the street took a deep breath and mopped
his brow; but he had not proceeded half a block before he hesitated,
retraced his steps, reentered the vestibule, and stooped to peer at the
cards under the speaking tubes. Cheaply printed in large script, was the
name of the tenant of the second floor rear,--MISS KATE MARCY....

In crossing Tower Street he was frightened by the sharp clanging of a
great electric car that roared past him, aflame with light. His brain
had seemingly ceased to work, and he stumbled at the curb, for he was
very tired. The events of the day no longer differentiated themselves
in his mind but lay, a composite weight, upon his heart. At length he
reached the silent parish house, climbed the stairs and searched in his
pocket for the key of his rooms. The lock yielded, but while feeling for
the switch he tripped and almost fell over an obstruction on the floor.

The flooding light revealed his travelling-bags, as he had piled them,
packed and ready to go to the station.

Volume 4.

CHAPTER XIII. WINTERBOURNE

I

Hodder fell asleep from sheer exhaustion, awaking during the night at
occasional intervals to recall chimerical dreams in which the events
of the day before were reflected, but caricatured and distorted. Alison
Parr was talking to the woman in the flat, and both were changed, and
yet he identified both: and on another occasion he saw a familiar figure
surrounded by romping, ragged children--a figure which turned out to be
Eldon Parr's!

Finally he was aroused by what seemed a summons from the unknown--the
prolonged morning whistle of the shoe factory. For a while he lay as one
benumbed, and the gradual realization that ensued might be likened to
the straining of stiffened wounds. Little by little he reconstructed,
until the process became unbearable, and then rose from his bed with one
object in mind,--to go to Horace Bentley. At first--he seized upon the
excuse that Mr. Bentley would wish to hear the verdict of Dr. Jarvis,
but immediately abandoned it as dishonest, acknowledging the true
reason, that in all the--world the presence of this one man alone might
assuage in some degree the terror in his soul. For the first time in his
life, since childhood, he knew a sense of utter dependence upon another
human being. He felt no shame, would make no explanation for his early
visit.

He turned up Tower, deliberately avoiding Dalton Street in its lower
part, reached Mr. Bentley'