The Morris County chronicle., 1906-07-24
CHAPTER XIII.
IN THE MORNING.

CHAPIER Kill,
IN THE MORNING.
Katharine stood for a moment stupe-
fed: In front of her, shadowy, like a
ghost, rose this man, gaunt and tall;
by the lifting of the fog she saw that
he was in tatters. What was he do
ing on the steps in the dark? And
Lily was gone
mo. you don't" he said to her 81
thought there'd be some of you coming
along tonight. Is it hunger working
up with the fog, or is it remorse and
despair?"
| Katharine made no reply. Where,
oh, where was Lily?
''If it's hunger and the fog, you'll
| get over it when you've had something
to eat. In course of time you'll get
used to hunger. I'm always hungry :
"Who are you? Let me go-let me
60"
..Not this way, them" he replied
for she made as if she would rush
at the river-"not this way, Prettyi
Don't do it. Have patience. Lord. il
you'd gone through as much as have
you'd have patience. Don't do it,
As she spoke. the black wall of fog
rolled between them again. Kath-
( arine stole away under its protection,
but she heard him repeat as she re-
treated: Don't do it, Pretty. Have
patience
1t is now nothing but memory Of
the past; but sometimes the gaunt and
| tattered figure of this man, holding
out his long arms between her and
the river, returns to Katharine's mind
and stands up before her; she sees him
blurred in the fog and the dim lamp
/ light; she hears his voice saying:
Don't do it, Pretty. Have patience"
Who was this man, this failure and
wreck of manhood? and why did he
lurk in the blackness upon those steps
Then her misery comes back to her
4 again, her dreadful hunger and cold
and WEAKNESS and desoIation, and
Katharine has-change but one letter
and the pathetic becomes pathetic.
pathos turns into bathos-to "lie down"
-woman's grandest medicine until
the memory of that night leaves her
again.
| The fog was SO black again that she
had not the least knowledge of the di-
rection she was taking. Under each
lamp there was little yellow gleam of
| yellow light Beyond this a black wall
all around it; when she stood under
lamp it was just exactly as If she
were built up. and buried alive in it
with a hole for a little light through
yellow glass in the top.
Sometimes steps came along and
| faces came out of the black wall and
looked curiously at her as they passed
and disappeared. 1t was the face of a
young man making his way home and
marching confidently through the fog,
or 1t was the face of policeman who
looked at her searchingIy, asked her
if she was lost, told her how to get
back to the Strand, and went on his
beat; once it was girl of her own age
who stood beside her for a few
inmates and looked as If she wanted
to speak, and then suddenly ran away
from her. Why did she run away?
Why, indeed? And once it was very
ugly face indeed. which greatly ter
rifled her. mans face unshaven for
many days and therefore thick with
bristles round the mouth, a face with
horrid red eyes and swelled checks.
"Have you got the price of half
pint upon your he asked roughly.
II have not got one penny in the
world" she replied
Lily In fact had all the money be-
| longing to them both h-ninepence.
sYou've>got your jacket and your hat
Gimme your Jacket and your hat" He
proceeded, in the language common to
his class. to touch briefly on the in
justice of suffering an honest man to
go about without penny in his pocket.
while a girl had jacket and a hat
which might be pawned. Perhaps he
forgot that 1t was Sunday. But other
steps were heard and the creature of
the nighl skunk away.
Katharine knew that she was still at
the Westminster end of the Embank-
ment, because the great clock struck
the quarters and the hours apparently
quite close to her.
She remembered that she had been
very near to Death--a shameful,
wicked, violent death-the death of,
those whose wicked lives have driven
| them to despair. One more step and
| she would have plunged into the dark
waters rushing and tearing up the
stream with the tide, She tried to
picture to herself what she had es-
capped; she recalled Lily's words; she
would have been, BY this time. dead
body rolled over and over. knocked
against the piles Of the bridge caught
lby the ropes or barges. banged
against the boats At last she would
have been picked up somewhere; no
one would have recognized her. ana
she would have been buried IN the
pauperss corner, forgotten forever put
| imagination. like reason. refusps to
work to order unless it is fortified BY
strong food The words she recalled
and the picture she eopiured up con