up with such treatment i wouldn t stoop te such presumption myself and if i did i would have a couple of and everything carved off the table i he ll go away with such a poor opinion of us all mrs he must have noticed how the vegetable dishes were and tm sure i was ashamed to see she had put out those with the finger glasses i wonder she never thought of getting some new ones i saw some the other day in the grove hand worked at only three i mrs ditch i could see something was weighing on her mind or she d have talked more to him what is his title it like i must look it out in my would he be an earl now or what mrs i don t expect he s more than a if so much i do think she might have presented us to him though mrs ditch with superiority it isn t the fashion to introduce now a days but i consider we are quite entitled to speak to him if we get an opportunity in fact he would think it very odd if we didn t c mrs well maria i say as i said before don t let it turn your head that s all depend upon it this young nobleman isn t so for nothing he wouldn t dine with you like this unless he expected to get something out of it what that something may be you best know mrs tp herself a guinea at the very least aloud i m sorry you think my head s so easily turned aunt if you d noticed how i behaved to him you wouldn t say so why i scarcely spoke to the man i mrs i was watching yo x maria and sorry i was to see that being next to a member of the nobility you to that extent you could hardly open your mouth so unlike your uncle mrs at this injustice indeed i m sure it the man from was ho satisfaction to me to see him here i no aunt the only people i welcome at my table are those in my own rank of life relations and old friends like you and the others and how you can think i was dazzled by a title when i sent him in with the mrs ah you make too much of that girl maria ive noticed it and others have noticed it she takes too much upon herself the idea of letting her forbid to no wonder your authority over the child is weakened i should have insisted on obedience mrs roused i hope i know how to make my own child obey me come out of that corner put down your book i wish you to repeat something to your what you refused to say down k know what i mean i do you mean the thing miss said i wasn t to because you d be angry mrs miss had no business to know whether i should be angry or not she is only your am your mother and i shall be extremely angry if you don t repeat it at once in fact i shall send you off to bed so you can choose for yourself i don t want to go to bed yet i ll tell if i may whisper it mrs well if you are too shy to speak out loud you may whisper you see aunt i am not quite such a as you fancied puts her mouth to mrs s ear and proceeds to scene ix the breakfast room time the same as in tjie foregoing scene mr after proposing to join t te much to the relief of lord has brought him in here on the transparent pretext of showing him a picture mr closing the door i only just wanted to tell you that i don t at all like the way you ve been going on it s not my wish to	44
make complaints but there is a limit the man from m lord hotly there is you re very near it now sir j o himself if i quarrel with this little beggar i shan t see his temper perhaps you ll kindly let me know what you complain of mr well why couldn t you say you didn t smoke when my uncle offered you one of his cigars you must have felt me kick you under the table lord i did distinctly but i gave you credit for its being accidental and if you wish to know i said i smoked because i do i don t see why you should expect me to lie about it mr i don t agree with you i consider you ought to have had more tact after the hint i gave you lord it didn t occur to me that you were trying to kick tact into me and naturally when i saw your uncle about to smoke mr that was different as you might have known why is as much as my wife can stand i lord you a wouldn t wish her to smoke more than one surely mr outraged my wife smoke never did such a thing in her life she don t allow me to smoke she wouldn t allow mr if he wasn t her uncle and i can tell you when she comes down in the morning and finds the curtains smelling of smoke and hears you were the other i shall catch lord sorry for you but if you had only made your kick a trifle more mr that s not all sir when you saw me and my uncle engaged in talking business what did you cut in for with a cock and bull story about the being formed into a limited company and say the was going to join the board after you couldn t really believe the beast was eligible as a an animal sir lord why not they have guinea pigs on the board occasionally don t they but of course it was only a joke mr you weren t asked to make jokes my uncle doesn t understand em no more do i sir the man from i i f i i m li m i m p m l i w l i lord no i gathered tha breaking out d it all sir what do you mean by this jf didn t want me why couldn t you tell me so you knew it before did j don t understand your peculiar ideas of hospitality i ve kept my temper as long as i could but dash it all if you force me to speak out i will i mr alarmed no no i i meant no offence r won t go and let everything out now it was a mistake that s there s no harm done you got your dinner all right didn t you by the way talking of that can you e me any idea what they ll charge me for this eh what s the regular thing now lord fo himself extraordinary little me to price his dinner for him aloud