Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1908-01-30
CHAPTER XIII.
In TIE MORNING.

Katharine stood for a moment stupe-
fed: In front Of her, shadowy, like 4
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.
"No. 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"
mot this way, then" he replied
for she made as if she would rush
at the river-"not this way. Pretty.
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 1t, Pretty. Have
patience"
1t is now nothing but a 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
again, her dreadful hunger and cold
and WEAKNESS and desolation, and
Katharine has-change but one letter
and the pathetic becomes pathetic.
pathos turns into bathos-tO "lle 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 CLEAN of
yellow light. Beyond this a black wall
all around it; when she stood under q
lamp 1t was just exactly as if she
were built up and buried alive in it
with a hole for 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. II was the face of
young man making his way home and
marching confidently through the fog,
or it was the face of a policeman who
looked at her searchingly, 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 q few
minutes 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
rified her. mans face. unshaven for
many days and therefore thick with
bristles round the mouth, a face with
horrid red eyes and swelled cheeks.
"Have you got the price of half
pint upon you?" he asked roughly.
~ have not got one penny in the
world" she replied
Lily in fact had all the money be-
longing to them both-ninepence.
you'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,
whilo q girl had jacket and hat