uxuries. So the city girded itself for a great festival; the nation
approved and cooeperated, and a vast congeries of white palaces began to
rise on our far edge.

The detailed execution of this immense undertaking was largely local, of
course. Though the work was initiated by older heads (some of them were
too old and were dropped), there were places on the innumerable
committees for younger ones--for men in their early thirties; their
vigor, enthusiasm, and even initiative (within understood limits) would
greatly further the cause. There were (among others) committees on
entertainment to engage the services of young men of position, leisure,
and social experience. There were many foreign dignitaries to be
received and guided; there must be lively and presentable youths to help
manoeuvre them. Raymond, who was supposed to have mingled in European
society (instead of having viewed it from afar, in detachment), was
asked to serve in this field.

There were equally good opportunities for brisk, aggressive young men on
finance committees and such-like bodies, wherein prominent sexagenarians
did the heavily ornamental and allowed good scope for younger men who
had begun to get a record and who wished to confirm ability in
influential eyes. This opened a road for John W. McComas, who made a
record, indeed, in the matter of gathering local subscriptions. He
dented the consciousness of several important men in his own field, and
got praised in the press for his indefatigability and his powers of
persuasion. Before the six months of festivity were half over, our
Johnny had become a "prominent citizen" and his new bank almost a
household word.

Raymond did less well. The great organization was an executive
hierarchy: ranks and rows of officials, with due heed not only to
cooerdination but to subordination. Some men do their best under such
conditions; others, their worst. Raymond, a strong individualist, a
pronounced egoist, could not "fall in." Even in his simple field--one
concerned chiefly with but the outward flourishes--the big machine irked
and embarrassed him. He withdrew. When an imperial prince was publicly
"received," with ceremonies that mingled old-world formalities (however
lamely followed) and local inspirations (however poorly disciplined),
the moving event went off with no help of his: I believe he even smiled
at it all from a balcony.

It was here that Raymond began to make clear his true type. He was
Goeth