Carrie's fur coat was flaring open and because of the quality of her attire down there where the bilge waters of the city-tide flow and eddy, stares followed her. Once, to the stoppage of Alma's heart, she halted and said a brief word to a truckman as he crossed the sidewalk with a bill of lading. He hesitated, laughed and went on. Then she quickened her pace and went on, but as if with sense of being followed, because constantly as she walked, she jerked a step, to look back, and then again, over her shoulder. A second time she stopped, this time to address a little nub of a woman without a hat and lugging one-sidedly a stack of men's basted waistcoats, evidently for homework in some tenement. She looked and muttered her un-understanding of whatever Carrie had to say and shambled on. Then Mrs. Latz spied her daughter, greeting her without surprise or any particular recognition. "Thought you could fool me! Heh, Louis? Alma." "Mama, it's Alma. It's all right. Don't you remember, we had this appointment? Come, dear." "No, you don't! That's a man following. Shh-h-h-h, Louis. I was fooling. I went up to him (snicker) and I said to him, 'Give you five dollars for a doctor's certificate.' That's all I said to him, or any of them. He's in a white carnation, Louis. You can find him by the--it's on his coat lapel. He's coming! Quick--" "Mama, there's no one following. Wait, I'll call a taxi!" "No, you don't! He tried to put me in a taxi, too. No, you don't!" "Then the subway, dearest. You'll sit quietly beside Alma in the subway, won't you, Carrie. Alma's so tired." Suddenly Carrie began to whimper. "My baby! Don't let her see me. My baby. What am I good for? I've ruined her life. My precious sweetheart's life. I hit her once--Louis--in the mouth. God won't forgive me for that." "Yes, He will, dear, if you come." "It bled. Alma, tell him mama lost her doctor's certificate. That's all I said to him--give you five dollars for a doctor's certificate--he had a white carnation--right lapel--stingy! Quick! He's following!" "Sweetheart, please, there's no one coming." "Don't tell! Oh, Alma darling--mama's ruined your life. Her sweetheart baby's life." "No, darling, you haven't. She loves you if you'll come home with her, dear, to bed, before Louis gets home and--" "No. No. He mustn't see. Never this bad--was I, darling--oh--oh--" "No, mama--never--this bad. That's why we must hurry." "Best man that ever lived. Best baby. Ruin. Ruin." "Mama, you--you're making Alma tremble so that she can scarcely walk if you drag her back so. There's no one following, dear. I won't let any one harm you. Please, sweetheart--a taxicab." "No. I tell you he's following. He tried to put me into a taxicab."