the rabbit-warren of the city of
London by day, and in a cheap, pretentious, red-brick suburb by night,
believes firmly that outside London not much matters. He lumps together
the Canadian, the South African, the Australian, and the New Zealander
under the slighting category of "colonials." He imagines them bowing
themselves humbly before the majesty of the Londoner, taking their cues
from London and reverencing it as the fount of all wisdom and might and
wealth.

There is no one more "provincial" than the Cockney born and bred.

After ten days of Canada, Dean with his chameleon mind felt himself
almost a Canadian. He was beginning to pity the limitations of the
Londoner. He considered himself raised above that level.

Winnipeg, the new "wheat pit" of North America, impressed him most
strongly. He could feel the bursting strength of the young city--a David
amongst cities. He could feel it growing under his feet to its kingdom
of the granary of Britain. The epic of the wheat pulsed its stately
poetry into him--thrilled him with the majestic chords of its mighty
song.

He had a half-idea that Lars Larssen's big scheme was in some way
connected with the epic of the wheat, and it gave him fresh importance
to think that he was serving such a man in so confidential a position.

He tried a little gamble in "May wheat" with a Winnipeg bucket-shop,
plunging what was to him the important sum of twenty dollars. Luck was
with him full-tide. From the moment he bought, May wheat shot upwards,
and in a few days he had closed the deal with fifty dollars to his
credit.

That evening he wandered around the city with money jingling in his
trouser-pockets. He bought himself a good seat at a music-hall, and at
the bar boldly ordered cocktails with weird names of which the contents
were wonderful mysteries to him.

On his way home to his hotel about midnight, a flaming placard outside a
tin-roofed chapel caught his eye and stopped him for a moment. The
wording was crudely sensational:

THE WICKED FLOURISH!
BUT FOR HOW LONG?
A LIFETIME OF EASE FOR AN ETERNITY OF HELL-FIRE!
DO YOU CHOOSE HELL?
MAKE YOUR CHOICE TO-NIGHT!

The meeting inside the chapel was in full swing. A roar of voices raised
in a marching hymn swept out to the deserted street. Dean's lips curved
contemptuously for a moment. Then the whim came to him to finish his
night's amusement by a sarcastic enjoyment of the r