第165章

The contrast was too sharp.Even he was recalled keenly to better things.

"What's the use?" he thought."It's all up with me.I'll quit this."

People turned to look after him, so uncouth was his shambling figure.Several officers followed him with their eyes, to see that he did not beg of anybody.

Once he paused in an aimless, incoherent sort of way and looked through the windows of an imposing restaurant, before which blazed a fire sign, and through the large, plate windows of which could be seen the red and gold decorations, the palms, the white napery, and shining glassware, and, above all, the comfortable crowd.Weak as his mind had become, his hunger was sharp enough to show the importance of this.He stopped stock still, his frayed trousers soaking in the slush, and peered foolishly in.

"Eat," he mumbled."That's right, eat.Nobody else wants any."

Then his voice dropped even lower, and his mind half lost the fancy it had.

"It's mighty cold," he said."Awful cold."

At Broadway and Thirty-ninth Street was blazing, in incandescent fire, Carrie's name."Carrie Madenda," it read, "and the Casino Company." All the wet, snowy sidewalk was bright with this radiated fire.It was so bright that it attracted Hurstwood's gaze.He looked up, and then at a large, gilt-framed posterboard, on which was a fine lithograph of Carrie, lifesize.

Hurstwood gazed at it a moment, snuffling and hunching one shoulder, as if something were scratching him.He was so run down, however, that his mind was not exactly clear.

He approached that entrance and went in.

"Well?" said the attendant, staring at him.Seeing him pause, he went over and shoved him."Get out of here," he said.

"I want to see Miss Madenda," he said.

"You do, eh?" the other said, almost tickled at the spectacle.

"Get out of here," and he shoved him again.Hurstwood had no strength to resist.

"I want to see Miss Madenda," he tried to explain, even as he was being hustled away."I'm all right.I----"

The man gave him a last push and closed the door.As he did so, Hurstwood slipped and fell in the snow.It hurt him, and some vague sense of shame returned.He began to cry and swear foolishly.

"God damned dog!" he said."Damned old cur," wiping the slush from his worthless coat."I--I hired such people as you once."

Now a fierce feeling against Carrie welled up--just one fierce, angry thought before the whole thing slipped out of his mind.

"She owes me something to eat," he said."She owes it to me."

Hopelessly he turned back into Broadway again and slopped onward and away, begging, crying, losing track of his thoughts, one after another, as a mind decayed and disjointed is wont to do.

It was truly a wintry evening, a few days later, when his one distinct mental decision was reached.Already, at four o'clock, the sombre hue of night was thickening the air.A heavy snow was falling--a fine picking, whipping snow, borne forward by a swift wind in long, thin lines.The streets were bedded with it--six inches of cold, soft carpet, churned to a dirty brown by the crush of teams and the feet of men.Along Broadway men picked their way in ulsters and umbrellas.Along the Bowery, men slouched through it with collars and hats pulled over their ears.

In the former thoroughfare businessmen and travellers were making for comfortable hotels.In the latter, crowds on cold errands shifted past dingy stores, in the deep recesses of which lights were already gleaming.There were early lights in the cable cars, whose usual clatter was reduced by the mantle about the wheels.The whole city was muffled by this fast-thickening mantle.

In her comfortable chambers at the Waldorf, Carrie was reading at this time "Pere Goriot," which Ames had recommended to her.It was so strong, and Ames's mere recommendation had so aroused her interest, that she caught nearly the full sympathetic significance of it.For the first time, it was being borne in upon her how silly and worthless had been her earlier reading, as a whole.Becoming wearied, however, she yawned and came to the window, looking out upon the old winding procession of carriages rolling up Fifth Avenue.

"Isn't it bad?" she observed to Lola.

"Terrible!" said that little lady, joining her."I hope it snows enough to go sleigh riding."

"Oh, dear," said Carrie, with whom the sufferings of Father Goriot were still keen."That's all you think of.Aren't you sorry for the people who haven't anything to-night?"

"Of course I am," said Lola; "but what can I do? I haven't anything."

Carrie smiled.

"You wouldn't care, if you had," she returned.

"I would, too," said Lola."But people never gave me anything when I was hard up."

"Isn't it just awful?" said Carrie, studying the winter's storm.

"Look at that man over there," laughed Lola, who had caught sight of some one falling down."How sheepish men look when they fall, don't they?"

"We'll have to take a coach to-night," answered Carrie absently.

In the lobby of the Imperial, Mr.Charles Drouet was just arriving, shaking the snow from a very handsome ulster.Bad weather had driven him home early and stirred his desire for those pleasures which shut out the snow and gloom of life.A

good dinner, the company of a young woman, and an evening at the theatre were the chief things for him.

"Why, hello, Harry!" he said, addressing a lounger in one of the comfortable lobby chairs."How are you?"

"Oh, about six and six," said the other.

"Rotten weather, isn't it?"

"Well, I should say," said the other."I've been just sitting here thinking where I'd go to-night."

"Come along with me," said Drouet."I can introduce you to something dead swell."

"Who is it?" said the other.

"Oh, a couple of girls over here in Fortieth Street.We could have a dandy time.I was just looking for you."

"Supposing you get 'em and take 'em out to dinner?"

"Sure," said Drouet."Wait'll I go upstairs and change my clothes."

"Well, I'll be in the barber shop," said the other."I want to get a shave."