couldn t give a guess mr well considering i sent round and all that i think they ought to make some y know but nothing to do with that eh i m to settle up with s lord i should say he would prefer your doing so but it s really no business of mine and a it s getting rather r mr opening the door there we ll go up and look here do try and be a bit with my uncle it s too bad the way he goes on my you y know you shouldn t encourage him lord i wasn t aware i did to himself trying this but never mind i shall see in another minute mr to himself the airs these give themselves oh lor there s uncle on to him again if he only knew i he follows them upstairs uneasily scene x in the drawing room is still whispering in mrs s ear mrs eh you re my ear child don t come so close louder yes go on sat next to him at weu what about him what what s the child talking about now a gentleman out of s shop i hired for the the man from evening let her alone maria know who s telling the truth so this is your precious nobleman is it oh the deceit of it all the door opens and uncle enters to lord s arm uncle and when i take a fancy to a young fellow my lord i don t allow any social prejudices to stand in the way i should say just the same if you were a mere nobody we ought to see more of one another i should esteem it a distinguished favour if you d honour me and my wife by dropping in to a little dinner some evening no ceremony just a few quiet pleasant people like ourselves we ll see if we can t fix a day with my wife he him across to mrs lord to himself now how the deuce am i going to get out of this and what have they done with uncle my love i ve been telling his here how delighted and honoured we should be to see him at dinner some mrs rises slowly with indignation and at the unconscious lord while mrs vainly attempts to her as her husband and the other men enter scene xl mrs is still unable to express her feelings by more a contemptuous stare uncle	44
my ah love you didn t hear me i was saying i ve almost prevailed on his mrs becoming articulate his indeed if a lord i don t wonder you re such a radical uncle why why what s come to you my lord i hope you ll excuse her she s a little mrs you ve been made a fool of can t you see for yourself that he s neither the manners nor yet the appearance of a real nobleman or anything but what he r the piano stops suddenly bustling with t he man from uncle dropping lord s s arm eh if you re not a lord sir what else are you lord wavering between wrath and amusement afraid i can t you i m extremely curious to know myself mrs oh aunt it wasn t my fault really would have him and and we sent round to say he wouldn t be required we did indeed please please don t tell anybody mrs rigidly it is my duty to let every one here know how we have been insulted to night maria and might have gone away in ignorance to the last but for that innocent child who has done nothing that can see to deserve being shaken like that tm not going to sit by in silence and see a man passed off as a lord who is nothing more nor less than one of the out of s shop hired to come and fill a vacant place yes if you doubt my word look at maria and now ask that young man to dine profound sensation among the company uncle i ah withdraw the invitation of course it is ir feminine murmur i had a feeling the moment he came in as so thankful now i didn t commit myself by so much as ah my dear it all comes from a desire to make a show c uncle it s the impudence of coming here on false that can t get over come mr or whatever you really are what have you got to say for yourself lord say why he struggles to control countenance for a moment until he is at last by irrepressible laughter all except the he s laughing positively laughing at us i the of it lord composure i fm awfully sorry but it struck me suddenly as so after all the joke is only against to himself must try and get my unfortunate hostess out of this fix not that she deserves it aloud if you will kindly let me explain i think i can the man from mr sullenly oh hang explaining i it s all out now and you d better leave it there lord i can t indeed i must make you all understand that this well meaning lady with the highly developed sense of duty has done our host and hostess a grave injustice besides paying me a compliment i don t deserve fm sorry to say i can t claim to be half as useful a member of the community as any of the very obliging and attentive gentlemen in mr s employment if i m anything i m a an in an amateur sort of way you know a in fact i m writing a book on ancient egypt the others a literary man as if that made it any better lord i merely mention it because it led me to write to mr whom i happened to hear of as a famous and ask to be allowed to call and inspect his collection mr who lives i believe at no next door very kindly wrote giving me leave and inviting me to dine at the same time and i know it was careless of me but somehow i came here instead and mr and mrs being both too a hospitable to me i never found my mistake out till too late to put it right without everybody that s really all uneasy reaction in the company uncle ha hum no doubt that puts a somewhat different complexion on the case but it doesn t explain your conduct in calling yourself lord or whatever it was lord i think you mean i did call myself that because it happens to be my name mrs passionately i don t believe it i if it is why did miss call you mr lord i beg your pardon because when we last met i was with