Holt grudgingly told him.
"Fresh?" asked Stainton.
"Five years old," said Holt.
"And that?—And that?"
Again Holt supplied the information thus requested.
"I think that New York is alive," said Stainton.
"Well, you never thought it was Philadelphia, did you?"
"I mean that the city itself is a living thing, a gigantic organism. You know they say a man changes, atom by atom, so that, every seven years, he is a fresh being, and yet remains the same being. I believe that is true of some cities and most of all of New York."
Holt slapped him on the back.
"Good old Jim!" said Holt.