he arrived at that stage where he could work and talk to them at the
same time; he even accompanied them to the door, and held it open for
them when the operation was finished, bowing them out with great nods of
his huge square-cut head.

Besides all this, he began to observe the broader, larger interests of
life, interests that affected him not as an individual, but as a member
of a class, a profession, or a political party. He read the papers, he
subscribed to a dental magazine; on Easter, Christmas, and New Year's
he went to church with Trina. He commenced to have opinions,
convictions--it was not fair to deprive tax-paying women of the
privilege to vote; a university education should not be a prerequisite
for admission to a dental college; the Catholic priests were to be
restrained in their efforts to gain control of the public schools.

But most wonderful of all, McTeague began to have ambitions--very
vague, very confused ideas of something better--ideas for the most part
borrowed from Trina. Some day, perhaps, he and his wife would have a
house of their own. What a dream! A little home all to themselves, with
six rooms and a bath, with a grass plat in front and calla-lilies.
Then there would be children. He would have a son, whose name would
be Daniel, who would go to High School, and perhaps turn out to be a
prosperous plumber or house painter. Then this son Daniel would marry a
wife, and they would all live together in that six-room-and-bath house;
Daniel would have little children. McTeague would grow old among them
all. The dentist saw himself as a venerable patriarch surrounded by
children and grandchildren.

So the winter passed. It was a season of great happiness for the
McTeagues; the new life jostled itself into its grooves. A routine
began.

On weekdays they rose at half-past six, being awakened by the boy who
brought the bottled milk, and who had instructions to pound upon the
bedroom door in passing. Trina made breakfast--coffee, bacon and eggs,
and a roll of Vienna bread from the bakery. The breakfast was eaten in
the kitchen, on the round deal table covered with the shiny oilcloth
table-spread tacked on. After breakfast the dentist immediately betook
himself to his "Parlors" to meet his early morning appointments--those
made with the clerks and shop girls who stopped in for half an hour on
their way to their work.

Trina, meanwhile, busied herself about the suite, clearing away the
breakfast,