g machine overseas, offered him nothing. Very decidedly he
was homesick. But his tired mind came upon a blank wall--he had no
home to be homesick for. Nothing compelling, nothing to return to--all
broken up long ago, such as it was, long before he had come out to the
Orient. Yet he was longing for the sight of his native land again.
Yes, that was it--just the familiar sight of it. It offered him
nothing in the way of tie or kin, yet he was longing to see it again,
just his own native land. He was exiled in China--and he was exiled at
Home, when you got down to it--but to-night his home land drew him
with overwhelming insistence.

What can you do, I'd like to know, when you are like this? Along the
outskirts of the Settlement stood big houses, cheerful with lights,
with home life, with all that the successful ones had brought out from
Home, to establish Home in the Orient. But Lawson had nothing to do
with these, with all the pompous, successful ones, who ignored him
completely and were unaware of his existence. They were all superior
to him, with the superiority that new-found money brings, and they
looked down upon him as a cheap court runner, told off to round up the
fan-tan playing Chinese. You see, Lawson was common--he had sprung
from nothing and was nothing. But these others, these successful ones,
they too had sprung from nothing, but out here in the Orient they had
become important. Through the possession of certain qualities which
Lawson did not possess, they had become large and prominent in the
community. They referred to themselves, among each other, as "younger
sons." Which left one to infer that they were of distinguished
lineage. But Lawson knew better, and knew it with great bitterness.
Like himself, they were indeed "younger sons"--of greengrocers.
Therefore, for that reason perhaps, they went home seldom, for at home
they were nobodies. Whereas out here--oh, out here, by reason of
certain qualities which Lawson did not possess, they were important
and pompous, and lived in big houses, with lights and guests and
servants and motors. Therefore Lawson resented them, because they
thought he was common. And he was common, he admitted bitterly, but so
were they. Only they were successful, by reason of certain qualities
which he did not possess. They ignored him, and left him alone in the
community, and it is never very good to be too much alone, especially
in the Far East. True, they provided him with his jo