the window-lattice that the sun was declining in the west. Sleep had
again proved better than all philosophy or medicine, for it had
refreshed me and given something of the morning's elasticity.

I naturally indulged in a brief retrospect, conscious that while
nothing had happened, since the croaking printer's remark, that I
would care to print in the paper, experiences had occurred that
touched me closer than would the news that all the Malays of Asia were
running amuck. I felt as if thrown back on to my old life and work in
precisely their old form. My expedition into the country and romance
had been disappointing. It is true I had found rest and sleep, and for
these I was grateful, and with these stanch allies I can go on with my
work, which I now believe is the best thing the world has for me. I
shall go back to it to-morrow, well content, after this day's
experience, to make it my mistress. The bare possibility of being
yoked to such a woman as in fancy I have wooed and won to-day makes me
shiver with inexpressible dread. Her obtuseness, combined with her
microscopic surveillance, would drive me to the nearest madhouse I
could find. The whole business of love-making and marriage involves
too much risk to a man who, like myself, must use his wits as a sword
to carve his fortunes. I've fought my way up alone so far, and may as
well remain a free lance. The wealthy, and those who are content to
plod, can go through life with a woman hanging on their arm. Rich I
shall never be, and I'll die before I'll plod. My place is in the
midst of the world's arena, where the forces that shall make the
future are contending, and I propose to be an appreciable part of
those forces. I shall go back the wiser and stronger for this day's
folly, and infinitely better for its rest, and I marched down the
moody stairway, feeling that I was not yet a crushed and broken man,
and cherishing also a secret complacency that I had at last outgrown