stopping and looking about her, and had even peered at the wall, close
beside him, as if looking for something. But what seemed to trouble him
most, was that she had not seemed to see him at all. He repeated this
so often, that in the end I told him, in an absurd sort of way, that he
ought to be very glad she had not. What did it all mean? was the
question; somehow I was not so frightened, as utterly bewildered. I had
seen less then, than since; but what I had seen, had made me feel
adrift from my anchorage of Reason.

"What did it mean? He had seen a Woman, searching for something. _I_ had
not seen this Woman. _I_ had seen a Child, running away, and hiding from
Something or Someone. _He_ had not seen the Child, or the other
things--only the Woman. And _I_ had not seen her. What did it all mean?

"I had said nothing to the landlord about the Child. I had been too
bewildered, and I realized that it would be futile to attempt an
explanation. He was already stupid with the thing he had seen; and not
the kind of man to understand. All this went through my mind as we stood
there, shining the lanterns to and fro. All the time, intermingled with a
streak of practical reasoning, I was questioning myself, what did it all
mean? What was the Woman searching for; what was the Child running from?

"Suddenly, as I stood there, bewildered and nervous, making random
answers to the landlord, a door below was violently slammed, and directly
I caught the horrible reek of which I have told you.

"'There!' I said to the landlord, and caught his arm, in my turn. 'The
Smell! Do _you_ smell it?'

"He looked at me so stupidly that in a sort of nervous anger, I