I determined to go and inquire after Elsa myself. So, with Dix at my heel, I passed through the foreign streets, crowded with the same dark-hued elements I had observed before, only now lowering and threatening as a cloud about to break, and walked over toward the little street in which the Loewens lived, and presently I fell in with Wolffert, who, like myself, appeared to have business in that direction. Under the circumstances, I should have been glad to escape from him; but as he joined me I could not well do so, and we walked along together. He looked worn and appeared to be rather gloomy, which I set down to his disappointment at the turn affairs connected with the strike had taken, for I learned from him that, under the influence of Wringman, there was danger of a renewal of hostilities; that his efforts at mediation had failed, and he had at a meeting which he had attended, where he had advocated conciliatory measures, been hooted down. There was danger, he said, of the whole trouble breaking out again, and if so, the sympathy of the public would now be on the other side. Thinking more of the girl I was in pursuit of than of anything else, and having in mind the announcement of Mr. Leigh's losses and reported embarrassment, I expressed myself hotly. If they struck again they deserved all they got--they deserved to fail for following such leaders as Wringman and refusing to listen to their friends. "Oh, no, they are just ignorant, that is all--they don't know. Give them time--give them time." "Well, I am tired of it all." "Tired! Oh! don't get tired. That's not the way to work. Stand fast. Go and see John Marvel and get new inspiration from him. See how he works." "Wolffert, I am in love," I said, suddenly. He smiled--as I remembered afterward, sadly. "Yes, you are." There was that in his tone which rather miffed me. I thought he was in love, too; but not, like myself, desperately. "You are not--and you don't know what it is. So, it is easy for you." He turned on me almost savagely, with a flame in his eyes. "Not--! I not! You don't dream what it is to be in love. You cannot. You are incapable--incapable!" He clutched at his heart. The whole truth swept over me like a flood. "Wolffert! Why--? Why have you never--?" I could not go on. But he understood me. "Because I am a Jew!" His eyes burned with deep fires. "A Jew! Well, suppose you are. She is not one to allow that----" He wheeled on me. "Do you think--? Do you imagine I mean--? I would not allow myself--I could never--never allow myself--It is impossible--for me."