Chicago (Ill.) -- Fiction; Didactic fiction; Mistresses -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
Not trained to reason or introspect himself, he could not analyse the
change that was taking place in his mind, and hence his body, but he
felt the depression of it. Constant comparison between his old state
and his new showed a balance for the worse, which produced a constant
state of gloom or, at least, depression. Now, it has been shown
experimentally that a constantly subdued frame of mind produces certain
poisons in the blood, called katastates, just as virtuous feelings of
pleasure and delight produce helpful chemicals called anastates. The
poisons generated by remorse inveigh against the system, and eventually
produce marked physical deterioration. To these Hurstwood was subject.
In the course of time it told upon his temper. His eye no longer
possessed that buoyant, searching shrewdness which had characterised it
in Adams Street. His step was not as sharp and firm. He was given to
thinking, thinking, thinking. The new friends he made were not
celebrities. They were of a cheaper, a slightly more sensual and
cruder, grade. He could not possibly take the pleasure in this company
that he had in that of those fine frequenters of the Chicago resort. He
was left to brood.
Slowly, exceedingly slowly, his desire to greet, conciliate, and make
at home these people who visited the Warren Street place passed from
him. More and more slowly the significance of the realm he had left
began to be clear. It did not seem so wonderful to be in it when he was
in it. It had seemed very easy for any one to get up there and have
ample raiment and money to spend, but now that he was out of it, how
far off it became. He began to see as one sees a city with a wall about
it. Men were posted at the gates. You could not get in. Those inside
did not care to come out to see who you were. They were so merry inside
there that all those outside were forgotten, and he was on the outside.
Each day he could read in the evening papers of the doings within this
walled city. In the notices of passengers for Europe he read the names
of eminent frequenters of his old resort. In the theatrical column
appeared, from time to time, announcements of the latest successes of
men he had known. He knew that they were at their old gayeties.
Pullmans were hauling them to and fro about the land, papers were
greeting them with interesting mentions, the elegant lobbies of hotels
and the glow of polished dining-rooms were keeping them close within
the walled city. Men whom he had known, men whom he had tipped glasses
with—rich men, and he was forgotten! Who was Mr. Wheeler? What was the
Warren Street resort? Bah!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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