s the sponge for the
slate the Virgin was sending in answer to her prayers.

Suddenly, almost in her ear, she heard a low chuckle. She started
violently; in all her life she had never heard anything so evil, so
appalling, as that chuckle. It had come from the window at her left. She
turned mechanically, her spirits sinking with nameless terror.

Her expanded eyes fastened upon the open shutters. A woman sat behind
them; at least, she was cast in woman's mould. Her sticky black hair was
piled high in puffs,--an exaggeration of the mode of the day. Her thick
lips were painted a violent red. Rouge and whitewash covered the rest of
her face. There was black paint beneath her eyes. She wore a dirty pink
silk dress cut shamefully low.

The blood burned into Magdalena's cheeks. Of sin she had never heard.
She had no name for the creature before her, but her woman's instinct
whispered that she was vile.

The woman, who was regarding her malevolently, spoke. Magdalena did not
understand the purport of her words, but she turned and fled whence she
had come. As she did so, the chuckle, multiplied a dozen-fold,
surrounded her. She stopped for a second and cast a swift glance about
her, fascinated, with all her protesting horror.

Behind every shutter which met her gaze was the duplicate of the
creature who had startled her first. As they saw her dismay, their
chuckle broke into a roar, then split into vocabulary. Magdalena ran
faster than she had ever run in her life before. Suddenly she saw
Colonel Belmont sauntering down California Street, debonair as ever. His
long moustaches swept his shoulders. His soft hat was on the back of his
head, framing his bold handsome dissipated face. His frock-coat, but for
the lower button, was open, and stood out about the dazzling shirt, well
revealed by a low vest.

"Uncle Jack!" screamed Magdalena. "Uncle Jack!"

Colonel Belmont jumped as if a battery had ripped up the ground in front
of him. Then he dashed across the street. "Good God!" he shouted. "Good
God!" He caught Magdalena in his arms and carried her back to the shadow
of the cross.

"You two have been possessed by the devil of late," he began wrathfully,
but Magdalena interrupted him.

"No! no!" she exclaimed. "I didn't know there was anything different
there from any other street. I didn't mean to."

"Well, I don't suppose you did. You never know where you are in this
infernal town, anyhow. Where's your maid?"

But Magda