d
daring. No one had observed him. He was quite alone. No one could tell
what he wished to do. He could work this thing out for himself.

The imbibation of the evening had not yet worn off. Moist as was his
brow, tremble as did his hand once after the nameless fright, he was
still flushed with the fumes of liquor. He scarcely noticed that the
time was passing. He went over his situation once again, his eye always
seeing the money in a lump, his mind always seeing what it would do. He
strolled into his little room, then to the door, then to the safe again.
He put his hand on the knob and opened it. There was the money! Surely
no harm could come from looking at it!

He took out the drawer again and lifted the bills. They were so smooth,
so compact, so portable. How little they made, after all. He decided he
would take them. Yes, he would. He would put them in his pocket. Then he
looked at that and saw they would not go there. His hand satchel! To be
sure, his hand satchel. They would go in that--all of it would. No one
would think anything of it either. He went into the little office and
took it from the shelf in the corner. Now he set it upon his desk and
went out toward the safe. For some reason he did not want to fill it out
in the big room. First he brought the bills and then the loose receipts
of the day. He would take it all. He put the empty drawers back and
pushed the iron door almost to, then stood beside it meditating.

The wavering of a mind under such circumstances is an almost
inexplicable thing, and yet it is absolutely true. Hurstwood could not
bring himself to act definitely. He wanted to think about it--to ponder
over it, to decide whether it were best. He was drawn by such a keen
desire for Carrie, driven by such a state of turmoil in his own affairs
that he thought constantly it would be best, and yet he wavered. He did
not know what evil might result from it to him--how soon he might come
to grief. The true ethics of the situation never once occurred to him,
and never would have, under any circumstances.

After he had all the money in the handbag, a revulsion of feeling seized
him. He would not do it--no! Think of what a scandal it would make. The
police! They would be after him. He would have to fly, and where? Oh,
the terror of being a fugitive from justice! He took out the two boxes
and put all the money back. In his excitement he forgot what he was
doing, and put the sums in the wrong boxes. As