The Second Generation by David Graham Phillips, Fiction, Classics, Literary 12+

📓 "Is it serious? Will I die?" -- "In this world everything is serious -- and nothing." -- Schulze slowly surveyed all Hiram's outward signs of majesty that had been denied his own majestic intellect, noted the tremendous figure, the shoulders, the forehead, the massive brow and nose and chin -- an ensemble of unabused power, the handiwork of Nature at her best, a creation worth while, worth preserving intact and immortal. "Yes," he answered, with satiric bitterness; "you will have to die, and rot, just like the rest of us." Schulze reflected, rubbing his red-button nose with his stubby fingers. When he spoke, his voice had a sad gentleness. "You can bear hearing it. You have the right to know." He leaned back, paused, said in a low tone: "Put your house in order, Mr. Ranger." Hiram's steadfast gray eyes met bravely the eyes of the man who had just read him his death warrant. A long pause; then Hiram said "Thank you," in his quiet, calm way.