He recalled, with the self-accusation of a repentant prodigal, his needlessly elaborate breakfast, the extravagance of the necktie.
His return led him past the cheap amusement district of the Bowery.
Never had their tawdry invitations seemed so alluring.
By that singular perversity which opens up every suggestion of riotous expenditure to destitution, the poor fellow felt inclined to indulge himself regardless.
An obese nymph pictured in the foam of a beer sign, apparently elaborated with a whitewash brush and finished in the throes of an epileptic fit, solicited a share of his patronage.
Long rows of slot machines offered all sorts of libidinous suggestions in placards, which proposed to debauch his morals for a penny a sight.
And with absurd propriety a vender of shoddy jewels presented the chance of his lifetime in bizarre decoration.
But somehow Dennis reached Broadway at last, and faced the unpleasant prospect of the next few days with despairing calculation.
As Dennis looked up and down this busy thoroughfare, with its thousands speeding oppositely in preoccupied interest, as if all that was vital and worthy was to be found at either extreme of its splendid distances, he paused for a moment to account his meager finances.
He found that he possessed just four one-dollar bills and about eighty cents in small change.