And when
he was once more installed beside his faithful zinc-eater he whistled
and sang to it, as other workmen did to their own machines sometimes,
when things went well. His comrades in the shop glanced at him amusedly
now and then. They liked him, and he ate his lunch at noon with a group
of Socialists who approved of his ideas and talked of electing him to
their association.

The short days of the year had come, and it was dark before the whistles
blew. When the signal came, Bibbs went to the office, where he divested
himself of his overalls--his single divergence from the routine of his
fellow-workmen--and after that he used soap and water copiously. This
was his transformation scene: he passed into the office a rather frail
young working-man noticeably begrimed, and passed out of it to the
pavement a cheerfully pre-occupied sample of gentry, fastidious to the
point of elegance.

The sidewalk was crowded with the bearers of dinner-pails, men and
boys and women and girls from the work-rooms that closed at five. Many
hurried and some loitered; they went both east and west, jostling one
another, and Bibbs, turning his face homeward, was forced to go slowly.

Coming toward him, as slowly, through the crowd, a tall girl caught
sight of his long, thin figure and stood still until he had almost
passed her, for in the thick crowd and the thicker gloom he did not
recognize her, though his shoulder actually touched hers. He would have
gone by, but she laughed delightedly; and he stopped short, startled.
Two boys, one chasing the other, swept between them, and Bibbs stood
still, peering about him in deep perplexity. She leaned toward him.

"I knew YOU!" she said.

"Good heavens!" cried Bibbs. "I thought it was your voice coming out of
a star!"

"There's only smoke overhead," said Mary, and laughed again. "There
aren't any stars."

"Oh yes, there were--when you laughed!"

She took his arm, and they went on. "I've come to walk home with you,
Bibbs. I wanted to."

"But were you here in the--"

"In the dark? Yes! Waiting? Yes!"

Bibbs was radiant; he felt suffocated with happiness. He began to scold
her.

"But it's not safe, and I'm not worth it. You shouldn't have--you ought
to know better. What did--"

"I only waited about twelve seconds," she laughed. "I'd just got here."

"But to come all this way and to this part of town in the dark, you--"

"I was in this part of town already," she said. "At least, I was