of the place, due to unseen ventilating fans which he heard
faintly droning somewhere in the ceiling, and increased by the tile
floor and the skilfully adjusted shades, was delightful. The few other
people present were as immaculate as bath, laundry, tailor, and modiste
could make them. From one group at which Ben looked came the suppressed
sound of a woman's laugh; from another, a man's voice, well modulated,
illustrated a point with a story. At a small table in an alcove sat four
young men, and notwithstanding the fact that for them it was yet very
early in the day, the pop of a champagne cork was heard, and soon
repeated. Blair, fresh from a glimpse of the outer and under world,
observed it all, and drew comparisons. Again he saw the huddled figure
of the tramp on the bench; and again he heard the careless music of the
woman's laugh. He saw the dull animal stare of workers on their way to
uncongenial toil; the hands still unsteady from yesterday's excesses
lifting to dry lips the wine that would make them still more unsteady on
the morrow. Could these contrasts be forever continued? he wondered.
Would they be permitted to exist indefinitely side by side? Again,
problem more difficult, could it be possible that the condition in which
they existed was life? He could not believe it. His nature rebelled at
the thought. No; life was not an artificial formula like this. It was
broad and free and natural, as the prairies, his prairies, were natural
and free. This other condition was a delirium, a momentary oblivion, of
which the four young men in the alcove were a symbol. Transient
pleasure, the life might mean; but the reverse, the inevitable reaction
as from all intoxication, that--

Finishing his breakfast, Ben lit a cigar and sauntered out to the
street. He had intended spending the morning seeing the town; but for
the present he felt he had had enough--all he could mentally digest.
Without at first any definite destination, in mere excess of healthy
animal activity, he began to walk; but his principal object in coming
to the city, the object he made no effort to conceal, acted upon him
like a lodestone, and almost ere he was aware he was well out in the
residence portion of the city and headed directly for the Baker home. He
was unaware that morning was not the fashionable time to call upon a
lady. To him the fact of inclination and of presence in the vicinity was
sufficient justification; and mounting the well-remember