"It would," he said; "but, sometimes, men don't look at it that way.
They cannot face the loss of caste. They prefer to drop overboard by
_accident_."

"There isn't going to be any dropping overboard by accident in mine,"
replied Croyden. "What I've decided to do is this: I shall disappear. I
have no debts, thank God! so no one will care to take the trouble to
search for me. I shall go down to Hampton, to the little property that
was left me on the Eastern Shore, there to mark time, either until I
can endure it, or until I can pick out some other abode. I've a bunch
of expensive habits to get rid of quickly, and the best place for
that, it seems to me, is a small town where they are impossible, as
well as unnecessary."

"Ever lived in a small town?" Macloud inquired.

"None smaller than my old home. I suppose it will be very stupid, after
the life here, but beggars can't be choosers."

"I'm not so sure it will be very stupid," said Macloud. "It depends on
how much you liked this froth and try, we have here. The want to and
can't--the aping the ways and manners of those who have had wealth for
generations, and are well-born, beside. Look at them!" with a fling of
his arm, that embraced the Club-house and its environs.--"One
generation old in wealth, one generation old in family, and about six
months old, some of them scarcely that, in breeding. There are a few
families which belong by right of birth--and, thank God! they show it.
But they are shouldered aside by the others, and don't make much of a
show. The climbers hate them, but are too much awed by their lineage to
crowd them out, entirely. A nice lot of aristocrats! The majority of
them are puddlers of the iron mills, and the peasants of Europe, come
over so recently the soil is still clinging to their clothes. Down on
the Eastern Shore you will find it very different. They ask one, who
you _are_, never how much money you have. Their aristocracy is one of
birth and culture. You may be reduced to manual labor for a livelihood,
but you belong just the same. You have had a sample of the
money-changers and their heartless methods--and it has left a bitter
taste in your mouth. I think you will welcome the change. It will be a
new life, and, in a measure, a quiet life, but there are compensations
to one to whom life holds more than garish living and ostentatious
show."

"You know the people of the Eastern Shore?" asked Croyden.

"No!--but I know the people of th