a neighboring told him the hour was ten and surely by those curtains there hiding the flame that filled their cheeks were the two shop girls their pinched faces slow starvation and and were there all of them and the young man tossed uneasily on his pillow struggling with the remnant of nightmare that remained to cloud his brain when he was able to think and see clearly he sat up and rang for a of ice water he was consumed by thirst and his forehead ached blindly when he had bathed his head and throat he turned by a sudden impulse to his table and took out the of the story he had begun slowly he read over the pages to the last one then seizing his pen he devoted himself to the next chapter without dressing without it was four o clock when he ceased work he realized all at once that he was feeling ill the fact dawned upon him that he needed food and his garments he took his way to a and ordered something to eat as he swallowed the he fell to wondering how much temptation he would be able to bear with hunger as a background he passed a good part of the evening in walking the streets selecting instinctively sections where lie was least likely to meet any one he knew when he returned to his room he read over the he had written that day and into his troubled brain there came a sense of pleasure was right to tell of such matters in a novel one should know them himself could never have written of vice before he saw s now it was as plain to him as print almost as easy to use in fiction as virtue what was to follow he pondered over the plot he had out and it grew clearer a question of color had given him no further encouragement at least in words since that day she had said it was to ask her father but he felt certain that she regarded him with favor and that if mr put no obstacles in the way she would not refuse to wed him when the right time came he thought it would be wise to obtain one more brief interview with her before proceeding to and determined to do his best to draw her aside when he made his next visit to her house this settled he went to bed again and slept soundly when the day to go to arrived s courage began to a little so much depended upon the attitude of his dear one s mind which for all he knew had changed since he talked with her that he fairly trembled with apprehension he avoided mr with whom he usually took the train and went out early at a station a mile or two away from the right one he walked through the woods trying to think how to act in case matters did not turn out as he hoped under the branches he strolled along until he came within sight of the roofs of and then he threw himself at the foot of a tree close to mr s grounds and gave himself up to reverie when he laid down here it was only five o clock and he was not expected at the house for a full hour it pleased him to be so near the one he loved and to lie where he could dream of her sweet face and see the outlines of the house that sheltered her while she had no knowledge of his presence just over there was the where he had first had the ss a ck a supreme bliss of touching her lips with his own if he could get her to come there with him again tonight when the others were occupied with their talk of earthly things and if she would only tell him frankly that he might go to her father and that her prayers would go with him a soft languor came over his body at the of these reflections but it was dissipated by the sound of voices which presently came to him from the other side of the hedge i can t exactly understand miss said one of the voices which he had no difficulty in as that of why you wish me to go away there was an assurance in the tone that did not like he had noticed it before in the intercourse of this negro with his there was something which intimated that he was on the most complete level with them i want you to go said in her quiet way because education is the only thing that will make you what you ought to be there are a hundred chances open to you in the professions if you can take a college course unless you do you can hope for nothing better than such employment as you have now it made the listener s blood boil to think that these people should be consulting in that way like friends ought to have a better sense of her position i will not refuse your offer at least not yet replied after a slight pause it may bt at you say if i as a doctor or a lawyer a of but i know that i live in a country where my color is despised and all that could possibly come to me here as a professional man is work among my own race i should be a black lawyer with black or a black physician with black to really succeed i should go across the ocean to some land where the shade of my skin would not be counted a crime s face could not be seen by the listener but he was sure it was a kindly one and this made him the situation was it should not be considered so anywhere said 