The pretender: A story of the Latin Quarter

In deference to the opinion of the publishers the Author has consented to certain alterations being made in his work.
THE PRETENDER A Story of the Latin Quarter
BY ROBERT W. SERVICE Author of “Songs of a Sourdough,” “Trail of ’98,” etc.
NEW YORK DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 1914
Copyright, Canada, 1914 By ROBERT W. SERVICE VAIL-BALLOU COMPANY BINGHAMTON AND NEW YORK
THE PRETENDER
“Of Books and Scribes there are no end:
This Plague—and who can doubt it?
Dismays me so, I’ve sadly penned
Another book about it.”
To have omnibus tastes and an automobile income—how ironic?
With this reflexion I let myself collapse into a padded chair of transcendent comfort, lit a cigarette and inspected once more the amazing bank-book. Since I had seen it last several credit entries had been made—over twenty thousand dollars; and in the meantime, dawdling and dreaming in the woods of Maine, all I had managed to squander was a paltry thousand. Being a man of imagination I sought for a simile. As I sat there by the favourite window of my favourite club I could see great snowflakes falling in the quiet square, and at that moment it seemed to me that I too was standing under a snowfall, a snowfall of dollars steadily banking me about.