lied not, he fell to wondering if she fully realized
who he was.

Around and across the great hall the gorgeous pageant swept. The
big-mouthed horns bellowed forth their noisy harmony. In the distant
corridors great illuminated fountains softly plashed. At the tables
beyond, sedulous, touting waiters were hurriedly extracting corks from
frosted bottle necks. The rare porcelain and cut glass shone and
glittered in rainbow tints. The revelers waxed increasingly merry and
care-free as they lightly discussed poverty over rich viands and
sparkling Burgundy. Still further beyond, the massive oak doors, with
their leaded-glass panes, shut out the dark night and the bitter
blasts of winter. And they shut out, too, another, but none the less
unreal, externalization of the mortal thought which has found
expression in a social system "too wicked for a smile."

"God, no--I'd get arrested! I can't!"

The frail, hungry woman who stood before the great doors clutched her
wretched shawl closer about her thin shoulders. Her teeth chattered as
she stood shivering in the chill wind. Then she hurried away.

At the corner of the building the cold blast almost swept her off her
feet. A man, dirty and unkempt, who had been waiting in an alley, ran
out and seized her.

"I say, Jude, ain't ye goin' in? Git arrested--ye'd spend the night in
a warm cell, an' that's better'n our bunk, ain't it?"

"I'm goin' to French Lucy's," the woman whispered hoarsely. "I'm dead
beat!"

"Huh! Ye've lost yer looks, Jude, an' ol' Lucy ain't a-goin' to take
ye in. We gotta snipe somepin quick--or starve! Look, we'll go down to
Mike's place, an' then come back here when it's out, and ye kin pinch
a string, or somepin, eh? Gawd, it's cold!"

The woman glanced back at the lights. For a moment she stood listening
to the music from within. A sob shook her, and she began to cough
violently. The man took her arm, not unkindly; and together they moved
away into the night.

* * * * *

"Well, little girl, at last we are alone. Now we can exchange
confidences." It was Ames talking. He had, late in the evening,
secured seats well hidden behind a mass of palms, and thither had led
Carmen. "What do you think of it all? Quite a show, eh? Ever see
anything like this in Simiti?"

Carmen looked up at him. She thought him wonderfully handsome. She was
glad to get away for a moment from the crowd, from the confusion, and
from t