tom--a symptom of a disease due to a change
in the structure of society. We'll never have any happiness or real
prosperity until we cure that disease. I was inclined to blame you once,
at the capital that time, because it seemed to me that a man with all
the advantages you have had and a mind like yours didn't have much
excuse. But I've thought about it since; I realize now that I've had a
good many more 'advantages' than you, and to tell you the truth, I don't
see how you could have come out anywhere else than where you are,--all
your surroundings and training were against it. That doesn't mean that
you won't grasp the situation some day--I have an idea you will. It's
just an idea. The man who ought to be condemned isn't the man that
doesn't understand what's going on, but the man who comes to understand
and persists in opposing it." He rose and looked down at me with the
queer, disturbing smile I remembered. "I get off at this corner," he
added, rather diffidently. "I hope you'll forgive me for being personal.
I didn't mean to be, but you rather forced it on me."

"Oh, that's all right," I replied. The car stopped, and he hurried
off. I watched his tall figure as it disappeared among the crowd on the
sidewalk....

I returned to my office in one of those moods that are the more
disagreeable because conflicting. To-day in particular I had been
aroused by what Tom used to call Krebs's "crust," and as I sat at my
desk warm waves of resentment went through me at the very notion of his
telling me that my view was limited and that therefore my professional
conduct was to be forgiven! It was he, the fanatic, who saw things in
the larger scale! an assumption the more exasperating because at the
moment he made it he almost convinced me that he did, and I was unable
to achieve for him the measure of contempt I desired, for the incident,
the measure of ridicule it deserved. My real animus was due to the fact
that he had managed to shake my self-confidence, to take the flavour out
of my achievements,--a flavour that was in the course of an hour to
be completely restored by one of those interesting coincidences
occasionally occurring in life. A young member of my staff entered with
a telegram; I tore it open, and sat staring at it a moment before I
realized that it brought to me the greatest honour of my career.

The Banker-Personality in New York had summoned me for consultation.
To be recognized by him conferred indeed an ennob