he crowd
responded to their impact by action quickened, like a python touched
with a red-hot rod.

It was nearly time to close, and the barkeepers were beginning to betray
signs of impatience with their most drunken customers.

A dark, tall man in cloak and fez moved slowly down the street. His face
was serene but somber. In passing the window of a brilliantly lighted
drinking place he stopped and looked in.

In the small stall, near the window and behind the counter, sat three
women and two men. All had mugs of beer in their hands. The women were
all young, and one of them was handsome. They were dressed nattily,
jauntily, in modish, girlish hats, and their dainty jackets fitted
closely to their slight figures.

Their liquor had just been served, and their voices were ringing with
wild laughter. Their white teeth shone from their rouged faces with a
mirth which met no answering smile from the strange young man without.
He stood like a shadow against the pane.

The smile on the face of the youngest girl stiffened into a strange
contortion. Her eyes looked straight ahead into the eyes of the
stranger.

Her smile smoothed out. Her face paled; her eyes expanded with wonder
till they lost their insane glitter, and grew sad and soft and dark.

"What is it, Nell?" the others asked.

She did not hear them. She seemed to listen. Her eyes seemed to see
mountains--or clouds. A land like her childhood's home with the sunset
light over it. Her mug fell with a crash to the table. She rose. Her
hand silenced them, with beautiful finger raised:

"Listen! Don't you hear him? His eyes are calling me. It is Christ."

The others looked, but they saw only a tall figure moving away. He wore
a long black cloak like a priest.

"Some foreign duffer lookin' in. Let 'im look," said one of the other
girls.

"One o' them Egyptian jugglers," said another.

"What's the matter of ye, Nell? You look as if you'd seen a ghost of y'r
grandmother. Set down an' drink y'r beer."

The girl brushed her hand over her eyes. "I'm going home," she said in a
low voice from which all individuality had passed. Her face seemed
anxious, her manner hurried.

"What's the matter, Nell? My God! Look at her eyes!--I'm going with
her."

The girl put him aside with a gesture. Her look awed him.

One of the others began to laugh.

"Stop! You fool," one of the girls cried. They sat in silence as the
younger girl went out, putting aside every hand stretc