d
been killed by falling roofs and walls, although the wildest stories
were current, but so far there were more doctors and nurses attending to
business than patients to care for. Down in the Mechanics' Fair
Building, which had been converted into an emergency hospital, they were
working as methodically, with book and pencil, as well as with bandage
and instrument, as if earthquake and fire were a part of the daily
routine. "Almost everybody was quiet, but there were sights down there,
Oh, Lord, there were sights!" One man button-holed Gwynne, as he had
button-holed others on his ascent, and informed him that he had "got
down there" just in time to see two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
go up in smoke. "Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and it has
taken me twenty years to make it!" he reiterated, with an excited
bitterness that was almost hilarious. He did not ask Gwynne if he had
lost anything, but passed on to button-hole the next man and pour out
his tale of individual protest; upon him the earthquake and fire had
made a personal attack.

"How strange it seems to be in the midst of so much _life_--mere
physical life," said Lady Victoria. "A whole city tense and helpless! I
wonder that man could think of himself. We are all mere fragments of one
great whole."

Her eyes were still restless and bright, her mask had fallen, and with
it, curiously, many of her years. For a time, at least, the heavy burden
of self had slipped from her tired spirit.

Few stood in the doorways, or even gardens; nearly every one not
exploring the city was in the middle of the street. In the
boarding-house district, half-way down the hill, the corners were
crowded with people watching the fires, although as many more had gone
to the heights to command a better view. Some were still dazed and white
with terror, a few looked distraught; more than one man was as nervous
as his wife. But the majority were calm, although they wore an
expression of being ready for anything. A few, mindful of the California
tradition, were joking and relating the absurdities of their experience.
There was no question that the shock had been far greater in the city
than in and about Rosewater, and both Isabel and Gwynne, to Lady
Victoria's disgust, expressed a regret that they "had missed anything."
But it was possible that the convulsion had been even worse elsewhere.
St. Peter was built over a known fault, and San Francisco was not; and
indeed news was