of all the people.

I was thunderstruck. What a madman! I expected to hear the crowd roar at
him, to see the police ride up and drag him away.

But nobody moved; there was a great stillness; and before I knew it my
own feelings blended with the crowd's. It seemed to me that Barber was
in his right place there: this mean shabby man, walking solitary, was
what we had all come to see. For his passage the street had been
cleared, the guards deployed, the houses decked.

It all sounds wild, I know, but the whole scene made so deep an
impression on my mind that I am perfectly certain as to what I felt
while Barber was walking there. He walked slowly, with no trace of his
usual shuffling uncertain gait, but with a balanced cadenced step, and
as he turned his head calmly from side to side his face seemed
transfigured. It was the face of a genius, an evil genius, unjust and
ruthless--a brutal god. I felt, and no doubt everyone in the crowd felt,
that between us and that lonely man there was some immense difference
and distance of outlook and will and desire.

I could follow his progress for several yards. Then I lost sight of him.
Almost immediately afterward I heard a tumult--shouts and uproar--

Then the royal procession swept by.

I said to Mr. G.M., "Whether he was arrested that day, or knocked down
by the cavalry and taken to a hospital, I don't know. I have not seen or
heard of him till I got that letter on Wednesday."

Mr. G.M., who is now one of the managers of a well-known tobacconist
firm, had been in the same office as Barber, and notwithstanding the
disparity of age and position, had always shown a kindly interest in him
and befriended him when he could. Accordingly, when I received a letter
from Barber begging in very lamentable terms to visit him at an address
in Kent, I thought it prudent to consult this gentleman before sending
any reply. He proposed very amiably that we should meet at Charing Cross
Station on the following Saturday afternoon and travel in to Kent
together. In the train we discussed Barber's case. I related all I knew
of the young man and we compared our observations.

"Certainly," said Mr. G.M., "what you tell me is rather astonishing. But
the explanation is simple as far as poor Barber is concerned. You say he
has been often ill lately? Naturally, this has affected his brain and
spirits. What is a little more difficult to explain is the impression
left by his acts on you and other spec