low and hesitating, sometimes swift and hurried, oftenest a
steady, quiet step. Where do all these footsteps lead, she thought. What
were the people doing who thronged the elevated railroad, crowding one
upon another so that it was difficult to breathe if one pushed one's way
among them? And the surface cars were filled with a hurrying crowd,
while underneath the city the subways carried their millions of women
and men. Was there any need of moving about so much? It might be
necessary to travel to and from your work, but why go on and on?
Supposing all these cars should stop suddenly, should cease their jar
and clang? There would still be the footsteps in the street, for man was
always moving, some way, somewhere. Had not Tom moved? And now she, too,
was moving, to the whir of the machine, to the crash of the advancing
train, moving through the new, clamorous world.

"And you didn't sleep well last night, darling," Kathleen said to her as
she came in to breakfast. "Your eyes are looking tired this lovely
morning. I'm thinking the trains kept you awake. Don't notice them.
They'll go on and never once jump the tracks, but make big profits for
their owners and a fine place to hang on the strap for you and me.
You'll soon be used to the clatter. Once I heard it, but now I don't
mind it any more than I do the sparrows. Take a help of the oatmeal, and
tell me what you'll like for dinner, for I'm staying home to-night."

CHAPTER XIV

Hertha, when she slipped from Miss Witherspoon's charge, experienced no
difficulty in finding a suitable dwelling place in New York. She had not
studied for years in a school conducted by northern teachers without
learning of the philanthropies that were showered upon people in the
North. The Young Women's Christian Association was for just such girls
as she, and therefore, under the direction of a friendly policeman, she
soon reached headquarters and was given temporary shelter. As she walked
about in the comfortable rooms, luxurious in her eyes, she felt that she
had indeed entered the white world, her lawful heritage; and if it was
hard to lose all family ties--mother, sister, brother, swept away as
though in some swift disaster of nature--on the other hand, life of a
sudden had become strangely simplified. How easy it was to move through
the world if you were white! She had always been conspicuous, a mark for
astonished comment when with her black brother and sister, for whispered
co