Chapter: The barn at which Hurstwood applied was exceedingly short-handed, and
was being operated practically by three men as directors. There were a
lot of green hands around--queer, hungry-looking men, who looked as if
want had driven them to desperate means. They tried to be lively and
willing, but there was an air of hang-dog diffidence about the place.

Hurstwood went back through the barns and out into a large, enclosed
lot, where were a series of tracks and loops. A half-dozen cars were
there, manned by instructors, each with a pupil at the lever. More
pupils were waiting at one of the rear doors of the barn.

In silence Hurstwood viewed this scene, and waited. His companions took
his eye for a while, though they did not interest him much more than the
cars. They were an uncomfortable-looking gang, however. One or two
were very thin and lean. Several were quite stout. Several others were
rawboned and sallow, as if they had been beaten upon by all sorts of
rough weather.

"Did you see by the paper they are going to call out the militia?"
Hurstwood heard one of them remark.

"Oh, they'll do that," returned the other. "They always do."

"Think we're liable to have much trouble?" said another, whom Hurstwood
did not see.

"Not very."

"That Scotchman that went out on the last car," put in a voice, "told me
that they hit him in the ear with a cinder."

A small, nervous laugh accompanied this.

"One of those fellows on the Fifth Avenue line must have had a hell of
a time, according to the papers," drawled another. "They broke his car
windows and pulled him off into the street 'fore the police could stop
'em."

"Yes; but there are more police around to-day," was added by another.

Hurstwood hearkened without much mental comment. These talkers seemed
scared to him. Their gabbling was feverish--things said to quiet their
own minds. He looked out into the yard and waited.

Two of the men got around quite near him, but behind his back. They were
rather social, and he listened to what they said.

"Are you a railroad man?" said one.

"Me? No. I've always worked in a paper factory."

"I had a job in Newark until last October," returned the other, with
reciprocal feeling.

There were some words which passed too low to hear. Then the
conversation became strong again.

"I don't blame these fellers for striking," said one. "They've got the
right of it, all right, but I had to get something to do."

"Same here," said the other. "If I had any job in Newark I wouldn't be
over here takin' chances like these."

"It's hell these days, ain't it?" said the man. "A poor man ain't
nowhere. You could starve, by God, right in the streets, and there ain't
most no one would help you."

"Right you are," said the other. "The job I had I lost 'cause they shut
down. They run all summer and lay up a big stock, and then shut down."

Hurstwood paid some little attention to this. Somehow, he felt a little
superior to these two--a little better off. To him these were ignorant
and commonplace, poor sheep in a driver's hand.

"Poor devils," he thought, speaking out of the thoughts and feelings of
a bygone period of success. "Next," said one of the instructors.

"You're next," said a neighbour, touching him.

He went out and climbed on the platform. The instructor took it for
granted that no preliminaries were needed.

"You see this handle," he said, reaching up to an electric cut-off,
which was fastened to the roof. "This throws the current off or on. If
you want to reverse the car you turn it over here. If you want to send
it forward, you put it over here. If you want to cut off the power, you
keep it in the middle."

Hurstwood smiled at the simple information.

"Now, this handle here regulates your speed. To here," he said, pointing
with his finger, "gives you about four miles an hour. This is eight.
When it's full on, you make about fourteen miles an hour."

Hurstwood watched him calmly. He had seen motormen work before. He knew
just about how they did it, and was sure he could do as well, with a
very little practice.

The instructor explained a few more details, and then said:

"Now, we'll back her up."

Hurstwood stood placidly by, while the car rolled back into the yard.

"One thing you want to be careful about, and that is to start easy. Give
one degree time to act before you start another. The one fault of most
men is that they always want to throw her wide open. That's bad. It's
dangerous, too. Wears out the motor. You don't want to do that."

"I see," said Hurstwood.

He waited and waited, while the man talked on.

"Now you take it," he said, finally.

The ex-manager laid hand to the lever and pushed it gently, as he
thought. It worked much easier than he imagined, however, with the
result that the car jerked quickly forward, throwing him back against
the door. He straightened up sheepishly, while the instructor stopped
the car with the brake.

"You want to be careful about that," was all he said.

Hurstwood found, however, that handling a brake and regulating speed
were not so instantly mastered as he had imagined. Once or twice he
would have ploughed through the rear fence if it had not been for the
hand and word of his companion. The latter was rather patient with him,
but he never smiled.

"You've got to get the knack of working both arms at once," he said. "It
takes a little practice."

One o'clock came while he was still on the car practising, and he began
to feel hungry. The day set in snowing, and he was cold. He grew weary
of running to and fro on the short track.

They ran the car to the end and both got off. Hurstwood went into the
barn and sought a car step, pulling out his paper-wrapped lunch from
his pocket. There was no water and the bread was dry, but he enjoyed
it. There was no ceremony about dining. He swallowed and looked
about, contemplating the dull, homely labour of the thing. It was
disagreeable--miserably disagreeable--in all its phases. Not because
it was bitter, but because it was hard. It would be hard to any one, he
thought.

After eating, he stood about as before, waiting until his turn came.

The intention was to give him an afternoon of practice, but the greater
part of the time was spent in waiting about.

At last evening came, and with it hunger and a debate with himself as to
how he should spend the night. It was half-past five. He must soon eat.
If he tried to go home, it would take him two hours and a half of cold
walking and riding. Besides he had orders to report at seven the next
morning, and going home would necessitate his rising at an unholy and
disagreeable hour. He had only something like a dollar and fifteen cents
of Carrie's money, with which he had intended to pay the two weeks' coal
bill before the present idea struck him.

"They must have some place around here," he thought. "Where does that
fellow from Newark stay?"

Finally he decided to ask. There was a young fellow standing near one
of the doors in the cold, waiting a last turn. He was a mere boy in
years--twenty-one about--but with a body lank and long, because of
privation. A little good living would have made this youth plump and
swaggering.

"How do they arrange this, if a man hasn't any money?" inquired
Hurstwood, discreetly.

The fellow turned a keen, watchful face on the inquirer.

"You mean eat?" he replied.

"Yes, and sleep. I can't go back to New York to-night."

"The foreman 'll fix that if you ask him, I guess. He did me."

"That so?"

"Yes. I just told him I didn't have anything. Gee, I couldn't go home. I
live way over in Hoboken."

Hurstwood only cleared his throat by way of acknowledgment.

"They've got a place upstairs here, I understand. I don't know what sort
of a thing it is. Purty tough, I guess. He gave me a meal ticket this
noon. I know that wasn't much."

Hurstwood smiled grimly, and the boy laughed.

"It ain't no fun, is it?" he inquired, wishing vainly for a cheery
reply.

"Not much," answered Hurstwood.

"I'd tackle him now," volunteered the youth. "He may go 'way."

Hurstwood did so.

"Isn't there some place I can stay around here to-night?" he inquired.
"If I have to go back to New York, I'm afraid I won't."

"There're some cots upstairs," interrupted the man, "if you want one of
them."

"That'll do," he assented.

He meant to ask for a meal ticket, but the seemingly proper moment never
came, and he decided to pay himself that night.

"I'll ask him in the morning."

He ate in a cheap restaurant in the vicinity, and, being cold and
lonely, went straight off to seek the loft in question. The company was
not attempting to run cars after nightfall. It was so advised by the
police.

The room seemed to have been a lounging place for night workers. There
were some nine cots in the place, two or three wooden chairs, a soap
box, and a small, round-bellied stove, in which a fire was blazing.
Early as he was, another man was there before him. The latter was
sitting beside the stove warming his hands.

Hurstwood approached and held out his own toward the fire. He was sick
of the bareness and privation of all things connected with his venture,
but was steeling himself to hold out. He fancied he could for a while.

"Cold, isn't it?" said the early guest.

"Rather."

A long silence.

"Not much of a place to sleep in, is it?" said the man.

"Better than nothing," replied Hurstwood.

Another silence.

"I believe I'll turn in," said the man.

Rising, he went to one of the cots and stretched himself, removing only
his shoes, and pulling the one blanket and dirty old comforter over him
in a sort of bundle. The sight disgusted Hurstwood, but he did not dwell
on it, choosing to gaze into the stove and think of something else.
Presently he decided to retire, and picked a cot, also removing his
shoes.

While he was doing so, the youth who had advised him to come here
entered, and, seeing Hurstwood, tried to be genial.

"Better'n nothin'," he observed, looking around.

Hurstwood did not take this to himself. He thought it to be an
expression of individual satisfaction, and so did not answer. The
youth imagined he was out of sorts, and set to whistling softly. Seeing
another man asleep, he quit that and lapsed into silence.

Hurstwood made the best of a bad lot by keeping on his clothes and
pushing away the dirty covering from his head, but at last he dozed
in sheer weariness. The covering became more and more comfortable, its
character was forgotten, and he pulled it about his neck and slept.
In the morning he was aroused out of a pleasant dream by several men
stirring about in the cold, cheerless room. He had been back in Chicago
in fancy, in his own comfortable home. Jessica had been arranging to go
somewhere, and he had been talking with her about it. This was so clear
in his mind, that he was startled now by the contrast of this room.
He raised his head, and the cold, bitter reality jarred him into
wakefulness.

"Guess I'd better get up," he said.

There was no water on this floor. He put on his shoes in the cold
and stood up, shaking himself in his stiffness. His clothes felt
disagreeable, his hair bad.

"Hell!" he muttered, as he put on his hat.

Downstairs things were stirring again.

He found a hydrant, with a trough which had once been used for horses,
but there was no towel here, and his handkerchief was soiled from
yesterday. He contented himself with wetting his eyes with the ice-cold
water. Then he sought the foreman, who was already on the ground.

"Had your breakfast yet?" inquired that worthy.

"No," said Hurstwood.

"Better get it, then; your car won't be ready for a little while."

Hurstwood hesitated.

"Could you let me have a meal ticket?" he asked with an effort.

"Here you are," said the man, handing him one.

He breakfasted as poorly as the night before on some fried steak and bad
coffee. Then he went back.

"Here," said the foreman, motioning him, when he came in. "You take this
car out in a few minutes."

Hurstwood climbed up on the platform in the gloomy barn and waited for
a signal. He was nervous, and yet the thing was a relief. Anything was
better than the barn.

On this the fourth day of the strike, the situation had taken a turn for
the worse. The strikers, following the counsel of their leaders and
the newspapers, had struggled peaceably enough. There had been no great
violence done. Cars had been stopped, it is true, and the men argued
with. Some crews had been won over and led away, some windows broken,
some jeering and yelling done; but in no more than five or six instances
had men been seriously injured. These by crowds whose acts the leaders
disclaimed.

Idleness, however, and the sight of the company, backed by the police,
triumphing, angered the men. They saw that each day more cars were going
on, each day more declarations were being made by the company officials
that the effective opposition of the strikers was broken. This put
desperate thoughts in the minds of the men. Peaceful methods meant, they
saw, that the companies would soon run all their cars and those who
had complained would be forgotten. There was nothing so helpful to the
companies as peaceful methods. All at once they blazed forth, and for
a week there was storm and stress. Cars were assailed, men attacked,
policemen struggled with, tracks torn up, and shots fired, until at
last street fights and mob movements became frequent, and the city was
invested with militia.

Hurstwood knew nothing of the change of temper.

"Run your car out," called the foreman, waving a vigorous hand at him. A
green conductor jumped up behind and rang the bell twice as a signal to
start. Hurstwood turned the lever and ran the car out through the door
into the street in front of the barn. Here two brawny policemen got up
beside him on the platform--one on either hand.

At the sound of a gong near the barn door, two bells were given by the
conductor and Hurstwood opened his lever.

The two policemen looked about them calmly.

"'Tis cold, all right, this morning," said the one on the left, who
possessed a rich brogue.

"I had enough of it yesterday," said the other. "I wouldn't want a
steady job of this."

"Nor I."

Neither paid the slightest attention to Hurstwood, who stood facing
the cold wind, which was chilling him completely, and thinking of his
orders.

"Keep a steady gait," the foreman had said. "Don't stop for any one who
doesn't look like a real passenger. Whatever you do, don't stop for a
crowd."

The two officers kept silent for a few moments.

"The last man must have gone through all right," said the officer on the
left. "I don't see his car anywhere."

"Who's on there?" asked the second officer, referring, of course, to its
complement of policemen.

"Schaeffer and Ryan."

There was another silence, in which the car ran smoothly along. There
were not so many houses along this part of the way. Hurstwood did not
see many people either. The situation was not wholly disagreeable to
him. If he were not so cold, he thought he would do well enough.

He was brought out of this feeling by the sudden appearance of a curve
ahead, which he had not expected. He shut off the current and did an
energetic turn at the brake, but not in time to avoid an unnaturally
quick turn. It shook him up and made him feel like making some
apologetic remarks, but he refrained.

"You want to look out for them things," said the officer on the left,
condescendingly.

"That's right," agreed Hurstwood, shamefacedly.

"There's lots of them on this line," said the officer on the right.
Around the corner a more populated way appeared. One or two pedestrians
were in view ahead. A boy coming out of a gate with a tin milk bucket
gave Hurstwood his first objectionable greeting.

"Scab!" he yelled. "Scab!"

Hurstwood heard it, but tried to make no comment, even to himself. He
knew he would get that, and much more of the same sort, probably.

At a corner farther up a man stood by the track and signalled the car to
stop.

"Never mind him," said one of the officers. "He's up to some game."

Hurstwood obeyed. At the corner he saw the wisdom of it. No sooner did
the man perceive the intention to ignore him, than he shook his fist.

"Ah, you bloody coward!" he yelled.

Some half dozen men, standing on the corner, flung taunts and jeers
after the speeding car.

Hurstwood winced the least bit. The real thing was slightly worse than
the thoughts of it had been.

Now came in sight, three or four blocks farther on, a heap of something
on the track.

"They've been at work, here, all right," said one of the policemen.

"We'll have an argument, maybe," said the other.

Hurstwood ran the car close and stopped. He had not done so wholly,
however, before a crowd gathered about. It was composed of ex-motormen
and conductors in part, with a sprinkling of friends and sympathisers.

"Come off the car, pardner," said one of the men in a voice meant to
be conciliatory. "You don't want to take the bread out of another man's
mouth, do you?"

Hurstwood held to his brake and lever, pale and very uncertain what to
do.

"Stand back," yelled one of the officers, leaning over the platform
railing. "Clear out of this, now. Give the man a chance to do his work."

"Listen, pardner," said the leader, ignoring the policeman and
addressing Hurstwood. "We're all working men, like yourself. If you were
a regular motorman, and had been treated as we've been, you wouldn't
want any one to come in and take your place, would you? You wouldn't
want any one to do you out of your chance to get your rights, would
you?"

"Shut her off! shut her off!" urged the other of the policemen, roughly.
"Get out of this, now," and he jumped the railing and landed before the
crowd and began shoving. Instantly the other officer was down beside
him.

"Stand back, now," they yelled. "Get out of this. What the hell do you
mean? Out, now."

It was like a small swarm of bees.

"Don't shove me," said one of the strikers, determinedly. "I'm not doing
anything."

"Get out of this!" cried the officer, swinging his club. "I'll give ye a
bat on the sconce. Back, now."

"What the hell!" cried another of the strikers, pushing the other way,
adding at the same time some lusty oaths.

Crack came an officer's club on his forehead. He blinked his eyes
blindly a few times, wabbled on his legs, threw up his hands, and
staggered back. In return, a swift fist landed on the officer's neck.

Infuriated by this, the latter plunged left and right, laying about
madly with his club. He was ably assisted by his brother of the blue,
who poured ponderous oaths upon the troubled waters. No severe damage
was done, owing to the agility of the strikers in keeping out of reach.
They stood about the sidewalk now and jeered.

"Where is the conductor?" yelled one of the officers, getting his eye on
that individual, who had come nervously forward to stand by Hurstwood.
The latter had stood gazing upon the scene with more astonishment than
fear.

"Why don't you come down here and get these stones off the track?"
inquired the officer. "What you standing there for? Do you want to stay
here all day? Get down."

Hurstwood breathed heavily in excitement and jumped down with the
nervous conductor as if he had been called.

"Hurry up, now," said the other policeman.

Cold as it was, these officers were hot and mad. Hurstwood worked with
the conductor, lifting stone after stone and warming himself by the
work.

"Ah, you scab, you!" yelled the crowd. "You coward! Steal a man's job,
will you? Rob the poor, will you, you thief? We'll get you yet, now.
Wait."

Not all of this was delivered by one man. It came from here and there,
incorporated with much more of the same sort and curses.

"Work, you blackguards," yelled a voice. "Do the dirty work. You're the
suckers that keep the poor people down!"

"May God starve ye yet," yelled an old Irish woman, who now threw open a
nearby window and stuck out her head.

"Yes, and you," she added, catching the eye of one of the policemen.
"You bloody, murtherin' thafe! Crack my son over the head, will you, you
hardhearted, murtherin' divil? Ah, ye----"

But the officer turned a deaf ear.

"Go to the devil, you old hag," he half muttered as he stared round upon
the scattered company.

