ust of chill air swept up
the aisles, and Miss Sophie shivered not from cold, but from
nervousness.

But darkness was falling, and soon the lights would be lowered, and the
great massive doors would be closed; so, gathering her thin little cape
about her frail shoulders, Miss Sophie hurried out, and along the
brilliant noisy streets home.

It was a wretched, lonely little room, where the cracks let the
boisterous wind whistle through, and the smoky, grimy walls looked
cheerless and unhomelike. A miserable little room in a miserable
little cottage in one of the squalid streets of the Third District that
nature and the city fathers seemed to have forgotten.

As bare and comfortless as the room was Miss Sophie's life. She rented
these four walls from an unkempt little Creole woman, whose progeny
seemed like the promised offspring of Abraham. She scarcely kept the
flickering life in her pale little body by the unceasing toil of a pair
of bony hands, stitching, stitching, ceaselessly, wearingly, on the
bands and pockets of trousers. It was her bread, this monotonous,
unending work; and though whole days and nights constant labour brought
but the most meagre recompense, it was her only hope of life.

She sat before the little charcoal brazier and warmed her transparent,
needle-pricked fingers, thinking meanwhile of the strange events of the
day. She had been up town to carry the great, black bundle of coarse
pants and vests to the factory and to receive her small pittance, and
on the way home stopped in at the Jesuit Church to say her little
prayer at the altar of the calm white Virgin. There had been a
wondrous burst of music from the great organ as she knelt there, an
overpowering perfume of many flowers, the glittering dazzle of many
lights, and the dainty frou-frou made by the silken skirts of wedding
guests. So Miss Sophie stayed to the wedding; for what feminine heart,
be it ever so old and seared, does not delight in one? And why should
not a poor little Creole old maid be interested too?

Then the wedding party had filed in solemnly, to the rolling, swelling
tones of the organ. Important-looking groomsmen; dainty, fluffy,
white-robed maids; stately, satin-robed, illusion-veiled bride, and
happy groom. She leaned forward to catch a better glimpse of their
faces. "Ah!"--

Those near the Virgin's altar who heard a faint sigh and rustle on the
steps glanced curiously as they saw a slight black-robed figur