" he said, looking around him in an uncertain way.
"I'm ready."

He stepped out into the hall, with scarcely a farewell glance, and
to Bonhag, who was grieving greatly over the loss of so profitable a
customer, he said: "I wish you would see that some of these things are
sent over to my house, Walter. You're welcome to the chair, that clock,
this mirror, those pictures--all of these things in fact, except my
linen, razors, and so forth."

The last little act of beneficence soothed Bonhag's lacerated soul
a little. They went out into the receiving overseer's office, where
Cowperwood laid aside his prison suit and the soft shirt with a
considerable sense of relief. The clog shoes had long since been
replaced by a better pair of his own. He put on the derby hat and gray
overcoat he had worn the year before, on entering, and expressed himself
as ready. At the entrance of the prison he turned and looked back--one
last glance--at the iron door leading into the garden.

"You don't regret leaving that, do you, Frank?" asked Steger, curiously.

"I do not," replied Cowperwood. "It wasn't that I was thinking of. It
was just the appearance of it, that's all."

In another minute they were at the outer gate, where Cowperwood shook
the warden finally by the hand. Then entering a carriage outside the
large, impressive, Gothic entrance, the gates were locked behind them
and they were driven away.

"Well, there's an end of that, Frank," observed Steger, gayly; "that
will never bother you any more."

"Yes," replied Cowperwood. "It's worse to see it coming than going."

"It seems to me we ought to celebrate this occasion in some way,"
observed Walter Leigh. "It won't do just to take Frank home. Why don't
we all go down to Green's? That's a good idea."

"I'd rather not, if you don't mind," replied Cowperwood, feelingly.
"I'll get together with you all, later. Just now I'd like to go home and
change these clothes."

He was thinking of Aileen and his children and his mother and father and
of his whole future. Life was going to broaden out for him considerably
from now on, he was sure of it. He had learned so much about taking care
of himself in those thirteen months. He was going to see Aileen, and
find how she felt about things in general, and then he was going to
resume some such duties as he had had in his own concern, with Wingate &
Co. He was going to secure a seat on 'change again, through his friends;
and, to escape the eff