Angry tears came to Julia's eyes, but she went into the
Mechanics' Library and washed the evidences of them away, and made
herself nice to meet Mark.
But a subtle change in the girl dated from that day; casual and foolish
as the affair with Carter had been, it left its scar. Julia's heart
winced away from the thought of him as she herself might have shrunk
from fire. She never forgave him.
It was good to find Mark still enslaved, everything soothing and
reassuring. When Julia left him, at her own door at six o'clock, she was
her radiant, confident self again, and they kissed each other at parting
like true lovers. To his eager demand for a promise Julia still returned
a staid, "Mama'd be crazy, Mark. I ain't sixteen yet!" but on this
enchanted afternoon she had consented to linger, on Kearney Street,
before the trays of rings in jewellers' windows, and it was in the
wildest spirits that Mark bounded on upstairs to his own apartment.
Julia had expected to find her mother at home. Instead the room was
empty, but the gas was flaring high, and all about was more than the
customary disorder; there were evidences that Emeline had left home in
something of a hurry.
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