line from knee to foot of those worn by the men above the working class.
Also, he learned the reason why, and invaded his sister's kitchen in
search of irons and ironing-board. He had misadventures at first,
hopelessly burning one pair and buying another, which expenditure again
brought nearer the day on which he must put to sea.

But the reform went deeper than mere outward appearance. He still
smoked, but he drank no more. Up to that time, drinking had seemed to
him the proper thing for men to do, and he had prided himself on his
strong head which enabled him to drink most men under the table. Whenever
he encountered a chance shipmate, and there were many in San Francisco,
he treated them and was treated in turn, as of old, but he ordered for
himself root beer or ginger ale and good-naturedly endured their
chaffing. And as they waxed maudlin he studied them, watching the beast
rise and master them and thanking God that he was no longer as they. They
had their limitations to forget, and when they were drunk, their dim,
stupid spirits were even as gods, and each ruled in his heaven of
intoxicated desire. With Martin the need for strong drink had vanished.
He was drunken in new and more profound ways--with Ruth, who had fired
him with love and with a glimpse of higher and eternal life; with books,
that had set a myriad maggots of desire gnawing in his brain; and with
the sense of personal cleanliness he was achieving, that gave him even
more superb health than what he had enjoyed and that made his whole body
sing with physical well-being.

One night he went to the theatre, on the blind chance that he might see
her there, and from the second balcony he did see her. He saw her come
down the aisle, with Arthur and a strange young man with a football mop
of hair and eyeglasses, the sight of whom spurred him to instant
apprehension and jealousy. He saw her take her seat in the orchestra