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　　On the other hand, her own feelings were a corrective influence.The constant drag to something better was not to be denied. Bythose things which address the heart was she steadily recalled.In the apartments across the hall were a young girl and hermother. They were from Evansville, Indiana, the wife anddaughter of a railroad treasurer. The daughter was here to studymusic, the mother to keep her company.

　　"Would he really put her to work? Oh, blessed fortune, could itbe?"

　　"If you do, maybe I can help you. I've got a lot of friends inthat line."

　　"You're so kind," said Carrie, feeling the goodness of suchattention in her strange situation.

　　"What can you do back at Columbia City?" he went on, rousing bythe words in Carrie's mind a picture of the dull world she hadleft. "There isn't anything down there. Chicago's the place.You can get a nice room here and some clothes, and then you cando something."

　　THE FEAST OF BELSHAZZAR--A SEER TO TRANSLATE

　　"It doesn't do any harm," said Vance, who was still studying thebill of fare, though he had ordered.

　　Here, then, was Carrie, established in a pleasant fashion, freeof certain difficulties which most ominously confronted her,laden with many new ones which were of a mental order, andaltogether so turned about in all of her earthly relationshipsthat she might well have been a new and different individual.She looked into her glass and saw a prettier Carrie than she hadseen before; she looked into her mind, a mirror prepared of herown and the world's opinions, and saw a worse. Between these twoimages she wavered, hesitating which to believe.

　　"All alone?" she said.