sked Carrie.

"A friend of mine from Chicago."

The whole of this conversation was such a shock that, coming as it did
after all the other worry of the past week, it sufficed to induce a deep
gloom and moral revulsion in Hurstwood. What hurt him most was the fact
that he was being pursued as a thief. He began to see the nature of that
social injustice which sees but one side--often but a single point in
a long tragedy. All the newspapers noted but one thing, his taking the
money. How and wherefore were but indifferently dealt with. All the
complications which led up to it were unknown. He was accused without
being understood.

Sitting in his room with Carrie the same day, he decided to send the
money back. He would write Fitzgerald and Moy, explain all, and then
send it by express. Maybe they would forgive him. Perhaps they would
ask him back. He would make good the false statement he had made about
writing them. Then he would leave this peculiar town.

For an hour he thought over this plausible statement of the tangle. He
wanted to tell them about his wife, but couldn't. He finally narrowed it
down to an assertion that he was light-headed from entertaining friends,
had found the safe open, and having gone so far as to take the money
out, had accidentally closed it. This act he regretted very much. He was
sorry he had put them to so much trouble. He would undo what he could by
sending the money back--the major portion of it. The remainder he would
pay up as soon as he could. Was there any possibility of his being
restored? This he only hinted at.

The troubled state of the man's mind may be judged by the very
construction of this letter. For the nonce he forgot what a painful
thing it would be to resume his old place, even if it were given him. He
forgot that he had severed himself from the past as by a sword, and that
if he did manage to in some way reunite himself with it, the jagged line
of separation and reunion would always show. He was always forgetting
something--his wife, Carrie, his need of money, present situation, or
something--and so did not reason clearly. Nevertheless, he sent the
letter, waiting a reply before sending the money.

Meanwhile, he accepted his present situation with Carrie, getting what
joy out of it he could.

Out came the sun by noon, and poured a golden flood through their open
windows. Sparrows were twittering. There were laughter and song in the
air. Hurstwood could not keep his