And in the meantime both men, and other men likewise, went about their
daily affairs. Vancouver grew and prospered, and the growth of Summit
sales left an increasing balance on the profit side of Thompson's
ledger. Moreover the rapid and steady growth of his business kept his
mind on the business. It worked out--his business preoccupation--much in
the manner of the old story of fleas and dogs, to wit: a certain number
of fleas is good for a dog. They keep him from brooding over the fact
that he _is_ a dog.
So, save for the fact that he continued to make money and was busy and
realized now and then that he had come to a disheartening impasse with
Sophie, the late spring of 1916 found Thompson mentally, morally and
spiritually holding fast by certain props.
He had come a long way, and he had yet a long way to go. He had come to
Lone Moose very much after the fashion of St. Simeon Stylites all
prepared to mount a spiritual pillar and make a bid for sainthood. But
pillar hermits, he discovered, when harsh, material facts tore the
evangelistic blinkers off his eyes, were neither useful in the world nor
acceptable on high. He had been in a very bad way for awhile. When a man
loses his own self-respect and the faith of his fathers at one stroke he
is apt to suffer intensely.
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