The Voice of the City: Further Stories of the Four Million

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O Henry. The Voice of the City: Further Stories of the Four Million

I. THE VOICE OF THE CITY

II. THE COMPLETE LIFE OF JOHN HOPKINS

III. A LICKPENNY LOVER

IV. DOUGHERTY'S EYE-OPENER

V "LITTLE SPECK IN GARNERED FRUIT"

VI. THE HARBINGER

VII. WHILE THE AUTO WAITS

VIII. A COMEDY IN RUBBER

IX. ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS

X. THE DEFEAT OF THE CITY

XI. THE SHOCKS OF DOOM

XII. THE PLUTONIAN FIRE

XIII. NEMESIS AND THE CANDY MAN

XIV. SQUARING THE CIRCLE

XV. ROSES, RUSES AND ROMANCE

XVI. THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT

XVII. THE EASTER OF THE SOUL

XVIII. THE FOOL-KILLER

XIX. TRANSIENTS IN ARCADIA

XX. THE RATHSKELLER AND THE ROSE

XXI. THE CLARION CALL

XXII. EXTRADITED FROM BOHEMIA

XXIII. A PHILISTINE IN BOHEMIA

XXIV. FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS ABILITY

XXV. THE MEMENTO

Отрывок из книги

There is a saying that no man has tasted the full flavour of life until he has known poverty, love and war. The justness of this reflection commends it to the lover of condensed philosophy. The three conditions embrace about all there is in life worth knowing. A surface thinker might deem that wealth should be added to the list. Not so. When a poor man finds a long-hidden quarter-dollar that has slipped through a rip into his vest lining, he sounds the pleasure of life with a deeper plummet than any millionaire can hope to cast.

It seems that the wise executive power that rules life has thought best to drill man in these three conditions; and none may escape all three. In rural places the terms do not mean so much. Poverty is less pinching; love is temperate; war shrinks to contests about boundary lines and the neighbors' hens. It is in the cities that our epigram gains in truth and vigor; and it has remained for one John Hopkins to crowd the experience into a rather small space of time.

.....

"Very well, Armand," said the lady, "you may go." She turned to Hopkins.

"I sent my chauffeur," she said, "to bring my cousin, Walter Long. There is a man in this house who has treated me with insult and abuse. I have complained to my aunt, and she laughs at me. Armand says you are brave. In these prosaic days men who are both brave and chivalrous are few. May I count upon your assistance?"

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