ept the articles I sent to England,
and that at last I got into perilous straits. I went to New York, and
thought of returning home, but the spirit of adventure was strong in me.
"I'll go West," I said to myself. "There I am bound to find material."
And go I did, taking an emigrant ticket to Chicago. It was December, and
I should like you to imagine what a journey of a thousand miles by an
emigrant train meant at that season. The cars were deadly cold, and what
with that and the hardness of the seats I found it impossible to sleep;
it reminded me of tortures I had read about; I thought my brain would
have burst with the need of sleeping. At Cleveland, in Ohio, we had to
wait several hours in the night; I left the station and wandered about
till I found myself on the edge of a great cliff that looked over Lake
Erie. A magnificent picture! Brilliant moonlight, and all the lake away
to the horizon frozen and covered with snow. The clocks struck two as I
stood there.'

He was interrupted by the entrance of a servant who brought coffee.

'Nothing could be more welcome,' cried Dora. 'Mr Whelpdale makes one
feel quite chilly.'

There was laughter and chatting whilst Maud poured out the beverage.
Then Whelpdale pursued his narrative.

'I reached Chicago with not quite five dollars in my pockets, and, with
a courage which I now marvel at, I paid immediately four dollars and a
half for a week's board and lodging. "Well," I said to myself, "for a
week I am safe. If I earn nothing in that time, at least I shall owe
nothing when I have to turn out into the streets." It was a rather dirty
little boarding-house, in Wabash Avenue, and occupied, as I soon found,
almost entirely by actors. There was no fireplace in my bedroom, and
if there had been I couldn't have afforded a fire. But that mattered
little; what I had to do was to set forth and discover some way of
making money. Don't suppose that I was in a desperate state of mind;
how it was, I don't quite know, but I felt decidedly cheerful. It was
pleasant to be in this new region of the earth, and I went about the
town like a tourist who has abundant resources.'

He sipped his coffee.

'I saw nothing for it but to apply at the office of some newspaper, and
as I happened to light upon the biggest of them first of all, I put on
a bold face, marched in, asked if I could see the editor. There was no
difficulty whatever about this; I was told to ascend by means of the
"elevator" to