with a knife if they as much as mentioned Fidy's name.

It was a culmination of a battle that had raged between Mrs. Snawdor
and the health authorities for ten years, over the question of
vaccination. The epidemic that followed was the visible proof of Mrs.
Snawdor's victory.

Calvary Alley, having offered a standing invitation to germs in general,
was loathe to regard the present one as an enemy. It resisted the
inspector, who insisted on vaccinating everybody all over again; it was
indignant at the headlines in the morning papers; it was outraged when
Number One was put in quarantine.

Even when Fidy Yager, who "wasn't all there," and who, according to her
mother, had "a fit a minute," was carried away to the pest-house, nobody
was particularly alarmed. But when, twenty-four hours later, Mr. Snawdor
and one of the Lavinski helpers came down with it, the alley began to
look serious, and Mrs. Snawdor sent for Nance.

For six months now Nance had been living at a young women's boarding
home, realizing a life-long ambition to get out of the alley. But on
hearing the news, she flung a few clothes into an old suitcase and rushed
to the rescue.

Since that never-to-be-forgotten day a year ago when word had reached
her of Dan's marriage to Birdie Smelts, a hopeless apathy had possessed
her. Even in the first weeks after his departure, when Mac's impassioned
letters were pouring in and she was exerting all her will power to make
good her promise to his father, she was aware of a dull, benumbing
anxiety over Dan. She had tried to get his address from Mrs. Purdy, from