being the first to tell
him so."

She glanced at him, for a moment, almost in wonder. Was he indeed so
small, so insignificant?

"There are many paths," she said softly, "which lead to the light. Ours
may be best suited to ourselves but it may not be the only one. It is
not for you or for me to judge."

Richard Graveling talked on, doing his cause harm with every word he
uttered. Julia relapsed into silence; soon she did not even hear his
words. They rode for some distance on an omnibus through the city, now
shrouded and silent. At the corner of the street where she had her
humble lodgings, he left her.

"Well, I have had my say," he declared. "Think it over. I'll meet you
out of work to-morrow, if I can. We shall have had a talk with Mr.
Maraton by that time!"

She left him with a smile upon her lips. His absence seemed like an
immense, a wonderful relief. Once more her thoughts were free.

CHAPTER V

But were they free, after all, these thoughts of hers?

Julia rose at daybreak and, fully dressed, stood watching the red light
eastwards staining the smoke-hung city. Her little room with its plain
deal furniture, its uncarpeted floor, was the perfection of neatness,
her bed already made, her little pots of flowers upon the window-sill,
jealously watered. In the still smaller sitting-room, visible through
the open door, she could hear the hissing of her kettle upon the little
spirit lamp. Her hat and gloves were already out. Everything was in
readiness for her early start.

She had slept very much as usual, and had got up only a little earlier
than she was accustomed to. Yet there was a difference. Only so short
a time ago, the incidents of her own daily life, even the possibilities
connected with it, had seemed utterly insignificant, so little worthy of
notice. Morning and night her heart had been full of the sufferings of
those amongst whom she worked. The flagrant, hateful injustice of this
ill-arranged world had throbbed in her pulses, absorbed her interests,
had occupied the whole horizon of her life. To marry Richard Graveling
might sometime be advisable, in the interests of their joint labours.
And suddenly it had become impossible. It had become utterly
impossible! Why?

The red light in the sky had faded, the sun was now fully risen. Julia
looked out of her window and was dimly conscious of the change. The
heart which had throbbed for the sorrows of others was to thrill now on
its own account.