Company and Solitude 107 



II. 



SOLITUDE. 



" Distrust mankind : with your own heart confer, 

 And dread even there to find a flatterer.'* 



" The foremost object in my experience 

 has always been the ninth letter of the alpha- 

 bet," I remarked. 



" Then you are a crabbed creature, 

 wrapped up in yourself," my companion 

 replied. 



" For once you have told the truth ; now 

 leave me, please." 



What would this room be if there were 

 others in it? Merely a very plain, bare- 

 walled affair; a shelter, for it is raining 

 now, and but little else. But luckily I am 

 alone, and through the distorting panes of 

 greenish glass, through which the light of 

 sunrise in an earlier century penetrated, I 

 look out upon a pretty world. I am alone, 

 and the crowd about me hampers every 

 movement; but did so much as a single 

 human being open the door, and I should be 



