streets.

One day, looking down the ad. columns of the "Evening World," he saw
where a new play was at the Casino. Instantly, he came to a mental halt.
Carrie had gone! He remembered seeing a poster of her only yesterday,
but no doubt it was one left uncovered by the new signs. Curiously, this
fact shook him up. He had almost to admit that somehow he was depending
upon her being in the city. Now she was gone. He wondered how this
important fact had skipped him. Goodness knows when she would be back
now. Impelled by a nervous fear, he rose and went into the dingy hall,
where he counted his remaining money, unseen. There were but ten dollars
in all.

He wondered how all these other lodging-house people around him
got along. They didn't seem to do anything. Perhaps they
begged--unquestionably they did. Many was the dime he had given to
such as they in his day. He had seen other men asking for money on the
streets. Maybe he could get some that way. There was horror in this
thought.

Sitting in the lodging-house room, he came to his last fifty cents. He
had saved and counted until his health was affected. His stoutness
had gone. With it, even the semblance of a fit in his clothes. Now he
decided he must do something, and, walking about, saw another day go by,
bringing him down to his last twenty cents--not enough to eat for the
morrow.

Summoning all his courage, he crossed to Broadway and up to the Broadway
Central hotel. Within a block he halted, undecided. A big, heavy-faced
porter was standing at one of the side entrances, looking out. Hurstwood
purposed to appeal to him. Walking straight up, he was upon him before
he could turn away.

"My friend," he said, recognising even in his plight the man's
inferiority, "is there anything about this hotel that I could get to
do?"

The porter stared at him the while he continued to talk.

"I'm out of work and out of money and I've got to get something,--it
doesn't matter what. I don't care to talk about what I've been, but if
you'd tell me how to get something to do, I'd be much obliged to you. It
wouldn't matter if it only lasted a few days just now. I've got to have
something."

The porter still gazed, trying to look indifferent. Then, seeing that
Hurstwood was about to go on, he said:

"I've nothing to do with it. You'll have to ask inside."

Curiously, this stirred Hurstwood to further effort.

"I thought you might tell me."

The fellow shook his head irritabl