The extent to which a man is permanently defiled by pitch-touching cannot, of course, be known.

It depends upon the pitch and upon the man.

It was not a quiet life the young man led! On the contrary, it was a very feverish one, for he labored hard in the office by day--he never for an instant abandoned his ambitions and his plans--and at night he drifted into the land where were warmth and light and lawlessness.

He had his duty there, such as it might be, for he was both a gambler and a protector, and, young as he was, callow as he was, within a year he had become one in demand, no trifler at the table, and an object of rivalry among those whose regard means fee of body and of soul.

He, himself, at that time, did not appreciate the remarkable nature of his changing.