The Metropolis
by Upton Sinclair
FIRST PUBLISHED 1908
PRINTED BY OFFSET IN GREAT BRITAIN
Contents
CHAPTER I
“Return at ten-thirty,” the General said to his chauffeur, and thenthey entered the corridor of the hotel.
Montague gazed about him, and found himself trembling just a little withanticipation. It was not the magnificence of the place. The quiet uptown hotelwould have seemed magnificent to him, fresh as he was from the country; but, hedid not see the marble columns and the gilded carvings-he was thinking of themen he was to meet. It seemed too much to crowd into one day-first the visionof the whirling, seething city, the centre of all his hopes of the future; andthen, at night, this meeting, overwhelming him with the crowded memories ofeverything that he held precious in the past.
There were groups of men in faded uniforms standing about in the corridors.General Prentice bowed here and there as they retired and took the elevator tothe reception-rooms. In the doorway they passed a stout little man with stubbywhite moustaches, and the General stopped, exclaiming, “Hello,Major!” Then he added: “Let me introduce Mr. Allan Montague.Montague, this is Major Thorne.”
A look of sudden interest flashed across the Major’s face. “GeneralMontague’s son?” he cried. And then he seized the other’shand in both of his, exclaiming, “My boy! my boy! I’m glad to seeyou!”
Now Montague was no boy—he was a man of thirty, and rather sedate in hisappearance and manner; there was enough in his six feet one to have made two ofthe round and rubicund little Major. And yet it seemed to him quite proper thatthe other should address him so. He was back in his boyhood to-night—hewas a boy whenever anyone mentioned the name of Major Thorne.
“Perhaps you have heard your father speak of me?” asked the Major,eagerly; and Montague answered, “A thousand times.”