ABSTRACT
A young man sits alone in a rented room. The fire blazing in the hearth warms his chamber against the cold, snowy winds outside. He is a gentleman, born of an honorable family, so he lacks no material comforts. To all appearances he is a cultured, well-mannered gentleman of leisure. The young man, however, knows better. He has left that respectable, normal family background behind and chosen to follow a very different path. Now twenty-three years old, he has journeyed far from his home, during a time of bitter warfare, to this innocuous little town where he knows practically no one. His father is angry with him; today was to be the day the young man officially entered the family profession, but instead he is here, without a profession, all by himself in a small, warm room. Thinking.
