Then,
towards midnight, long after all staid and sensible people were abed, the
flood would roll back, faster yet under the quiet moon, louder yet
through the frosty air. But he never met the Circassian beauty, and he
would have found "l'Africaine," for example, both tedious and
unreasonable. To him each of these publics was new, and no less new than
alien. Besides, it would have seemed an uncanny thing to be abroad and
stirring at midnight.
Why did he go to bed at half-past nine? In order that he might be at the
store by half-past seven. Why must he be at the store by half-past seven?
Because a very large area to the west and northwest of the town looked to
him for supplies of teas, coffees, spices, flour, sugar, baking-powder;
because he had always been accustomed to furnish these supplies; because
it was the only thing he wanted to do; because it was the only thing he
could do; because it was the only thing he was pleased and proud to do;
because it was the sole thing which enabled him to look upon himself as a
useful, stable, honored member of society.
But it need not be supposed that the Marshalls in their young married
days had lived totally bereft of social diversion. Quite the contrary.
They had had tea-parties and card-parties now and then, and more than
once they had thrown their house open for a church sociable. But the day
came when the church jumped from its old site three blocks away to a new
site three miles away.
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