"
"Oh, gammon and jalap!" said Mr. Bolder. "It's larks they're after.
There's too much education nowadays. Men know about aphasia, and they
use it for an excuse. The women are wise, too. When it's all over they
look you in the eye, as scientific as you please, and say: 'He
hypnotized me.'"
Thus Mr. Bolder diverted, but did not aid, me with his comments and
philosophy.
We arrived in New York about ten at night. I rode in a cab to a hotel,
and I wrote my name "Edward Pinkhammer" in the register. As I did so
I felt pervade me a splendid, wild, intoxicating buoyancy--a sense of
unlimited freedom, of newly attained possibilities. I was just born into
the world. The old fetters--whatever they had been--were stricken from
my hands and feet. The future lay before me a clear road such as an
infant enters, and I could set out upon it equipped with a man's
learning and experience.
I thought the hotel clerk looked at me five seconds too long. I had no
baggage.
"The Druggists' Convention," I said. "My trunk has somehow failed to
arrive." I drew out a roll of money.
"Ah!" said he, showing an auriferous tooth, "we have quite a number of
the Western delegates stopping here." He struck a bell for the boy.
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