FREE AND OTHER STORIES FREE AND OTHER STORIES BY THEODORE DREISER AUTHOR OF “SISTER CARRIE,” “THE HAND OF THE POTTER,” “JENNIE GERHARDT,” ETC. [Illustration] BONI AND LIVERIGHT NEW YORK 1918 Copyright, 1918 BY BONI & LIVERIGHT, INC. _First Printing_ _August, 1918_ _Second Printing_ _August, 1918_ _Third Printing_ _August, 1918_ _Fourth Printing_ _December, 1918_ CONTENTS PAGE FREE 9 MCEWEN OF THE SHINING SLAVE MAKERS 54 NIGGER JEFF 76 THE LOST PHŒBE 112 THE SECOND CHOICE 135 A STORY OF STORIES 163 OLD ROGAUM AND HIS THERESA 201 WILL YOU WALK INTO MY PARLOR 229 THE CRUISE OF THE “IDLEWILD” 300 MARRIED 323 WHEN THE OLD CENTURY WAS NEW 351 FREE The large and rather comfortable apartment of Rufus Haymaker, architect, in Central Park West, was very silent. It was scarcely dawn yet, and at the edge of the park, over the way, looking out from the front windows which graced this abode and gave it its charm, a stately line of poplars was still shrouded in a gray morning mist. From his bedroom at one end of the hall, where, also, a glimpse of the park was to be had, came Mr. Haymaker at this early hour to sit by one of these broader windows and contemplate these trees and a small lake beyond. He was very fond of Nature in its manifold art forms--quite poetic, in fact. He was a tall and spare man of about sixty, not ungraceful, though slightly stoop-shouldered, with heavy overhanging eyebrows and hair, and a short, professionally cut gray mustache and beard, which gave him a severe and yet agreeable presence. For the present he was clad in a light-blue dressing gown with silver cords, which enveloped him completely. He had thin, pale, long-fingered hands, wrinkled at the back and slightly knotted at the joints, which bespoke the artist, in mood at least, and his eyes had a weary and yet restless look in them.