It could not have been much later than seven o’clock when she found herself opposite the familiar, mulberry-shingled Protestant church.  The light from its vestibule made a gleaming square on the wet sidewalk, and into this area, from the surrounding darkness, came silhouetted figures of men and women holding up umbrellas; some paused for a moment’s chat, their voices subdued by an awareness of the tabernacle.  At the sight of this tiny congregation something stirred within her.  She experienced a twinge of surprise at the discovery that other people in the world, in Hampton, were still leading tranquil, untormented existences.  They were contented, prosperous, stupid, beyond any need of help from God, and yet they were going to prayer-meeting to ask something!  He refused to find her in the dark streets.  Would she find Him if she went in there? and would He help her?

The bell in the tower began to clang, with heavy, relentless strokes —­like physical blows from which she flinched—­each stirring her reluctant, drowsy soul to a quicker agony.  From the outer blackness through which she fled she gazed into bright rooms of homes whose blinds were left undrawn, as though to taunt and mock the wanderer.  She was an outcast!  Who henceforth would receive her save those, unconformed and unconformable, sentenced to sin in this realm of blackness?  Henceforth from all warmth and love she was banished....  In the middle of the Stanley Street bridge she stopped to lean against the wet rail; the mill lights were scattered, dancing points of fire over the invisible swift waters, and she raised her eyes presently to the lights themselves, seeking one unconsciously—­Ditmar’s!  Yes, it was his she sought; though it was so distant, sometimes it seemed to burn like a red star, and then to flicker and disappear.  She could not be sure....  Something chill and steely was in the pocket of her coat—­it made a heavy splash in the water when she dropped it.  The river could not be so very cold!  She wished she could go down like that into forgetfulness.  But she couldn’t....  Where was Lise now?...  It would be so easy just to drop over that parapet and be whirled away, and down and down.  Why couldn’t she?  Well, it was because—­because—­she was going to have a child.  Well, if she had a child to take care of, she would not be so lonely—­she would have something to love.  She loved it now, as though she felt it quickening within her, she wanted it, to lavish on it all of a starved affection.  She seemed actually to feel in her arms its soft little body pressed against her.  Claude Ditmar’s child!  And she suddenly recalled, as an incident of the remote past, that she had told him she wanted it!