hink of New York?"

Carmen smiled up at him. "Well," she began uncertainly, "since I have
thawed out, or perhaps have become more accustomed to the cold, I have
begun to make mental notes. Already I have thousands of them. But they
are not yet classified, and so I can hardly answer your question, Mr.
Ames. But I am sure of one thing, and that is that for the first few
months I was here I was too cold to even think!"

Ames laughed. "Yes," he agreed, "the change from the tropics was
somewhat abrupt. But, aside from the climate?"

"It is like awaking from a deep sleep," answered Carmen meditatively.
"In Simiti we dream our lives away. In New York all is action; loud
words; harsh commands; hurry; rush; endeavor, terrible, materialistic
endeavor! Every person I see seems to be going somewhere. He may not
know where he is going--but he is on the way. He may not know why he
is going--but he must not be stopped. He has so few years to live; and
he must pile up money before he goes. He must own an automobile; he
must do certain things which his more fortunate neighbor does, before
his little flame of life goes out and darkness falls upon him. I
sometimes think that people here are trying to get away from
themselves, but they don't know it. I think they come to the opera
because they crave any sort of diversion that will make them forget
themselves for a few moments, don't you?"

"H'm! well, I can't say," was Ames's meaningless reply, as he sat
regarding the girl curiously.

"And," she continued, as if pleased to have an auditor who at least
pretended to understand her, "the thing that now strikes me most
forcibly is the great confusion that prevails here in everything, in
your government, in your laws, in your business, in your society, and,
in particular, in your religion. Why, in that you have hundreds of
sects claiming a monopoly of truth; you have hundreds of churches,
hundreds of religious or theological beliefs, hundreds of differing
concepts of God--but you get nowhere! Why, it has come to such a pass
that, if Jesus were to appear physically on earth to-day, I am sure he
would be evicted from his own Church!"

"Well, yes, I guess that's so," commented Ames, quite at sea in such
conversation. "But we solid business men have found that religious
emotion never gets a man anywhere. It's weakening. Makes a man
effeminate, and utterly unfits him for business. I wouldn't have a man
in my employ who was a religious enthusi