her old friend Katie.

This was, to our idealist, a deep disappointment. On the heels of his
final break in Pittsburg with society came this sign of woman's
weakness. Terry might easily have expected it, but one of the
limitations of an idealist is an insufficient knowledge of realities. To
men of his temperament there is always a distinct shock envolved in
coming face to face with an actuality. Truth is the element of the
idealist, but an abstract truth into which concrete realities seldom
fit. Terry did not, or tried not to, mind, at this time, this continued
sexual freedom, or rather vagaries, of Marie's life; for that fitted
into his scheme of personal freedom: he zealously strove to respect the
private inclinations of every human being. But the least sign, in any of
his acquaintances, of a compromise with the integrity of the soul, of
any essential weakness, met with no tolerance from him. "He passed him
up," on the spot, with a scornful wafture of his hand. That Marie had
yielded to the stress of circumstances, had been unable to hold out in
the Rogues' Gallery, galled the relatively uncompromising, exigent
idealist. If she had resorted to temporary prostitution to hold the
society together he would have admired her. But, instead, she weakly
sought, like any merely conservative woman, the shelter of Katie's roof.
The first seed of the essential discord which finally resulted, at a
much later time, in their relations was planted thus in this deep
irritation of Terry's soul; it did not, however, affect seriously his
love for Marie as a person or his interest in her as a social
experiment. But it tended to make him feel more lonely and to render him
more hopeless of any realisation of the ideal, as he saw it.

When Terry returned, without a job, and with no intention of trying for
one, and found Marie living with Katie, he had a long talk with the two
women. Katie was still with her husband, Nick, but she was willing to
quit him in order to live with and take care of, her darling Marie. She
proposed to Marie and Terry to hire some rooms and all live together.
She would work as cook in a restaurant and thus support the three of
them.

To this eager desire of Katie's Terry refused to consent; but he also
refused to work. What was to be done? He was too proud willingly to live
on Katie, and he was principled against labour. Katie wanted the luxury
of her proposed arrangement. She quarrelled with Terry, but he
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