“You’ve b’en out in the cold, and you haven’t eaten much.”  Janet fought back her tears.  “Oh yes, I have,” she managed to reply, convinced of the futility of speech, of all attempts to arouse her mother to a realization of the situation.  Perhaps—­though her heart contracted at the thought perhaps it was a merciful thing!  But to live, day after day, in the presence of that comfortless apathy!...  Later in the morning she went out, to walk the streets, and again in the afternoon; and twice she turned her face eastward, in the direction of the Franco-Belgian Hall.  Her courage failed her.  How would these foreigners and the strange leaders who had come to organize them receive her, Ditmar’s stenographer?  She would have to tell them she was Ditmar’s stenographer; they would find it out.  And now she was filled with doubts about Rolfe.  Had he really thought she could be of use to them!  Around the Common, in front of the City Hall men went about their affairs alertly, or stopped one another to talk about the strike.  In Faber Street, indeed, an air of suppressed excitement prevailed, newsboys were shouting out extras; but business went on as though nothing had happened to disturb it.  There was, however, the spectacle, unusual at this time of day, of operatives mingling with the crowd, while policemen stood watchfully at the corners; a company of soldiers marched by, drawing the people in silence to the curb.  Janet scanned the faces of these idle operatives; they seemed for the most part either calm or sullen, wanting the fire and passion of the enthusiasts who had come out to picket in the early hours of the day; she sought vainly for the Italian girl with whom she had made friends.  Despondency grew in her, a sense of isolation, of lacking any one, now, to whom she might turn, and these feelings were intensified by the air of confidence prevailing here.  The strike was crushed, injustice and wrong had triumphed—­would always triumph.  In front of the Banner office she heard a man say to an acquaintance who had evidently just arrived in town:—­“The Chippering?  Sure, that’s running.  By to-morrow Ditmar’ll have a full force there.  Now that the militia has come, I guess we’ve got this thing scotched...”

Just how and when that order and confidence of Faber Street began to be permeated by disquietude and alarm, Janet could not have said.  Something was happening, somewhere—­or about to happen.  An obscure, apparently telepathic process was at work.  People began to hurry westward, a few had abandoned the sidewalk and were running; while other pedestrians, more timid, were equally concerned to turn and hasten in the opposite direction.  At the corner of West Street was gathering a crowd that each moment grew larger and larger, despite the efforts of the police to disperse it.  These were strikers, angry strikers.  They blocked the traffic, halted the clanging trolleys, surged into the mouth of West Street, booing and cursing at the