nrietta should return; and so, grabbing up my hat and jacket, I
rushed in a panic out of the awful place into the midnight blackness of
the empty street.

X

IN WHICH I FIND MYSELF A HOMELESS WANDERER IN THE NIGHT

In making my escape I had not counted upon my chances of meeting
Henrietta returning from the saloon. I had thought of nothing but to get
as far away as possible from the horror of it all. Dashing headlong down
the street, I was going I knew not where, when suddenly Henrietta's
vacuous "tee-hee" rang out in the darkness and echoed among the iron
girders of the elevated trestle; and, looking ahead of me, I saw her in
the light of the corner gas-jet coming toward me, a man on either side
of her, and all three evidently in the best of spirits. I sank back into
the darkness of a doorway that stood open, motionless until they had
passed and their voices had died away.

In the few minutes of waiting, I had collected my wits sufficiently to
determine upon a plan of action. I would find my way back to the
Jefferson Market, and stay there until daylight, and then go to the
Working Girls' Home recommended by the police matron.

But no sooner had I determined on this plan, which was really the only
thing I could have done, than I heard women's voices close at hand; and
before I could creep out of the doorway, two figures, groping up to it
through the darkness, dropped down upon the threshold. They muttered and
mumbled to each other for a little while, then their deep breathing told
me they had fallen into a doze.

Again and again I had crept out of my hiding-place, looked at the two
bowed, crouching figures, which I could see only in vague outline, and
then withdrew again into the comparative safety of the black hallway. I
hesitated to waken them, and I could not creep over them asleep--not
until I heard the low, guttural voice of a drunken man in the darkness
above, and the uncertain shuffle of feet feeling their way to the head
of the staircase. Then, my heart in my mouth, quite as much for the fear
of what was before me as for what was fumbling about in the darkness
behind, I came boldly out and stood over the huddled figures. Now I saw
that they were old women, very old, and both fast asleep, with their
arms locked about each other for protection against the cold. Both were
bare-headed and scantily dressed, and each wore a little wisp of gray
hair drawn into a button at the back of her head, just as Mr