Page:Steadfast Heart.djvu/96

 had uttered a thing of grave importance to him, something he must comprehend fully, and, having comprehended, must act upon.

“Come on,” said Bishwhang, “we got nigh two mile to go.”

“I hain’t goin’ to-day,” Angus said abstractedly, and with no other word, he turned and trudged slowly down the hill and up the stairs to his little room above Dave Wilkins’s printing shop.

It is a portentous moment in the life of any individual when first he knows the necessity to be alone and to think. It was doubly portentous in the life of Angus Burke…. To stand up for himself!… Also he was compelled to think about that other matter—that Lydia was forbidden to speak to him. That had to be studied out as well…. Vaguely, not with clear vision, he began to perceive the existence of social strata; class consciousness had its dawn within him….

For a long time, laboriously, he mulled over these matters, and arrived at two conclusions, both of far-reaching importance. First, that he must stand up for himself, and second, that there should come a time when none would forbid their children to play with him….