Now the stones were off, and Hurstwood took his place again amid a
continued chorus of epithets. Both officers got up beside him and the
conductor rang the bell, when, bang! bang! through window and door
came rocks and stones. One narrowly grazed Hurstwood's head. Another
shattered the window behind.

"Throw open your lever," yelled one of the officers, grabbing at the
handle himself.

Hurstwood complied and the car shot away, followed by a rattle of stones
and a rain of curses.

"That --- --- --- ---- hit me in the neck," said one of the officers. "I
gave him a good crack for it, though."

"I think I must have left spots on some of them," said the other.

"I know that big guy that called us a --- --- --- ----" said the first.
"I'll get him yet for that."

"I thought we were in for it sure, once there," said the second.

Hurstwood, warmed and excited, gazed steadily ahead. It was an
astonishing experience for him. He had read of these things, but the
reality seemed something altogether new. He was no coward in spirit.
The fact that he had suffered this much now rather operated to arouse a
stolid determination to stick it out. He did not recur in thought to New
York or the flat. This one trip seemed a consuming thing.

They now ran into the business heart of Brooklyn uninterrupted. People
gazed at the broken windows of the car and at Hurstwood in his plain
clothes. Voices called "scab" now and then, as well as other epithets,
but no crowd attacked the car. At the downtown end of the line, one of
the officers went to call up his station and report the trouble.

"There's a gang out there," he said, "laying for us yet. Better send
some one over there and clean them out."

The car ran back more quietly--hooted, watched, flung at, but not
attacked. Hurstwood breathed freely when he saw the barns.

"Well," he observed to himself, "I came out of that all right."

The car was turned in and he was allowed to loaf a while, but later he
was again called. This time a new team of officers was aboard. Slightly
more confident, he sped the car along the commonplace streets and felt
somewhat less fearful. On one side, however, he suffered intensely. The
day was raw, with a sprinkling of snow and a gusty wind, made all the
more intolerable by the speed of the car. His clothing was not intended
for this sort of work. He shivered, stamped his feet, and beat his arms
as he had seen other motormen do in the past, but said nothing. The
novelty and danger of the situation modified in a way his disgust and
distress at being compelled to be here, but not enough to prevent him
from feeling grim and sour. This was a dog's life, he thought. It was a
tough thing to have to come to.

The one thought that strengthened him was the insult offered by Carrie.
He was not down so low as to take all that, he thought. He could do
something--this, even--for a while. It would get better. He would save a
little.

A boy threw a clod of mud while he was thus reflecting and hit him upon
the arm. It hurt sharply and angered him more than he had been any time
since morning.

"The little cur!" he muttered.

"Hurt you?" asked one of the policemen.

"No," he answered.

At one of the corners, where the car slowed up because of a turn, an
ex-motorman, standing on the sidewalk, called to him:

"Won't you come out, pardner, and be a man? Remember we're fighting for
decent day's wages, that's all. We've got families to support." The man
seemed most peaceably inclined.

Hurstwood pretended not to see him. He kept his eyes straight on before
and opened the lever wide. The voice had something appealing in it.

All morning this went on and long into the afternoon. He made three
such trips. The dinner he had was no stay for such work and the cold was
telling on him. At each end of the line he stopped to thaw out, but
he could have groaned at the anguish of it. One of the barnmen, out of
pity, loaned him a heavy cap and a pair of sheepskin gloves, and for
once he was extremely thankful.

On the second trip of the afternoon he ran into a crowd about half
way along the line, that had blocked the car's progress with an old
telegraph pole.

"Get that thing off the track," shouted the two policemen.

"Yah, yah, yah!" yelled the crowd. "Get it off yourself."

The two policemen got down and Hurstwood started to follow.

"You stay there," one called. "Some one will run away with your car."

Amid the babel of voices, Hurstwood heard one close beside him.

"Come down, pardner, and be a man. Don't fight the poor. Leave that to
the corporations."

He saw the same fellow who had called to him from the corner. Now, as
before, he pretended not to hear him.

"Come down," the man repeated gently. "You don't want to fight poor men.
Don't fight at all." It was a most philosophic and jesuitical motorman.

A third policeman joined the other two from somewhere and some one ran
to telephone for more officers. Hurstwood gazed about, determined but
fearful.

A man grabbed him by the coat.

"Come off of that," he exclaimed, jerking at him and trying to pull him
over the railing.

"Let go," said Hurstwood, savagely.

"I'll show you--you scab!" cried a young Irishman, jumping up on the car
and aiming a blow at Hurstwood. The latter ducked and caught it on the
shoulder instead of the jaw.

"Away from here," shouted an officer, hastening to the rescue, and
adding, of course, the usual oaths.

Hurstwood recovered himself, pale and trembling. It was becoming serious
with him now. People were looking up and jeering at him. One girl was
making faces.

He began to waver in his resolution, when a patrol wagon rolled up and
more officers dismounted. Now the track was quickly cleared and the
release effected.

"Let her go now, quick," said the officer, and again he was off.

The end came with a real mob, which met the car on its return trip
a mile or two from the barns. It was an exceedingly poor-looking
neighbourhood. He wanted to run fast through it, but again the track
was blocked. He saw men carrying something out to it when he was yet a
half-dozen blocks away.

"There they are again!" exclaimed one policeman.

"I'll give them something this time," said the second officer, whose
patience was becoming worn. Hurstwood suffered a qualm of body as the
car rolled up. As before, the crowd began hooting, but now, rather
than come near, they threw things. One or two windows were smashed and
Hurstwood dodged a stone.

Both policemen ran out toward the crowd, but the latter replied by
running toward the car. A woman--a mere girl in appearance--was among
these, bearing a rough stick. She was exceedingly wrathful and struck
at Hurstwood, who dodged. Thereupon, her companions, duly encouraged,
jumped on the car and pulled Hurstwood over. He had hardly time to speak
or shout before he fell.

"Let go of me," he said, falling on his side.

"Ah, you sucker," he heard some one say. Kicks and blows rained on him.
He seemed to be suffocating. Then two men seemed to be dragging him off
and he wrestled for freedom.

"Let up," said a voice, "you're all right. Stand up."

He was let loose and recovered himself. Now he recognised two officers.
He felt as if he would faint from exhaustion. Something was wet on his
chin. He put up his hand and felt, then looked. It was red.

"They cut me," he said, foolishly, fishing for his handkerchief.

"Now, now," said one of the officers. "It's only a scratch."

His senses became cleared now and he looked around. He was standing in a
little store, where they left him for the moment. Outside, he could see,
as he stood wiping his chin, the car and the excited crowd. A patrol
wagon was there, and another.

He walked over and looked out. It was an ambulance, backing in.

He saw some energetic charging by the police and arrests being made.

"Come on, now, if you want to take your car," said an officer, opening
the door and looking in. He walked out, feeling rather uncertain of
himself. He was very cold and frightened.

"Where's the conductor?" he asked.

"Oh, he's not here now," said the policeman.

Hurstwood went toward the car and stepped nervously on. As he did so
there was a pistol shot. Something stung his shoulder.

"Who fired that?" he heard an officer exclaim. "By God! who did that?"
Both left him, running toward a certain building. He paused a moment and
then got down.

"George!" exclaimed Hurstwood, weakly, "this is too much for me."

He walked nervously to the corner and hurried down a side street.

"Whew!" he said, drawing in his breath.

A half block away, a small girl gazed at him.

"You'd better sneak," she called.

He walked homeward in a blinding snowstorm, reaching the ferry by
dusk. The cabins were filled with comfortable souls, who studied him
curiously. His head was still in such a whirl that he felt confused. All
the wonder of the twinkling lights of the river in a white storm passed
for nothing. He trudged doggedly on until he reached the flat. There he
entered and found the room warm. Carrie was gone. A couple of evening
papers were lying on the table where she left them. He lit the gas and
sat down. Then he got up and stripped to examine his shoulder. It was
a mere scratch. He washed his hands and face, still in a brown study,
apparently, and combed his hair. Then he looked for something to eat,
and finally, his hunger gone, sat down in his comfortable rocking-chair.
It was a wonderful relief.

He put his hand to his chin, forgetting, for the moment, the papers.

"Well," he said, after a time, his nature recovering itself, "that's a
pretty tough game over there."

Then he turned and saw the papers. With half a sigh he picked up the
"World."

"Strike Spreading in Brooklyn," he read. "Rioting Breaks Out in all
Parts of the City."

He adjusted his paper very comfortably and continued. It was the one
thing he read with absorbing interest.




Those who look upon Hurstwood's Brooklyn venture as an error of judgment
will none the less realise the negative influence on him of the fact
that he had tried and failed. Carrie got a wrong idea of it. He said
so little that she imagined he had encountered nothing worse than
the ordinary roughness--quitting so soon in the face of this seemed
trifling. He did not want to work.

She was now one of a group of oriental beauties who, in the second act
of the comic opera, were paraded by the vizier before the new potentate
as the treasures of his harem. There was no word assigned to any of
them, but on the evening when Hurstwood was housing himself in the
loft of the street-car barn, the leading comedian and star, feeling
exceedingly facetious, said in a profound voice, which created a ripple
of laughter:

"Well, who are you?"

It merely happened to be Carrie who was courtesying before him. It might
as well have been any of the others, so far as he was concerned. He
expected no answer and a dull one would have been reproved. But Carrie,
whose experience and belief in herself gave her daring, courtesied
sweetly again and answered:

"I am yours truly."

It was a trivial thing to say, and yet something in the way she did it
caught the audience, which laughed heartily at the mock-fierce potentate
towering before the young woman. The comedian also liked it, hearing the
laughter.

"I thought your name was Smith," he returned, endeavouring to get the
last laugh.

Carrie almost trembled for her daring after she had said this. All
members of the company had been warned that to interpolate lines or
"business" meant a fine or worse. She did not know what to think.

As she was standing in her proper position in the wings, awaiting
another entry, the great comedian made his exit past her and paused in
recognition.

"You can just leave that in hereafter," he remarked, seeing how
intelligent she appeared. "Don't add any more, though."

"Thank you," said Carrie, humbly. When he went on she found herself
trembling violently.

"Well, you're in luck," remarked another member of the chorus. "There
isn't another one of us has got a line."

There was no gainsaying the value of this. Everybody in the company
realised that she had got a start. Carrie hugged herself when next
evening the lines got the same applause. She went home rejoicing,
knowing that soon something must come of it. It was Hurstwood who, by
his presence, caused her merry thoughts to flee and replaced them with
sharp longings for an end of distress.

The next day she asked him about his venture.

"They're not trying to run any cars except with police. They don't want
anybody just now--not before next week."

Next week came, but Carrie saw no change. Hurstwood seemed more
apathetic than ever. He saw her off mornings to rehearsals and the like
with the utmost calm. He read and read. Several times he found himself
staring at an item, but thinking of something else. The first of these
lapses that he sharply noticed concerned a hilarious party he had once
attended at a driving club, of which he had been a member. He sat,
gazing downward, and gradually thought he heard the old voices and the
clink of glasses.

"You're a dandy, Hurstwood," his friend Walker said. He was standing
again well dressed, smiling, good-natured, the recipient of encores for
a good story.

All at once he looked up. The room was so still it seemed ghostlike.
He heard the clock ticking audibly and half suspected that he had been
dozing. The paper was so straight in his hands, however, and the items
he had been reading so directly before him, that he rid himself of the
doze idea. Still, it seemed peculiar. When it occurred a second time,
however, it did not seem quite so strange.

Butcher and grocery man, baker and coal man--not the group with whom he
was then dealing, but those who had trusted him to the limit--called. He
met them all blandly, becoming deft in excuse. At last he became bold,
pretended to be out, or waved them off.

"They can't get blood out of a turnip," he said, "if I had it I'd pay
them."

Carrie's little soldier friend, Miss Osborne, seeing her succeeding, had
become a sort of satellite. Little Osborne could never of herself amount
to anything. She seemed to realise it in a sort of pussy-like way and
instinctively concluded to cling with her soft little claws to Carrie.

"Oh, you'll get up," she kept telling Carrie with admiration. "You're so
good."

Timid as Carrie was, she was strong in capability. The reliance of
others made her feel as if she must, and when she must she dared.
Experience of the world and of necessity was in her favour. No longer
the lightest word of a man made her head dizzy. She had learned that men
could change and fail. Flattery in its most palpable form had lost its
force with her. It required superiority--kindly superiority--to move
her--the superiority of a genius like Ames.

"I don't like the actors in our company," she told Lola one day.
"They're all so struck on themselves."

"Don't you think Mr. Barclay's pretty nice?" inquired Lola, who had
received a condescending smile or two from that quarter.

"Oh, he's nice enough," answered Carrie; "but he isn't sincere. He
assumes such an air."

Lola felt for her first hold upon Carrie in the following manner:

"Are you paying room-rent where you are?"

"Certainly," answered Carrie. "Why?"

"I know where I could get the loveliest room and bath, cheap. It's too
big for me, but it would be just right for two, and the rent is only six
dollars a week for both."

"Where?" said Carrie.

"In Seventeenth Street."

"Well, I don't know as I'd care to change," said Carrie, who was already
turning over the three-dollar rate in her mind. She was thinking if she
had only herself to support this would leave her seventeen for herself.

Nothing came of this until after the Brooklyn adventure of Hurstwood's
and her success with the speaking part. Then she began to feel as if she
must be free. She thought of leaving Hurstwood and thus making him act
for himself, but he had developed such peculiar traits she feared he
might resist any effort to throw him off. He might hunt her out at
the show and hound her in that way. She did not wholly believe that he
would, but he might. This, she knew, would be an embarrassing thing if
he made himself conspicuous in any way. It troubled her greatly.

Things were precipitated by the offer of a better part. One of the
actresses playing the part of a modest sweetheart gave notice of leaving
and Carrie was selected.

"How much are you going to get?" asked Miss Osborne, on hearing the good
news.

"I didn't ask him," said Carrie.

"Well, find out. Goodness, you'll never get anything if you don't ask.
Tell them you must have forty dollars, anyhow."

"Oh, no," said Carrie.

"Certainly!" exclaimed Lola. "Ask 'em, anyway."

Carrie succumbed to this prompting, waiting, however, until the manager
gave her notice of what clothing she must have to fit the part.

"How much do I get?" she inquired.

"Thirty-five dollars," he replied.

Carrie was too much astonished and delighted to think of mentioning
forty. She was nearly beside herself, and almost hugged Lola, who clung
to her at the news.

"It isn't as much as you ought to get," said the latter, "especially
when you've got to buy clothes."

Carrie remembered this with a start. Where to get the money? She had
none laid up for such an emergency. Rent day was drawing near.

"I'll not do it," she said, remembering her necessity. "I don't use the
flat. I'm not going to give up my money this time. I'll move."

Fitting into this came another appeal from Miss Osborne, more urgent
than ever.

"Come live with me, won't you?" she pleaded. "We can have the loveliest
room. It won't cost you hardly anything that way."

"I'd like to," said Carrie, frankly.

"Oh, do," said Lola. "We'll have such a good time."

Carrie thought a while.

"I believe I will," she said, and then added: "I'll have to see first,
though." With the idea thus grounded, rent day approaching, and clothes
calling for instant purchase, she soon found excuse in Hurstwood's
lassitude. He said less and drooped more than ever.

As rent day approached, an idea grew in him. It was fostered by the
demands of creditors and the impossibility of holding up many more.
Twenty-eight dollars was too much for rent. "It's hard on her," he
thought. "We could get a cheaper place."

Stirred with this idea, he spoke at the breakfast table.

"Don't you think we pay too much rent here?" he asked.

"Indeed I do," said Carrie, not catching his drift.

"I should think we could get a smaller place," he suggested. "We don't
need four rooms."

Her countenance, had he been scrutinising her, would have exhibited the
disturbance she felt at this evidence of his determination to stay by
her. He saw nothing remarkable in asking her to come down lower.

"Oh, I don't know," she answered, growing wary.

"There must be places around here where we could get a couple of rooms,
which would do just as well."

Her heart revolted. "Never!" she thought. Who would furnish the money to
move? To think of being in two rooms with him! She resolved to spend her
money for clothes quickly, before something terrible happened. That very
day she did it. Having done so, there was but one other thing to do.

"Lola," she said, visiting her friend, "I think I'll come."

"Oh, jolly!" cried the latter.

"Can we get it right away?" she asked, meaning the room.

"Certainly," cried Lola.

They went to look at it. Carrie had saved ten dollars from her
expenditures--enough for this and her board beside. Her enlarged salary
would not begin for ten days yet--would not reach her for seventeen. She
paid half of the six dollars with her friend.

"Now, I've just enough to get on to the end of the week," she confided.

"Oh, I've got some," said Lola. "I've got twenty-five dollars, if you
need it."

"No," said Carrie. "I guess I'll get along."

They decided to move Friday, which was two days away. Now that the
thing was settled, Carrie's heart misgave her. She felt very much like a
criminal in the matter. Each day looking at Hurstwood, she had realised
that, along with the disagreeableness of his attitude, there was
something pathetic.

