t in
liquor. A man never knows how weak he is till he meets the one woman
and she will have none of him."

And somehow I got closer to Hillars, spiritually. There were two of
us, so it seemed, only I was stronger, or else my passion did not burn
so furiously as his.

The apartments occupied by Dan were all a bachelor could wish for. The
walls were covered with photographs, original drawings, beer steins,
pipes, a slipper here, a fan there, and books and books and books. I
felt at home at once.

I watched Hillars as he moved about the room, tidying up things a bit,
and I noticed now more than ever how changed he was. His face had
grown thin, his hair was slightly worn at the crown and temples, and
there were dark circles under his eyes. Yet, for all these signs of
dissipation, he was still a remarkably handsome man. Though not so
robust as when I last saw him, his form was yet elegant. In the old
days we had called him Adonis, and Donie had clung to him long after
the Cambridge time.

"Now," said he, when we had lighted our pipes, "I'll tell you why I'm
going to the dogs. I've got to tell it to some one or go daft; and I
can't say that I'm not daft as it is."

"It is a woman," said I, after reflection, "who causes a man to drink,
to lose all ambition."

"It is."

"It is a woman," I went on, holding the amber stem of my pipe before
the light which gleamed golden through the transparent gum, "who causes
a man to pull up stakes and prospect for new claims, to leave the new
country for the old."

"It is a woman indeed," he replied. He was gazing at me with a new
interest. "If the woman had accepted him, he would not have been here."

"No, he would not," said I.

"In either case, yours or mine."

"In either case. Go on with your story; there's nothing more to add to
mine."

Some time passed, and nothing but the breathing of the pipes was heard.
Now and then I would poke away at the ashes in my pipe bowl, and Dan
would do the same.

"Have you a picture of her?" I asked, reaching for some fresh tobacco.

"No; I am afraid to keep one."

To me this was a new phase in the matter of grand passions.

"A likeness which never changes its expression means nothing to me," he
explained. "Her face in all its moods is graven in my mind; I have but
to shut my eyes, and she stands before me in all her loveliness. Do
you know why I wanted this vacation? Rest?" His shoulders went up and
his lips closed ti