Claude Ditmar's child! And she suddenly recalled,
as an incident of the remote past, that she had told him she wanted it!

This tense craving for it she felt now was somehow the answer to an
expressed wish which had astonished her. Perhaps that was the reason
why she had failed to do what she had tried to do, to shoot Ditmar and
herself! It was Ditmar's child, Ditmar's and hers! He had loved her,
long ago, and just now--was it just now?--he had said he loved her
still, he had wanted to marry her. Then why had she run away from him?
Why had she taken the child into outer darkness, to be born without a
father,--when she loved Ditmar? Wasn't that one reason why she wanted
the child? why, even in her moments of passionate hatred she recalled
having been surprised by some such yearning as now came over her?
And for an interval, a brief interval, she viewed him with startling
clarity. Not because he embodied any ideal did she love him, but because
he was what he was, because he had overcome her will, dominated and
possessed her, left his mark upon her indelibly. He had been cruel to
her, willing to sacrifice her to his way of life, to his own desires,
but he loved her, for she had seen, if not heeded in his eyes the look
that a woman never mistakes! She remembered it now, and the light in
his window glowed again, like a star to guide her back to him. It was
drawing her, irresistibly....

The sentry recognized her as she came along the canal.

"Mr. Ditmar's gone," he told her.

"Gone!" she repeated. "Gone!"

"Why, yes, about five minutes after you left he was looking for you--he
asked the sergeant about you."

"And--he won't be back?"

"I guess not," answered the man, sympathetically. "He said good-night."

She turned away dully. The strength and hope with which she had been
so unexpectedly infused while gazing from the bridge at his window had
suddenly ebbed; her legs ached, her feet were wet, and she shivered,
though her forehead burned. The world became distorted, people flitted
past her like weird figures of a dream, the myriad lights of Faber
Street were blurred and whirled in company with the electric signs.
Seeking to escape from their confusion she entered a side street leading
north, only to be forcibly seized by some one who darted after her from
the sidewalk.

"Excuse me, but you didn't see that automobile," he said, as he released
her.

Shaken, she went on through several streets to find herself at len