She looked at him the same evening she had made up her mind to go, and
now he seemed not so shiftless and worthless, but run down and beaten
upon by chance. His eyes were not keen, his face marked, his hands
flabby. She thought his hair had a touch of grey. All unconscious of his
doom, he rocked and read his paper, while she glanced at him.

Knowing that the end was so near, she became rather solicitous.

"Will you go over and get some canned peaches?" she asked Hurstwood,
laying down a two-dollar bill.

"Certainly," he said, looking in wonder at the money.

"See if you can get some nice asparagus," she added. "I'll cook it for
dinner."

Hurstwood rose and took the money, slipping on his overcoat and getting
his hat. Carrie noticed that both of these articles of apparel were old
and poor looking in appearance. It was plain enough before, but now it
came home with peculiar force. Perhaps he couldn't help it, after all.
He had done well in Chicago. She remembered his fine appearance the days
he had met her in the park. Then he was so sprightly, so clean. Had it
been all his fault?

He came back and laid the change down with the food.

"You'd better keep it," she observed. "We'll need other things."

"No," he said, with a sort of pride; "you keep it."

"Oh, go on and keep it," she replied, rather unnerved. "There'll be
other things."

He wondered at this, not knowing the pathetic figure he had become in
her eyes. She restrained herself with difficulty from showing a quaver
in her voice.

To say truly, this would have been Carrie's attitude in any case. She
had looked back at times upon her parting from Drouet and had regretted
that she had served him so badly. She hoped she would never meet him
again, but she was ashamed of her conduct. Not that she had any choice
in the final separation. She had gone willingly to seek him, with
sympathy in her heart, when Hurstwood had reported him ill. There was
something cruel somewhere, and not being able to track it mentally
to its logical lair, she concluded with feeling that he would never
understand what Hurstwood had done and would see hard-hearted decision
in her deed; hence her shame. Not that she cared for him. She did not
want to make any one who had been good to her feel badly.

She did not realise what she was doing by allowing these feelings to
possess her. Hurstwood, noticing the kindness, conceived better of her.
"Carrie's good-natured, anyhow," he thought.

Going to Miss Osborne's that afternoon, she found that little lady
packing and singing.

"Why don't you come over with me today?" she asked.

"Oh, I can't," said Carrie. "I'll be there Friday. Would you mind
lending me the twenty-five dollars you spoke of?"

"Why, no," said Lola, going for her purse.

"I want to get some other things," said Carrie.

"Oh, that's all right," answered the little girl, good-naturedly, glad
to be of service. It had been days since Hurstwood had done more than
go to the grocery or to the news-stand. Now the weariness of indoors was
upon him--had been for two days--but chill, grey weather had held him
back. Friday broke fair and warm. It was one of those lovely harbingers
of spring, given as a sign in dreary winter that earth is not forsaken
of warmth and beauty. The blue heaven, holding its one golden orb,
poured down a crystal wash of warm light. It was plain, from the voice
of the sparrows, that all was halcyon outside. Carrie raised the front
windows, and felt the south wind blowing.

"It's lovely out to-day," she remarked.

"Is it?" said Hurstwood.

After breakfast, he immediately got his other clothes.

"Will you be back for lunch?" asked Carrie nervously.

"No," he said.

He went out into the streets and tramped north, along Seventh Avenue,
idly fixing upon the Harlem River as an objective point. He had seen
some ships up there, the time he had called upon the brewers. He
wondered how the territory thereabouts was growing.

Passing Fifty-ninth Street, he took the west side of Central Park,
which he followed to Seventy-eighth Street. Then he remembered the
neighbourhood and turned over to look at the mass of buildings erected.
It was very much improved. The great open spaces were filling up. Coming
back, he kept to the Park until 110th Street, and then turned into
Seventh Avenue again, reaching the pretty river by one o'clock.

There it ran winding before his gaze, shining brightly in the clear
light, between the undulating banks on the right and the tall,
tree-covered heights on the left. The spring-like atmosphere woke him to
a sense of its loveliness, and for a few moments he stood looking at it,
folding his hands behind his back. Then he turned and followed it toward
the east side, idly seeking the ships he had seen. It was four o'clock
before the waning day, with its suggestion of a cooler evening, caused
him to return. He was hungry and would enjoy eating in the warm room.

When he reached the flat by half-past five, it was still dark. He knew
that Carrie was not there, not only because there was no light showing
through the transom, but because the evening papers were stuck between
the outside knob and the door. He opened with his key and went in.
Everything was still dark. Lighting the gas, he sat down, preparing to
wait a little while. Even if Carrie did come now, dinner would be late.
He read until six, then got up to fix something for himself.

As he did so, he noticed that the room seemed a little queer. What
was it? He looked around, as if he missed something, and then saw an
envelope near where he had been sitting. It spoke for itself, almost
without further action on his part.

Reaching over, he took it, a sort of chill settling upon him even while
he reached. The crackle of the envelope in his hands was loud. Green
paper money lay soft within the note.


"Dear George," he read, crunching the money in one hand, "I'm going
away. I'm not coming back any more. It's no use trying to keep up the
flat; I can't do it. I wouldn't mind helping you, if I could, but I
can't support us both, and pay the rent. I need what little I make to
pay for my clothes. I'm leaving twenty dollars. It's all I have just
now. You can do whatever you like with the furniture. I won't want
it.--CARRIE."

He dropped the note and looked quietly round. Now he knew what he
missed. It was the little ornamental clock, which was hers. It had gone
from the mantelpiece. He went into the front room, his bedroom, the
parlour, lighting the gas as he went. From the chiffonier had gone
the knick-knacks of silver and plate. From the table-top, the lace
coverings. He opened the wardrobe--no clothes of hers. He opened the
drawers--nothing of hers. Her trunk was gone from its accustomed place.
Back in his own room hung his old clothes, just as he had left them.
Nothing else was gone.

He stepped into the parlour and stood for a few moments looking vacantly
at the floor. The silence grew oppressive. The little flat seemed
wonderfully deserted. He wholly forgot that he was hungry, that it was
only dinner-time. It seemed later in the night.

Suddenly, he found that the money was still in his hands. There were
twenty dollars in all, as she had said. Now he walked back, leaving the
lights ablaze, and feeling as if the flat were empty.

"I'll get out of this," he said to himself.

Then the sheer loneliness of his situation rushed upon him in full.

"Left me!" he muttered, and repeated, "left me!"

The place that had been so comfortable, where he had spent so many days
of warmth, was now a memory. Something colder and chillier confronted
him. He sank down in his chair, resting his chin in his hand--mere
sensation, without thought, holding him.

Then something like a bereaved affection and self-pity swept over him.

"She needn't have gone away," he said. "I'd have got something."

He sat a long while without rocking, and added quite clearly, out loud:

"I tried, didn't I?"

At midnight he was still rocking, staring at the floor.




Installed in her comfortable room, Carrie wondered how Hurstwood had
taken her departure. She arranged a few things hastily and then left for
the theatre, half expecting to encounter him at the door. Not finding
him, her dread lifted, and she felt more kindly toward him. She quite
forgot him until about to come out, after the show, when the chance of
his being there frightened her. As day after day passed and she heard
nothing at all, the thought of being bothered by him passed. In a little
while she was, except for occasional thoughts, wholly free of the gloom
with which her life had been weighed in the flat.

It is curious to note how quickly a profession absorbs one. Carrie
became wise in theatrical lore, hearing the gossip of little Lola. She
learned what the theatrical papers were, which ones published items
about actresses and the like. She began to read the newspaper notices,
not only of the opera in which she had so small a part, but of others.
Gradually the desire for notice took hold of her. She longed to be
renowned like others, and read with avidity all the complimentary or
critical comments made concerning others high in her profession. The
showy world in which her interest lay completely absorbed her.

It was about this time that the newspapers and magazines were beginning
to pay that illustrative attention to the beauties of the stage which
has since become fervid. The newspapers, and particularly the Sunday
newspapers, indulged in large decorative theatrical pages, in which the
faces and forms of well-known theatrical celebrities appeared, enclosed
with artistic scrolls. The magazines also or at least one or two of the
newer ones--published occasional portraits of pretty stars, and now and
again photos of scenes from various plays. Carrie watched these with
growing interest. When would a scene from her opera appear? When would
some paper think her photo worth while?

The Sunday before taking her new part she scanned the theatrical pages
for some little notice. It would have accorded with her expectations if
nothing had been said, but there in the squibs, tailing off several
more substantial items, was a wee notice. Carrie read it with a tingling
body:


"The part of Katisha, the country maid, in 'The Wives of Abdul' at the
Broadway, heretofore played by Inez Carew, will be hereafter filled by
Carrie Madenda, one of the cleverest members of the chorus."


Carrie hugged herself with delight. Oh, wasn't it just fine! At last!
The first, the long-hoped for, the delightful notice! And they called
her clever. She could hardly restrain herself from laughing loudly. Had
Lola seen it?

"They've got a notice here of the part I'm going to play to-morrow
night," said Carrie to her friend.

"Oh, jolly! Have they?" cried Lola, running to her. "That's all right,"
she said, looking. "You'll get more now, if you do well. I had my
picture in the 'World' once."

"Did you?" asked Carrie.

"Did I? Well, I should say," returned the little girl. "They had a frame
around it."

Carrie laughed.

"They've never published my picture."

"But they will," said Lola. "You'll see. You do better than most that
get theirs in now."

Carrie felt deeply grateful for this. She almost loved Lola for the
sympathy and praise she extended. It was so helpful to her--so almost
necessary.

Fulfilling her part capably brought another notice in the papers that
she was doing her work acceptably. This pleased her immensely. She began
to think the world was taking note of her.

The first week she got her thirty-five dollars, it seemed an enormous
sum. Paying only three dollars for room rent seemed ridiculous. After
giving Lola her twenty-five, she still had seven dollars left. With four
left over from previous earnings, she had eleven. Five of this went to
pay the regular installment on the clothes she had to buy. The next week
she was even in greater feather. Now, only three dollars need be paid
for room rent and five on her clothes. The rest she had for food and her
own whims.

"You'd better save a little for summer," cautioned Lola. "We'll probably
close in May."

"I intend to," said Carrie.

The regular entrance of thirty-five dollars a week to one who has
endured scant allowances for several years is a demoralising thing.
Carrie found her purse bursting with good green bills of comfortable
denominations. Having no one dependent upon her, she began to buy pretty
clothes and pleasing trinkets, to eat well, and to ornament her room.
Friends were not long in gathering about. She met a few young men who
belonged to Lola's staff. The members of the opera company made her
acquaintance without the formality of introduction. One of these
discovered a fancy for her. On several occasions he strolled home with
her.

"Let's stop in and have a rarebit," he suggested one midnight.

"Very well," said Carrie.

In the rosy restaurant, filled with the merry lovers of late hours,
she found herself criticising this man. He was too stilted, too
self-opinionated. He did not talk of anything that lifted her above the
common run of clothes and material success. When it was all over, he
smiled most graciously.

"Got to go straight home, have you?" he said.

"Yes," she answered, with an air of quiet understanding.

"She's not so inexperienced as she looks," he thought, and thereafter
his respect and ardour were increased.

She could not help sharing in Lola's love for a good time. There were
days when they went carriage riding, nights when after the show they
dined, afternoons when they strolled along Broadway, tastefully dressed.
She was getting in the metropolitan whirl of pleasure.

At last her picture appeared in one of the weeklies. She had not known
of it, and it took her breath. "Miss Carrie Madenda," it was labelled.
"One of the favourites of 'The Wives of Abdul' company." At Lola's
advice she had had some pictures taken by Sarony. They had got one
there. She thought of going down and buying a few copies of the paper,
but remembered that there was no one she knew well enough to send them
to. Only Lola, apparently, in all the world was interested.

The metropolis is a cold place socially, and Carrie soon found that a
little money brought her nothing. The world of wealth and distinction
was quite as far away as ever. She could feel that there was no warm,
sympathetic friendship back of the easy merriment with which many
approached her. All seemed to be seeking their own amusement, regardless
of the possible sad consequence to others. So much for the lessons of
Hurstwood and Drouet.

In April she learned that the opera would probably last until the middle
or the end of May, according to the size of the audiences. Next season
it would go on the road. She wondered if she would be with it. As usual,
Miss Osborne, owing to her moderate salary, was for securing a home
engagement.

"They're putting on a summer play at the Casino," she announced, after
figuratively putting her ear to the ground. "Let's try and get in that."

"I'm willing," said Carrie.

They tried in time and were apprised of the proper date to apply again.
That was May 16th. Meanwhile their own show closed May 5th.

"Those that want to go with the show next season," said the manager,
"will have to sign this week."

"Don't you sign," advised Lola. "I wouldn't go."

"I know," said Carrie, "but maybe I can't get anything else."

"Well, I won't," said the little girl, who had a resource in her
admirers. "I went once and I didn't have anything at the end of the
season."

Carrie thought this over. She had never been on the road.

"We can get along," added Lola. "I always have."

Carrie did not sign.

The manager who was putting on the summer skit at the Casino had never
heard of Carrie, but the several notices she had received, her published
picture, and the programme bearing her name had some little weight with
him. He gave her a silent part at thirty dollars a week.

"Didn't I tell you?" said Lola. "It doesn't do you any good to go away
from New York. They forget all about you if you do."

Now, because Carrie was pretty, the gentlemen who made up the advance
illustrations of shows about to appear for the Sunday papers selected
Carrie's photo along with others to illustrate the announcement. Because
she was very pretty, they gave it excellent space and drew scrolls about
it. Carrie was delighted. Still, the management did not seem to have
seen anything of it. At least, no more attention was paid to her than
before. At the same time there seemed very little in her part. It
consisted of standing around in all sorts of scenes, a silent little
Quakeress. The author of the skit had fancied that a great deal could be
made of such a part, given to the right actress, but now, since it had
been doled out to Carrie, he would as leave have had it cut out.

"Don't kick, old man," remarked the manager. "If it don't go the first
week we will cut it out."

Carrie had no warning of this halcyon intention. She practised her
part ruefully, feeling that she was effectually shelved. At the dress
rehearsal she was disconsolate.

"That isn't so bad," said the author, the manager noting the curious
effect which Carrie's blues had upon the part. "Tell her to frown a
little more when Sparks dances."

Carrie did not know it, but there was the least show of wrinkles between
her eyes and her mouth was puckered quaintly.

"Frown a little more, Miss Madenda," said the stage manager.

Carrie instantly brightened up, thinking he had meant it as a rebuke.

"No; frown," he said. "Frown as you did before."

Carrie looked at him in astonishment.

"I mean it," he said. "Frown hard when Mr. Sparks dances. I want to see
how it looks."

It was easy enough to do. Carrie scowled. The effect was something so
quaint and droll it caught even the manager.

"That is good," he said. "If she'll do that all through, I think it will
take."

Going over to Carrie, he said:

"Suppose you try frowning all through. Do it hard. Look mad. It'll make
the part really funny."

On the opening night it looked to Carrie as if there were nothing to her
part, after all. The happy, sweltering audience did not seem to see her
in the first act. She frowned and frowned, but to no effect. Eyes were
riveted upon the more elaborate efforts of the stars.

In the second act, the crowd, wearied by a dull conversation, roved with
its eyes about the stage and sighted her. There she was, grey-suited,
sweet-faced, demure, but scowling. At first the general idea was that
she was temporarily irritated, that the look was genuine and not fun at
all. As she went on frowning, looking now at one principal and now at
the other, the audience began to smile. The portly gentlemen in the
front rows began to feel that she was a delicious little morsel. It was
the kind of frown they would have loved to force away with kisses. All
the gentlemen yearned toward her. She was capital.

At last, the chief comedian, singing in the centre of the stage, noticed
a giggle where it was not expected. Then another and another. When the
place came for loud applause it was only moderate. What could be the
trouble? He realised that something was up.

All at once, after an exit, he caught sight of Carrie. She was frowning
alone on the stage and the audience was giggling and laughing.

"By George, I won't stand that!" thought the thespian. "I'm not going to
have my work cut up by some one else. Either she quits that when I do my
turn or I quit."

"Why, that's all right," said the manager, when the kick came. "That's
what she's supposed to do. You needn't pay any attention to that."

"But she ruins my work."

"No, she don't," returned the former, soothingly. "It's only a little
fun on the side."

"It is, eh?" exclaimed the big comedian. "She killed my hand all right.
I'm not going to stand that."

"Well, wait until after the show. Wait until to-morrow. We'll see what
we can do."

The next act, however, settled what was to be done. Carrie was the chief
feature of the play. The audience, the more it studied her, the more
it indicated its delight. Every other feature paled beside the quaint,
teasing, delightful atmosphere which Carrie contributed while on the
stage. Manager and company realised she had made a hit.

The critics of the daily papers completed her triumph. There were
long notices in praise of the quality of the burlesque, touched with
recurrent references to Carrie. The contagious mirth of the thing was
repeatedly emphasised.


