would take all of a man's time to be polite, and that he would have to
live a preliminary life in which to learn how to be polite.

"Did you find what you wanted?" the man at the desk asked him as he was
leaving.

"Yes, sir," he answered. "You have a fine library here."

The man nodded. "We should be glad to see you here often. Are you a
sailor?"

"Yes, sir," he answered. "And I'll come again."

Now, how did he know that? he asked himself as he went down the stairs.

And for the first block along the street he walked very stiff and
straight and awkwardly, until he forgot himself in his thoughts,
whereupon his rolling gait gracefully returned to him.




CHAPTER VI


A terrible restlessness that was akin to hunger afflicted Martin Eden. He
was famished for a sight of the girl whose slender hands had gripped his
life with a giant's grasp. He could not steel himself to call upon her.
He was afraid that he might call too soon, and so be guilty of an awful
breach of that awful thing called etiquette. He spent long hours in the