l talk,"
answered Duncan.

Waterman made room for his friends, and depositing their luggage on the
floor they sat down opposite him. As the train moved slowly out of the
station, Howard-Jones sauntered into the car and took the seat
remaining, next to Waterman.

"Well, how is Chicago?" Waterman asked Duncan.

"Don't talk to him about Chicago," interrupted Van Vort. "Don't you know
he has just come from London?"

"Of course I do, but I know all about London. I want to hear about Mr.
Breezy and Miss Lakeside, and all the other queer people one reads
about in _Life_ and _Puck_. Don't you remember the last time we saw
Duncan? He was going gunning for elevators, and I want to hear about
them. How are the pork-packers, Duncan?"

"I didn't meet any."

"What, and you went to Chicago!"

"Exactly," Duncan replied. "They say there that one has to go away to
meet them. The right sort don't seem to know them."

"What were the people like, anyway?" asked Howard-Jones.

"The women are dears, some of the men are queer, most of them are
passable, and a few are the whitest chaps I ever came across. I was
treated like a prince. I lived at the City Club, and they could not do
enough for me there."

"Did you get anything fit to eat?" asked Howard-Jones dubiously.

"You must imagine the people out there eat jerked venison and dine in
their shirt-sleeves," replied Duncan. "They don't live in wigwams, and
buffalo don't run wild in the streets."

"Don't get huffy, Duncan; I was only judging by what I had heard. You
remember what Waterman said about Chicago."

"Yes, and I repeat again," replied that worthy, "it is the beastliest
hole it has ever been my luck to get stranded in."

"Then you display your ignorance," said Duncan.

"I admit I have heard something about Chicago being the centre of the
universe," retorted Waterman, "but I thought that opinion was confined
to the breezy inhabitants of the windy city."

"Well, in my opinion," said Duncan, "Chicago isn't a half bad place.
'Tisn't New York, of course, but you can't expect that. They've got most
of the things there that we have, and some that we haven't. There's one
thing about the people, too, that I like; they keep awake when the rest
of the world is dozing, and that is bound to tell in the end."

"That's right, Duncan," echoed Van Vort.

"Sit down on sectional ignorance and prejudice. New Yorkers are getting
to be as provincial as Parisians, and it is time they le