"Miss Madenda presents one of the most delightful bits of character work
ever seen on the Casino stage," observed the stage critic of the "Sun."
"It is a bit of quiet, unassuming drollery which warms like good wine.
Evidently the part was not intended to take precedence, as Miss Madenda
is not often on the stage, but the audience, with the characteristic
perversity of such bodies, selected for itself. The little Quakeress was
marked for a favourite the moment she appeared, and thereafter easily
held attention and applause. The vagaries of fortune are indeed
curious."


The critic of the "Evening World," seeking as usual to establish a catch
phrase which should "go" with the town, wound up by advising: "If you
wish to be merry, see Carrie frown."

The result was miraculous so far as Carrie's fortune was concerned.
Even during the morning she received a congratulatory message from the
manager.

"You seem to have taken the town by storm," he wrote. "This is
delightful. I am as glad for your sake as for my own."

The author also sent word.

That evening when she entered the theatre the manager had a most
pleasant greeting for her.

"Mr. Stevens," he said, referring to the author, "is preparing a little
song, which he would like you to sing next week."

"Oh, I can't sing," returned Carrie.

"It isn't anything difficult. 'It's something that is very simple,' he
says, 'and would suit you exactly.'"

"Of course, I wouldn't mind trying," said Carrie, archly.

"Would you mind coming to the box-office a few moments before you
dress?" observed the manager, in addition. "There's a little matter I
want to speak to you about."

"Certainly," replied Carrie.

In that latter place the manager produced a paper.

"Now, of course," he said, "we want to be fair with you in the matter of
salary. Your contract here only calls for thirty dollars a week for
the next three months. How would it do to make it, say, one hundred and
fifty a week and extend it for twelve months?"

"Oh, very well," said Carrie, scarcely believing her ears.

"Supposing, then, you just sign this."

Carrie looked and beheld a new contract made out like the other one,
with the exception of the new figures of salary and time. With a hand
trembling from excitement she affixed her name.

"One hundred and fifty a week!" she murmured, when she was again alone.
She found, after all--as what millionaire has not?--that there was no
realising, in consciousness, the meaning of large sums. It was only a
shimmering, glittering phrase in which lay a world of possibilities.

Down in a third-rate Bleecker Street hotel, the brooding Hurstwood read
the dramatic item covering Carrie's success, without at first realising
who was meant. Then suddenly it came to him and he read the whole thing
over again.

"That's her, all right, I guess," he said.

Then he looked about upon a dingy, moth-eaten hotel lobby.

"I guess she's struck it," he thought, a picture of the old shiny,
plush-covered world coming back, with its lights, its ornaments, its
carriages, and flowers. Ah, she was in the walled city now! Its splendid
gates had opened, admitting her from a cold, dreary outside. She seemed
a creature afar off--like every other celebrity he had known.

"Well, let her have it," he said. "I won't bother her."

It was the grim resolution of a bent, bedraggled, but unbroken pride.




When Carrie got back on the stage, she found that over night her
dressing-room had been changed.

"You are to use this room, Miss Madenda," said one of the stage lackeys.

No longer any need of climbing several flights of steps to a small
coop shared with another. Instead, a comparatively large and commodious
chamber with conveniences not enjoyed by the small fry overhead. She
breathed deeply and with delight. Her sensations were more physical than
mental. In fact, she was scarcely thinking at all. Heart and body were
having their say.

Gradually the deference and congratulation gave her a mental
appreciation of her state. She was no longer ordered, but requested, and
that politely. The other members of the cast looked at her enviously as
she came out arrayed in her simple habit, which she wore all through
the play. All those who had supposedly been her equals and superiors
now smiled the smile of sociability, as much as to say: "How friendly we
have always been." Only the star comedian whose part had been so deeply
injured stalked by himself. Figuratively, he could not kiss the hand
that smote him.

Doing her simple part, Carrie gradually realised the meaning of the
applause which was for her, and it was sweet. She felt mildly guilty of
something--perhaps unworthiness. When her associates addressed her in
the wings she only smiled weakly. The pride and daring of place were not
for her. It never once crossed her mind to be reserved or haughty--to
be other than she had been. After the performances she rode to her room
with Lola, in a carriage provided.

Then came a week in which the first fruits of success were offered to
her lips--bowl after bowl. It did not matter that her splendid salary
had not begun. The world seemed satisfied with the promise. She began
to get letters and cards. A Mr. Withers--whom she did not know from
Adam--having learned by some hook or crook where she resided, bowed
himself politely in.

"You will excuse me for intruding," he said; "but have you been thinking
of changing your apartments?"

"I hadn't thought of it," returned Carrie.

"Well, I am connected with the Wellington--the new hotel on Broadway.
You have probably seen notices of it in the papers."

Carrie recognised the name as standing for one of the newest and most
imposing hostelries. She had heard it spoken of as having a splendid
restaurant.

"Just so," went on Mr. Withers, accepting her acknowledgment of
familiarity. "We have some very elegant rooms at present which we would
like to have you look at, if you have not made up your mind where you
intend to reside for the summer. Our apartments are perfect in every
detail--hot and cold water, private baths, special hall service for
every floor, elevators, and all that. You know what our restaurant is."

Carrie looked at him quietly. She was wondering whether he took her to
be a millionaire.

"What are your rates?" she inquired.

"Well, now, that is what I came to talk with you privately about. Our
regular rates are anywhere from three to fifty dollars a day."

"Mercy!" interrupted Carrie. "I couldn't pay any such rate as that."

"I know how you feel about it," exclaimed Mr. Withers, halting. "But
just let me explain. I said those are our regular rates. Like every
other hotel we make special ones however. Possibly you have not thought
about it, but your name is worth something to us." "Oh!" ejaculated
Carrie, seeing at a glance.

"Of course. Every hotel depends upon the repute of its patrons. A
well-known actress like yourself," and he bowed politely, while Carrie
flushed, "draws attention to the hotel, and--although you may not
believe it--patrons."

"Oh, yes," returned Carrie, vacantly, trying to arrange this curious
proposition in her mind.

"Now," continued Mr. Withers, swaying his derby hat softly and beating
one of his polished shoes upon the floor, "I want to arrange, if
possible, to have you come and stop at the Wellington. You need not
trouble about terms. In fact, we need hardly discuss them. Anything
will do for the summer--a mere figure--anything that you think you could
afford to pay."

Carrie was about to interrupt, but he gave her no chance.

"You can come to-day or to-morrow--the earlier the better--and we will
give you your choice of nice, light, outside rooms--the very best we
have."

"You're very kind," said Carrie, touched by the agent's extreme
affability. "I should like to come very much. I would want to pay what
is right, however. I shouldn't want to----"

"You need not trouble about that at all," interrupted Mr. Withers.
"We can arrange that to your entire satisfaction at any time. If three
dollars a day is satisfactory to you, it will be so to us. All you have
to do is to pay that sum to the clerk at the end of the week or month,
just as you wish, and he will give you a receipt for what the rooms
would cost if charged for at our regular rates."

The speaker paused.

"Suppose you come and look at the rooms," he added.

"I'd be glad to," said Carrie, "but I have a rehearsal this morning."

"I did not mean at once," he returned. "Any time will do. Would this
afternoon be inconvenient?"

"Not at all," said Carrie.

Suddenly she remembered Lola, who was out at the time.

"I have a room-mate," she added, "who will have to go wherever I do. I
forgot about that."

"Oh, very well," said Mr. Withers, blandly. "It is for you to say whom
you want with you. As I say, all that can be arranged to suit yourself."

He bowed and backed toward the door.

"At four, then, we may expect you?"

"Yes," said Carrie.

"I will be there to show you," and so Mr. Withers withdrew.

After rehearsal Carrie informed Lola. "Did they really?" exclaimed the
latter, thinking of the Wellington as a group of managers. "Isn't that
fine? Oh, jolly! It's so swell. That's where we dined that night we went
with those two Cushing boys. Don't you know?"

"I remember," said Carrie.

"Oh, it's as fine as it can be."

"We'd better be going up there," observed Carrie later in the afternoon.

The rooms which Mr. Withers displayed to Carrie and Lola were three and
bath--a suite on the parlour floor. They were done in chocolate and dark
red, with rugs and hangings to match. Three windows looked down into
busy Broadway on the east, three into a side street which crossed there.
There were two lovely bedrooms, set with brass and white enamel beds,
white ribbon-trimmed chairs and chiffoniers to match. In the third room,
or parlour, was a piano, a heavy piano lamp, with a shade of gorgeous
pattern, a library table, several huge easy rockers, some dado book
shelves, and a gilt curio case, filled with oddities. Pictures were upon
the walls, soft Turkish pillows upon the divan footstools of brown plush
upon the floor. Such accommodations would ordinarily cost a hundred
dollars a week.

"Oh, lovely!" exclaimed Lola, walking about.

"It is comfortable," said Carrie, who was lifting a lace curtain and
looking down into crowded Broadway.

The bath was a handsome affair, done in white enamel, with a large,
blue-bordered stone tub and nickel trimmings. It was bright and
commodious, with a bevelled mirror set in the wall at one end and
incandescent lights arranged in three places.

"Do you find these satisfactory?" observed Mr. Withers.

"Oh, very," answered Carrie.

"Well, then, any time you find it convenient to move in, they are ready.
The boy will bring you the keys at the door."

Carrie noted the elegantly carpeted and decorated hall, the marbled
lobby, and showy waiting-room. It was such a place as she had often
dreamed of occupying.

"I guess we'd better move right away, don't you think so?" she observed
to Lola, thinking of the commonplace chamber in Seventeenth Street.

"Oh, by all means," said the latter.

The next day her trunks left for the new abode.

Dressing, after the matinee on Wednesday, a knock came at her
dressing-room door.

Carrie looked at the card handed by the boy and suffered a shock of
surprise.

"Tell her I'll be right out," she said softly. Then, looking at the
card, added: "Mrs. Vance."

"Why, you little sinner," the latter exclaimed, as she saw Carrie coming
toward her across the now vacant stage. "How in the world did this
happen?"

Carrie laughed merrily. There was no trace of embarrassment in her
friend's manner. You would have thought that the long separation had
come about accidentally.

"I don't know," returned Carrie, warming, in spite of her first troubled
feelings, toward this handsome, good-natured young matron.

"Well, you know, I saw your picture in the Sunday paper, but your name
threw me off. I thought it must be you or somebody that looked just like
you, and I said: 'Well, now, I will go right down there and see.' I was
never more surprised in my life. How are you, anyway?"

"Oh, very well," returned Carrie. "How have you been?"

"Fine. But aren't you a success! Dear, oh! All the papers talking about
you. I should think you would be just too proud to breathe. I was almost
afraid to come back here this afternoon."

"Oh, nonsense," said Carrie, blushing. "You know I'd be glad to see
you."

"Well, anyhow, here you are. Can't you come up and take dinner with me
now? Where are you stopping?"

"At the Wellington," said Carrie, who permitted herself a touch of pride
in the acknowledgment.

"Oh, are you?" exclaimed the other, upon whom the name was not without
its proper effect.

Tactfully, Mrs. Vance avoided the subject of Hurstwood, of whom she
could not help thinking. No doubt Carrie had left him. That much she
surmised.

"Oh, I don't think I can," said Carrie, "to-night. I have so little
time. I must be back here by 7.30. Won't you come and dine with me?"

"I'd be delighted, but I can't to-night," said Mrs. Vance studying
Carrie's fine appearance. The latter's good fortune made her seem
more than ever worthy and delightful in the others eyes. "I promised
faithfully to be home at six." Glancing at the small gold watch pinned
to her bosom, she added: "I must be going, too. Tell me when you're
coming up, if at all."

"Why, any time you like," said Carrie.

"Well, to-morrow then. I'm living at the Chelsea now."

"Moved again?" exclaimed Carrie, laughing.

"Yes. You know I can't stay six months in one place. I just have to
move. Remember now--half-past five."

"I won't forget," said Carrie, casting a glance at her as she went away.
Then it came to her that she was as good as this woman now--perhaps
better. Something in the other's solicitude and interest made her feel
as if she were the one to condescend.

Now, as on each preceding day, letters were handed her by the doorman at
the Casino. This was a feature which had rapidly developed since Monday.
What they contained she well knew. MASH NOTES were old affairs in their
mildest form. She remembered having received her first one far back
in Columbia City. Since then, as a chorus girl, she had received
others--gentlemen who prayed for an engagement. They were common sport
between her and Lola, who received some also. They both frequently made
light of them.

Now, however, they came thick and fast. Gentlemen with fortunes did
not hesitate to note, as an addition to their own amiable collection of
virtues, that they had their horses and carriages. Thus one:


"I have a million in my own right. I could give you every luxury. There
isn't anything you could ask for that you couldn't have. I say this, not
because I want to speak of my money, but because I love you and wish to
gratify your every desire. It is love that prompts me to write. Will you
not give me one half-hour in which to plead my cause?"


Such of these letters as came while Carrie was still in the Seventeenth
Street place were read with more interest--though never delight--than
those which arrived after she was installed in her luxurious quarters at
the Wellington. Even there her vanity--or that self-appreciation which,
in its more rabid form, is called vanity--was not sufficiently cloyed to
make these things wearisome. Adulation, being new in any form, pleased
her. Only she was sufficiently wise to distinguish between her old
condition and her new one. She had not had fame or money before. Now
they had come. She had not had adulation and affectionate propositions
before. Now they had come. Wherefore? She smiled to think that men
should suddenly find her so much more attractive. In the least way it
incited her to coolness and indifference.

"Do look here," she remarked to Lola. "See what this man says: 'If
you will only deign to grant me one half-hour,'" she repeated, with an
imitation of languor. "The idea. Aren't men silly?"

"He must have lots of money, the way he talks," observed Lola. "That's
what they all say," said Carrie, innocently.

"Why don't you see him," suggested Lola, "and hear what he has to say?"

"Indeed I won't," said Carrie. "I know what he'd say. I don't want to
meet anybody that way."

Lola looked at her with big, merry eyes.

"He couldn't hurt you," she returned. "You might have some fun with
him."

Carrie shook her head.

"You're awfully queer," returned the little, blue-eyed soldier.

Thus crowded fortune. For this whole week, though her large salary had
not yet arrived, it was as if the world understood and trusted her.
Without money--or the requisite sum, at least--she enjoyed the luxuries
which money could buy. For her the doors of fine places seemed to open
quite without the asking. These palatial chambers, how marvellously they
came to her. The elegant apartments of Mrs. Vance in the Chelsea--these
were hers. Men sent flowers, love notes, offers of fortune. And still
her dreams ran riot. The one hundred and fifty! the one hundred and
fifty! What a door to an Aladdin's cave it seemed to be. Each day, her
head almost turned by developments, her fancies of what her fortune must
be, with ample money, grew and multiplied. She conceived of delights
which were not--saw lights of joy that never were on land or sea. Then,
at last, after a world of anticipation, came her first installment of
one hundred and fifty dollars.

It was paid to her in greenbacks--three twenties, six tens, and six
fives. Thus collected it made a very convenient roll. It was accompanied
by a smile and a salutation from the cashier who paid it.

"Ah, yes," said the latter, when she applied; "Miss Madenda--one hundred
and fifty dollars. Quite a success the show seems to have made."

"Yes, indeed," returned Carrie.

Right after came one of the insignificant members of the company, and
she heard the changed tone of address.

"How much?" said the same cashier, sharply. One, such as she had only
recently been, was waiting for her modest salary. It took her back to
the few weeks in which she had collected--or rather had received--almost
with the air of a domestic, four-fifty per week from a lordly foreman in
a shoe factory--a man who, in distributing the envelopes, had the manner
of a prince doling out favours to a servile group of petitioners. She
knew that out in Chicago this very day the same factory chamber was full
of poor homely-clad girls working in long lines at clattering machines;
that at noon they would eat a miserable lunch in a half-hour; that
Saturday they would gather, as they had when she was one of them, and
accept the small pay for work a hundred times harder than she was now
doing. Oh, it was so easy now! The world was so rosy and bright. She
felt so thrilled that she must needs walk back to the hotel to think,
wondering what she should do.

It does not take money long to make plain its impotence, providing the
desires are in the realm of affection. With her one hundred and fifty in
hand, Carrie could think of nothing particularly to do. In itself, as a
tangible, apparent thing which she could touch and look upon, it was a
diverting thing for a few days, but this soon passed. Her hotel bill
did not require its use. Her clothes had for some time been wholly
satisfactory. Another day or two and she would receive another hundred
and fifty. It began to appear as if this were not so startlingly
necessary to maintain her present state. If she wanted to do anything
better or move higher she must have more--a great deal more.

Now a critic called to get up one of those tinsel interviews which shine
with clever observations, show up the wit of critics, display the folly
of celebrities, and divert the public. He liked Carrie, and said so,
publicly--adding, however, that she was merely pretty, good-natured, and
lucky. This cut like a knife. The "Herald," getting up an entertainment
for the benefit of its free ice fund, did her the honour to beg her to
appear along with celebrities for nothing. She was visited by a young
author, who had a play which he thought she could produce. Alas, she
could not judge. It hurt her to think it. Then she found she must put
her money in the bank for safety, and so moving, finally reached the
place where it struck her that the door to life's perfect enjoyment was
not open.

