myself of her place for a few days. As I was waiting on
this corner, I saw a face in the crowd that attracted me. It was, as I
afterward learned, the face of a club man, who had, on this Sunday
evening, drifted with the crowd and landed at this spot. He, too, had
stopped and gazed around him, idly. Several times he started as if to
move on, but he apparently thought this place as good as any other, and
so remained. He seemed not to know what to do, to be tired of himself.
His face was quite the ordinary American type, clean-cut features,
rather thin and cold, with honest grey eyes, but, in his case, a mouth
rather sensuous and a general air of curiosity and life which interested
me.

"I was sufficiently interested to allow several cars to pass by, while I
watched him. I noticed by the way he looked at the women who passed that
he was familiar with their kind. Several gay girls tried to attract his
attention, but he turned away, bored. Finally I began to walk away, and
then for the first time his face lighted up with interest. I was
apparently something new. I wore a straw hat, and a thin coat buttoned
tightly about my chest. My thin little face was almost ghastly with
pallor, and it made a strange contrast with my full red lips, which were
almost scarlet, and my big glowing black eyes. He probably saw that I
was poor, dressed as I was at that season. Why is it that for many rich
men a working girl half fed and badly dressed is so much more attractive
than a fine woman of the town or a nice lady?

"As I passed him, he said, 'Good evening,' in a low and timid tone, as
if he thought I surely would not answer. I think it surprised him when I
looked him full in the face and replied, 'Good evening!' He still
hesitated, until he saw in my face what I knew to be almost an appealing
look. I knew that in the depths of my eyes a smile was lurking, and I
wanted to bring it forth! A moment later, I smiled indeed, when he
stepped forward, lifted his hat, and asked with assurance: 'May I walk
with you? Are you going anywhere?'

"'Yes, I am going somewhere,' I said, smiling. 'To a meeting place in
Adams Street to hear a lecture.'

"'Oh, I say, girlie,' he cried, 'You're jollying. That must be a very
dull thing for you, a lecture.'

"'Sometimes it's funny,' I said. But I did not say much about it, as I
had never yet been to a lecture. I made up for that later in my life! I
of course had no intention of going to this.

"'Come,' h