k her unconscious, for she
had never reasoned more clearly. Now her ankles were submerged, now her
knees, now her hips, now it was at her chest, now her throat.

"It is all over--you can begin now!" she said deeply, and in order to
save herself from a sickening struggle, she bent her soul, as one bends
one's body to dive under a combing breaker, and dipped under the wave
that threatened her.

Just as one slips through the breathless surf she slipped through, and
left them. She heard someone breathing heavily in the room she had left
and hurried away from the horrid sound, intending to find her room and
change the loose gray gown and the soft fur-lined boots she had put on
for her journey to the terrible room. But the hoarse, heavy breathing
followed her and threw her into a panic of fear, so that she turned into
a side corridor and ran blindly down it, stumbling through a little
narrow door at the end of it. The door swung to with a long sigh and she
heard the breathing no more.

As she rested in the little room, which was perfectly empty, a door at
the other side of it opened suddenly and a woman rushed in. She, too,
had on a long gown, and her dark hair hung in two thick braids, one over
each shoulder.

"Can you tell me the way out?" she said quickly, "I can't stay here--I
can't breathe."

"But you aren't dressed--we must find our rooms first."

"No, no! There are nurses everywhere. We shall be seen! Come this way,"
and she pointed, shaking, to a long window that opened on a fire escape.
The steps were broad and easy; a moment and they were in the street.

"Here is my carriage--I saw it from the window. Let me take you where
you want to go," said the woman; "home, directly, James."

The door of the carriage was swinging wide; they had only to step in. As
they sank on the seat the fat coachman leaned out and slammed it.

"Drat that door!" he said loudly. "She'll have to go back to the factory
again." The footman made some remark and the coachman swore angrily.

"I think I see myself standing here two hours!" he growled. "The gray's
nervous as it is. I'm going up through the Park and let them out a
little at the other end."

The carriage started. The woman half rose in it and tapped imperiously
on the glass.

"James! James!" she cried, but no one answered her. She pressed the knob
of the door, but it did not turn.

"I can't make him hear?" she complained, "what shall I do? What do you
think is the matter