Gradually she began to think it was because it was summer. Nothing was
going on much save such entertainments as the one in which she was the
star. Fifth Avenue was boarded up where the rich had deserted their
mansions. Madison Avenue was little better. Broadway was full of loafing
thespians in search of next season's engagements. The whole city was
quiet and her nights were taken up with her work. Hence the feeling that
there was little to do.

"I don't know," she said to Lola one day, sitting at one of the windows
which looked down into Broadway, "I get lonely; don't you?"

"No," said Lola, "not very often. You won't go anywhere. That's what's
the matter with you."

"Where can I go?"

"Why, there're lots of places," returned Lola, who was thinking of her
own lightsome tourneys with the gay youths. "You won't go with anybody."

"I don't want to go with these people who write to me. I know what kind
they are."

"You oughtn't to be lonely," said Lola, thinking of Carrie's success.
"There're lots would give their ears to be in your shoes."

Carrie looked out again at the passing crowd.

"I don't know," she said.

Unconsciously her idle hands were beginning to weary.




The gloomy Hurstwood, sitting in his cheap hotel, where he had taken
refuge with seventy dollars--the price of his furniture--between him and
nothing, saw a hot summer out and a cool fall in, reading. He was not
wholly indifferent to the fact that his money was slipping away. As
fifty cents after fifty cents were paid out for a day's lodging he
became uneasy, and finally took a cheaper room--thirty-five cents a
day--to make his money last longer. Frequently he saw notices of Carrie.
Her picture was in the "World" once or twice, and an old "Herald" he
found in a chair informed him that she had recently appeared with some
others at a benefit for something or other. He read these things with
mingled feelings. Each one seemed to put her farther and farther away
into a realm which became more imposing as it receded from him. On the
billboards, too, he saw a pretty poster, showing her as the Quaker Maid,
demure and dainty. More than once he stopped and looked at these, gazing
at the pretty face in a sullen sort of way. His clothes were shabby, and
he presented a marked contrast to all that she now seemed to be.

Somehow, so long as he knew she was at the Casino, though he had never
any intention of going near her, there was a subconscious comfort for
him--he was not quite alone. The show seemed such a fixture that,
after a month or two, he began to take it for granted that it was still
running. In September it went on the road and he did not notice it. When
all but twenty dollars of his money was gone, he moved to a fifteen-cent
lodging-house in the Bowery, where there was a bare lounging-room filled
with tables and benches as well as some chairs. Here his preference was
to close his eyes and dream of other days, a habit which grew upon him.
It was not sleep at first, but a mental hearkening back to scenes and
incidents in his Chicago life. As the present became darker, the past
grew brighter, and all that concerned it stood in relief.

He was unconscious of just how much this habit had hold of him until one
day he found his lips repeating an old answer he had made to one of his
friends. They were in Fitzgerald and Moy's. It was as if he stood in the
door of his elegant little office, comfortably dressed, talking to
Sagar Morrison about the value of South Chicago real estate in which the
latter was about to invest.

"How would you like to come in on that with me?" he heard Morrison say.

"Not me," he answered, just as he had years before. "I have my hands
full now."

The movement of his lips aroused him. He wondered whether he had really
spoken. The next time he noticed anything of the sort he really did
talk.

"Why don't you jump, you bloody fool?" he was saying. "Jump!"

It was a funny English story he was telling to a company of actors. Even
as his voice recalled him, he was smiling. A crusty old codger, sitting
near by, seemed disturbed; at least, he stared in a most pointed way.
Hurstwood straightened up. The humour of the memory fled in an instant
and he felt ashamed. For relief, he left his chair and strolled out into
the streets.

One day, looking down the ad. columns of the "Evening World," he saw
where a new play was at the Casino. Instantly, he came to a mental halt.
Carrie had gone! He remembered seeing a poster of her only yesterday,
but no doubt it was one left uncovered by the new signs. Curiously, this
fact shook him up. He had almost to admit that somehow he was depending
upon her being in the city. Now she was gone. He wondered how this
important fact had skipped him. Goodness knows when she would be back
now. Impelled by a nervous fear, he rose and went into the dingy hall,
where he counted his remaining money, unseen. There were but ten dollars
in all.

He wondered how all these other lodging-house people around him
got along. They didn't seem to do anything. Perhaps they
begged--unquestionably they did. Many was the dime he had given to
such as they in his day. He had seen other men asking for money on the
streets. Maybe he could get some that way. There was horror in this
thought.

Sitting in the lodging-house room, he came to his last fifty cents. He
had saved and counted until his health was affected. His stoutness
had gone. With it, even the semblance of a fit in his clothes. Now he
decided he must do something, and, walking about, saw another day go by,
bringing him down to his last twenty cents--not enough to eat for the
morrow.

Summoning all his courage, he crossed to Broadway and up to the Broadway
Central hotel. Within a block he halted, undecided. A big, heavy-faced
porter was standing at one of the side entrances, looking out. Hurstwood
purposed to appeal to him. Walking straight up, he was upon him before
he could turn away.

"My friend," he said, recognising even in his plight the man's
inferiority, "is there anything about this hotel that I could get to
do?"

The porter stared at him the while he continued to talk.

"I'm out of work and out of money and I've got to get something,--it
doesn't matter what. I don't care to talk about what I've been, but if
you'd tell me how to get something to do, I'd be much obliged to you. It
wouldn't matter if it only lasted a few days just now. I've got to have
something."

The porter still gazed, trying to look indifferent. Then, seeing that
Hurstwood was about to go on, he said:

"I've nothing to do with it. You'll have to ask inside."

Curiously, this stirred Hurstwood to further effort.

"I thought you might tell me."

The fellow shook his head irritably.

Inside went the ex-manager and straight to an office off the clerk's
desk. One of the managers of the hotel happened to be there. Hurstwood
looked him straight in the eye.

"Could you give me something to do for a few days?" he said. "I'm in a
position where I have to get something at once."

The comfortable manager looked at him, as much as to say: "Well, I
should judge so."

"I came here," explained Hurstwood, nervously, "because I've been a
manager myself in my day. I've had bad luck in a way but I'm not here to
tell you that. I want something to do, if only for a week."

The man imagined he saw a feverish gleam in the applicant's eye.

"What hotel did you manage?" he inquired.

"It wasn't a hotel," said Hurstwood. "I was manager of Fitzgerald and
Moy's place in Chicago for fifteen years."

"Is that so?" said the hotel man. "How did you come to get out of that?"

The figure of Hurstwood was rather surprising in contrast to the fact.

"Well, by foolishness of my own. It isn't anything to talk about now.
You could find out if you wanted to. I'm 'broke' now and, if you will
believe me, I haven't eaten anything to-day."

The hotel man was slightly interested in this story. He could hardly
tell what to do with such a figure, and yet Hurstwood's earnestness made
him wish to do something.

"Call Olsen," he said, turning to the clerk.

In reply to a bell and a disappearing hall-boy, Olsen, the head porter,
appeared.

"Olsen," said the manager, "is there anything downstairs you could find
for this man to do? I'd like to give him something."

"I don't know, sir," said Olsen. "We have about all the help we need. I
think I could find something, sir, though, if you like."

"Do. Take him to the kitchen and tell Wilson to give him something to
eat."

"All right, sir," said Olsen.

Hurstwood followed. Out of the manager's sight, the head porter's manner
changed.

"I don't know what the devil there is to do," he observed.

Hurstwood said nothing. To him the big trunk hustler was a subject for
private contempt.

"You're to give this man something to eat," he observed to the cook.

The latter looked Hurstwood over, and seeing something keen and
intellectual in his eyes, said:

"Well, sit down over there."

Thus was Hurstwood installed in the Broadway Central, but not for long.
He was in no shape or mood to do the scrub work that exists about the
foundation of every hotel. Nothing better offering, he was set to aid
the fireman, to work about the basement, to do anything and everything
that might offer. Porters, cooks, firemen, clerks--all were over him.
Moreover his appearance did not please these individuals--his temper was
too lonely--and they made it disagreeable for him.

With the stolidity and indifference of despair, however, he endured it
all, sleeping in an attic at the roof of the house, eating what the cook
gave him, accepting a few dollars a week, which he tried to save. His
constitution was in no shape to endure.

One day the following February he was sent on an errand to a large coal
company's office. It had been snowing and thawing and the streets were
sloppy. He soaked his shoes in his progress and came back feeling dull
and weary. All the next day he felt unusually depressed and sat about
as much as possible, to the irritation of those who admired energy in
others.

In the afternoon some boxes were to be moved to make room for new
culinary supplies. He was ordered to handle a truck. Encountering a big
box, he could not lift it.

"What's the matter there?" said the head porter. "Can't you handle it?"

He was straining to lift it, but now he quit.

"No," he said, weakly.

The man looked at him and saw that he was deathly pale.

"Not sick, are you?" he asked. "I think I am," returned Hurstwood.

"Well, you'd better go sit down, then."

This he did, but soon grew rapidly worse. It seemed all he could do to
crawl to his room, where he remained for a day.

"That man Wheeler's sick," reported one of the lackeys to the night
clerk.

"What's the matter with him?"

"I don't know. He's got a high fever."

The hotel physician looked at him.

"Better send him to Bellevue," he recommended. "He's got pneumonia."

Accordingly, he was carted away.

In three weeks the worst was over, but it was nearly the first of
May before his strength permitted him to be turned out. Then he was
discharged.

No more weakly looking object ever strolled out into the spring sunshine
than the once hale, lusty manager. All his corpulency had fled. His face
was thin and pale, his hands white, his body flabby. Clothes and all,
he weighed but one hundred and thirty-five pounds. Some old garments
had been given him--a cheap brown coat and misfit pair of trousers. Also
some change and advice. He was told to apply to the charities.

Again he resorted to the Bowery lodging-house, brooding over where to
look. From this it was but a step to beggary.

"What can a man do?" he said. "I can't starve."

His first application was in sunny Second Avenue. A well-dressed man
came leisurely strolling toward him out of Stuyvesant Park. Hurstwood
nerved himself and sidled near.

"Would you mind giving me ten cents?" he said, directly. "I'm in a
position where I must ask some one."

The man scarcely looked at him, fished in his vest pocket and took out a
dime.

"There you are," he said.

"Much obliged," said Hurstwood, softly, but the other paid no more
attention to him.

Satisfied with his success and yet ashamed of his situation, he decided
that he would only ask for twenty-five cents more, since that would be
sufficient. He strolled about sizing up people, but it was long before
just the right face and situation arrived. When he asked, he was
refused. Shocked by this result, he took an hour to recover and then
asked again. This time a nickel was given him. By the most watchful
effort he did get twenty cents more, but it was painful.

The next day he resorted to the same effort, experiencing a variety of
rebuffs and one or two generous receptions. At last it crossed his mind
that there was a science of faces, and that a man could pick the liberal
countenance if he tried.

It was no pleasure to him, however, this stopping of passers-by. He saw
one man taken up for it and now troubled lest he should be arrested.
Nevertheless, he went on, vaguely anticipating that indefinite something
which is always better.

It was with a sense of satisfaction, then, that he saw announced one
morning the return of the Casino Company, "with Miss Carrie Madenda."
He had thought of her often enough in days past. How successful she
was--how much money she must have! Even now, however, it took a severe
run of ill luck to decide him to appeal to her. He was truly hungry
before he said:

"I'll ask her. She won't refuse me a few dollars."

Accordingly, he headed for the Casino one afternoon, passing it several
times in an effort to locate the stage entrance. Then he sat in Bryant
Park, a block away, waiting. "She can't refuse to help me a little," he
kept saying to himself.

Beginning with half-past six, he hovered like a shadow about the
Thirty-ninth Street entrance, pretending always to be a hurrying
pedestrian and yet fearful lest he should miss his object. He was
slightly nervous, too, now that the eventful hour had arrived; but being
weak and hungry, his ability to suffer was modified. At last he saw that
the actors were beginning to arrive, and his nervous tension increased,
until it seemed as if he could not stand much more.

Once he thought he saw Carrie coming and moved forward, only to see that
he was mistaken.

"She can't be long, now," he said to himself, half fearing to encounter
her and equally depressed at the thought that she might have gone in by
another way. His stomach was so empty that it ached.

Individual after individual passed him, nearly all well dressed, almost
all indifferent. He saw coaches rolling by, gentlemen passing with
ladies--the evening's merriment was beginning in this region of theatres
and hotels.

Suddenly a coach rolled up and the driver jumped down to open the door.
Before Hurstwood could act, two ladies flounced across the broad walk
and disappeared in the stage door. He thought he saw Carrie, but it was
so unexpected, so elegant and far away, he could hardly tell. He waited
a while longer, growing feverish with want, and then seeing that the
stage door no longer opened, and that a merry audience was arriving, he
concluded it must have been Carrie and turned away.

"Lord," he said, hastening out of the street into which the more
fortunate were pouring, "I've got to get something."

At that hour, when Broadway is wont to assume its most interesting
aspect, a peculiar individual invariably took his stand at the corner
of Twenty-sixth Street and Broadway--a spot which is also intersected by
Fifth Avenue. This was the hour when the theatres were just beginning
to receive their patrons. Fire signs announcing the night's amusements
blazed on every hand. Cabs and carriages, their lamps gleaming like
yellow eyes, pattered by. Couples and parties of three and four freely
mingled in the common crowd, which poured by in a thick stream, laughing
and jesting. On Fifth Avenue were loungers--a few wealthy strollers,
a gentleman in evening dress with his lady on his arm, some club-men
passing from one smoking-room to another. Across the way the great
hotels showed a hundred gleaming windows, their cafes and billiard-rooms
filled with a comfortable, well-dressed, and pleasure-loving throng.
All about was the night, pulsating with the thoughts of pleasure and
exhilaration--the curious enthusiasm of a great city bent upon finding
joy in a thousand different ways.

This unique individual was no less than an ex-soldier turned
religionist, who, having suffered the whips and privations of our
peculiar social system, had concluded that his duty to the God which he
conceived lay in aiding his fellow-man. The form of aid which he chose
to administer was entirely original with himself. It consisted of
securing a bed for all such homeless wayfarers as should apply to him at
this particular spot, though he had scarcely the wherewithal to provide
a comfortable habitation for himself. Taking his place amid this
lightsome atmosphere, he would stand, his stocky figure cloaked in a
great cape overcoat, his head protected by a broad slouch hat, awaiting
the applicants who had in various ways learned the nature of his
charity. For a while he would stand alone, gazing like any idler upon an
ever-fascinating scene. On the evening in question, a policeman
passing saluted him as "captain," in a friendly way. An urchin who had
frequently seen him before, stopped to gaze. All others took him for
nothing out of the ordinary, save in the matter of dress, and conceived
of him as a stranger whistling and idling for his own amusement.

As the first half-hour waned, certain characters appeared. Here and
there in the passing crowds one might see, now and then, a loiterer
edging interestedly near. A slouchy figure crossed the opposite corner
and glanced furtively in his direction. Another came down Fifth Avenue
to the corner of Twenty-sixth Street, took a general survey, and hobbled
off again. Two or three noticeable Bowery types edged along the Fifth
Avenue side of Madison Square, but did not venture over. The soldier, in
his cape overcoat, walked a short line of ten feet at his corner, to and
fro, indifferently whistling.

As nine o'clock approached, some of the hubbub of the earlier hour
passed. The atmosphere of the hotels was not so youthful. The air, too,
was colder. On every hand curious figures were moving--watchers and
peepers, without an imaginary circle, which they seemed afraid to
enter--a dozen in all. Presently, with the arrival of a keener sense of
cold, one figure came forward. It crossed Broadway from out the shadow
of Twenty-sixth Street, and, in a halting, circuitous way, arrived close
to the waiting figure. There was something shamefaced or diffident about
the movement, as if the intention were to conceal any idea of stopping
until the very last moment. Then suddenly, close to the soldier, came
the halt.

The captain looked in recognition, but there was no especial greeting.
The newcomer nodded slightly and murmured something like one who waits
for gifts. The other simply motioned to-ward the edge of the walk.

"Stand over there," he said.

By this the spell was broken. Even while the soldier resumed his short,
solemn walk, other figures shuffled forward. They did not so much
as greet the leader, but joined the one, sniffling and hitching and
scraping their feet.

"Gold, ain't it?"

"I'm glad winter's over."

"Looks as though it might rain."

The motley company had increased to ten. One or two knew each other and
conversed. Others stood off a few feet, not wishing to be in the crowd
and yet not counted out. They were peevish, crusty, silent, eying
nothing in particular and moving their feet.

There would have been talking soon, but the soldier gave them no chance.
Counting sufficient to begin, he came forward.

"Beds, eh, all of you?"

There was a general shuffle and murmur of approval.

"Well, line up here. I'll see what I can do. I haven't a cent myself."

