w it to be true that unconsciously he was
brushing elbows with fortune the livelong day; that a hundred or
five hundred thousand gave no one the privilege of living more than
comfortably in so wealthy a place. Fashion and pomp required more ample
sums, so that the poor man was nowhere. All this he realised, now quite
sharply, as he faced the city, cut off from his friends, despoiled of
his modest fortune, and even his name, and forced to begin the battle
for place and comfort all over again. He was not old, but he was not so
dull but that he could feel he soon would be. Of a sudden, then, this
show of fine clothes, place, and power took on peculiar significance. It
was emphasised by contrast with his own distressing state.

And it was distressing. He soon found that freedom from fear of arrest
was not the sine qua non of his existence. That danger dissolved, the
next necessity became the grievous thing. The paltry sum of thirteen
hundred and some odd dollars set against the need of rent, clothing,
food, and pleasure for years to come was a spectacle little calculated
to induce peace of mind in one who had been accustomed to spend five
times that sum in the course of a year. He thought upon the subject
rather actively the first few days he was in New York, and decided
that he must act quickly. As a consequence, he consulted the business
opportunities advertised in the morning papers and began investigations
on his own account.

That was not before he had become settled, however. Carrie and he went
looking for a flat, as arranged, and found one in Seventy-eighth Street
near Amsterdam Avenue. It was a five-story building, and their flat was
on the third floor. Owing to the fact that the street was not yet built
up solidly, it was possible to see east to the green tops of the trees
in Central Park and west to the broad waters of the Hudson, a glimpse
of which was to be had out of the west windows. For the privilege of six
rooms and a bath, running in a straight line, they were compelled to pay
thirty-five dollars a month--an average, and yet exorbitant, rent for a
home at the time. Carrie noticed the difference between the size of the
rooms here and in Chicago and mentioned it.

"You'll not find anything better, dear," said Hurstwood, "unless you
go into one of the old-fashioned houses, and then you won't have any of
these conveniences."

Carrie picked out the new abode because of its newness and bright
wood-work. It wa