"If we could, all of us would be rich, and then we should feel like the rich, and want to keep what we could. But as we have to labor hard for a little joy, it's best to get the joy, as much as you can, and not fret over the work."
* * * * *
Dresser found the Keystone so agreeable that he came there to live. The doctor and Alves and Miss M'Gann with Webber and Dresser had a table to themselves in the stuffy basement dining room. Miss M'Gann accepted impartially the advances of both young men, attending church with one and the theatre with the other. The five spent many evenings in Sommers's room, discussing aimlessly social questions, while the doctor worked at the anatomy slides. Dresser's debauch of revolt seemed to have sobered him. He bought himself many new clothes, and as time went on, picked up social relations in different parts of the city. He still talked sentimental socialism, chiefly for the benefit of Alves, who regarded him as an authority on economic questions, and whose instinctive sympathies were touched by his theories. As the clothes became more numerous and better in quality, he talked less about socialism and more about society. The Investor's Monthly interested him: he spoke of becoming its managing editor, hinting at his influence with Carson; and when the doctor jeered, Dresser offered him a position on the paper. Webber was openly envious of Dresser's prosperity, which he set down to the account of a superior education that had been denied him. When Dresser began to mention casually the names of people whom the Baking Powder clerk had read about in the newspapers, this envy increased. Dresser's evolution impressed Miss M'Gann also; Sommers noticed that she was readier to accept Dresser's condescending attentions than the devotion of the plodding clerk. Webber was simple and vulgar, but he was sincere and good-hearted. He was striving to get together a little money for a home. Sommers told Alves that she should influence Miss M'Gann to accept the clerk, instead of beguiling herself with the words of a talker.
"You are unfair to Sammy," Alves had replied, with some warmth. "She would do very well to marry him; he is her superior."
Sommers gave Alves a look that troubled her, and said:
"Because the fellow is settling into an amiable Philistine? He will never marry Jane M'Gann; it would hurt his prospects."
A few days later Dresser mentioned that he had met Miss Laura Lindsay, "the daughter of your former partner, I believe."
"My former boss," Sommers corrected, looking at Alves with an amused smile.
He listened in ironical glee to Dresser's description of little Laura
Lindsay. Dresser thought her "a very advanced young woman, who had ideas, a
wide reader." She had asked him about Dr. Sommers and Alves.
"You had better not appear too intimate with us," Sommers advised. "Her papa doesn't exactly approve of me."
When he had left the room, Sommers added: "He will marry Laura Lindsay. An ideal match. He won't remain long in the Keystone, and I am glad of it. The converted Philistine is the worst type!"