They fell into a sort of broken, ragged line. One might see, now, some
of the chief characteristics by contrast. There was a wooden leg in
the line. Hats were all drooping, a group that would ill become a
second-hand Hester Street basement collection. Trousers were all warped
and frayed at the bottom and coats worn and faded. In the glare of the
store lights, some of the faces looked dry and chalky; others were red
with blotches and puffed in the cheeks and under the eyes; one or two
were rawboned and reminded one of railroad hands. A few spectators came
near, drawn by the seemingly conferring group, then more and more, and
quickly there was a pushing, gaping crowd. Some one in the line began to
talk.

"Silence!" exclaimed the captain. "Now, then, gentlemen, these men are
without beds. They have to have some place to sleep to-night. They can't
lie out in the streets. I need twelve cents to put one of them to bed.
Who will give it to me?"

No reply.

"Well, we'll have to wait here, boys, until some one does. Twelve cents
isn't so very much for one man."

"Here's fifteen," exclaimed a young man, peering forward with strained
eyes. "It's all I can afford."

"All right. Now I have fifteen. Step out of the line," and seizing one
by the shoulder, the captain marched him off a little way and stood him
up alone.

Coming back, he resumed his place and began again.

"I have three cents left. These men must be put to bed somehow. There
are"--counting--"one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,
ten, eleven, twelve men. Nine cents more will put the next man to bed;
give him a good, comfortable bed for the night. I go right along and
look after that myself. Who will give me nine cents?"

One of the watchers, this time a middle-aged man, handed him a five-cent
piece.

"Now, I have eight cents. Four more will give this man a bed. Come,
gentlemen. We are going very slow this evening. You all have good beds.
How about these?"

"Here you are," remarked a bystander, putting a coin into his hand.

"That," said the captain, looking at the coin, "pays for two beds for
two men and gives me five on the next one. Who will give me seven cents
more?"

"I will," said a voice.

Coming down Sixth Avenue this evening, Hurstwood chanced to cross
east through Twenty-sixth Street toward Third Avenue. He was wholly
disconsolate in spirit, hungry to what he deemed an almost mortal
extent, weary, and defeated. How should he get at Carrie now? It would
be eleven before the show was over. If she came in a coach, she would go
away in one. He would need to interrupt under most trying circumstances.
Worst of all, he was hungry and weary, and at best a whole day must
intervene, for he had not heart to try again to-night. He had no food
and no bed.

When he neared Broadway, he noticed the captain's gathering of
wanderers, but thinking it to be the result of a street preacher or some
patent medicine fakir, was about to pass on. However, in crossing the
street toward Madison Square Park, he noticed the line of men whose beds
were already secured, stretching out from the main body of the crowd. In
the glare of the neighbouring electric light he recognised a type of
his own kind--the figures whom he saw about the streets and in the
lodging-houses, drifting in mind and body like himself. He wondered what
it could be and turned back.

There was the captain curtly pleading as before. He heard with
astonishment and a sense of relief the oft-repeated words: "These men
must have a bed." Before him was the line of unfortunates whose beds
were yet to be had, and seeing a newcomer quietly edge up and take a
position at the end of the line, he decided to do likewise. What use
to contend? He was weary to-night. It was a simple way out of one
difficulty, at least. To-morrow, maybe, he would do better.

Back of him, where some of those were whose beds were safe, a relaxed
air was apparent. The strain of uncertainty being removed, he heard
them talking with moderate freedom and some leaning toward sociability.
Politics, religion, the state of the government, some newspaper
sensations, and the more notorious facts the world over, found
mouthpieces and auditors there. Cracked and husky voices pronounced
forcibly upon odd matters. Vague and rambling observations were made in
reply.

There were squints, and leers, and some dull, ox-like stares from those
who were too dull or too weary to converse.

Standing tells. Hurstwood became more weary waiting. He thought he
should drop soon and shifted restlessly from one foot to the other.
At last his turn came. The man ahead had been paid for and gone to the
blessed line of success. He was now first, and already the captain was
talking for him.

"Twelve cents, gentlemen--twelve cents puts this man to bed. He wouldn't
stand here in the cold if he had any place to go."

Hurstwood swallowed something that rose to his throat. Hunger and
weakness had made a coward of him.

"Here you are," said a stranger, handing money to the captain.

Now the latter put a kindly hand on the ex-manager's shoulder. "Line up
over there," he said.

Once there, Hurstwood breathed easier. He felt as if the world were
not quite so bad with such a good man in it. Others seemed to feel like
himself about this.

"Captain's a great feller, ain't he?" said the man ahead--a little,
woebegone, helpless-looking sort of individual, who looked as though he
had ever been the sport and care of fortune.

"Yes," said Hurstwood, indifferently.

"Huh! there's a lot back there yet," said a man farther up, leaning out
and looking back at the applicants for whom the captain was pleading.

"Yes. Must be over a hundred to-night," said another.

"Look at the guy in the cab," observed a third.

A cab had stopped. Some gentleman in evening dress reached out a bill to
the captain, who took it with simple thanks and turned away to his line.
There was a general craning of necks as the jewel in the white shirt
front sparkled and the cab moved off. Even the crowd gaped in awe.

"That fixes up nine men for the night," said the captain, counting out
as many of the line near him. "Line up over there. Now, then, there are
only seven. I need twelve cents."

Money came slowly. In the course of time the crowd thinned out to
a meagre handful. Fifth Avenue, save for an occasional cab or foot
passenger, was bare. Broadway was thinly peopled with pedestrians. Only
now and then a stranger passing noticed the small group, handed out a
coin, and went away, unheeding.

The captain remained stolid and determined. He talked on, very slowly,
uttering the fewest words and with a certain assurance, as though he
could not fail.

"Come; I can't stay out here all night. These men are getting tired and
cold. Some one give me four cents."

There came a time when he said nothing at all. Money was handed him,
and for each twelve cents he singled out a man and put him in the other
line. Then he walked up and down as before, looking at the ground.

The theatres let out. Fire signs disappeared. A clock struck eleven.
Another half-hour and he was down to the last two men.

"Come, now," he exclaimed to several curious observers; "eighteen cents
will fix us all up for the night. Eighteen cents. I have six. Somebody
give me the money. Remember, I have to go over to Brooklyn yet to-night.
Before that I have to take these men down and put them to bed. Eighteen
cents."

No one responded. He walked to and fro, looking down for several
minutes, occasionally saying softly: "Eighteen cents." It seemed as if
this paltry sum would delay the desired culmination longer than all the
rest had. Hurstwood, buoyed up slightly by the long line of which he was
a part, refrained with an effort from groaning, he was so weak.

At last a lady in opera cape and rustling skirts came down Fifth Avenue,
accompanied by her escort. Hurstwood gazed wearily, reminded by her both
of Carrie in her new world and of the time when he had escorted his own
wife in like manner.

While he was gazing, she turned and, looking at the remarkable company,
sent her escort over. He came, holding a bill in his fingers, all
elegant and graceful.

"Here you are," he said.

"Thanks," said the captain, turning to the two remaining applicants.
"Now we have some for to-morrow night," he added.

Therewith he lined up the last two and proceeded to the head, counting
as he went.

"One hundred and thirty-seven," he announced. "Now, boys, line up. Right
dress there. We won't be much longer about this. Steady, now."

He placed himself at the head and called out "Forward." Hurstwood
moved with the line. Across Fifth Avenue, through Madison Square by the
winding paths, east on Twenty-third Street, and down Third Avenue wound
the long, serpentine company. Midnight pedestrians and loiterers
stopped and stared as the company passed. Chatting policemen, at various
corners, stared indifferently or nodded to the leader, whom they had
seen before. On Third Avenue they marched, a seemingly weary way, to
Eighth Street, where there was a lodginghouse, closed, apparently, for
the night. They were expected, however.

Outside in the gloom they stood, while the leader parleyed within. Then
doors swung open and they were invited in with a "Steady, now."

Some one was at the head showing rooms, so that there was no delay for
keys. Toiling up the creaky stairs, Hurstwood looked back and saw the
captain, watching; the last one of the line being included in his broad
solicitude. Then he gathered his cloak about him and strolled out into
the night.

"I can't stand much of this," said Hurstwood, whose legs ached him
painfully, as he sat down upon the miserable bunk in the small,
lightless chamber allotted to him. "I've got to eat, or I'll die."




Playing in New York one evening on this her return, Carrie was putting
the finishing touches to her toilet before leaving for the night, when
a commotion near the stage door caught her ear. It included a familiar
voice.

"Never mind, now. I want to see Miss Madenda."

"You'll have to send in your card."

"Oh, come off! Here."

A half-dollar was passed over, and now a knock came at her dressing-room
door. Carrie opened it.

"Well, well!" said Drouet. "I do swear! Why, how are you? I knew that
was you the moment I saw you."

Carrie fell back a pace, expecting a most embarrassing conversation.

"Aren't you going to shake hands with me? Well, you're a dandy! That's
all right, shake hands."

Carrie put out her hand, smiling, if for nothing more than the man's
exuberant good-nature. Though older, he was but slightly changed. The
same fine clothes, the same stocky body, the same rosy countenance.

"That fellow at the door there didn't want to let me in, until I paid
him. I knew it was you, all right. Say, you've got a great show. You do
your part fine. I knew you would. I just happened to be passing to
night and thought I'd drop in for a few minutes. I saw your name on the
programme, but I didn't remember it until you came on the stage. Then
it struck me all at once. Say, you could have knocked me down with a
feather. That's the same name you used out there in Chicago, isn't it?"

"Yes," answered Carrie, mildly, overwhelmed by the man's assurance.

"I knew it was, the moment I saw you. Well, how have you been, anyhow?"

"Oh, very well," said Carrie, lingering in her dressing-room. She was
rather dazed by the assault. "How have you been?"

"Me? Oh, fine. I'm here now."

"Is that so?" said Carrie.

"Yes. I've been here for six months. I've got charge of a branch here."

"How nice!"

"Well, when did you go on the stage, anyhow?" inquired Drouet.

"About three years ago," said Carrie.

"You don't say so! Well, sir, this is the first I've heard of it. I knew
you would, though. I always said you could act--didn't I?"

Carrie smiled.

"Yes, you did," she said.

"Well, you do look great," he said. "I never saw anybody improve so.
You're taller, aren't you?"

"Me? Oh, a little, maybe."

He gazed at her dress, then at her hair, where a becoming hat was set
jauntily, then into her eyes, which she took all occasion to avert.
Evidently he expected to restore their old friendship at once and
without modification.

"Well," he said, seeing her gather up her purse, handkerchief, and the
like, preparatory to departing, "I want you to come out to dinner with
me; won't you? I've got a friend out here."

"Oh, I can't," said Carrie. "Not to-night. I have an early engagement
to-morrow."

"Aw, let the engagement go. Come on. I can get rid of him. I want to
have a good talk with you."

"No, no," said Carrie; "I can't. You mustn't ask me any more. I don't
care for a late dinner."

"Well, come on and have a talk, then, anyhow."

"Not to-night," she said, shaking her head. "We'll have a talk some
other time."

As a result of this, she noticed a shade of thought pass over his face,
as if he were beginning to realise that things were changed. Good-nature
dictated something better than this for one who had always liked her.

"You come around to the hotel to-morrow," she said, as sort of penance
for error. "You can take dinner with me."

"All right," said Drouet, brightening. "Where are you stopping?"

"At the Waldorf," she answered, mentioning the fashionable hostelry then
but newly erected.

"What time?"

"Well, come at three," said Carrie, pleasantly.

The next day Drouet called, but it was with no especial delight that
Carrie remembered her appointment. However, seeing him, handsome as
ever, after his kind, and most genially disposed, her doubts as to
whether the dinner would be disagreeable were swept away. He talked as
volubly as ever.

"They put on a lot of lugs here, don't they?" was his first remark.

"Yes; they do," said Carrie.

Genial egotist that he was, he went at once into a detailed account of
his own career.

"I'm going to have a business of my own pretty soon," he observed in one
place. "I can get backing for two hundred thousand dollars."

Carrie listened most good-naturedly.

"Say," he said, suddenly; "where is Hurstwood now?"

Carrie flushed a little.

"He's here in New York, I guess," she said. "I haven't seen him for some
time."

Drouet mused for a moment. He had not been sure until now that the
ex-manager was not an influential figure in the background. He imagined
not; but this assurance relieved him. It must be that Carrie had got
rid of him--as well she ought, he thought. "A man always makes a mistake
when he does anything like that," he observed.

"Like what?" said Carrie, unwitting of what was coming.

"Oh, you know," and Drouet waved her intelligence, as it were, with his
hand.

"No, I don't," she answered. "What do you mean?"

"Why that affair in Chicago--the time he left."

"I don't know what you are talking about," said Carrie. Could it be he
would refer so rudely to Hurstwood's flight with her?

"Oho!" said Drouet, incredulously. "You knew he took ten thousand
dollars with him when he left, didn't you?"

"What!" said Carrie. "You don't mean to say he stole money, do you?"

"Why," said Drouet, puzzled at her tone, "you knew that, didn't you?"

"Why, no," said Carrie. "Of course I didn't."

"Well, that's funny," said Drouet. "He did, you know. It was in all the
papers."

"How much did you say he took?" said Carrie.

"Ten thousand dollars. I heard he sent most of it back afterwards,
though."

Carrie looked vacantly at the richly carpeted floor. A new light was
shining upon all the years since her enforced flight. She remembered now
a hundred things that indicated as much. She also imagined that he took
it on her account. Instead of hatred springing up there was a kind of
sorrow generated. Poor fellow! What a thing to have had hanging over his
head all the time.

At dinner Drouet, warmed up by eating and drinking and softened in mood,
fancied he was winning Carrie to her old-time good-natured regard for
him. He began to imagine it would not be so difficult to enter into
her life again, high as she was. Ah, what a prize! he thought. How
beautiful, how elegant, how famous! In her theatrical and Waldorf
setting, Carrie was to him the all desirable.

"Do you remember how nervous you were that night at the Avery?" he
asked.

Carrie smiled to think of it.

"I never saw anybody do better than you did then, Cad," he added
ruefully, as he leaned an elbow on the table; "I thought you and I were
going to get along fine those days."

"You mustn't talk that way," said Carrie, bringing in the least touch of
coldness.

"Won't you let me tell you----"

"No," she answered, rising. "Besides, it's time I was getting ready for
the theatre. I'll have to leave you. Come, now." "Oh, stay a minute,"
pleaded Drouet. "You've got plenty of time."

"No," said Carrie, gently.

Reluctantly Drouet gave up the bright table and followed. He saw her to
the elevator and, standing there, said:

"When do I see you again?"

"Oh, some time, possibly," said Carrie. "I'll be here all summer.
Good-night!"

The elevator door was open.

"Good-night!" said Drouet, as she rustled in.

Then he strolled sadly down the hall, all his old longing revived,
because she was now so far off. The merry frou-frou of the place spoke
all of her. He thought himself hardly dealt with. Carrie, however, had
other thoughts.

That night it was that she passed Hurstwood, waiting at the Casino,
without observing him.

The next night, walking to the theatre, she encountered him face to
face. He was waiting, more gaunt than ever, determined to see her, if
he had to send in word. At first she did not recognise the shabby, baggy
figure. He frightened her, edging so close, a seemingly hungry stranger.

"Carrie," he half whispered, "can I have a few words with you?"

She turned and recognised him on the instant. If there ever had lurked
any feeling in her heart against him, it deserted her now. Still, she
remembered what Drouet said about his having stolen the money.

"Why, George," she said; "what's the matter with you?"

"I've been sick," he answered. "I've just got out of the hospital. For
God's sake, let me have a little money, will you?"

"Of course," said Carrie, her lip trembling in a strong effort to
maintain her composure. "But what's the matter with you, anyhow?"

She was opening her purse, and now pulled out all the bills in it--a
five and two twos.

"I've been sick, I told you," he said, peevishly, almost resenting her
excessive pity. It came hard to him to receive it from such a source.

"Here," she said. "It's all I have with me."

"All right," he answered, softly. "I'll give it back to you some day."

Carrie looked at him, while pedestrians stared at her. She felt the
strain of publicity. So did Hurstwood.

"Why don't you tell me what's the matter with you?" she asked, hardly
knowing what to do. "Where are you living?"

"Oh, I've got a room down in the Bowery," he answered. "There's no use
trying to tell you here. I'm all right now."

He seemed in a way to resent her kindly inquiries--so much better had
fate dealt with her.

"Better go on in," he said. "I'm much obliged, but I won't bother you
any more."

She tried to answer, but he turned away and shuffled off toward the
east.

For days this apparition was a drag on her soul before it began to wear
partially away. Drouet called again, but now he was not even seen by
her. His attentions seemed out of place.

"I'm out," was her reply to the boy.

So peculiar, indeed, was her lonely, self-withdrawing temper, that she
was becoming an interesting figure in the public eye--she was so quiet
and reserved.

Not long after the management decided to transfer the show to London. A
second summer season did not seem to promise well here.

"How would you like to try subduing London?" asked her manager, one
afternoon.

"It might be just the other way," said Carrie.

"I think we'll go in June," he answered.

