tisfaction in merely sitting there, reading the local papers,
smoking a cigar, now and then taking down one of his text books and
reading a little. But study as such had absolutely no appeal to him. He
might have dug at the dry case books to good purpose if he had been driven
by need, but as it was he would begin to yawn in ten or fifteen minutes,
and then would put the book away. He went home to a noonday dinner rather
early and came back in the afternoon, feeling sleepy and bored. Now the
office, and indeed the whole town, seemed a dreary place to him. At this
season of the year there were often high winds which mantled the town in a
yellow cloud of sand, and rattled at every loose shutter and door with
futile dreary persistence. Ramon would wander about the office for a
little while with his hands in his pockets and stare out the window,
feeling depressed, thoughts of his disappointment coming back to him
bitterly. Then he would take his hat and go out and look for some one to
play pool with him. Often he took an afternoon off and went hunting, not
alone as formerly he had done, but with as large a party as he could
gather. They would drive out into the sand hills and _mesas_ twenty or
thirty miles from town, where the native quail and rabbits were still
abundant as automobiles had just begun to invade their haunts. When they
found a covey of quail the sport would be fast and furious, with half a
dozen guns going at once and birds rising and falling in all directions.
Ramon keenly enjoyed the hot excitement and dramatic quality of this.

At night he was usually to be found at the White Camel Pool Hall where the
local sporting element foregathered and made its plans for the evening.
Sometimes a party would be formed to "go down the line," as a visit to the
red light district was called. Sometimes the rowdy dance halls of Old Town
were invaded. On Saturday nights the dance at the country club always drew
a considerable attendance. There was also a "dancing class" conducted by
an estimable and needy spinster named Grimes, who held assembly dances
once in two weeks in a little hall which had been built by the Woman's
Club. This event always drew a large and very mixed crowd, including some
of the "best people" and others who were considered not so good. Usually
two or three different sets were represented at these gatherings, each
tending to keep to itself. But there was also a tendency for the sets to
overlap. Thus a coup