is ability to suffer was modified. At last he saw that
the actors were beginning to arrive, and his nervous tension increased,
until it seemed as if he could not stand much more.

Once he thought he saw Carrie coming and moved forward, only to see that
he was mistaken.

"She can't be long, now," he said to himself, half fearing to encounter
her and equally depressed at the thought that she might have gone in by
another way. His stomach was so empty that it ached.

Individual after individual passed him, nearly all well dressed, almost
all indifferent. He saw coaches rolling by, gentlemen passing with
ladies--the evening's merriment was beginning in this region of theatres
and hotels.

Suddenly a coach rolled up and the driver jumped down to open the door.
Before Hurstwood could act, two ladies flounced across the broad walk
and disappeared in the stage door. He thought he saw Carrie, but it was
so unexpected, so elegant and far away, he could hardly tell. He waited
a while longer, growing feverish with want, and then seeing that the
stage door no longer opened, and that a merry audience was arriving, he
concluded it must have been Carrie and turned away.

"Lord," he said, hastening out of the street into which the more
fortunate were pouring, "I've got to get something."

At that hour, when Broadway is wont to assume its most interesting
aspect, a peculiar individual invariably took his stand at the corner
of Twenty-sixth Street and Broadway--a spot which is also intersected by
Fifth Avenue. This was the hour when the theatres were just beginning
to receive their patrons. Fire signs announcing the night's amusements
blazed on every hand. Cabs and carriages, their lamps gleaming like
yellow eyes, pattered by. Couples and parties of three and four freely
mingled in the common crowd, which poured by in a thick stream, laughing
and jesting. On Fifth Avenue were loungers--a few wealthy strollers,
a gentleman in evening dress with his lady on his arm, some club-men
passing from one smoking-room to another. Across the way the great
hotels showed a hundred gleaming windows, their cafes and billiard-rooms
filled with a comfortable, well-dressed, and pleasure-loving throng.
All about was the night, pulsating with the thoughts of pleasure and
exhilaration--the curious enthusiasm of a great city bent upon finding
joy in a thousand different ways.

This unique individual was no less than an ex-soldier turned
religionist, who