He could make the fellows in these saloons roar with laughter.
If he did particularly well, they were willing to order for him a glass
of beer, or a fairly good cigar; in any case he had a chance to get
warm. This was actually Dirk's only present source of income! Yet he
shrank from it; he could not have told you why, but on this particular
Sabbath he was averse to earning his coveted warmth in this way. He
walked resolutely by two or three places where he had reason to think he
might be welcomed, wondering vaguely whether there wasn't something else
a fellow could do to keep himself from freezing. Oddly enough there
seemed to be something about the glimmer of sunshine as he saw it in
Mart's hair that kept him from halting before any of the places open to
him. What if she had come out with him to take a walk; he could not
have taken her into one of them! Then, poor fellow, he set himself to
wondering where the place was, open and warmed, to which he could take
Mart. There were places, several of them, in the large city; but Dirk
knew nothing about them, and he was acquainted with the saloons. He
thought of another thing; he had been invited to call at a house on East
Fifty-fifth Street. Suppose he should walk up there this very afternoon
and ring the bell, and say that he had come to call! What would happen
then? Whereupon he laughed aloud.
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