I saw her hurrying along the other side of
the street with a man I'd seen come round the corner by Skelly's saloon
while we was talking together. And I never saw her again."

An expression of pathos, infinitely sweet and tender, had crept into the
woman's thin, worn face--an expression in strange, almost ludicrous,
contrast to the high, cracked voice in which the talc had been
delivered. I gazed at the bent old creature with something like
reverence for the nobility which I now could read so plainly in every
line of her face--the nobility which can attach itself only to decency
of life and thought and action. In my brief interview with her in the
twilight of the evening before I had heard only the ridiculous jargon of
a woman without a palate, and I had seen only an old crone with a
soot-smeared face. But now the maimed voice echoed in my ears like the
sound of the little old melodeon with the broken strings--which had been
my mother's.

"I must be going now," she said, rising with an effort. "You'll come
down and see me sometimes, won't you, honey? I like young people. They
sort of cheer me up when I feel down. Come down this afternoon, if you
haven't got any place to go. Come down and I'll lend you some books."

I thanked her, and promised I would.

IV

WHEREIN FATE BRINGS ME GOOD FORTUNE IN ONE HAND AND DISASTER IN THE
OTHER

Monday morning--a cheerless, bleak Monday morning, with the rain falling
upon the slush-filled streets. I ate a hurried breakfast of bread and
butter and black coffee, locked my door, and started out with renewed
vigor to look for a job. I had learned by this time to use a little
discrimination in answering advertisements; and from now on I paid
attention to such prospective employers only as stated the nature of
their business and gave a street number.

I had also learned another important thing, and that was that I could
not afford to be too particular about the nature of my job, as I watched
my small capital diminish day by day, despite my frugality. I would have
been glad, now, to get work at anything that promised the chance of a
meager livelihood. Anything to get a foothold. The chief obstacle seemed
to be my inexperience. I could obtain plenty of work which in time
promised to pay me five dollars a week, but in the two or three months'
time necessary to acquire dexterity I should have starved to death, for
I had not money to carry me over this critical period.

Work was