As he slammed the door behind him, his mother flung herself down by
Kit's side and mingled her tears with her daughter's. But Kit did not
raise her head.

"Dey ain't nothin' lef' but you now, Kit;" but the girl did not speak,
she only shook with hard sobs.

Then her mother raised her head and almost screamed, "My Gawd, not you,
Kit!" The girl rose, and then dropped unconscious in her mother's arms.

Joe took his clothes to a lodging-house that he knew of, and then went
to the club to drink himself up to the point of going to see Hattie
after the show.




XI

BROKEN HOPES


What Joe Hamilton lacked more than anything else in the world was some
one to kick him. Many a man who might have lived decently and become a
fairly respectable citizen has gone to the dogs for the want of some one
to administer a good resounding kick at the right time. It is corrective
and clarifying.

Joe needed especially its clarifying property, for though he knew
himself a cur, he went away from his mother's house feeling himself