no prospect whatever as it seemed then of being anything else mrs faintly then he really oh t she sinks on the crushed uncle ha well my lord i m glad this little misunderstanding is so satisfactorily cleared up and if i may venture to hope for the honour of your company shall we say friday lord s looks at him the man from steadily oh if your has some better engagement well and good makes no difference to me i assure you our carriage must be here by now say good bye and have done with it good maria v see you don t expose me to this again scene xii the guests have all taken leave with frosty t mr is downstairs t departure has been on lord s s and dismissed in bewilderment y to bed mrs and lord are alone i mrs oh lord when i think how i what can i ei er say to you lord only i hope that you forgive my stupidity in in here as i did mrs mrs the offensive it was a good deal your fault if you had only said who you really were if my husband had not been idiot enough to if miss had been more straightforward	44
all this would never lord we were all the victims of circumstances weren t we but i at least have no reason to regret it and if i may ask one last indulgence will you a let me have an opportunity of saying good bye to miss mrs she she doesn t deserve oh i don t know what i m saying of course lord anything anything i can do to i will send her down to you if you will only wait she shall not keep you long lord alone to himself it s an ill wind c i shall have all to myself now to think that but for a lucky blunder i should be out and things on the wrong side of that wall at this moment and never dreaming that was so ah she s coming miss enters looking pale and you ve no idea what you ve missed i must tell you it s too good to lose what do you think all these good people have been taking me the man from for never guess they actually believed i was hired from s give you my word they did why don t you laugh miss faintly i i am laughing no i m not i can t i haven t the conscience to oh i never meant you to know but i must tell you whatever comes of it believed it too at first i did lord did you though then by jove i must have looked the character miss timidly i knew you you weren t very well off and so i fancied you might oh i know it was hateful of me ever to think such a thing but i did and you can never really forgive me i lord couldn t think of it shall i tell you something else i ve a strong impression that you will not be an of this happy english household m longer miss i m sure i shan t from mrs s expression just now but i don t care lord don t be reckless how do you know there isn t a moral lion about and where will you go next miss with a shrug i don t know i suppose to anybody who wants a and doesn t mind taking her without a reference if there is such a person lord well oddly enough i fancy i know somebody who has been trying for a long time to find a young person of just your age and appearance and might be induced to a reference after a personal interview miss looks incredulous don t you understand if i hadn t been such a i d have spoken long ago when we were up in scotland together only it didn t seem fair then i i dare say i ve no better chance now but at least i ve more right to speak than i had and and will you have me she turns away i i won t worry you dear if you really can t care about me in that way but but if you only could even a little miss the man from same scene somewhat later lord not yet i can t let you go just yet i must i really before i ve said half what i wanted well in one minute then and you re coming to my people as soon as you can get out of this and shall see you every day till till we shall never be separated any confound it who s that mr enters suddenly mr oh er lord sorry to interrupt you but hem my wife who s feeling too to come down again desires me to say that in her opinion miss has been here quite long enough miss escapes by tlie back drawing room lord i entirely agree with mrs but i am happy to say that miss will not remain here very much longer as she has just done me the honour of to be my wife good night sir and many thanks for a most a evening he goes out mr making an effort to escort him down stairs but giving it up and sitting down heavily on a instead she ll be lady and i shall have to break it to maria after she s just gone in and stuck a month s salary and immediate notice on her i oh lor as if my poor wife hadn t trouble enough to bear as it was end of the man from s c one side of the an scene a narrow south london of two houses with a rag and bone at one end and a public house at the other time about four o clock on a saturday afternoon enter mr a middle aged gentleman in get up who in a moment of weakness undertaken to the district for his friend the candidate mr c j to himself as he regards his surroundings with dismay and tries to arrange his cards i suppose this is little maria street i didn t understand at the committee rooms that it was quite such a however i must do my best for dear old who s the first man i must see and use my best to persuade him into promising his vote ah mr j no i he his way delicately along attempting to make out t ie numbers on the which are all thrown back female watch him from and windows with amused interest no no the next is no i is but the entrance is blocked by a small infant with a very dirty face who is in a baby chair between the door posts very embarrassing really can t ask	44

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