An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser — Read

In so far as his life at Mrs. Cuppy's went, he was not so very happily placed there, either. For that was but a commonplace rooming and boarding house, which drew to it, at best, such conservative mill and business types as looked on work and their wages, and the notions of the middle class religious world of Lycurgus as most essential to the order and well being of the world. From the point of view of entertainment or gayety, it was in the main a very dull place.

At the same time, because of the presence of one Walter Dillard--a brainless sprig who had recently come here from Fonda, it was not wholly devoid of interest for Clyde. The latter--a youth of about Clyde's own age and equally ambitious socially--but without Clyde's tact or discrimination anent the governing facts of life, was connected with the men's furnishing department of Stark and Company. He was spry, avid, attractive enough physically, with very light hair, a very light and feeble mustache, and the delicate airs and ways of a small town Beau Brummell. Never having had any social standing or the use of any means whatsoever--his father having been a small town dry goods merchant before him, who had failed--he was, because of some atavistic spur or fillip in his own blood, most anxious to attain some sort of social position.