In the hurry of departure, Hurstwood was forgotten. Both he and Drouet
were left to discover that she was gone. The latter called once, and
exclaimed at the news. Then he stood in the lobby, chewing the ends of
his moustache. At last he reached a conclusion--the old days had gone
for good.

"She isn't so much," he said; but in his heart of hearts he did not
believe this.

Hurstwood shifted by curious means through a long summer and fall. A
small job as janitor of a dance hall helped him for a month. Begging,
sometimes going hungry, sometimes sleeping in the park, carried him over
more days. Resorting to those peculiar charities, several of which, in
the press of hungry search, he accidentally stumbled upon, did the rest.
Toward the dead of winter, Carrie came back, appearing on Broadway in
a new play; but he was not aware of it. For weeks he wandered about the
city, begging, while the fire sign, announcing her engagement, blazed
nightly upon the crowded street of amusements. Drouet saw it, but did
not venture in.

About this time Ames returned to New York. He had made a little success
in the West, and now opened a laboratory in Wooster Street. Of course,
he encountered Carrie through Mrs. Vance; but there was nothing
responsive between them. He thought she was still united to Hurstwood,
until otherwise informed. Not knowing the facts then, he did not profess
to understand, and refrained from comment.

With Mrs. Vance, he saw the new play, and expressed himself accordingly.

"She ought not to be in comedy," he said. "I think she could do better
than that."

One afternoon they met at the Vances' accidentally, and began a very
friendly conversation. She could hardly tell why the one-time keen
interest in him was no longer with her. Unquestionably, it was because
at that time he had represented something which she did not have; but
this she did not understand. Success had given her the momentary feeling
that she was now blessed with much of which he would approve. As a
matter of fact, her little newspaper fame was nothing at all to him. He
thought she could have done better, by far.

"You didn't go into comedy-drama, after all?" he said, remembering her
interest in that form of art.

"No," she answered; "I haven't, so far."

He looked at her in such a peculiar way that she realised she had
failed. It moved her to add: "I want to, though."

"I should think you would," he said. "You have the sort of disposition
that would do well in comedy-drama."

It surprised her that he should speak of disposition. Was she, then, so
clearly in his mind?

"Why?" she asked.

"Well," he said, "I should judge you were rather sympathetic in your
nature."

Carrie smiled and coloured slightly. He was so innocently frank with
her that she drew nearer in friendship. The old call of the ideal was
sounding.

"I don't know," she answered, pleased, nevertheless, beyond all
concealment.

"I saw your play," he remarked. "It's very good."

"I'm glad you liked it."

"Very good, indeed," he said, "for a comedy."

This is all that was said at the time, owing to an interruption, but
later they met again. He was sitting in a corner after dinner, staring
at the floor, when Carrie came up with another of the guests. Hard work
had given his face the look of one who is weary. It was not for Carrie
to know the thing in it which appealed to her.

"All alone?" she said.

"I was listening to the music."

"I'll be back in a moment," said her companion, who saw nothing in the
inventor.

Now he looked up in her face, for she was standing a moment, while he
sat.

"Isn't that a pathetic strain?" he inquired, listening.

"Oh, very," she returned, also catching it, now that her attention was
called.

"Sit down," he added, offering her the chair beside him.

They listened a few moments in silence, touched by the same feeling,
only hers reached her through the heart. Music still charmed her as in
the old days.

"I don't know what it is about music," she started to say, moved by the
inexplicable longings which surged within her; "but it always makes me
feel as if I wanted something--I----"

"Yes," he replied; "I know how you feel."

Suddenly he turned to considering the peculiarity of her disposition,
expressing her feelings so frankly.

"You ought not to be melancholy," he said.

He thought a while, and then went off into a seemingly alien observation
which, however, accorded with their feelings.

"The world is full of desirable situations, but, unfortunately, we can
occupy but one at a time. It doesn't do us any good to wring our hands
over the far-off things."

The music ceased and he arose, taking a standing position before her, as
if to rest himself.

"Why don't you get into some good, strong comedy-drama?" he said. He was
looking directly at her now, studying her face. Her large, sympathetic
eyes and pain-touched mouth appealed to him as proofs of his judgment.

"Perhaps I shall," she returned.

"That's your field," he added.

"Do you think so?"

"Yes," he said; "I do. I don't suppose you're aware of it, but there
is something about your eyes and mouth which fits you for that sort of
work."

Carrie thrilled to be taken so seriously. For the moment, loneliness
deserted her. Here was praise which was keen and analytical.

"It's in your eyes and mouth," he went on abstractedly. "I remember
thinking, the first time I saw you, that there was something peculiar
about your mouth. I thought you were about to cry."

"How odd," said Carrie, warm with delight. This was what her heart
craved.

"Then I noticed that that was your natural look, and to-night I saw it
again. There's a shadow about your eyes, too, which gives your face much
this same character. It's in the depth of them, I think."

Carrie looked straight into his face, wholly aroused.

"You probably are not aware of it," he added.

She looked away, pleased that he should speak thus, longing to be equal
to this feeling written upon her countenance. It unlocked the door to
a new desire. She had cause to ponder over this until they met
again--several weeks or more. It showed her she was drifting away from
the old ideal which had filled her in the dressing-rooms of the Avery
stage and thereafter, for a long time. Why had she lost it?

"I know why you should be a success," he said, another time, "if you had
a more dramatic part. I've studied it out----"

"What is it?" said Carrie.

"Well," he said, as one pleased with a puzzle, "the expression in your
face is one that comes out in different things. You get the same thing
in a pathetic song, or any picture which moves you deeply. It's a
thing the world likes to see, because it's a natural expression of its
longing."

Carrie gazed without exactly getting the import of what he meant.

"The world is always struggling to express itself," he went on. "Most
people are not capable of voicing their feelings. They depend upon
others. That is what genius is for. One man expresses their desires for
them in music; another one in poetry; another one in a play. Sometimes
nature does it in a face--it makes the face representative of all
desire. That's what has happened in your case."

He looked at her with so much of the import of the thing in his eyes
that she caught it. At least, she got the idea that her look was
something which represented the world's longing. She took it to heart as
a creditable thing, until he added:

"That puts a burden of duty on you. It so happens that you have this
thing. It is no credit to you--that is, I mean, you might not have had
it. You paid nothing to get it. But now that you have it, you must do
something with it."

"What?" asked Carrie.

"I should say, turn to the dramatic field. You have so much sympathy and
such a melodious voice. Make them valuable to others. It will make your
powers endure."

Carrie did not understand this last. All the rest showed her that her
comedy success was little or nothing.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Why, just this. You have this quality in your eyes and mouth and in
your nature. You can lose it, you know. If you turn away from it and
live to satisfy yourself alone, it will go fast enough. The look
will leave your eyes. Your mouth will change. Your power to act will
disappear. You may think they won't, but they will. Nature takes care of
that."

He was so interested in forwarding all good causes that he sometimes
became enthusiastic, giving vent to these preachments. Something in
Carrie appealed to him. He wanted to stir her up.

"I know," she said, absently, feeling slightly guilty of neglect.

"If I were you," he said, "I'd change."

The effect of this was like roiling helpless waters. Carrie troubled
over it in her rocking-chair for days.

"I don't believe I'll stay in comedy so very much longer," she
eventually remarked to Lola.

"Oh, why not?" said the latter.

"I think," she said, "I can do better in a serious play."

"What put that idea in your head?"

"Oh, nothing," she answered; "I've always thought so."

Still, she did nothing--grieving. It was a long way to this better
thing--or seemed so--and comfort was about her; hence the inactivity and
longing.




In the city, at that time, there were a number of charities similar in
nature to that of the captain's, which Hurstwood now patronised in a
like unfortunate way. One was a convent mission-house of the Sisters of
Mercy in Fifteenth Street--a row of red brick family dwellings, before
the door of which hung a plain wooden contribution box, on which was
painted the statement that every noon a meal was given free to all those
who might apply and ask for aid. This simple announcement was modest in
the extreme, covering, as it did, a charity so broad. Institutions and
charities are so large and so numerous in New York that such things as
this are not often noticed by the more comfortably situated. But to one
whose mind is upon the matter, they grow exceedingly under inspection.
Unless one were looking up this matter in particular, he could have
stood at Sixth Avenue and Fifteenth Street for days around the noon hour
and never have noticed that out of the vast crowd that surged along
that busy thoroughfare there turned out, every few seconds, some
weather-beaten, heavy-footed specimen of humanity, gaunt in countenance
and dilapidated in the matter of clothes. The fact is none the less
true, however, and the colder the day the more apparent it became.
Space and a lack of culinary room in the mission-house, compelled an
arrangement which permitted of only twenty-five or thirty eating at one
time, so that a line had to be formed outside and an orderly entrance
effected. This caused a daily spectacle which, however, had become
so common by repetition during a number of years that now nothing was
thought of it. The men waited patiently, like cattle, in the coldest
weather--waited for several hours before they could be admitted. No
questions were asked and no service rendered. They ate and went away
again, some of them returning regularly day after day the winter
through.

A big, motherly looking woman invariably stood guard at the door during
the entire operation and counted the admissible number. The men moved up
in solemn order. There was no haste and no eagerness displayed. It was
almost a dumb procession. In the bitterest weather this line was to be
found here. Under an icy wind there was a prodigious slapping of hands
and a dancing of feet. Fingers and the features of the face looked as if
severely nipped by the cold. A study of these men in broad light proved
them to be nearly all of a type. They belonged to the class that sit on
the park benches during the endurable days and sleep upon them during
the summer nights. They frequent the Bowery and those down-at-the-heels
East Side streets where poor clothes and shrunken features are not
singled out as curious. They are the men who are in the lodginghouse
sitting-rooms during bleak and bitter weather and who swarm about the
cheaper shelters which only open at six in a number of the lower East
Side streets. Miserable food, ill-timed and greedily eaten, had played
havoc with bone and muscle. They were all pale, flabby, sunken-eyed,
hollow-chested, with eyes that glinted and shone and lips that were a
sickly red by contrast. Their hair was but half attended to, their ears
anaemic in hue, and their shoes broken in leather and run down at heel
and toe. They were of the class which simply floats and drifts, every
wave of people washing up one, as breakers do driftwood upon a stormy
shore.

For nearly a quarter of a century, in another section of the city,
Fleischmann, the baker, had given a loaf of bread to any one who would
come for it to the side door of his restaurant at the corner of Broadway
and Tenth Street, at midnight. Every night during twenty years about
three hundred men had formed in line and at the appointed time marched
past the doorway, picked their loaf from a great box placed just
outside, and vanished again into the night. From the beginning to the
present time there had been little change in the character or number of
these men. There were two or three figures that had grown familiar to
those who had seen this little procession pass year after year. Two
of them had missed scarcely a night in fifteen years. There were about
forty, more or less, regular callers. The remainder of the line was
formed of strangers. In times of panic and unusual hardships there were
seldom more than three hundred. In times of prosperity, when little is
heard of the unemployed, there were seldom less. The same number,
winter and summer, in storm or calm, in good times and bad, held this
melancholy midnight rendezvous at Fleischmann's bread box.

At both of these two charities, during the severe winter which was now
on, Hurstwood was a frequent visitor. On one occasion it was peculiarly
cold, and finding no comfort in begging about the streets, he waited
until noon before seeking this free offering to the poor. Already, at
eleven o'clock of this morning, several such as he had shambled forward
out of Sixth Avenue, their thin clothes flapping and fluttering in the
wind. They leaned against the iron railing which protects the walls of
the Ninth Regiment Armory, which fronts upon that section of Fifteenth
Street, having come early in order to be first in. Having an hour to
wait, they at first lingered at a respectful distance; but others coming
up, they moved closer in order to protect their right of precedence. To
this collection Hurstwood came up from the west out of Seventh Avenue
and stopped close to the door, nearer than all the others. Those who
had been waiting before him, but farther away, now drew near, and by a
certain stolidity of demeanour, no words being spoken, indicated that
they were first.

Seeing the opposition to his action, he looked sullenly along the
line, then moved out, taking his place at the foot. When order had been
restored, the animal feeling of opposition relaxed.

"Must be pretty near noon," ventured one.

"It is," said another. "I've been waiting nearly an hour."

"Gee, but it's cold!"

They peered eagerly at the door, where all must enter. A grocery man
drove up and carried in several baskets of eatables. This started some
words upon grocery men and the cost of food in general.

"I see meat's gone up," said one.

"If there wuz war, it would help this country a lot."

The line was growing rapidly. Already there were fifty or more,
and those at the head, by their demeanour, evidently congratulated
themselves upon not having so long to wait as those at the foot. There
was much jerking of heads, and looking down the line.

"It don't matter how near you get to the front, so long as you're in the
first twenty-five," commented one of the first twenty-five. "You all go
in together."

"Humph!" ejaculated Hurstwood, who had been so sturdily displaced.

"This here Single Tax is the thing," said another. "There ain't going to
be no order till it comes."

For the most part there was silence; gaunt men shuffling, glancing, and
beating their arms.

At last the door opened and the motherly-looking sister appeared. She
only looked an order. Slowly the line moved up and, one by one, passed
in, until twenty-five were counted. Then she interposed a stout arm, and
the line halted, with six men on the steps. Of these the ex-manager was
one. Waiting thus, some talked, some ejaculated concerning the misery of
it; some brooded, as did Hurstwood. At last he was admitted, and, having
eaten, came away, almost angered because of his pains in getting it.

At eleven o'clock of another evening, perhaps two weeks later, he was
at the midnight offering of a loaf--waiting patiently. It had been
an unfortunate day with him, but now he took his fate with a touch of
philosophy. If he could secure no supper, or was hungry late in the
evening, here was a place he could come. A few minutes before twelve,
a great box of bread was pushed out, and exactly on the hour a portly,
round-faced German took position by it, calling "Ready." The whole
line at once moved forward each taking his loaf in turn and going
his separate way. On this occasion, the ex-manager ate his as he went
plodding the dark streets in silence to his bed.

By January he had about concluded that the game was up with him. Life
had always seemed a precious thing, but now constant want and weakened
vitality had made the charms of earth rather dull and inconspicuous.
Several times, when fortune pressed most harshly, he thought he would
end his troubles; but with a change of weather, or the arrival of a
quarter or a dime, his mood would change, and he would wait. Each day he
would find some old paper lying about and look into it, to see if there
was any trace of Carrie, but all summer and fall he had looked in vain.
Then he noticed that his eyes were beginning to hurt him, and this
ailment rapidly increased until, in the dark chambers of the lodgings
he frequented, he did not attempt to read. Bad and irregular eating was
weakening every function of his body. The one recourse left him was to
doze when a place offered and he could get the money to occupy it.

He was beginning to find, in his wretched clothing and meagre state of
body, that people took him for a chronic type of bum and beggar. Police
hustled him along, restaurant and lodginghouse keepers turned him out
promptly the moment he had his due; pedestrians waved him off. He found
it more and more difficult to get anything from anybody.

At last he admitted to himself that the game was up. It was after a
long series of appeals to pedestrians, in which he had been refused and
refused--every one hastening from contact.

"Give me a little something, will you, mister?" he said to the last one.
"For God's sake, do; I'm starving."

"Aw, get out," said the man, who happened to be a common type himself.
"You're no good. I'll give you nawthin'."

Hurstwood put his hands, red from cold, down in his pockets. Tears came
into his eyes.

"That's right," he said; "I'm no good now. I was all right. I had money.
I'm going to quit this," and, with death in his heart, he started down
toward the Bowery. People had turned on the gas before and died; why
shouldn't he? He remembered a lodginghouse where there were little,
close rooms, with gas-jets in them, almost pre-arranged, he thought, for
what he wanted to do, which rented for fifteen cents. Then he remembered
that he had no fifteen cents.

On the way he met a comfortable-looking gentleman, coming, clean-shaven,
out of a fine barber shop.

"Would you mind giving me a little something?" he asked this man boldly.

The gentleman looked him over and fished for a dime. Nothing but
quarters were in his pocket.

"Here," he said, handing him one, to be rid of him. "Be off, now."

Hurstwood moved on, wondering. The sight of the large, bright coin
pleased him a little. He remembered that he was hungry and that he could
get a bed for ten cents. With this, the idea of death passed, for the
time being, out of his mind. It was only when he could get nothing but
insults that death seemed worth while.

One day, in the middle of the winter, the sharpest spell of the season
set in. It broke grey and cold in the first day, and on the second
snowed. Poor luck pursuing him, he had secured but ten cents by
nightfall, and this he had spent for food. At evening he found himself
at the Boulevard and Sixty-seventh Street, where he finally turned
his face Bowery-ward. Especially fatigued because of the wandering
propensity which had seized him in the morning, he now half dragged his
wet feet, shuffling the soles upon the sidewalk. An old, thin coat was
turned up about his red ears--his cracked derby hat was pulled down
until it turned them outward. His hands were in his pockets.

"I'll just go down Broadway," he said to himself.

When he reached Forty-second Street, the fire signs were already blazing
brightly. Crowds were hastening to dine. Through bright windows, at
every corner, might be seen gay companies in luxuriant restaurants.
There were coaches and crowded cable cars.

