alth too easily acquired or
inherited; or (2), from a blazing material success, the cause of which
was their own savage self-interested viewpoint. Hence a colder and in
some respects a more critical group of men I have never known. Most of
them had already seen so much of life in a libertine way that there was
little left to enjoy. They sniffed at almost everything, Culhane
included, and yet they were obviously drawn to him. I tried to explain
this to myself on the ground that there is some iron power in some
people which literally compels this, whether one will or no; or that
they were in the main so tired of life and so truly selfish and
egotistic that it required some such different iron or caviar mood plus
such a threatening regimen to make them really take an interest. Sick as
they were, he was about the only thing left on which they could sharpen
their teeth with any result.

As I have said, a part of Culhane's general scheme was to arrange the
starting time for the walks and jogs about the long and short blocks so
that if one moved along briskly he reached the sanitarium at
twelve-thirty and had a few minutes in which to bathe and cool off and
change his clothes before entering the dining-room, where, if not at the
bathroom door beforehand, Culhane would be waiting, seated at his little
table, ready to keep watch on the time and condition of all those due.
Thus one day, a group of us having done the long block in less time than
we should have devoted to it, came in panting and rejoicing that we had
cut the record by seven minutes. We did not know that he was around. But
in the dining-room as we entered he scoffed at our achievement.

"You think you're smart, don't you?" he said sourly and without any
preliminary statement as to how he knew we had done it in less time.
"You come out here and pay me one hundred a week and then you want to be
cute and play tricks with your own money and health. I want you to
remember just one thing: my reputation is just as much involved with the
results here as your money. I don't need anybody's money, and I do need
my orders obeyed. Now you all have watches. You just time yourselves and
do that block in the time required. If you can't do it, that's one
thing; I can forgive a man too weak or sick to do it. But I haven't any
use for a mere smart aleck, and I don't want any more of it, see?"

That luncheon was very sad.

Another thing in connection with these luncheons and dinners