automobiles; there was practically no drunkenness; but there was no
lessening in the restless seeking stream of men, the curiosity of the
women with folded hands and tightly folded lips.

They all wanted a mitigation of a life which, fundamentally, did not
fill them; they had an absorbing labor, love and home and children, the
church, yet they were unsatisfied. They were discontented with the
primary facts of existence, the serious phases, and wanted, above
everything, tinsel and laughter. If a girl passing on the street smiled
boldly at such youths they were fired with triumph and happiness; they
nudged each other violently and made brazen declarations which, faced
by the girls, escaped in disconcerted laughter. Their language--and
this, too, was a revolt--was like the sweepings of the cow barns.

Life, it occurred to Lee Randon, in this connection, was amazingly
muddled; and he wondered what would happen if the restraint, since it
was no better than sham, should be swept away, and men acknowledged
what they so largely were? A fresh standard, a new set of values, would
have to be established. But before that could be accomplished an
underlying motive must be discovered. That he searched for in himself;
suppose he were absolutely free, not tomorrow, that evening, but now--

Would he go to the office, to the affairs of the Zenith cigarette, and,
once there, would he come home again--the four thirty-seven train and
the Ford in the shed by the station? Lee couldn't answer this finally.
A road led over the hills on the right, beyond a horizon of trees. He
knew it for only a short distance; where ultimately it led he had no
idea. But it was an enticing way, and he had an idiotic impulse to turn
aside, follow it, and never come back any more. Actually he almost cut
in, and he had to swing the car sharply to the left.