think a man ought to go away to college," she declared, in what
seemed another tone. "He makes friends, learns certain things,--it gives
him finish. We are very provincial here."

Provincial! I did not stop to reflect how recently she must have
acquired the word; it summed up precisely the self-estimate at which I
had arrived. The sting went deep. Before I could think of an effective
reply Nancy was being carried off by the young man from the East, who
was clearly infatuated. He was not provincial. She smiled back at
me brightly over his shoulder.... In that instant were fused in one
resolution all the discordant elements within me of aspiration and
discontent. It was not so much that I would show Nancy what I intended
to do--I would show myself; and I felt a sudden elation, and accession
of power that enabled me momentarily to despise the puppets with whom
she danced.... From this mood I was awakened with a start to feel a hand
on my shoulder, and I turned to confront her father, McAlery Willett;
a gregarious, easygoing, pleasure-loving gentleman who made only a
pretence of business, having inherited an ample fortune from his father,
unique among his generation in our city in that he paid some attention
to fashion in his dress; good living was already beginning to affect his
figure. His mellow voice had a way of breaking an octave.

"Don't worry, my boy," he said. "You stick to business. These college
fellows are cocks of the walk just now, but some day you'll be able to
snap your fingers at all of 'em."

The next day was dark, overcast, smoky, damp-the soft, unwholesome
dampness that follows a spell of hard frost. I spent the morning and
afternoon on the gloomy third floor of Breck and Company, making a list
of the stock. I remember the place as though I had just stepped out
of it, the freight elevator at the back, the dusty, iron columns,
the continuous piles of cases and bags and barrels with narrow aisles
between them; the dirty windows, spotted and soot-streaked, that looked
down on Second Street. I was determined now to escape from all this, and
I had my plan in mind.

No sooner had I swallowed my supper that evening than I set out at a
swift pace for a modest residence district ten blocks away, coming to a
little frame house set back in a yard,--one of those houses in which
the ringing of the front door-bell produces the greatest commotion;
children's voices were excitedly raised and then hushed. After a brie