Finally I received a suit of bluish-gray color, the strangers’ uniform, I was informed, and a pair of high, soft shoes. A metal badge, stamped with letters and figures, was hung about my neck by a cord, and I was turned over to the charge of a blue-clad, grizzled man of shortish stature, with a kindly look in the eyes that strongly affected me. For I realized by now that all these persons about me, all whom I had seen, with whom I had conversed, had lacked something more than good-will; they gave me the impression of being animated machines, reservoirs of intense energy, and yet not ... what? I could not determine them. There was a patient humility about his bearing, and yet, I fancied, a sort of stubborn power, a consciousness of some secret strength that radiated from him. He came up to me after conversing with the doctors, blue-clad men with white capes about their shoulders, all of whom had eyed me curiously during their speech with him. “I am the District Strangers’ Guard,” he said to me. “You are a foreigner, I understand, and waiting to be ascribed by the Council. It is not necessary to make any explanation to me. I am the guard, and nothing more, and it is my task to provide you with food and lodging in the Strangers’ House until you are sent for, S6 1845.” “I beg your pardon?” I asked, before I realized that he was addressing me by the number on the brass badge that hung from my neck. “My pardon?” he answered, looking at me with a puzzled expression. “That is an antique word, is it not?” “I mean, I did not know the significance of these numbers,” I replied. “Your brass,” he said, still more bewildered. “That is, of course, your temporary number until the Council assigns you to your proper place in the community. It means, as you must be aware, Stranger of the Sixth District. My unofficial name is David. What is yours, friend?” He almost jumped when I told him, and glanced nervously about him. We had just passed through the doorway, and he drew me to one side, looking at me in a most peculiar manner. “You must know only one name is legal in this Province,” he whispered. “Surely you will not hazard everything by such bravado. I mean—” He checked himself and searched my eyes, as if he could not understand whether my ignorance was assumed or real.