cheated
himself worse than he had any of his creditors. He was more largely
in his own debt than in that of any other man; he had, in reality,
less of that of which he had cheated than had any of his victims.
Hardly one of them all was in such sore straits as he, for in
addition to his immediate personal necessities there was always the
incubus of the debts. And he was starting forth upon this trip with
the purpose in his overstrained, distorted brain of spending his last
reserve, and incurring a debt to himself which should never be paid
to all eternity.

Carroll seated himself in the car, which was already quite well
filled; there was not much time to spare before its scheduled
departure. He found a corner seat empty, and settled himself into it
with a bitter little sense of self-gratulation for at least that
minor alleviation of the situation. The corner seat in a Port Willis
trolley-car had distinct advantages aside from the physical comfort,
owing to the frequent crowding and the uncertain nature of the
component elements of the crowd.

Carroll settled back in his corner and surveyed his
fellow-passengers, waiting with a kind of stupid patience for the
starting of the car. There was a curious look of indifference to
remaining or going, on most of the faces, the natural result of the
universality of travel in America, the being always on the road for
all classes in order to cover the enormous distances in this great
country between home and work or amusement. All excitement over the
mere act of transit has passed; there is stolidity and acquiescence
as to delays and speed, unless there are great interests at stake. As
a rule, the people in the Port Willis trolley-car had not great
interests at stake; they were generally not highly organized,
nervously, and were to all appearances carried as woodenly from one
point to another as were the seats of the car. That afternoon a
German woman sat nearly opposite Carroll. She was well-dressed in a
handsome black satin skirt, with an ornate, lace-trimmed waist
showing between the folds of her seal cape. There were smart red
velvet roses and a feather in her hat. She sat with her feet far
apart, planted squarely to prevent her enormous slanting bulk from
slipping on the high seat. Her great florid face, a blank of animal
cognizance of existence, stared straight ahead, her triple chins were
pressed obstinately into the fur collar of her cape. She was the wife
of a prosperou