eled away, each to its customary street-corner. Now the lighting of
fires entails the creation of smoke, and whilst these ten or twelve
ovens were getting ready to bake potatoes the Court was in a condition
not easily described. A single lamp existed for the purpose of giving
light to the alley, and at no time did this serve much more than to
make darkness visible; at present the blind man would have fared as
well in that retreat as he who had eyes, and the marvel was how those
who lived there escaped suffocation. In the Gardens themselves volumes
of dense smoke every now and then came driven along by the cold gusts;
the air had a stifling smell and a bitter taste.

Pennyloaf found nothing remarkable in this phenomenon; it is hard to
say what would have struck her as worthy of indignant comment in her
world of little ease. But near the entrance to the Court, dimly
discernible amid sagging fumes, was a cluster of people, and as
everything of that kind just now excited her apprehensions, she drew
near to see what was happening. The gathering was around Mad Jack; he
looked more than usually wild, and with one hand raised above his head
was on the point of relating a vision he had had the night before.

'Don't laugh! Don't any of you laugh; for as sure as I live it was an
angel stood in the room and spoke to me. There was a light such as none
of you ever saw, and the angel stood in the midst of it. And he said to
me: "Listen, whilst I reveal to you the truth, that you may know where
you arc and what you are; and this is done for a great purpose." And I
fell down on my knees; but never a word could I have spoken. Then the
angel said: "You are passing through a state of punishment. You, and
all the poor among whom you live; all those who are in suffering of
body and darkness of mind, were once rich people, with every blessing
the world can bestow, with every opportunity of happiness in yourselves
and of making others happy. Because you made an ill use of your wealth,
because you were selfish and hard-hearted and oppressive and sinful in
every kind of indulgence--therefore after death you received the reward
of wickedness. This life you are now leading is that of the damned;
this place to which you are confined is Hell! There is no escape for
you. From poor you shall become poorer; the older you grow the lower
shall you sink in want and misery; at the end there is waiting for you,
one and all, a death in abandonment and despai