f
that sort which replied to music.

Thea found herself listening for the coughing behind her and not hearing
it. She turned cautiously and looked back over the head-rest of her
chair. The poor girl had fallen asleep. Thea looked at her intently. Why
was she so afraid of men? Why did she shrink into herself and avert her
face whenever a man passed her chair? Thea thought she knew; of course,
she knew. How horrible to waste away like that, in the time when one
ought to be growing fuller and stronger and rounder every day. Suppose
there were such a dark hole open for her, between to-night and that
place where she was to meet herself? Her eyes narrowed. She put her hand
on her breast and felt how warm it was; and within it there was a full,
powerful pulsation. She smiled--though she was ashamed of it--with the
natural contempt of strength for weakness, with the sense of physical
security which makes the savage merciless. Nobody could die while they
felt like that inside. The springs there were wound so tight that it
would be a long while before there was any slack in them. The life in
there was rooted deep. She was going to have a few things before she
died. She realized that there were a great many trains dashing east and
west on the face of the continent that night, and that they all carried
young people who meant to have things. But the difference was that SHE
WAS GOING TO GET THEM! That was all. Let people try to stop her! She
glowered at the rows of feckless bodies that lay sprawled in the chairs.
Let them try it once! Along with the yearning that came from some deep
part of her, that was selfless and exalted, Thea had a hard kind of
cockiness, a determination to get ahead. Well, there are passages in
life when that fierce, stubborn self-assertion will stand its ground
after the nobler feeling is overwhelmed and beaten under.

Having told herself once more that she meant to grab a few things, Thea
went to sleep.

She was wakened in the morning by the sunlight, which beat fiercely
through the glass of the car window upon her face. She made herself as
clean as she could, and while the people all about her were getting cold
food out of their lunch-baskets she escaped into the dining-car. Her
thrift did not go to the point of enabling her to carry a lunchbasket.
At that early hour there were few people in the dining-car. The linen
was white and fresh, the darkies were trim and smiling, and the sunlight
gleamed pleasant