en the
train on the other side. No, it ain't very far. Just ask any one down
there. They'll tell you."

It was a chance; but Minna, after walking down to the ferry slips, found
that the round trip would cost her twenty cents. If the journey
proved fruitless, only a dime would stand between her and the end
of everything. But it was a chance; the only one that had, as yet,
presented itself. She made the trip.

And upon the street-railway cars, upon the ferryboats, on the
locomotives and way-coaches of the local trains, she was reminded of
her father's death, and of the giant power that had reduced her to her
present straits, by the letters, P. and S. W. R. R. To her mind, they
occurred everywhere. She seemed to see them in every direction. She
fancied herself surrounded upon every hand by the long arms of the
monster.

Minute after minute, her hunger gnawed at her. She could not keep
her mind from it. As she sat on the boat, she found herself curiously
scanning the faces of the passengers, wondering how long since such
a one had breakfasted, how long before this other should sit down to
lunch.

When Minna descended from the train, at Lorin on the other side of the
Bay, she found that the place was one of those suburban towns, not yet
become fashionable, such as may be seen beyond the outskirts of any
large American city. All along the line of the railroad thereabouts,
houses, small villas--contractors' ventures--were scattered, the
advantages of suburban lots and sites for homes being proclaimed in
seven-foot letters upon mammoth bill-boards close to the right of
way. Without much trouble, Minna found the house to which she had been
directed, a pretty little cottage, set back from the street and shaded
by palms, live oaks, and the inevitable eucalyptus. Her heart warmed at
the sight of it. Oh, to find a little niche for herself here, a home,
a refuge from those horrible city streets, from the rat of famine, with
its relentless tooth. How she would work, how strenuously she would
endeavour to please, how patient of rebuke she would be, how faithful,
how conscientious. Nor were her pretensions altogether false; upon her,
while at home, had devolved almost continually the care of the baby
Hilda, her little sister. She knew the wants and needs of children.

Her heart beating, her breath failing, she rang the bell set squarely in
the middle of the front door.

The lady of the house herself, an elderly lady, with pleasa