The Nine-Tenths

hty-first Street. The loft building was near the corner of Second Avenue. They p

arm," c

, now in the glow of some little shop window, now under a sparkling lamp. At Avenue A they went south to Seventy-nin

odily with the exultant west wind, and they only stopped when they reached the wooden margin, where an old scow, half laden with brick, was mo

vast spaces, for behind them the city receded beyond empty litt

Joe, "look

, all hurling swiftly like a billowing floor of gray. Here and there whitecaps spouted. On Blackwells I

bridge," ex

ights, binding shore with shore. On the New York side, and nearer, rose the high chimneys

thing was as beautiful as smoking chimneys. They

strils and the air was clear and exhilarant. Then, as they watched, suddenly a tug lashed between enormous flat boats on which were red freight-cars, swept north with the tide.

lling wind was wrapping them closer. Vision filled the gray air, trembled up from the river to the heavens. They rose from all the chaos like two white flames blown by the wind together

angely at her pale, e

..." h

she b

nd the sound that esc

yr

her name she was all woma

oe

She sobbed there, overcome with the yearni

"how I love yo

uldn't have st

d a woman, mingled into one, stood in the heart of the wonder, the love, the purpose of nature-a mad, wild, incohe

ther," cried Joe. "

, and wrought of all lovely power, her face, in the last of the

, "I want to se

to success. Now he had

y masculine, triu

windows and up the shadowy streets-everywhere homes, families; men, women, and children

" he said in a

ns were visible-a lightning seemed to run over them-a ghastl

it?" sa

at it, tr

light of a street-lamp, became chalky white and knotted. He could

rilly, clutc

.. the

cried, in an agony. "B

t seemed suddenly to Joe that he had been dancing on a thin crust, and that

must

sts. They felt as if that fire were consuming them; as if its tongues of flame licked them up.

oke ho

s the loft.... The pr

ard in a mane of red, tossing volumes of smoke, and the wild wind, combing the fire from the west, rained down cinders and burned papers on Joe and Myra as they rushed up

ose years of labor and dream and effort were going up in flame and smoke seemed preposterous. And only a few moments before he and Myra had stood on the

beside the houses; they wedged past one stoop; they were about to get past the next, when, in the light of the lamp, Joe saw a strange sight. Crouched on that stoop, with clothes torn, with hair l

ulances, and an awful horror dizzied his brain. No, no, no

ie! F

en she recognized him a

h, how did

ed. "Fannie! what's happene

t know?" s

eaving his body; i

rd himself sayi

dful eyes and spoke in a lo

haft;... they couldn't get out ... and Miss Marks, the forelady, was trying to keep us in order.... She stayed there ... and I ran down the stairs,

t. His body seemed torn

nd couldn't get out.... And I wasn't th