That November, together with Rose Darragh and Denny and Elizabeth, she was often speaking in the poor and crowded sections of the great city. Sometimes they talked to the people in dim, small halls, sometimes in larger, brighter places, sometimes there were street meetings. She grew aware that often Fay was present. Sometimes, when the meeting was over, he joined her; it began to be no infrequent thing his going uptown upon the car with her. She began to wonder.... Once in a street meeting she saw him near her as she spoke. It was a good crowd and interested. As she brought her brief, straight talk to a conclusion, Elizabeth whispered to her, "Lucien couldn't come. Is there any one else who could speak?" Hagar's eyes met John Fay's. "We lack a speaker," she said. "Couldn't you--won't you?" He nodded, stepped upon the box, and made a good speech. His drawling, telling periods, his smiling, sea-blue eyes, a story that he told and a blow or two out from the shoulder caught the fancy and then the good-will of the crowd. An old woman, Irish, wrinkled, her hands on her hips, called out to him. "Be yez the new man? If yez are, I loike yez foine!" He laughed at and with her. "Do you? Then you'll have to become a new woman to match me!" The November dusk was closing in when the crowd dispersed. Elizabeth with the other woman speaker faced toward the Settlement. "Can't you come with me, Hagar?" "No, not to-night. There are letters and letters--" Fay asked if he might go uptown with her. She nodded. "Yes, if you like. Good-night, Elizabeth--good-night, Mary Ware; good-night, good-night!" They took a surface car. She sat for a minute with her eyes shut. "Are you very tired?" She smiled. "No, I am not tired. After all, why should it fatigue more than standing in cathedrals, walking through art galleries? But I was thinking of something.... Let us sit quietly for a while." The minutes went by. At last she spoke. "I liked what you said, and the way you said it. Thank you." "You do not need to thank me. Had I been less convinced, I might have spoken because you asked me to. As it is, I was willing to serve the truth." "Ah, good!..." There was another silence; then she began to speak of the light and thunder of the city about them, and then of a book she was reading. When they left the car it was dark--they walked westward together. "Have you heard from Lily?" "Yes. She and Robert are going first to the Riviera, then to Sicily." "Both are very lovely. Why do you not change your mind and go?" "I like it better here." The evening was dark, clear and windy, with the stars trooping out. "When," asked Hagar, "are you going to build another bridge?" He pondered it. "I've been building for a long time and I'm going to build for another long time. Do you grudge me this half-year in between?"