"She said here," insisted Jurgis. "She told me all
about you, and how you were, and what you said. Are
you sure? You haven't forgotten? You weren't away?"

"No, no!" she exclaimed -- and then came a peevish
voice -- "Jadvyga, you are giving the baby a cold. Shut
the door!" Jurgis stood for half a minute more, stam~
mering his perplexity through an eighth of an inch of
crack; and then, as there was really nothing more to be
said, he excused himself and went away.

He walked on half dazed, without knowing where he
went. Ona had deceived him! She had lied to him!
And what could it mean -- where had she been? Where
was she now? He could hardly grasp the thing -- much
less try to solve it; but a hundred wild surmises came to
him, a sense of impending calamity overwhelmed him.

Because there was nothing else to do, he went back to
the time-office to watch again. He waited until nearly an
hour after seven, and then went to the room where Ona
worked to make inquiries of Ona's "forelady." The "fore~
lady," he found, had not yet come; all the lines of cars that
came from down-town were stalled -- there had been an acci~
dent in the power-house, and no cars had been running
since last night. Meantime, however, the ham-wrappers
were working away, with someone else in charge of
them. The girl who answered Jurgis was busy, and
as she talked she looked to see if she were being watched.
Then a man came up, wheeling a truck; he knew Jurgis
for Ona's husband, and was curious about the mystery.

"Maybe the cars had something to do with it," he sug~
gested -- "maybe she had gone down-town."

"No," said Jurgis, "she never went down-town."

"Perhaps not," said the man.

Jurgis thought he saw him exchange a swift glance with
the girl as he spoke, and he demanded quickly, "What do
you know about it?"

But the man had seen that the boss was watching him;
he started on again, pushing his truck. "I don't know
anything about it," he said, over his shoulder. "How
should I know where your wife goes?"

[[173]]

p172 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p173w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p174

v?