One night after leaving Pauline he went to play poker in Charley
Braddock's rooms. Braddock, only son of the richest banker in
Saint X, had furnished the loft of his father's stable as
bachelor quarters and entertained his friends there without fear
that the noise would break the sleep and rouse the suspicions of
his father. That night, besides Braddock and Dumont, there were
Jim Cauldwell and his brother Will. As they played they drank;
and Dumont, winning steadily, became offensive in his raillery.
There was a quarrel, a fight; Will Cauldwell, accidently toppled
down a steep stairway by Dumont, was picked up with a broken arm
and leg.

By noon the next day the town was boiling with this outbreak of
deviltry in the leading young men, the sons and prospective
successors of the "bulwarks of religion and morality." The
Episcopalian and Methodist ministers preached against Dumont,
that "importer of Satan's ways into our peaceful midst," and
against Charley Braddock with his "ante-room to Sheol"--the
Reverend Sweetser had just learned the distinction between Sheol
and Hades. The Presbyterian preacher wrestled spiritually with
Will Cauldwell and so wrought upon his depression that he gave
out a solemn statement of confession, remorse and reform. In
painting himself in dark colors he painted Jack Dumont jet black.

Pauline had known that Dumont was "lively"--he was far too
proud of his wild oats wholly to conceal them from her. And she
had all the tolerance and fascinated admiration of feminine youth
for the friskiness of masculine freedom. Thus, though she did
not precisely approve what he and his friends had done, she took