"Come! Get out of this! And, my boy, remember to 'count that day lost whose low descending sun sees nothing accomplished, nothing done.'... "Probably misquoted, at that." Sullenly he rose and dressed. He was late at the breakfast and silent and reserved throughout that meal. Poor Miss Carpenter thought him dissatisfied and hung round his chair, purring with a solicitude that almost maddened him. As soon as possible he made his escape from the house. The walk he indulged in that morning took him in a wide circle: south on the road to the Gap, then eastwards, crossing the railroad and the river, north through a smiling agricultural region, east to the Flats, and so across the stone bridge to the Old Town once more. He was trudging up Street toward Centre shortly after eleven--hot, a little tired, and utterly disgusted. The exercise, instead of exhilarating, had depressed him; the quickened flow of blood through his veins, the vigour of the clean air he inhaled, demanded of him action of some sort; and he had nothing whatever to do with himself all afternoon save drowse over "The Law of Torts." Recognition of Leonard and Call's familiar shop-front fired him with a spirit of adventure and enterprise. He stopped short, thoughtfully rubbing his small moustache the wrong way, his vision glued to the embarrassingly candid window displays. "It'd be an awful thing for me to do.... "Think of yourself, man, jumping counters in and out amongst all hose--those _Things!_ like a lunatic monkey performing on a Monday morning's clothes line!..." He thought deeply, and sighed. "It ain't moral.... "But it's one of the rules, it must be did. Henry said a ribbon clerk was a social equal.... "Come, now! No more shennanigan! Brace up! Be a man!... "A man? That's the whole trouble: I am a man; I've got no business in a place like that." He turned and moved away slowly. But the idea had him by the heels. He struggled against a growing resolution to return. Then enlightenment came to him suddenly. He paused again, grappling with this amazing revelation of self. "Great Scott! Harry was right, damn him! He said this place would reconstruct me from the inside out and vice versa, and by jinks! it has. I actually _want_ to work!... "Can you beat that--_me_!" He swung back to Leonard and Call's, mentally reviewing his instructions. "Let's see. I was to wait at least a month, to let the shopkeepers get accustomed to the sight of me.... _Hmm_.... Harry certainly has a cute way of expressing his thought.... But it can't be helped; I can't wait. If I do, I'll throw up the job.... "I'm to walk in and say, politely: '_I'm looking for employment. If at any time you should have an opening here that you can offer me, I shall endeavour to give satisfaction. Good-day_.'... "But be careful not to press it. Just say it and get right out...." With the air of a man who knows his own mind he pulled open the wire screen-door and strode in.