Ben sprang to his feet and began retracing his steps.  People bred in the city might be callous to the miseries of their fellows; those provided with plenty might be content to live their lives side by side with such hopeless poverty, might even apply to their own profit the necessities of others; but his was the hospitality and consideration of the frontier, the democracy that shares its last loaf with its fellow no matter who he may be, and shares it without question.  The heartless selfishness of the conditions he was observing almost made his blood boil.  He felt that he was amid an alien people:  their standards were not as his standards, their lives were not of his life, and he wanted to hurry through with his affairs and get away.  He returned to the hotel.

Breakfast was ready by this time, and after some exploration he succeeded in finding the dining-room.  The head-waiter showed him to a seat and held his chair obsequiously.  Another, a negro of uncertain age, fairly exuding dignity and impassive as a sphinx, poured water over the ice in his glass with a practised hand, produced the menu, and waited for his order.  Without intending it, the countryman had selected a rather fashionable place, and the bill of fare was unintelligible as Sanskrit to him.  He looked at it helplessly.  A man across the table, observing his predicament, smiled involuntarily.  Ben caught the expression, looked at its bearer meaningly, looked until it vanished, and until a faint red, obviously a stranger to that face, took its place.  By a sudden inspiration Blair’s hand went to his pocket and returned with a silver coin.

“Bring me what a healthy man usually eats at this time of day, and plenty of it,” he said.  He glanced absently, blandly past his companion.

The gentleman of color looked at the speaker as though he were a strange animal in a “zoo.”

“Yes, sah,” he said.

While he was waiting, Ben looked around him with interest.  The room was big, high, massive of pillars and of beams.  Every detail had been carefully arranged.  The heavy oak tables, the spotless linen, the sparkling silver and glassware appealed to the sense of luxury.  The coolness of the place, due to unseen ventilating fans which he heard faintly droning somewhere in the ceiling, and increased by the tile floor and the skilfully adjusted shades, was delightful.  The few other people present were as immaculate as bath, laundry, tailor, and modiste could make them.  From one group at which Ben looked came the suppressed sound of a woman’s laugh; from another, a man’s voice, well modulated, illustrated a point with a story.  At a small table in an alcove sat four young men, and notwithstanding the fact that for them it was yet very early in the day, the pop of a champagne cork was heard, and soon repeated.  Blair, fresh from a glimpse of the outer and under world, observed it all, and drew comparisons.  Again he saw the huddled figure of the tramp on the bench; and again