suspicion which he might awaken of going to join his family, and making his final exodus from the town and his creditors.  He placed his watch in his pocket, and his eyes fell on the electric-light fixture, with a red silk shade over the bulb, and at once his mind conceived the idea of his going somewhere on the trolley-cars.  He thought of going to New Sanderson; then dismissed that as not feasible.  He knew too many people in that place, and had too many creditors.  Then he thought of going to Port Willis, which was also connected with Banbridge by a trolley-line, and was about the same distance.  Again he looked at his watch.  It was nearly two o’clock.  He wondered absently where the day had gone, that it was so late.  He had not the least idea as to the times and seasons of the Port Willis trolley-cars, but he directly arose to make ready.  As he did so he heard a distressful mew, and the black kitten which Marie had essayed to carry with her that morning made a leap to the window-sill.  The little animal looked in, fixed his golden, jewel-like eyes on the man, and again uttered an appealing, accusatory wail.  Then she rubbed her head with a pretty, caressing motion against the window-glass.  She had evidently escaped from the Hungarian and sped home.  Carroll opened the window, and the cat arched her back and purred, hesitating.  Carroll waited patiently.  Finally she stepped across the sill, and he closed the window.  Then he called the cat into the kitchen, but he could find no milk for her, nothing except a tiny scrap of beefsteak.  The cat followed him around the kitchen, slinking with her furry stomach sweeping the floor, and mewed loudly, with alert eyes of watchful fear, exactly as if she were in a strange place.  The strangeness in the house intimidated her.  She missed the wonted element of the human, and the very corners of her familiar kitchen looked strange to her.  She would not even eat her meat, but ran under the table and wailed loudly, with wild eyes of terror on Carroll.  He went out, shutting the door behind him, and her loud inquiring wail floated after him.

Carroll brushed his overcoat and hat carefully, and put them on.  He went out of the house and took the road to the trolley-line.  It was still very cold, and the rime of the morning lay yet on the shaded places.  In the road, in the full glare of the sun, were a few dark, damp places.  The sky was very clear, with a brisk wind from the northwest.  It was at Carroll’s back and urged him along.  He walked quite rapidly.  He had a curious singleness of purpose, as unreasoning and unreflective as an animal in search of food.  He was going to Port Willis for chloroform to satisfy a hunger keener than any animal’s, to satisfy the keenest hunger of which man, body and soul together, is capable, a hunger keener than that of love or revenge, the hunger for the open beyond the suffocating fastnesses of life.  He met several people whom he knew, and bowed perfunctorily.  One or two turned and looked after him.  Two ladies, starting on a round of calls, Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Van Dorn, again looked forth from the window of Samson Rawdy’s best coach, and at the intent man hurrying along the sidewalk.