Well, there being only the two of us, it didn't matter so much; it
wasn't as though there were a lot of helpless womenfolk to
consider. After the funeral and the settlement with the creditors
there was left--I'm ashamed to say how little, and, anyway, it's no
one's business; the debts were paid. What is a man to do, at
thirty-odd, who has never turned his hand to anything of use? The
governor's friends? Well, they didn't know how bad things were, and
I couldn't go to them with the truth and make them a present of my
helpless, incompetent self.

And so for the last two years I've been sticking it out in a hall
bedroom, just west of the dead-line. I have a life membership in
the club--what a Christmas present that has turned out to be!--and
twice in the week I dine there. As for the rest of it, never mind--
there are things which a man can do but of which he doesn't care to
speak.

The future? Ah, you can answer that question quite as well as I.
Now I had calculated that, at my present rate of expenditure, I
could hold out until Easter, but there have been contingencies. To
illustrate, I had my pocket picked yesterday morning. Amusing--
isn't it?--that it should have been my pocket--my pocket!

Fortunately I have stacks of clothes and some good pearl shirt-
studs, and I continue to present a respectable appearance. I shall
always do that, I think. I don't like the idea of the pawn-shop and
the dropping down one degree at a time. If, in the end, it shall be
shown clearly that the line is to be crossed, I shall walk over it
quietly and as a man should; I object to the indecency of being
dragged or carried across. What line do I mean? I don't know that I