t anything like
tobaccer or the like o' that, from the store-room, you gotta sign an
order for it, if you got any money with the warden, an' then I can git
it for you."

The old man was really above taking small tips in the shape of money.
He was a hold-over from a much more severe and honest regime, but
subsequent presents or constant flattery were not amiss in making him
kindly and generous. Cowperwood read him accurately.

"Very well, Mr. Chapin; I understand," he said, getting up as the old
man did.

"Then when you have been here two weeks," added Chapin, rather
ruminatively (he had forgot to state this to Cowperwood before), "the
warden 'll come and git yuh and give yuh yer regular cell summers
down-stairs. Yuh kin make up yer mind by that time what y'u'd like tuh
do, what y'u'd like to work at. If you behave yourself proper, more'n
like they'll give yuh a cell with a yard. Yuh never can tell."

He went out, locking the door with a solemn click; and Cowperwood stood
there, a little more depressed than he had been, because of this latest
intelligence. Only two weeks, and then he would be transferred from this
kindly old man's care to another's, whom he did not know and with whom
he might not fare so well.

"If ever you want me for anything--if ye're sick or sumpin' like that,"
Chapin now returned to say, after he had walked a few paces away, "we
have a signal here of our own. Just hang your towel out through these
here bars. I'll see it, and I'll stop and find out what yuh want, when
I'm passin'."

Cowperwood, whose spirits had sunk, revived for the moment.

"Yes, sir," he replied; "thank you, Mr. Chapin."

The old man walked away, and Cowperwood heard his steps dying down
the cement-paved hall. He stood and listened, his ears being greeted
occasionally by a distant cough, a faint scraping of some one's feet,
the hum or whir of a machine, or the iron scratch of a key in a lock.
None of the noises was loud. Rather they were all faint and far away.
He went over and looked at the bed, which was not very clean and without
linen, and anything but wide or soft, and felt it curiously. So here
was where he was to sleep from now on--he who so craved and appreciated
luxury and refinement. If Aileen or some of his rich friends should see
him here. Worse, he was sickened by the thought of possible vermin.
How could he tell? How would he do? The one chair was abominable. The
skylight was weak. He tried to think of hims