glimpse of dancing halls and gaudily whirled figures that seemed only
feminine in their apparel; the shouts and boisterous choruses from
concert rooms; the groups of drunken roisterers that congregated around
the doors of saloons or, hilariously charging down the streets, elbowed
him against the wall, or humorously insisted on his company, discomposed
and frightened him. He had known rude companionship before, but it
was serious, practical, and under control. There was something in this
vulgar degradation of intellect and power--qualities that Clarence had
always boyishly worshiped--which sickened and disillusioned him. Later
on a pistol shot in a crowd beyond, the rush of eager men past him, the
disclosure of a limp and helpless figure against the wall, the closing
of the crowd again around it, although it stirred him with a fearful
curiosity, actually shocked him less hopelessly than their brutish
enjoyments and abandonment.

It was in one of these rushes that he had been crushed against a
swinging door, which, giving way to his pressure, disclosed to his
wondering eyes a long, glitteringly adorned, and brightly lit room,
densely filled with a silent, attentive throng in attitudes of decorous
abstraction and preoccupation, that even the shouts and tumult at its
very doors could not disturb. Men of all ranks and conditions, plainly
or elaborately clad, were grouped together under this magic spell of
silence and attention. The tables before them were covered with cards
and loose heaps of gold and silver. A clicking, the rattling of an ivory
ball, and the frequent, formal, lazy reiteration of some unintelligible
sentence was all that he heard. But by a sudden instinct he UNDERSTOOD
it all. It was a gambling saloon!

Encouraged by the decorous stillness, and the fact that everybody
appeared too much engaged to notice him, the boy drew timidly beside