usly dressed young man and Naudheim,
bordered upon the absurd. Naudheim was shabby, unbrushed, unkempt. His
collar was frayed, he wore no tie. The seams of his long black
frock-coat had been parted and inked over and parted again. He wore
carpet slippers and untidy socks. There were stains upon his
waistcoat.

From underneath his shaggy gray eyebrows he shot a contemptuous glance
at his host.

"My young friend," he said, "you are growing too fine. I cannot work
here."

"Nonsense!" Saton answered, a little uneasily. "You can sweep all
those things off the writing-table, if they seem too elaborate for
you, and pitch the flowers out of the window if you like."

"Bah!" Naudheim answered. "It is the atmosphere. I smell it
everywhere. This is not the house for thoughts. This is not the house
wherein one can build. My young friend, you have fallen away. You are
like all the others. You listen to the tin music."

"I think," Saton answered, "that the work which I have done should
be my answer to you. We are not all made alike. If I find it easier
to breathe in an atmosphere such as this, then that is the atmosphere
which I should choose. We do our best work amidst congenial
surroundings. You in your den, and I in my library, can give of our
best."

Naudheim shook his head.

"You are a fool," he said. "As for your work, it is clever, fatally
clever. When I read what you sent me last month, and saw how clever it
was, I knew that you were falling away. That is why I came. Now I have
come, I understand. Listen! The secrets of science are won only by
those who seek them, like children who in the time of trouble flee to
their mother's arms. Never a mistress in the world's history has asked
more from man than she has asked or has had more to give. She asks
your life, your thoughts, your passions--every breath of your body
must be a breath of desire for her and her alone. You think that you
can strut about the world, a talking doll, pay court to women, listen
to the voices that praise you, smirk your way through the days, and
all the time climb. My young friend, no! I tell you no! Don't
interrupt me. I am going to speak my say and go."

"Go?" Saton repeated. "Impossible! I am willing to work. I will work
now. I simply thought that as the morning was so fine we might walk
for a little time in the sunshine. But that is nothing."

Naudheim shook his head.

"Not one word do I speak of those things that are precious to me, in