only about one-third civilized. Centuries hence a unified civilization may
complete the circle, but human nature and progress must act and react a
thousand times before the earthly millenium; and it cannot be hastened by
dreamers and fanatics.

All Mrs. Groome's spare rooms were placed at the service of her friends,
and cots were bought in the humble Fillmore Street shops and put up in the
billiard room, the double parlors, the library and the upper hall. Some
forty people would sleep under the old Ballinger roof that night--dynamite
permitting. Mrs. Groome was firm in her determination not to flee, and as
James and Mike were there to watch, she had graciously given a number
of the gloomy refugees from the lower regions permission to camp in the
outhouses and grounds.



II


Alexina spent the greater part of the day with Aileen Lawton, Olive Bascom,
and Sibyl Thorndyke, out of doors, fascinated by the spectacle of the
burning city.

The valley beyond Market Street, and the lower business district, were a
rolling mass of smoke parting about pillars of fire, shot with a million
glittering sparks when a great building was dynamited. All the windows in
those sections of the city as yet beyond the path of the fire were open,
for although closed windows might have shut out the torrid atmosphere, the
explosions would have shattered them.