One agreeable afternoon in late autumn two young men stood together on Canal Street, closing aconversation that had evidently begun within the club-house which they had just quitted."There's big money in it, Offdean," said the elder of the two. "I would n't have you touch it if therewas n't. Why, they tell me Patchly 's pulled a hundred thousand out of the concern a'ready.""That may be," replied Offdean, who had been politely attentive to the words addressed to him, butwhose face bore a look indicating that he was closed to conviction. He leaned back upon the clumsystick which he carried, and continued: "It's all true, I dare say, Fitch; but a decision of that sortwould mean more to me than you'd believe if I were to tell you. The beggarly twenty-five thousand'sall I have, and I want to sleep with it under my pillow a couple of months at least before I drop itinto a slot.""You 'll drop it into Harding & Offdean's mill to grind out the pitiful two and a half per centcommission racket; that 's what you 'll do in the end, old fellow-see if you don't.""Perhaps I shall; but it's more than likely I shan't. We 'll talk about it when I get back. You know I'moff to north Louisiana in the morning"-"No! What the deuce"-"Oh, business of the firm.""Write me from Shreveport, then; or wherever it is.""Not so far as that. But don't expect to hear from me till you see me. I can't say when that will be."Then they shook hands and parted. The rather portly Fitch boarded a Prytania Street car, and Mr.Wallace Offdean hurried to the bank in order to replenish his portemonnaie, which had beenmaterially lightened at the club through the medium of unpropitious jack-pots and bobtail flushes.He was a sure-footed fellow, this young Offdean, despite an occasional fall in slippery places. Whathe wanted, now that he had reached his twenty-sixth year and his inheritance, was to get his feet wellplanted on solid ground, and to keep his head cool and clear.With his early youth he had had certain shadowy intentions of shaping his life on intellectual lines.That is, he wanted to; and he meant to use his faculties intelligently, which means more than is atonce apparent. Above all, he would keep clear of the maelstroms of sordid work and senselesspleasure in which the average American business man may be said alternately to exist, and whichreduce him, naturally, to a rather ragged condition of soul.Offdean had done, in a temperate way, the usual things which young men do who happen to belongto good society, and are possessed of moderate means and healthy instincts. He had gone to college, had traveled a little at home and abroad, had frequented society and the clubs, and had worked in hisuncle's commission-house; in all of which employments he had expended much time and amodicum of energy.