the same class. Wade's father was
not a Boston man, but his mother was a Bellingham, and he was nurtured
in the traditions of Hilary's social life. Both had broken with them:
Wade not so much when he became a ritualist as Hilary when he turned his
back on manufacturing.

They were now not without a kind of pride in standing so close to the
calamity they were fated witnesses of, and in the midst of their
sympathy they had a curiosity which concerned itself with one of the
victims because she was a young and beautiful girl. Their pity not so
much forgot as ignored Northwick's elder daughter, who was a plain, sick
old maid, and followed the younger with a kind of shrinking and dread of
her doom which Matt tried to put into words.

"I assure you if I couldn't manage to pull away from it at moments, I
don't see how I could stand it. I had a sense of personal disgrace, when
I met that poor girl, with what I had in my mind. I felt as if I were
taking some base advantage of her in knowing that about her father, and
I was so glad when she went off with Louise and left me to struggle with
my infamous information alone. I hurried Louise away with her in the
most cowardly haste. We don't any of us realize it, as you say. Why,
just imagine! It means sorrow, it means shame, it means poverty. They
will have to leave their house, their home; she will have to give up
everything to the company. It isn't merely friends and her place in the
world; it's money, it's something to eat and wear, it's a roof over her
head!"

Wade refused the extreme view portrayed by his friend's figures. "Of
course she won't be allowed to come to want."

"Of course. But there's really no measuring the sinuous reach of a
disaster like this. It strikes from a coil that seems to involve
everything."

"What are you going to do if you get bad news?" asked Wade.

"Ah, I don't know! I must tell her, somehow; unless you think that
you--" Wade gave a start which Matt interpreted aright; he laughed
nervously. "No, no! It's for me to do it. I know that; unless I can get
Louise. Ah! I wonder what that is."

They were walking back toward the station again, and Matt had seen a
head and arm projected from the office window, and a hand waving a sheet
of yellow paper. It seemed meant for them. They both began to run, and
then they checked themselves; and walked as fast as they could.

"We must refer the matter to your sister," said Wade, "and if she thinks
best, reme