In his weary and hungry state, he should never have come here. The
contrast was too sharp. Even he was recalled keenly to better things.
"What's the use?" he thought. "It's all up with me. I'll quit this."

People turned to look after him, so uncouth was his shambling figure.
Several officers followed him with their eyes, to see that he did not
beg of anybody.

Once he paused in an aimless, incoherent sort of way and looked through
the windows of an imposing restaurant, before which blazed a fire sign,
and through the large, plate windows of which could be seen the red and
gold decorations, the palms, the white napery, and shining glassware,
and, above all, the comfortable crowd. Weak as his mind had become, his
hunger was sharp enough to show the importance of this. He stopped stock
still, his frayed trousers soaking in the slush, and peered foolishly
in.

"Eat," he mumbled. "That's right, eat. Nobody else wants any."

Then his voice dropped even lower, and his mind half lost the fancy it
had.

"It's mighty cold," he said. "Awful cold."

At Broadway and Thirty-ninth Street was blazing, in incandescent fire,
Carrie's name. "Carrie Madenda," it read, "and the Casino Company." All
the wet, snowy sidewalk was bright with this radiated fire. It was so
bright that it attracted Hurstwood's gaze. He looked up, and then at
a large, gilt-framed posterboard, on which was a fine lithograph of
Carrie, lifesize.

Hurstwood gazed at it a moment, snuffling and hunching one shoulder, as
if something were scratching him. He was so run down, however, that his
mind was not exactly clear.

He approached that entrance and went in.

"Well?" said the attendant, staring at him. Seeing him pause, he went
over and shoved him. "Get out of here," he said.

"I want to see Miss Madenda," he said.

"You do, eh?" the other said, almost tickled at the spectacle. "Get out
of here," and he shoved him again. Hurstwood had no strength to resist.

"I want to see Miss Madenda," he tried to explain, even as he was being
hustled away. "I'm all right. I----"

The man gave him a last push and closed the door. As he did so,
Hurstwood slipped and fell in the snow. It hurt him, and some vague
sense of shame returned. He began to cry and swear foolishly.

"God damned dog!" he said. "Damned old cur," wiping the slush from his
worthless coat. "I--I hired such people as you once."

Now a fierce feeling against Carrie welled up--just one fierce, angry
thought before the whole thing slipped out of his mind.

"She owes me something to eat," he said. "She owes it to me."

Hopelessly he turned back into Broadway again and slopped onward and
away, begging, crying, losing track of his thoughts, one after another,
as a mind decayed and disjointed is wont to do.

It was truly a wintry evening, a few days later, when his one distinct
mental decision was reached. Already, at four o'clock, the sombre hue of
night was thickening the air. A heavy snow was falling--a fine picking,
whipping snow, borne forward by a swift wind in long, thin lines. The
streets were bedded with it--six inches of cold, soft carpet, churned to
a dirty brown by the crush of teams and the feet of men. Along Broadway
men picked their way in ulsters and umbrellas. Along the Bowery, men
slouched through it with collars and hats pulled over their ears. In
the former thoroughfare businessmen and travellers were making for
comfortable hotels. In the latter, crowds on cold errands shifted
past dingy stores, in the deep recesses of which lights were already
gleaming. There were early lights in the cable cars, whose usual clatter
was reduced by the mantle about the wheels. The whole city was muffled
by this fast-thickening mantle.

In her comfortable chambers at the Waldorf, Carrie was reading at this
time "Pere Goriot," which Ames had recommended to her. It was so strong,
and Ames's mere recommendation had so aroused her interest, that she
caught nearly the full sympathetic significance of it. For the first
time, it was being borne in upon her how silly and worthless had been
her earlier reading, as a whole. Becoming wearied, however, she yawned
and came to the window, looking out upon the old winding procession of
carriages rolling up Fifth Avenue.

"Isn't it bad?" she observed to Lola.

"Terrible!" said that little lady, joining her. "I hope it snows enough
to go sleigh riding."

"Oh, dear," said Carrie, with whom the sufferings of Father Goriot were
still keen. "That's all you think of. Aren't you sorry for the people
who haven't anything to-night?"

"Of course I am," said Lola; "but what can I do? I haven't anything."

Carrie smiled.

"You wouldn't care, if you had," she returned.

"I would, too," said Lola. "But people never gave me anything when I was
hard up."

"Isn't it just awful?" said Carrie, studying the winter's storm.

"Look at that man over there," laughed Lola, who had caught sight of
some one falling down. "How sheepish men look when they fall, don't
they?"

"We'll have to take a coach to-night," answered Carrie absently.


In the lobby of the Imperial, Mr. Charles Drouet was just arriving,
shaking the snow from a very handsome ulster. Bad weather had driven him
home early and stirred his desire for those pleasures which shut out the
snow and gloom of life. A good dinner, the company of a young woman, and
an evening at the theatre were the chief things for him.

"Why, hello, Harry!" he said, addressing a lounger in one of the
comfortable lobby chairs. "How are you?"

"Oh, about six and six," said the other. "Rotten weather, isn't it?"

"Well, I should say," said the other. "I've been just sitting here
thinking where I'd go to-night."

"Come along with me," said Drouet. "I can introduce you to something
dead swell."

"Who is it?" said the other.

"Oh, a couple of girls over here in Fortieth Street. We could have a
dandy time. I was just looking for you."

"Supposing you get 'em and take 'em out to dinner?"

"Sure," said Drouet. "Wait'll I go upstairs and change my clothes."

"Well, I'll be in the barber shop," said the other. "I want to get a
shave."

"All right," said Drouet, creaking off in his good shoes toward the
elevator. The old butterfly was as light on the wing as ever.


On an incoming vestibuled Pullman, speeding at forty miles an hour
through the snow of the evening, were three others, all related.

"First call for dinner in the dining-car," a Pullman servitor was
announcing, as he hastened through the aisle in snow-white apron and
jacket.

"I don't believe I want to play any more," said the youngest, a
black-haired beauty, turned supercilious by fortune, as she pushed a
euchre hand away from her.

"Shall we go into dinner?" inquired her husband, who was all that fine
raiment can make.

"Oh, not yet," she answered. "I don't want to play any more, though."

"Jessica," said her mother, who was also a study in what good clothing
can do for age, "push that pin down in your tie--it's coming up."

Jessica obeyed, incidentally touching at her lovely hair and looking at
a little jewel-faced watch. Her husband studied her, for beauty, even
cold, is fascinating from one point of view.

"Well, we won't have much more of this weather," he said. "It only takes
two weeks to get to Rome."

Mrs. Hurstwood nestled comfortably in her corner and smiled. It was so
nice to be the mother-in-law of a rich young man--one whose financial
state had borne her personal inspection.

"Do you suppose the boat will sail promptly?" asked Jessica, "if it
keeps up like this?"

"Oh, yes," answered her husband. "This won't make any difference."

Passing down the aisle came a very fair-haired banker's son, also of
Chicago, who had long eyed this supercilious beauty. Even now he did not
hesitate to glance at her, and she was conscious of it. With a specially
conjured show of indifference, she turned her pretty face wholly away.
It was not wifely modesty at all. By so much was her pride satisfied.


At this moment Hurstwood stood before a dirty four story building in a
side street quite near the Bowery, whose one-time coat of buff had been
changed by soot and rain. He mingled with a crowd of men--a crowd which
had been, and was still, gathering by degrees.

It began with the approach of two or three, who hung about the closed
wooden doors and beat their feet to keep them warm. They had on faded
derby hats with dents in them. Their misfit coats were heavy with melted
snow and turned up at the collars. Their trousers were mere bags, frayed
at the bottom and wobbling over big, soppy shoes, torn at the sides
and worn almost to shreds. They made no effort to go in, but shifted
ruefully about, digging their hands deep in their pockets and leering
at the crowd and the increasing lamps. With the minutes, increased the
number. There were old men with grizzled beards and sunken eyes, men
who were comparatively young but shrunken by diseases, men who were
middle-aged. None were fat. There was a face in the thick of the
collection which was as white as drained veal. There was another red as
brick. Some came with thin, rounded shoulders, others with wooden legs,
still others with frames so lean that clothes only flapped about them.
There were great ears, swollen noses, thick lips, and, above all, red,
blood-shot eyes. Not a normal, healthy face in the whole mass; not a
straight figure; not a straightforward, steady glance.

In the drive of the wind and sleet they pushed in on one another. There
were wrists, unprotected by coat or pocket, which were red with cold.
There were ears, half covered by every conceivable semblance of a hat,
which still looked stiff and bitten. In the snow they shifted, now one
foot, now another, almost rocking in unison.

With the growth of the crowd about the door came a murmur. It was not
conversation, but a running comment directed at any one in general. It
contained oaths and slang phrases.

"By damn, I wish they'd hurry up."

"Look at the copper watchin'."

"Maybe it ain't winter, nuther!"

"I wisht I was in Sing Sing."

Now a sharper lash of wind cut down and they huddled closer. It was an
edging, shifting, pushing throng. There was no anger, no pleading, no
threatening words. It was all sullen endurance, unlightened by either
wit or good fellowship.

A carriage went jingling by with some reclining figure in it. One of the
men nearest the door saw it.

"Look at the bloke ridin'."

"He ain't so cold."

"Eh, eh, eh!" yelled another, the carriage having long since passed out
of hearing.

Little by little the night crept on. Along the walk a crowd turned
out on its way home. Men and shop-girls went by with quick steps. The
cross-town cars began to be crowded. The gas lamps were blazing, and
every window bloomed ruddy with a steady flame. Still the crowd hung
about the door, unwavering.

"Ain't they ever goin' to open up?" queried a hoarse voice,
suggestively.

This seemed to renew the general interest in the closed door, and many
gazed in that direction. They looked at it as dumb brutes look, as dogs
paw and whine and study the knob. They shifted and blinked and muttered,
now a curse, now a comment. Still they waited and still the snow whirled
and cut them with biting flakes. On the old hats and peaked shoulders it
was piling. It gathered in little heaps and curves and no one brushed
it off. In the centre of the crowd the warmth and steam melted it, and
water trickled off hat rims and down noses, which the owners could
not reach to scratch. On the outer rim the piles remained unmelted.
Hurstwood, who could not get in the centre, stood with head lowered to
the weather and bent his form.

A light appeared through the transom overhead. It sent a thrill of
possibility through the watchers. There was a murmur of recognition. At
last the bars grated inside and the crowd pricked up its ears. Footsteps
shuffled within and it murmured again. Some one called: "Slow up there,
now," and then the door opened. It was push and jam for a minute, with
grim, beast silence to prove its quality, and then it melted inward,
like logs floating, and disappeared. There were wet hats and wet
shoulders, a cold, shrunken, disgruntled mass, pouring in between bleak
walls. It was just six o'clock and there was supper in every hurrying
pedestrian's face. And yet no supper was provided here--nothing but
beds.

Hurstwood laid down his fifteen cents and crept off with weary steps to
his allotted room. It was a dingy affair--wooden, dusty, hard. A small
gas-jet furnished sufficient light for so rueful a corner.

"Hm!" he said, clearing his throat and locking the door.

Now he began leisurely to take off his clothes, but stopped first with
his coat, and tucked it along the crack under the door. His vest he
arranged in the same place. His old wet, cracked hat he laid softly upon
the table. Then he pulled off his shoes and lay down.

It seemed as if he thought a while, for now he arose and turned the gas
out, standing calmly in the blackness, hidden from view. After a few
moments, in which he reviewed nothing, but merely hesitated, he turned
the gas on again, but applied no match. Even then he stood there, hidden
wholly in that kindness which is night, while the uprising fumes filled
the room. When the odour reached his nostrils, he quit his attitude and
fumbled for the bed. "What's the use?" he said, weakly, as he stretched
himself to rest.


And now Carrie had attained that which in the beginning seemed life's
object, or, at least, such fraction of it as human beings ever attain of
their original desires. She could look about on her gowns and carriage,
her furniture and bank account. Friends there were, as the world takes
it--those who would bow and smile in acknowledgment of her success. For
these she had once craved. Applause there was, and publicity--once far
off, essential things, but now grown trivial and indifferent.
Beauty also--her type of loveliness--and yet she was lonely. In her
rocking-chair she sat, when not otherwise engaged--singing and dreaming.

Thus in life there is ever the intellectual and the emotional
nature--the mind that reasons, and the mind that feels. Of one come
the men of action--generals and statesmen; of the other, the poets and
dreamers--artists all.

As harps in the wind, the latter respond to every breath of fancy,
voicing in their moods all the ebb and flow of the ideal.

Man has not yet comprehended the dreamer any more than he has the
ideal. For him the laws and morals of the world are unduly severe.
Ever hearkening to the sound of beauty, straining for the flash of its
distant wings, he watches to follow, wearying his feet in travelling. So
watched Carrie, so followed, rocking and singing.

And it must be remembered that reason had little part in this. Chicago
dawning, she saw the city offering more of loveliness than she had ever
known, and instinctively, by force of her moods alone, clung to it.
In fine raiment and elegant surroundings, men seemed to be contented.
Hence, she drew near these things. Chicago, New York; Drouet, Hurstwood;
the world of fashion and the world of stage--these were but incidents.
Not them, but that which they represented, she longed for. Time proved
the representation false.

Oh, the tangle of human life! How dimly as yet we see. Here was Carrie,
in the beginning poor, unsophisticated, emotional; responding with
desire to everything most lovely in life, yet finding herself turned as
by a wall. Laws to say: "Be allured, if you will, by everything lovely,
but draw not nigh unless by righteousness." Convention to say: "You
shall not better your situation save by honest labour." If honest labour
be unremunerative and difficult to endure; if it be the long, long road
which never reaches beauty, but wearies the feet and the heart; if the
drag to follow beauty be such that one abandons the admired way, taking
rather the despised path leading to her dreams quickly, who shall cast
the first stone? Not evil, but longing for that which is better, more
often directs the steps of the erring. Not evil, but goodness more often
allures the feeling mind unused to reason.

Amid the tinsel and shine of her state walked Carrie, unhappy. As when
Drouet took her, she had thought: "Now I am lifted into that which is
best"; as when Hurstwood seemingly offered her the better way: "Now am
I happy." But since the world goes its way past all who will not partake
of its folly, she now found herself alone. Her purse was open to him
whose need was greatest. In her walks on Broadway, she no longer thought
of the elegance of the creatures who passed her. Had they more of that
peace and beauty which glimmered afar off, then were they to be envied.

Drouet abandoned his claim and was seen no more. Of Hurstwood's death
she was not even aware. A slow, black boat setting out from the pier at
Twenty-seventh Street upon its weekly errand bore, with many others, his
nameless body to the Potter's Field.

Thus passed all that was of interest concerning these twain in their
relation to her. Their influence upon her life is explicable alone by
the nature of her longings. Time was when both represented for her
all that was most potent in earthly success. They were the personal
representatives of a state most blessed to attain--the titled
ambassadors of comfort and peace, aglow with their credentials. It is
but natural that when the world which they represented no longer allured
her, its ambassadors should be discredited. Even had Hurstwood returned
in his original beauty and glory, he could not now have allured her.
She had learned that in his world, as in her own present state, was not
happiness.

Sitting alone, she was now an illustration of the devious ways by which
one who feels, rather than reasons, may be led in the pursuit of beauty.
Though often disillusioned, she was still waiting for that halcyon day
when she would be led forth among dreams become real. Ames had pointed
out a farther step, but on and on beyond that, if accomplished, would
lie others for her. It was forever to be the pursuit of that radiance of
delight which tints the distant hilltops of the world.

Oh, Carrie, Carrie! Oh, blind strivings of the human heart! Onward
onward, it saith, and where beauty leads, there it follows. Whether it
be the tinkle of a lone sheep bell o'er some quiet landscape, or the
glimmer of beauty in sylvan places, or the show of soul in some passing
eye, the heart knows and makes answer, following. It is when the feet
weary and hope seems vain that the heartaches and the longings arise.
Know, then, that for you is neither surfeit nor content. In your
rocking-chair, by your window dreaming, shall you long, alone. In your
rocking-chair, by your window, shall you dream such happiness as you may
never feel.

 Hurstwood, having gotten a job as a motorman, spends the rest of the day learning how to operate one of the cars. It is tiring work, and he decides to stay the night in the company loft when he realizes that heading home would take too much time. The next morning he takes his first car out on the tracks, accompanied by a conductor and two police officers. Soon he is forced to stop because the track is blocked by a pile of stones. A mob forms around the car and the officers are forced to hit some of the people to keep them back, but they manage to break the windows. Hurstwood finishes the trip and turns the car back to be repaired. Later in the afternoon he again is forced to stop and let the officers break up a mob of people. They nearly finish the route when he runs into an even angrier mob which attacks him quite fiercely. He is pulled from his seat and beaten, but the officers manage to rescue him. Someone shoots a pistol at him, grazing his shoulder, after which Hurstwood runs away and leaves the car behind. He returns home and starts reading about the strike in the papers, as if they could tell him something he had not already seen firsthand. Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47

