The little girl had recovered from her fright now. She was so anxious about the pale lady that she would have run all the way back as fast as she had run home; only Mamma Cameron held her by the hand and restrained her. Although the sun was going down it was a stifling day. What air was stirring seemed to blow from a red hot furnace lying somewhere to the west of the panting city. In the shade the unfortunate occupants of the close tenements sought relief on steps and even on the sidewalks. Crying babies, quarrelling children, chattering women of several races, raised a clatter to deafen one. Hawkers peddled the remains of vegetables and fruit that had once been fresh, but were now over-ripe, and fast decaying. Vendors of the tempting if not too cleanly made "Tutti-frutti, penny a lump, The more you eat, the more you want!" clanged their bells at every corner. Penny slices of red watermelon wilting under fly nets adorned every fruit stand. The cheap drinks of soda-water and other so-called "temperance beverages" flaunted their colourings and flavours at tiny stands; and the lemonade that never knew a lemon or any other citrus fruit was everywhere present. Left to themselves the ignorant would breed pestilence as they did in the Middle Ages. But the better informed have learned to defend their own health by forcing some rules of sanitation on the slums. The most refreshing and grateful attempt to counteract heat and disease were the "White Wings," flushing down the streets with fire hose, while the half-naked children danced, screaming, in the way of the flood. Carolyn May and her mother reached the house where the pale lady lived. The slovenly woman whom the child had seen bidding the sharp-faced man good-bye at her door, now sat upon the steps. She stared impudently at Mrs. Cameron as she and the child mounted past her and went up to the second floor. As the key rattled in the lock of the pale lady's door Prince barked. Then he whined a welcome to his little mistress and to Mrs. Cameron. "_What_ a place!" gasped Carolyn's mother. "It is worse than I thought. I never should have let you come here, Carolyn May." But the baby had begun to whimper from the bed and Carolyn ran to soothe him. Her mother was immediately stricken by the appearance of the young woman, lying unconscious and forlorn on the kitchen floor. She noted the cleanliness of the room and the neatness of the woman's dress; but the sun streaming into the kitchen windows, and the flies and the smells from out of doors, horrified Hannah Cameron. She brought water and knelt beside the young woman to lave her face and hands. But the pale lady was not to be so easily roused. Her heart merely fluttered. Her lips were colourless. Her eyes remained closed.