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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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"That’s you," he said at last, addressing her. "Wasn’t good enough for you, was I? Huh!" He lingered, trying to think logically. This was no longer possible with him. "She’s got it," he said, incoherently, thinking of money. "Let her give me some." He started around to the side door. Then he forgot what he was going for and paused, pushing his hands deeper to warm the wrists. Suddenly it returned. The stage door! That was it. 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 business men 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?" |
