And so, the year went. Work progressed admirably. Its new intricate developments from the stupid beginnings captivated Quincy in a sense. So he applied himself. And he had a mind that could have mastered far more difficult tasks than those of business. That is, he had a real mind, whereas business requires chiefly an applied and unvarying intuition. This same mind, intent on business, must have made him prosper. But mind has a way of varying and wandering. And if this takes place, it is worse in business--infinitely worse--than no mind at all. However, that time was not yet. * * * * * Herbert Lamory became a help to Marsden. By this friendship was assuaged in Quincy the lingering discomfort of being a disciple. Herbert seemed pleasant practice to what his brother had so miserably marked in theory. Herbert also was warped, eyeless, deformed. Yet, with all this, he had contrived to found a really pleasurable Helicon. Quincy liked Herbert. And the spirit within him of his Protestant forefathers was glad at having so amiable a pasture wherein to let out his brother’s and the City’s perverted dogmas. At a subscription dance to which Herbert took him, Quincy again met Clarice Lodge. The lit cold room seemed to glance off from the slender heads and the throats of the men and women, so that it was they who were really lit and cold. The figures pressed down below the rigid walls smothered in gilt and fluting and brocade--a mass of colorless detail despite the gowns, a cluttering of motionless undeviation despite the dancing. And of a sudden, all of it was a unit addressing Quincy with a strained air--like some beplastered woman between the times of desire and seed, who talks to an indifferent neighbor, glancing beyond him. Yes: it was old, it was rouged and, if one watched beneath the dazzle of lace, even a trifle knock-kneed and a trifle lame! Yet its voice as it addressed him was high and piercing. What troubled Quincy was that there should be no way of answer. He went through the gesture of understanding and of being part. He also talked to an indifferent neighbor, yearning beyond.