sh as if he hadn't
spent eighteen hours in the train. He said I looked fresh, too; but if
I did it must have been excitement, as I'd written half the night and
dreamed desperately the other half, about Potter Parker--dressed like
one of those Red Indians they have for cigar signs in New
York--pursuing me with a jewelled tomahawk.

Mr. Brett had insisted on my telegraphing to Sally before we left New
York, to say I was coming, and asking her to meet the train, therefore,
we were surprised not to find her at the station. I was rather anxious,
and so I could see was Mr. Brett. He thought he had better not drive in
a cab with me to the friend's house where she was staying, but he told
me the name of a hotel where he would go at once, and made me promise
that I would send him a line by the cabman to say whether everything
was well with me.

"Miss Woodburn probably has a headache, or perhaps is out of town for
the day," said he. "It can't be anything else; still, I shall be a
little uneasy till I hear. And you know I hold myself absolutely at
your service."

"What about your friend whose business you've come to attend to?" I
asked. "I mustn't be so selfish as to interfere with that, whatever
happens."

"Oh, I can attend to both interests," he assured me, "without
neglecting either. I shan't need to let one interfere with the other.
And remember, I won't stir out of my hotel till I've had your note."

Bereft of him, Chicago overawed me, and took my breath away. It is a
good thing I saw New York first, for if I'd come straight from England
with only memories of peaceful London to support me through the ordeal,
I don't know but it might have affected my brain.

For one thing, there was a high wind which seemed to have a fancy for
making off with your hat. It was an exciting sort of wind, too, which
played with your nerves; but whether it was that, or whether something
extraordinary was happening just out of sight round the corner of
nearly every street we passed, and all the people we saw were tearing
like mad to the spot, I don't know, but anyhow they seemed a good deal
agitated, and there were more varieties of startling street noises even
than in New York. The cable cars were like live, untamed things that
scorned to wait the convenience of wretched little human beings. Such
women and girls as had performed the feat of clambering on board didn't
dream for a moment that the creatures might be induced to stop and let
th