* * * * *

It was the time of the first flowers.

The woman had been out, somewhere, on a business errand and was
returning to the place where she worked. A crowd had gathered,
blocking the sidewalk, and she was forced to stop. Quickly, as if by
magic, the people came running from all directions. The woman was
annoyed. Her destination was only a few doors away and she had much
work, still, to do before the remaining hours of the afternoon should
be gone. She could not cross the street without going back for the
traffic was very heavy. She faced about as if to retrace her steps,
then, paused and turned again. The street would be open in a moment.
It would be better to wait. Above the heads of the people she could
see, already, the helmets of the police clearing the sidewalk. Pushing
into the jam, she worked slowly forward.

Clang, clang, clang, with a rattle and clatter and crash, a patrol
wagon swung up to the curb--so close that a spatter of mud from the
gutter fell on the woman's skirt. The wagon wheeled and backed. The
police formed a quick lane across the sidewalk. The crowd surged
forward and carried the woman close against the blue coated barrier.
Down the lane held by the officers of the law, so close to the woman
that she could have touched them, came two poor creatures who were not
ignorant of what is commonly called the world. They had seen life--so
the world would have said. They were wise. They had knowledge of many
things of which the woman, who shrank back from them in horror, knew
nothing. Their haggard, painted, faces, their disheveled hair, their
tawdry clothing, false jewels, and drunken blasphemies, drew a laugh
from the crowd.