and saloons of Main Street, the dogs barking and the children
crying--all these things made him seem, as he lurked in the darkness,
oddly detached and apart from all life.

The excited young man, unable to bear the weight of his own thoughts,
began to move cautiously along the alleyway. A dog attacked him and had
to be driven away with stones and a man appeared at the door of one of
the houses and began to swear at the dog. George went into a vacant lot
and throwing back his head looked up at the sky. He felt unutterably big
and re-made by the simple experience through which he had been passing
and in a kind of fervor of emotion put up his hands, thrusting them into
the darkness above his head and muttering words. The desire to say words
overcame him and he said words without meaning, rolling them over on his
tongue and saying them because they were brave words, full of meaning.
"Death," he muttered, "night, the sea, fear, loveliness." George Willard
came out of the vacant lot and stood again on the sidewalk facing the
houses. He felt that all of the people in the little street must be
brothers and sisters to him and he wished he had the courage to call
them out of their houses and to shake their hands. "If there were only a
woman here I would take hold of her hand and we would run until we were
both tired out," he thought. "That would make me feel better." With the
thought of a woman in his mind he walked out of the street and went
toward the house where Belle Carpenter lived. He thought she would
understand his mood and that he would achieve in her presence a position
he had long been wanting to achieve. In the past when he had been with
her and had kissed her lips he had come away filled with anger at
himself. He had felt like one being used for some obscure purpose and
had not enjoyed the feeling. Now he thought he had suddenly become too
big to be used.

When George Willard got to Belle Carpenter's house there had already
been a visitor there before him. Ed Handby had come to the door and
calling Belle out of the house had tried to talk to her. He had wanted
to ask the woman to come away with him and to be his wife, but when she
came and stood by the door he lost his self-assurance and became sullen.
"You stay away from that kid," he growled, thinking of George Willard,
and then, not knowing what else to say, turned to go away. "If I catch
you together I will break your bones and his too," he added. The
bartender