“And now,” he said, in a voice that steadily grew stronger and firmer, “I will tell _you_ a story.” He was standing directly in front of her and looking down into her face. “One day, just after a great sorrow had fallen upon me, I was strolling along the water-front of San Francisco, and sat down upon some lumber at the end of a pier. I had not noticed a number of rough-looking young men sitting near me, until one of them said, in the course of the talk that they were having, ‘Yes, but I loved her! It was the way in which he said it that attracted my notice. I judged from his appearance that he was a laborer, perhaps a stevedore; but there was something in his voice that belongs to stricken men in all the walks of life. One of his companions said, ‘Nonsense, Frank; there’s just as good fish in the sea as ever was caught out of it.’ But Frank shook his head and said, ‘Not for me.’ The others said nothing, and after a little while Frank repeated, ‘Not for me.’ Did you ever hear a man say that?” Wilder’s voice, which had been steadily growing louder, suddenly sank almost to a whisper as he asked his guest that question. The wrinkles were deepening in his face, and his glance had a sharpness of penetration that the young woman found it hard to meet without wincing. “Then,” resumed Wilder, “another of his companions, seeking to show him the folly of his grief, made some remarks about the woman that I cannot repeat. Frank replied without anger: ‘Don’t say that, Joe: you mean well, but don’t say it. She was the woman I loved. Every night, now, when I put out the light to go to bed, I see her in the room; and when I go on streets that are dark, I think she’s walking with me. I loved that woman; and now I don’t know what to do. For she’s dead, boys, she’s dead; and by God! they killed her.’” Wilder was still looking down into the face of his guest as he concluded, and she had been looking up into his; but when, with a trembling voice, he spoke the last sentence, her glance dropped to the floor. After a pause he spoke again, and his voice was full, round, and passionate.