Time and again he nerved himself up to
entering the restaurant, only to feel cold sweat break out on his
forehead as he lifted his foot. He would return to the lodging house,
change his clothes, and see her when he ate at noon. He would never
let her see him in those now hated new clothes. He had squandered
thirty-eight dollars for her, and he had only twenty-nine left.

Down the street from the heart of the city came a sudden clangor.
Vehicles were rushed close to the curbs. Up a side street a new jangle
of bells broke out. Never had Hiram seen a city fire, but at once he
knew that such was happening.

A hook-and-ladder company rattled past with clamor and gongs and
clatter of hoofbeats. People poured from the doors of buildings to
watch. Men rushed to the curb and looked after the firemen; the women
stood near the buildings, under the awnings, shading their eyes and
standing on tiptoes. Quickly the sidewalk filled. A chemical engine
passed, clouds of black smoke rolling in its wake. Across the street a
pillar of black smoke burst from a third-story window.

"It's across the street! Across the street!" shouted the crowd.

A hose cart rumbled up. The men on the curb grew frantic, yelling and
pointing to the smoke. The hose cart was stopped.

A little later the chief's automobile came. Then the apparatus that
had passed down the street came back. Flames and smoke were bursting
from three windows now. The street and the sidewalk were filled with
the crowd.

Hiram had not moved a muscle. People elbowed him on both sides, but he
paid no attention. The rapid operations of the fire fighters held him
spell-bound.

"Oo-oo-oo! Look there!" suddenly came a shrill familiar voice at his
side.

A sputter of sparks had shot from the roof of the building, and a man
had emerged from a trap-door, it seemed, and darted from sight. But
the fire and every new phase of it had lost all holding power over
Hiram Hooker. Pressed to his elbow, wedged in by the crowd, stood Lucy.

"Oh, I love a fire!" she was ecstatically informing some one on her
other side--a waitress.

Hiram stood there sick with her proximity. She had not recognized
him--she was engrossed with the clouds of black smoke, the intermittent
red gleam of blaze, and the crackling streams of water. Her tongue was
wagging rapidly, and she seemed not to care to whom she spoke or
whether that fortunate person were listening.

Suddenly, through the