e's "bad citizen"--the man who is unable to command and unwilling
to obey.

After a particularly flamboyant appreciation of McComas's services in a
Sunday newspaper, I ventured to touch on our Johnny's rise in Raymond's
hearing. The two had not met for years; and Johnny had probably no
greater place in Raymond's mind than Raymond, as I remembered once
finding, had in Johnny's. But Raymond did not yet pretend to overlook or
to forget or to ignore him; nor did he yet allow himself to mention
Johnny as a one-time dweller in his father's stable.

"Why, yes," said Raymond; "he seems to be coming on fast. Climbing like
anything."

This, I felt, was disapproval, slightly tinctured with contempt. But
there are two kinds of progress on a ladder or a stairway. There is the
climbing up, and there is (as we sometimes let ourselves say) the
climbing down.

It was at the imperial reception that Raymond and Johnny finally met.
Let us figure Raymond as descending from his satirical balcony, and
Johnny, with his wife, as earnestly working his way up the great
stairway--the _scalone_, as Italy had taught Raymond to call it. This
was an ample affair with an elaborate handrail, whose function was
nullified by potted plants, and with a commodious landing, whose corners
contained many thickset palms. A crowd swarmed up; a crowd swarmed down;
the hundreds were congested among the palms. Johnny, with his wife on
his arm, was robust and hearty, and smiled on things in general as he
fought their way up. He took the occasion as he took any other occasion:
much for granted, but with a certain air of richly belonging and of
worthily fitting in. His wife--"I suppose it was his wife," said
Raymond--was elaborately gowned and in high feather: a successful
delegate of luxury. Obviously an occasion of this sort was precisely
what she had long been waiting for. Despite the press about her, she
made her costume and her carriage tell for all they might. A triumphing
couple, even Raymond was obliged to concede. The acme of team work....

"There we were--stuck in the crowd," said Raymond, whose one desire
seemed to have been to gain the street. "Not too close, fortunately. I
had to bow, but I didn't have to speak; and I didn't have to be
'presented.' He gave me quite a nod."

And no great exercise of imagination was required for me to see how
distant and reserved was Raymond's bow in return.

IV

That autumn, after the festal flags had ceased the