Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1920-12-16
Faces passed aaa Expassed, iaysfx,
Copyright 1920 by the Author.

darkly III forbidGing d0OrwayS, seek
ing brazenly the brightest glare. com
ing and going without rest, in uncouth
carnival: kind and brutal. cunning
and naive, wicked and innocent.
swarthy. fair, unique. commonplace;
faces that disguised, faces that al
lured. faces that meant nothing, that
were mere empty mounting masks;
faces of oriental cast, yellow and red
of Quartering.
She knew them all: they all knew
her. The sense of strangeness ebbed;
with every step. with every look
around, with every breath she drew,
she was losing touch with her other
Self which had so singuIarly renowned
its authority and faded into impotence
at the Dark Corner, but which still
kept step with her. chung to her more
closely than her shadow, and like a
wrath of the living, watched, noted
and compared while taking part in ac-
tons wholly foreign to it's nature and
experiencing reactions obscure to II
and unintelligible.
Now the girl moved swiftly, with
ease and bOldneSS, even with a hint
of arrogance: giving the Faces look
for look, smile for smile, frOwn for
frown; laughing impishly up at tall
policeman who knitted black brows
over indulgent blue eyes; flinging racy
retorts to the banter of a knot of
men emerging from a gin-mill; chill
ing with glance and word the adj
vances of those who should have
known better; chatting hucksters who
bawled in her ears the tawdry virtues
of their wares; pausing now and
again to exchange more kindly per
sifiage with folk who held title to her
liking; cutting an impudent figure, as
confident and unabashed as colt
turned loose in home pastures.
Her sharp perceptions took in every
thing; not one considerable detail eS-
capped their remark. And she liked it,
she liked it all, she was curiOuSly per-
meated to her very marrow with de-
light in sounds and sights and smells
familiar to her senses since time be-
yond their earliest record.
The Street. never wide, was the mar
rover for its double rank of pushcarts
Between these an occasional autOmO-
bile or hOrse-drawn vehicle went gin
gerly to spare the multitude of
urchins. half dressed and less than
half washed. of every age and almost
every nationality. that swarmed upOn
the aSphaltum. Tenement houses
their fire escapes converted into hal
comics laviShly draped with candid
bedding and still more candid women
drew confidential heads together on
high, leaving visible only a slender
ribbon of cobalt sky. In between the
air was sluggish. thick with unnat-
ural haze. and rank with many OdOrs /:
an unhOly alliance Of garlic, fried fish.
boiled cabbage and stale beer main
tanning debatable ascendency over the
native aroma of a stratum of society
which holds soap less necessity than
luxury And the night was tumultuous
with screams of children at crude
play. bowls of babies waIlowing in
neglect. bawling of street vendors.
each striving to outyell his nearest
competitor, clatter of tinny pianos.
blare and whine of jaded phono-
graphs; all relieved against a wholly
normal undertOne of incesSant gossip
and pickering.
The girl Rugged to herself the Joy
of living: this was to her the breath
of life; even more, 1t was enterprise
adventure. the very stuff Of Romance.
She went her way smiling. with a
conscious smile bred of knowledge
that she was dressed in her best. in
her very newest best at that. garments
of cut and cost and quality such as
the Street seldom saw
Nevertheless. her show of noncha-
lance cloaked circumspectiOn if her
looks were free and rowing. they were
likewise keen and watchful. Though
the width of the Street was between
them, she was we'll aware of two
plain-clotheS men who turned to stare
when she had gone by and conferred
together concerning her craftily, after
the absurd manner of their kind. out
of the corners of their mouths.
But that was a minor circumstance.
more fun than reason for worry They
couldn't jig a girl for wearing good
clothes. even If they didn't know
where she had got them or how.
rhn
TO considerations far more welghty
and when. Of a sudden. at a crossing.
she deserted its cause, she checked in
unfeigned dismay, with startled
pulses.
III. THE MAN MARIO.
On the far corner a tall man. sim