"You get those at the nearest grocery and by the time you are back I'll be ready to go." That day Geary took Vandover out to the Mission.

They went out in the cable-car, Geary sitting inside reading the morning's paper, Vandover standing on the front platform, carrying the things that Geary had told him to buy: a bar of soap, a scrubbing brush, some wiping cloths, a broom, and a pail.
Almost at the end of the car-line they got off and crossed over to where Geary's property stood.

Vandover looked about him.

The ground on which his own block had once stood was now occupied by an immense red brick building with white stone trimmings; in front on either side of the main entrance were white stone medallions upon which were chiselled the head of a workman wearing the square paper cap that the workman never wears, and a bent-up forearm, the biceps enormous, the fist gripping the short hammer that the workman never uses.

An enormous round chimney sprouted from one corner; through the open windows came the vast purring of machinery.