id I take
anything on you just now?" he suddenly broke off, addressing Henry.

"Yes, but you can have something else."

"Well, not now. I'll hold it in reserve. In this life it is well to
have reserve forces stationed here and there. Who's got a car-ticket?
I've got to go over on the West Side. What, are you all broke? What
sort of a poverty-stricken gang have I struck? Well, I've given you
as much of my valuable time as I can spare."

"I suppose you are getting used to this town," said Mortimer, when
Flummers was gone.

"Yes, I am gradually making myself feel at home," Henry answered.

"You find the weather disagreeable, of course. We do, I know."

"I think that Chicago is great in spite of its climate," said Henry.

"If great at all, it is great in spite of a great many absences,"
McGlenn replied; "and in these absences it is mean and contemptible.
To money it gives worship; to the song and dance man it pays admiring
attention, but to the writer it gives neglect--the campaign of
silence."

Richmond put his hand to his month and threw his head back. "The
trouble with you, John"--

"There's no trouble with me."

"Yes, there is, and it is the trouble that comes to all men who form
an estimate without having first taken the trouble to think."

"Gentlemen," said McGlenn, "I wish to call your attention to that
remark. John Richmond advising people to think before they form their
estimates. John, you are the last man to think before you form an
estimate. Within a minute after you meet a man you are prepared to
give your estimate of his character; you'll give a half-hour's opinion
on a minute's acquaintance."

"Some people can't form an opinion of a man after a year's
acquaintance with him, but I can. I go by a certain instinct, and when
the wrong sort of man rubs up against me I know it. I don't need to
wait until he has worked me before I find out that he is an impostor.
But, as I was going to say, the trouble with you is that you forget
the difference that exists between new and old cities. A new community
worships material things; and if it pays tribute to an idea, it must
be that idea which appeals quickest to the eye--to the commoner
senses. And in this Chicago is no worse than other raw cities. Fifty
years from now "--

"Who wants to live fifty years in this miserable world?" McGlenn broke
in. "There is but one community in which the writer is at ease, and
that is the community of death. It is populous