speeding down the avenue. Though the street was crowded with vehicles and
pedestrians, the growing darkness put an end to Miss Durant's nods of
recognition, and she leaned back, once more buried in her own thoughts.

At Forty-second Street she was sharply recalled from whatever her mind was
dwelling upon by a sudden jar, due to the checking of the carriage, and
simultaneously with it came the sound of crashing of glass and splintering
of wood. So abrupt was the halt that Miss Durant was pitched forward, and
as she put out her hand to save herself from being thrown into the bottom
of the brougham, she caught a moment's glimpse of a ragged boy close
beside her window, and heard, even above the hurly-burly of the pack of
carriages and street-crossers, his shrill cry,--

"Extry _Woild_'r _Joinal_. Terrible--"

There the words ended, for the distraught horses shied backwards and
sideways, and the fore wheel, swung outwards by the sharp turn, struck the
little fellow and threw him down. Miss Durant attempted a warning cry, but
it was too late; and even as it rang out, the carriage gave a jolt and
then a jar as it passed over the body. Instantly came a dozen warning
shouts and shrieks and curses, and the horses reared and plunged wildly,
with the new fright of something under their feet.

White with terror, the girl caught at the handle, but she did no more than
throw open the door, for, as if they sprang from the ground, a crowd of
men were pressing about the brougham. All was confusion for a moment; then
the tangle of vehicles seemed to open out and the mob of people,
struggling and gesticulating, fell back before a policeman while another,
aided by some one, caught the heads of the two horses, just as the footman
drew out from under their feet into the cleared space something which