nd her eyes fell on the clock.

"How long the night is! And I know I shan't sleep tomorrow. Some one told
me my father used to lie sleepless and think of horrors. And he was not
wicked, only unfortunate--and I see now how he must have suffered, lying
alone with his thoughts! But I am bad--a bad girl--all my thoughts are
bad--I have always had bad people about me. Is that any excuse? I thought
I could manage my own life--I was proud--proud! but now I'm on their
level----"

Sobs shook her, and she bowed to them like a tree in a dry storm.

Gerty knelt beside her, waiting, with the patience born of experience,
till this gust of misery should loosen fresh speech. She had first
imagined some physical shock, some peril of the crowded streets, since
Lily was presumably on her way home from Carry Fisher's; but she now saw
that other nerve-centres were smitten, and her mind trembled back from
conjecture.

Lily's sobs ceased, and she lifted her head.

"There are bad girls in your slums. Tell me--do they ever pick themselves
up? Ever forget, and feel as they did before?"

"Lily! you mustn't speak so--you're dreaming."

"Don't they always go from bad to worse? There's no turning back--your
old self rejects you, and shuts you out."

She rose, stretching her arms as if in utter physical weariness. "Go to
bed, dear! You work hard and get up early. I'll watch here by the fire,
and you'll leave the light, and your door open. All I want is to feel
that you are near me." She laid both hands on Gerty's shoulders, with a
smile that was like sunrise on a sea strewn with wreckage.

"I can't leave you, Lily. Come and lie on my bed. Your hands are
frozen--you must undress and be made warm." Gerty paused with sudden
compunction. "But Mrs. Peniston--it's past midnight! What will she think?"

"She goes to bed. I have a latch-key. It doesn't matter--I can't go back
there."

"There's no need to: you shall stay here. But you must tell me where you
have been. Listen, Lily--it will help you to speak!" She regained Miss
Bart's hands, and pressed them against her. "Try to tell me--it will
clear your poor head. Listen--you were dining at Carry Fisher's." Gerty
paused and added with a flash of heroism: "Lawrence Selden went from here
to find you."

At the word, Lily's face melted from locked anguish to the open misery of
a child. Her lips trembled and her gaze widened with tears.

"He went to find me? And I missed him! Oh, Gerty, he trie