One of these members is Clif Clawson, an exaggerated character who is a practical joker, a windbag, and a noisy disturber of peace. Yet he furnishes relief as a roommate for the serious Martin, who regards Clif as his best friend. Years later, when Clif is forty, he calls on Martin in New York and boasts about his dishonest schemes for moneymaking and his brushes with the law. Joyce is unfavorably impressed by Clif, as Martin knew she would be, and it is really she who breaks up the friendship between the two men. They had grown apart, however, to such an extent that the old camaraderie was no longer possible. Clif is a satire on the business go-getter who will use any tactics, fair or foul, in dollar chasing.