"So! you are back to earth; you are a human like the rest, so foolish, so funny as any--so you say, 'Well, I shall not be more troubled again yet. I play the same game, but it is only a game, a little game to last an afternoon--I play my part--yes--the laughing part, crying part--loving, hating, killing part--what matter if I say it is good?' If the Maker there be to look down, what joys him most--the coward who fears and frets, and the whine makes for his soul or body? Ach! no, it is the one who say, it is _good_--I could not better have done myself--a great game, yes--'let her rip,' like you West-people remark--'let her rip--you cannot lose _me_,' like you say also. Ach, so! And then he say, the great Planner of it,' Ach! I am understood at last--good!--bright man that,' like you say, also--'bright man that--it is of a pleasure to see him do well!' "So, my young friend, you shall pleasure yourself still much yet. It is of an excellence to pleasure one's self judiciously. The lotus is a leguminous plant--so excellent for the salad--not for the roast. You have of the salad overeaten--you shall learn of your successful capacity for it--you shall do well, then. You have been of the reckless deportment--you may still be of it. That is not the matter. You shall be reckless as you like--but without your stored energy surplus to harm you. Your environment from the now demands of you the faculties you will most pleasure yourself in developing. You shall produce what you consume. The gods love such. Ach, yes!" CHAPTER XXXVIII. Some Phenomena Peculiar to Spring He awoke early, refreshed and intensely alive. With the work done he became conscious of a feeling of disassociation from the surroundings in which he had so long been at home. Many words of the talkative German were running in his mind from the night before. He was glad the business was off his mind. He would now go the pleasant journey, and think on the way. His trunks were ready for the car; and before he went down-stairs his hand-bag was packed, and the preparations for the start completed. When, after his breakfast, he read the telegram announcing that the car had been delayed twenty-four hours in Chicago, he was bored by the thought that he must pass another day in New York. He was eager now to be off, and the time would hang heavily. He tried to recall some forgotten detail of the business that might serve to occupy him. But the finishing had been thorough. He ran over in his mind the friends with whom he could spend the time agreeably. He could recall no one he cared to see. He had no longer an interest in the town or its people. He went aimlessly out on to Broadway in the full flood of a spring morning, breathing the fresh air hungrily. It turned his thought to places out of the grime and clamour of the city; to woods and fields where he might rest and feel the stimulus of his new plans. He felt aloof and sufficient unto himself.