omfortable fortune and
expected to marry in his own sphere, he was by no means sure that he
wanted marriage on any terms. Of course the conjugal state was an
institution. It was established. Yes, certainly. But what of it? The
whole nation believed in it. True, but other nations believed in
polygamy. There were other questions that bothered him--such
questions as the belief in a single deity or ruler of the universe,
and whether a republican, monarchial, or aristocratic form of
government were best. In short, the whole body of things material,
social, and spiritual had come under the knife of his mental surgery
and been left but half dissected. Life was not proved to him. Not a
single idea of his, unless it were the need of being honest, was
finally settled. In all other things he wavered, questioned,
procrastinated, leaving to time and to the powers back of the universe
the solution of the problems that vexed him. Yes, Lester Kane was the
natural product of a combination of elements--religious,
commercial, social--modified by that pervading atmosphere of
liberty in our national life which is productive of almost uncounted
freedom of thought and action. Thirty-six years of age, and apparently
a man of vigorous, aggressive, and sound personality, he was,
nevertheless, an essentially animal-man, pleasantly veneered by
education and environment. Like the hundreds of thousands of Irishmen
who in his father's day had worked on the railroad tracks, dug in the
mines, picked and shoveled in the ditches, and carried up bricks and
mortar on the endless structures of a new land, he was strong, hairy,
axiomatic, and witty.

"Do you want me to come back here next year?" he had asked of
Brother Ambrose, when, in his seventeenth year, that ecclesiastical
member was about to chastise him for some school-boy misdemeanor.

The other stared at him in astonishment. "Your father will have to
look after that," he replied.

"Well, my father won't look after it," Lester returned. "If you
touch me with that whip I'll take things into my own hands. I'm not
committing any punishable offenses, and I'm not going to be knocked
around any more."

Words, unfortunately, did not avail in this case, but a good,
vigorous Irish-American wrestle did, in which the whip was broken and
the discipline of the school so far impaired that he was compelled to
take his clothes and leave. After that he looked his father in the eye
and told him that he was not g