one of them significantly.

"Well, with that gang it will be well done."

Thomas and Joe left the crowd after a while, and went to the upper
floor, where, in a long, brilliantly lighted room, tables were set out
for drinking-parties. At one end of the room was a piano, and a man sat
at it listlessly strumming some popular air. The proprietor joined them
pretty soon, and steered them to a table opposite the door.

"Just sit down here, Mr. Hamilton," he said, "and you can see everybody
that comes in. We have lots of nice people here on smoker nights,
especially after the shows are out and the girls come in."

Joe's heart gave a great leap, and then settled as cold as lead. Of
course, those girls would n't speak to him. But his hopes rose as the
proprietor went on talking to him and to no one else. Mr. Turner always
made a man feel as if he were of some consequence in the world, and men
a good deal older than Joe had been fooled by his manner. He talked to
one in a soft, ingratiating way, giving his whole attention apparently.
He tapped one confidentially on the shoulder, as who should say, "My
dear boy, I have but two friends in the world, and you are both of
them."

Joe, charmed and pleased, kept his head well. There is a great deal in
heredity, and his father had not been Maurice Oakley's butler for so
many years for nothing.

The Banner Club was an institution for the lower education of negro
youth. It drew its pupils from every class of people and from every part
of the country. It was composed of all sorts and conditions of men,
educated and uneducated, dishonest and less so, of the good, the bad,
and the--unexposed. Parasites came there to find victims, politicians
for votes, reporters for news, and artists of all kinds for colour and
inspiration. It was the place of assembly for a number of really bright
men, who after days of hard and often unrewarded work came there and
drunk themselves drunk in each other's company, and when they were drunk
talked of the eternal verities.

The Banner was only one of a kind. It stood to the stranger and the man
and woman without connections for the whole social life. It was a
substitute--poor, it must be confessed--to many youths for the home life
which is so lacking among certain classes in New York.

Here the rounders congregated, or came and spent the hours until it was
time to go forth to bout or assignation. Here too came sometimes the
curious who wanted to see some