"I would like some--a-soda water, if you please," she said hesitatingly. He looked at her a moment keenly, winked his right eye, and then his left--then his right eye again, twice. She looked at him without understanding. He repeated it. She wondered what he meant. Presently he moved behind the counter, and returned with her order. While she drank it, another, a woman came in. Mildred watched him incidentally. He repeated the winking process, while she glanced at the other, who repeated it. He went now to a room in the rear, and when he returned, he handed her something in a package. The woman gave him a half dollar, and waited for no change. "You're a stranger about here, Miss?" he said, observing her a bit dubiously. "Yes, sir," she replied, "I am a stranger about here." "Oh, I see," he said, now gazing at her very keenly a few moments. "You're one of the solicitors for the Y.M.C.A., I suppose," said he, after a moment's thought. "No, sir, I am not," she replied with a start, and wondered why he asked her. "They was a-planning t' have a meeting overhead here t'night, was why I asked," he said. "Oh, is that so," she commented, and then added: "I am not connected with it in any way, but I am very much interested in it." "Well, it's too bad," he said thoughtfully, "but I don't think we will ever get such a thing in this town. It's going to be a failure, so I hear." "Indeed," she echoed, "how so?" "Well, unless they get twenty-seven thousand dollars together in a week, it's sure to be. And 'f anybody c'n raise that many dollars, 's hard's times is now, I'd lak t' see them," he smiled grimly. She wanted to ask him about Wilson, but hesitated. Had he returned? He was speaking again: "They ain't had no word frum the secretary since he left. He went north some time ago, and it was hoped that he might succeed in raising the amount among the wealthy northern people. But it's dollars t' doughnuts that he don't. 'Cause I figure it's lak this: 'f he'd a-had any success up there, some word-a come back by now frum 'im." So no word had yet come from Wilson Jacobs, and as she thought of his possible failure, all thought of herself and what had been in her mind a moment ago, left her. When she left the place she was calm. But where to go now was another problem. To go back to Mother Jane, never entered her mind. She wandered about for an hour. She now recognized the locality. She was on the same street she had found upon her arrival in the city--Beal street. She walked up this for two blocks, and where many Negroes were assembled. Several picture shows greeted her, but she had no inclination for such amusement. Presently she turned into another street that led down to the river. It was narrow and poorly lighted, and the people, what few she saw, were ragged and dirty, and forbidding. She walked some distance on this, until she came across another that led in another direction. Into this she turned aimlessly.