nd I have to direct 'em where. It's surprising how bright they
are, oftentimes. The Irish are the hardest to get pointed right; the
Italians are quick; and the Chinese! My, they're the brightest of all.
If a Chinaman comes in for a ticket up the Harlem road, all I've got to
do is to set my hand so, and _so_!" She faced south and set her hand
westward; then she faced west, and set her hand northward. "They
understand in a minute, and they're off like a flash."

As if she had done now all that sympathy demanded for Cornelia, the
janitress went about some work in another part of the room and left the
girl to herself. But Cornelia knew that she was keeping a friendly eye
on her, and in the shelter of her presence, she tried to gather courage
to make that start into the street alone, which she must finally make
and which she was so foolish to keep postponing. She had written to the
landlady of her boarding house that she should arrive on such a day, at
such an hour; and here was the day, and she was letting the hour go by,
and very likely the landlady would give her room to some one else. Or,
if the expressman who took her check on the train, should get there
with her trunk first, the landlady might refuse to take it. Cornelia
did not know how people acted about such things in New York. She ought
to go, and she tried to rise; but she was morally so unable that it was
as if she were physically unable.

People came and went; some of them more than once, and Cornelia began
to feel that they noticed her and recognized her, but still she could
not move. Suddenly a figure appeared at the door, the sight of which
armed her with the power of flight. She knew that it was Ludlow, from
the photograph he had lately sent Mrs. Burton, with the pointed beard
and the branching moustache which he had grown since they met last, and
she jumped up to rush past him where he stood peering sharply round at
the different faces in the room, and finally letting his eyes rest in
eager question on hers.

He came towards her, and then it was too late to escape. "Miss
Saunders? _Oh_, I'm so glad! I've been out of town, and I've only just
got Mrs. Burton's telegram. Have I kept you waiting long?"

"Not very," said Cornelia. She might have said that he had not kept her
waiting at all; the time that she had waited, without being kept by
him, was now like no time at all; but she could not say anything more,
and she wished to cry, she felt so glad and safe