Julia flashed on his mind and he did not spurn her. And the point of this association--it flashed also on his mind. The old story--the crux--the kernel of his misadventures. Was it too late? He was unhappy. That was a sign of hope. But no. It was a token merely that the end was not yet there. He would go on fighting, struggling. But he would not win. Already he knew that he could not hope. He still wished to win; he still wished to hope. This proved only that the end was not yet there. Quincy lay cold within his sheets, awed by the beauty of his vision. * * * * * Like a dank breath, morning blew into the open window. The world shivered; the air was streaked and tremorous with chill. A piercing gleam, splintered into myriad tiny weakling emanations, came stirring upon him with the burdened air. A faint murmur lay hesitant above the damp-drenched streets. The smell of a fresh round to life was shrill in the blue glow. The murmur broke into sharp noises, desperate, marvelously clear. The color of the whole was an unclean reluctance. Here was not morning’s birth, but the night’s grave; the winding sheet of rest; a pall upon the City. Quincy fell asleep. * * * * * The summer was hot and clinging. It sucked the moisture and fruitfulness of men. Quincy suffered along. But he suffered more. For most, the City had its compensations. There were the beaches, the garish playgrounds of Coney Island, the dirty rocks and rotten wharves of East River, studded with naked bodies of boys, draped, crouching forms of girls, who swam and dived and reveled despite the City ordinance forbidding it and the pestiferous state of the sewer-soaked river. None of these means of wringing pleasure from the heat attracted Quincy. The last summer, when it had been far more a bearable proposal, he had declined his mother’s offer that he commute to them. This summer it was out of thought. His mother did not even make the suggestion. So he was alone. Clarice, the one girl he really cared to be with, was away. And he avoided Lamory, ranking him now with half a dozen other uncongenial friends.