Through an agent he had leased the
place to the Queeringtons for the next two years at an absurdly low
sum, and the thought of her in the midst of her beloved surroundings
went far to reconcile him to the meagerness of his own.
His dingy little room boasted only an iron bed and washstand, the rest
of the floor space being principally occupied by his imposing brass-
bound steamer-trunk covered with foreign labels. On the dusty shelf
over the washstand stood an incongruous array of silver-mounted,
monogramed toilet articles; around the wall ran a dado of shoes, while
from the gas-pipe depended a heavy bunch of neckties. The chief
inconvenience in being poor, Donald had decided, was in not knowing
what to do with one's things.
It was not only his things, however, that he found difficulty in
disposing of. For a given number of hours a day a man can hold himself
down to the task of sitting at a small deal table, covering yellow
tablets with words that will probably never be read, but after too
long a stretch nature is apt to rebel. At such times Donald raged like
a pent lion. His mind involuntarily flew to the possibility of this
confinement being but a foretaste of the other that waited for him
should the rehearing not be granted.
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