in him, the sky was bright as
polished turquoise and the ozonous west wind, which is the very breath of
hope, played sweetly in his face. He began to discover various consoling
conditions in his lot, which had seemed so intolerable just a few days
before.

Probably no man under forty ever lost a woman without feeling in some
degree compensated by a sense of freedom regained, and in the man of
solitary and self-reliant nature, to whom freedom is a boon if not a
necessity, this feeling is not slow to assert itself. Moreover, Ramon was
now caught in the inevitable reaction from a purpose which had gathered
and concentrated his energies with passionate intensity for almost four
months. During that time he had lived with taut nerves for a single hope;
he had turned away from a dozen alluring by-paths; he had known that
absorbed singleness of purpose which belongs only to lovers, artists and
other monomaniacs.

The bright hope that had led him had suddenly exploded, leaving him
stunned and flat for a time. Now he got to his feet and looked about. He
realized that the world still lay before him, a place of wonderful promise
and possibility, and apparently he could stray in any direction he chose.
He had money and freedom and an excellent equipment of appetites and
curiosities. Things he had dreamed of doing long ago, in case he should
ever come into his wealth, now revisited his imagination. He had promised
himself for one thing some hunting trips--long ones into the mountains and
down the river in his car. Gambling had always fascinated him, and he had
longed to sit in a game high enough to be really interesting, instead of
the quarter-limit affair that he had always played before. And there were
women {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} other women. And he meant to go to New York or Chicago sometime
and sample the fleshpots of a really great city.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} Life after all was still
an interesting thing.

Not that he forgot his serious purposes. He meant to open a law office, to
cultivate his political connections, to pursue his conquest of Arriba
County. But although he did not realize it, his plans for making himself a
strong and secure position in life had lost their vitalizing purpose. All
of these things he would do, but there was no hurry about them. His desire
now was to taste the sweetness of life, and to rest. He was without a
strong acquisitive impulse, and now that his great purpose in making money
was gone, the