t to have such things--other people had them.
_He_ had praised her, stroked her hair; said she was too pale, but no
matter, she'd brighten up by and by; she was his little bluebell he had
found in the woods, that he was going to make over into a red rose; she
should have everything she wanted, and go with him everywhere, pretty
soon--only be patient; if he could wait, couldn't she? And she had been
patient, without telling father about it, though somehow he found out;
she had waited in the road an hour more than once for a kind word and a
smile as he rode by; she had borne with her hard fare, and waited for
him to do the things he promised; and after she had to go into the dance
house, she hated it most for his sake--she hated him to kiss her, for
fear he'd find some taint on her lips of the place she went to; she
thought of him all the while, to keep up courage; of course it was for
father and Nobby she did it, but he helped her. It was all over now.

She came to the bridge over the river, and stopped on it. Just then she
happened to think of a choral her mother liked to sing: 'A mighty
fortress is our God.' A fortress--not hers. Did He sometimes turn
against people and crowd them--who crowded the girl at the
confectioner's window? Was there any God at all? Not in the city; only
two sorts of people were there, who either lived in fine houses, and had
no souls at all, or else went about the streets, and had lost them. Was
there any God out here? If there was, He wouldn't have let Mr. Cowles
turn her father off, and she wouldn't be out in the cold; there wasn't
any anywhere.

Jane looked down at the water. It was muddy, but it gave a wavering
reflection as the wind ruffled it; now and then a piece of driftwood
glided from under the bridge, and was borne along toward the factory
dam. Her mind flashed round to the factory, and home, and the Christmas
tree for to-morrow, and she laughed bitterly. Jump! She had lost _him_,
all that had been keeping her up so long--he never meant to marry her,
though he said so, and she believed him. Everything went with that love;
what was there left? What matter what came now? Jump! But father and
Nobby? She couldn't leave them unprovided for. Money, money! she must
have money, for _them_.

The bells began to chime very softly, as they always did at twelve
o'clock of this night in the year. They seemed to say: 'Come! come!
come!' She caught at the sound. There was money in the city, and o