s he had been much too
busy talking with active comrades to gaze about. But now he stared for
five minutes together at the stamped-leather wall-covering of the
dining-room. He noted, much too carefully for a happy man, the
trophies of the lounging-room. But at one corner he never glanced. For
here was a framed picture of the forgotten Hawk Ericson, landing on
Governor's Island, winner of the flight from Chicago to New York....
Such a beautiful swoop!...

There is no doubt of the fact that he disliked the successful new
aviators, and did so because he was jealous of them. He admitted the
fact, but he could not put into his desire to be a good boy
one-quarter of the force that inspired his resentment at being a
lonely man and a nobody. But, since he knew he was envious, he was
careful not to show it, not to inflict it upon others. He was gracious
and added a wrinkle between his brows, and said "Gosh!" and "ain't"
much less often.

He had few friends these days. Death had taken many; and he was wary
of lion-hunters, who in dull seasons condescend to ex-lions and
dethroned princes. But he was fond of a couple of Aero Club men, an
automobile ex-racer who was a selling-agent for the VanZile
Corporation, and Charley Forbes, the bright-eyed, curly-headed, busy,
dissipated little reporter who had followed him from Chicago to New
York for the _Chronicle_. Occasionally one of the men with whom he had
flown--Hank Odell or Walter MacMonnies or Lieutenant Rutledge of the
navy--came to town, and Carl felt natural again. As for women, the
only girl whom he had known well in years, Istra Nash, the painter,
had gone to California to keep house for her father till she should
have an excuse to escape to New York or Europe again.

Inside the office--a hustling, optimistic young business man. For the
rest of the time--a dethroned prince. Such was Carl Ericson in
November, 1912, when a letter from Gertrude Cowles, which had pursued
him all over America and Europe, finally caught him:

---- West 157th St.

NEW YORK.

CARL DEAR,--Oh such excitement, we have come to _New York_ to live!
Ray has such a good position with a big NY real estate co. & Mama & I
are going to make a home for him even if it's only just a flat (but
it's quite a big one & looks out on the duckiest old house that must
have been adorning Harlem for heaven knows how long,) & our house has
all modern conveniences, elevator & all.

Think, Carl, I'm going to study danci