1/21 A new and peculiar distaste for these familiar surroundings seemed suddenly to have sprung into life. For the first time he realized the intense ugliness of this scene of his daily labors. The long desk, ink-splashed and decrepit, was covered with untidy piles of papers, some of them thick with dust; the walls were hung with seedy-looking files and an array of tattered bills; there were cobwebs in every corner, gaps in the linoleum floor-covering. In front of the office-boy--a youth about fourteen years of age, who represented the remaining clerical staff of the establishment--were pinned up several illustrations cut out from _Comic Cuts_, the _Police News_, and various other publications of a similar order. |