n, she knew, in arranging this silver on covered tables in an
empty room, and she could see plainly the old lady's animated movements,
the careful eye with which she estimated the value of each gift, and
the expression of approval or contempt with which she grouped it
according to its importance. Then she thought of Kemper held to his love
by the embarrassment of these presents, by the hopelessness of returning
them, and by his conventional horror of "getting into print," and at the
picture the laugh grew almost hysterical on her lips. How sordid it all
was! This array of silver, Mrs. Payne's reproachful comic mask, and
Kemper, pulling his moustache as he stood upon the hearthrug, all
whirled confusedly in the dimly lighted street before her. She felt her
knees tremble, and while this weakness lasted it seemed to her that it
would be better to go back and get warm again, and submit to anything
they forced upon her. Her flesh, in its weakness, would have yielded,
but something more powerful than the flesh--the soul within which she
had so long rejected--struggled on after the impulses of the body had
surrendered.

The lights grew suddenly blurred before her eyes, and looking up, she
found that she had reached a ferry, and that a crowd from a neighbouring
factory was hurrying through the open doors into the boat which was
about to put off. For the first time it occurred to her that she might
leave the city; and going inside she bought a ticket and followed the
people who were rushing across the gangway. Where it would take her she
had no idea, but when after a few minutes the boat had crossed to the
other side, she went out again with the crowd, and then turning in the
direction where there appeared to be open country, she walked on more
rapidly as if her thoughts flew straight ahead into the broader spaces
of the horizon.

At first there were rows of streets, a few scattered shops in among the
houses, and groups of workmen from the factories lounging upon the
sidewalk. A child, with a crooked back, in a red dress, ran across the
pavement in front of her and stopped with an exclamation before a window
which contained a display of pink and white candy. Then a second child
joined her, and the two fell to discussing the various highly coloured
sweets arrayed on little fancy squares of paper behind the glass. As
Laura watched them, pausing breathlessly in her walk, every trivial
detail of this incident seemed to her to posse