time, probably, the wet blanket had effectually extinguished the
glow. You cannot always savor your pleasures cold.

So after the disgrace of his father, Harry Thorpe did a great deal
of thinking and planning which he kept carefully to himself. He
considered in turn the different occupations to which he could turn
his hand, and negatived them one by one. Few business firms would
care to employ the son of as shrewd an embezzler as Henry Thorpe.
Finally he came to a decision. He communicated this decision to his
sister. It would have commended itself more logically to her had
she been able to follow step by step the considerations that had
led her brother to it. As the event turned, she was forced to accept
it blindly. She knew that her brother intended going West, but as
to his hopes and plans she was in ignorance. A little sympathy, a
little mutual understanding would have meant a great deal to her,
for a girl whose mother she but dimly remembers, turns naturally to
her next of kin. Helen Thorpe had always admired her brother, but
had never before needed him. She had looked upon him as strong,
self-contained, a little moody. Now the tone of his letter caused
her to wonder whether he were not also a trifle hard and cold. So
she wept on receiving it, and the tears watered the ground for
discontent.

At the beginning of the row in the smoking car, Thorpe laid aside
his letter and watched with keen appreciation the direct practicality
of the trainmen's method. When the bearded man fell before the
conductor's blow, he turned to the individual at his side.

"He knows how to hit, doesn't he!" he observed. "That fellow was
knocked well off his feet."