would interfere with his most cherished plans. He too sincerely

respected Ruth's judgment to make any protest, however, and he would

have defended her course against the world.

This enforced waiting at St. Louis was very irksome to Philip. His money

was running away, for one thing, and he longed to get into the field,

and see for himself what chance there was for a fortune or even an

occupation. The contractors had given the young men leave to join the

engineer corps as soon as they could, but otherwise had made no provision

for them, and in fact had left them with only the most indefinite

expectations of something large in the future.

Harry was entirely happy; in his circumstances. He very soon knew

everybody, from the governor of the state down to the waiters at the

hotel. He had the Wall street slang at his tongue's end; he always

talked like a capitalist, and entered with enthusiasm into all the land

and railway schemes with which the air was thick.

Col. Sellers and Harry talked together by the hour and by the day. Harry

informed his new friend that he was going out with the engineer corps of

the Salt Lick Pacific Extension, but that wasn't his real business.

"I'm to have, with another party," said Harry, "a big contract in the

road, as soon as it is let; and, meantime, I'm with the engineers to spy

out the best land and the depot sites."

168

The Gilded Age