"'The sooner the better,' I said. 'Work is the thing that makes men--nothing else. In Pointview everybody used to work. Now here are some facts for your genealogy that you haven't discovered. Your grandfather and grandmother raised a family of nine children and never had a servant--think of that. Your grandmother made clothes for the family and did all the work of the house. She was a doctor, a nurse, a teacher, a spinner, a weaver, a knitter, a sewer, a cook, a washerwoman, a gentle and tender mother. Now we are beginning to rot with idleness. "'Let me tell you a story of a modern lady of Pointview.' "Then I told him of the Doctor's call on the pimpled queen at midnight, and added: "'Think of that! Think of the fathomless depths of vanity and selfishness that lie under that pimple. It's a monument more sublime than the Matterhorn. Think of the poor fellow that has to marry that human millstone, and be the clerk of her charge-it department.' "'I can think of no worse luck, really,' said he. 'I wonder who it is!' "'Doctors never give names,' I said. 'But you might look for the little black square of court-plaster." "'By Jove!' he exclaimed. 'I shall look with interest.' "The ball came off, and Roger got there, and so did the lady and the square of black court-plaster; and that night Harry began a new stage in his career. "After all, Harry was no dunce, but he was not yet convinced." IV IN WHICH SOCRATES ENCOUNTERS "NEW THOUGHT" AND PSYCHOLOGICAL HAIR "When people have little to do they go back to childishness. They long for novelty--new playthings, new adventures, new sensations, new friends. So our upper classes are utterly restless. Every old pleasure is a slough of despond. The ladies have tried jewels, laces, crests, titled husbands, divorces, gambling, cocktails, cigarettes, and other branches of exhilaration. They have passed through the slums of literature and of the East Side of Gotham. The gentlemen have shown them the way and smiled with amusement and gone on to greater triumphs. To these people every old idea is 'bromide.' It bores them. They scoff at men 'who take themselves seriously.' In a word, Moses and the Prophets are so much 'dope.' And they are excellent people who really want to make the world better, but the childish craze for novelty is upon them. Mrs. Revere-Chalmers was one of this kind. Harry came to me next day at my house and said: "'By Jove! you know, it was my friend Mrs. R.-C. who wore the black square. But she is really a charming woman--not at all a bad sort. I want you to know her better. She made me promise to bring you over to-morrow afternoon if you would come.'