clusters, among them an occasional blue or
red one. From a corner came the notes of a piano-organ strumming out a
stirring march of Rossini's. The shadowy black figures of pedestrians
moved up, down, and across the embrowned roadway. Above the roofs was a
bank of livid mist, and higher a greenish-blue sky, in which stars were
visible, though its lower part was still pale with daylight, against
which rose chimney-pots in the form of elbows, prongs, and fists.

From the whole scene proceeded a ground rumble, miles in extent, upon
which individual rattles, voices, a tin whistle, the bark of a dog, rode
like bubbles on a sea. The whole noise impressed him with the sense that
no one in its enormous mass ever required rest.

In this illimitable ocean of humanity there was a unit of existence, his
Avice, wandering alone.

Pierston looked at his watch. She had been gone half an hour. It was
impossible to distinguish her at this distance, even if she approached.
He came inside, and putting on his hat determined to go out and seek
her. He reached the end of the street, and there was nothing of her to
be seen. She had the option of two or three routes from this point to
the post-office; yet he plunged at random into one, till he reached the
office to find it quite deserted. Almost distracted now by his anxiety
for her he retreated as rapidly as he had come, regaining home only to
find that she had not returned.

He recollected telling her that if she should ever lose her way she must
call a cab and drive home. It occurred to him that this was what she
would do now. He again went out upon the balcony; the dignified street
in which he lived was almost vacant, and the lamps stood like placed
sentinels awaiting some procession which tarried long. At a point under
him where the road was torn up there stood a red light, and at
the corner two men were talking in leisurely repose, as if sunning
themselves at noonday. Lovers of a feline disposition, who were never
seen by daylight, joked and darted at each other in and out of area
gates.

His attention was fixed on the cabs, and he held his breath as the
hollow clap of each horse's hoofs drew near the front of the house, only
to go onward into the square. The two lamps of each vehicle afar dilated
with its near approach, and seemed to swerve towards him. It was Avice
surely? No, it passed by.

Almost frantic he again descended and let himself out of the house,
moving towards a more