id. Her beauty--he snapped his
fingers--had nothing to do with his infatuation. She had a soul, a great
soul. This it was that had so moved him. "You should see her," he said,
"with her kid brother, and the whole family shooting-match. I know;
lots of little girls have the instinct of mothering things--but it's
more in her case, it amounts to genius--and she's so clever, and so
quick, and in spite of all the wicked hard work they put upon her she
sings a little, and laughs a little, and mothers them all the time--the
selfish beasts!"

My friend's pipe-dreams came to nothing. He drifted out of missionizing,
through a sudden hobby for chemistry, into orchids; sickened of having
them turn black just when they ought to have bloomed; ran for Congress
and was defeated; decided that the country was going to the dogs, went
to live in England, and is now spending his time in a vigorous and, I am
afraid, vain attempt to get himself elected to a first-class London
club. He is quite a charming man--and quite unnecessary. I mention all
this, being myself enough of a pipe-dreamer to think that, if he had not
been frightened out of his ideas about Daisy, life might have dealt more
handsomely with them both.

As Obloski became more useful to the great organization that owned him
he received proportionately larger pay; but as he drank proportionately
more, his family remained in much its usual straits. Presently Obloski
fell off in utility, allowing choice newly landed men of his nationality
to miss the polls. Then strange things happened. The great man (who was
left-handed) spoke an order mingled with the awful names of gods. Then
certain shares, underwritten by his right-hand man, clamored for
promised cash. A blue pallor appeared in the cheeks of the right-hand
man, and he spoke an order, so that a contract for leaving the pavement
of a certain city street exactly as it was went elsewhere. The defrauded
contractor swore very bitterly, and reduced the salary of his right-hand
man. This one caused a raid of police to ascend into the disorderly
house of his. This one in turn punished his right-hand man; until
finally the lowest of all in the scale, save only Mr. Obloski, remarked
to the latter, pressing for his wage, that money was "heap scarce." And
Mr. Obloski, upon opening his envelope, discovered that it contained but
the half of that to which he had accustomed his appetite. Than Obloski
there was none lower. Therefore, to pass on