indeterminable Empire. My new-born loyalty was three-parts pity. Had
she, who sat there in such 'lonely splendour,' ever known the day,
since as a young girl the heavy rod of empire was intrusted to her
frail and unaccustomed hands, when she woke to say, 'This day I am
free, I will go where I will, do as I please, and none shall stay me?'
Yet I, a manumitted clerk, had come upon this singular and glad day;
and I had it in my heart to say with Emerson, 'Give me health and a
day, and I will make the pomp of empire ridiculous.'

I turned slowly homeward in this glow of exultation. I should have
run, for the news, either good or evil, called for instant
communication. Let my delay stand excused; I had certain matters to be
settled with myself that morning. My feet had to learn a new kind of
movement, and my thoughts a new sequence; I was as a child learning to
walk and think before I could take my place on equal terms with new
companions. One incident of my walk struck me by way of humour and
discovery. I had often strolled into bookshops toward evening, and had
remarked upon the cold discourtesy with which my presence was regarded.
Now I knew the reason; I had come at the clerk's hour, and the keen
eyes of discriminating shopmen had recognised my low estate. I came
now under altered auspices. To shop at three in the afternoon is to
give proof of leisure; behold, in the eyes of obsequious shopmen I had
at once become a wealthy dilettante, nurturing the growth of an
expensive library, and the rarest books were laid before me with an
ingratiating smile. Let the man who would understand how much the
estimates men take of us are based on wealth, or supposed wealth, make
the brief experiment of shopping at the rich man's hour, instead of at
the poor man's; he will be surprised to note the difference of the
social atmosphere. A man's clothes may be poor enough, and his
appearance contemptible, but if he will shop at the hour when all the