No matter. Keep going. Keep the house at your back, and run. Take wider roads now: the lanes and alleys twist, and are dark, you must not get caught in them. Run, run. No matter that the sky seems vast and awful to you. No matter that London is loud. No matter that there are people here—no matter that they stare—no matter that their clothes are worn and faded, and your gown bright;
that their heads are covered, yours bare. No matter that your slippers are silk, that your feet are cut by every stone and cinder—
So I whip myself along. Only the traffic checks me, the rushing horses and wheels: at every crossing I pause, then cast myself into the mass of cabs and waggons; and I think it is only my haste, my distraction—that, and perhaps the vividness of my dress—that makes the drivers pull at their reins and keep from running me down. On, on, I go. I think once a dog barks at me, and snaps at my skirt. I think boys run beside me, for a time—two boys, or three— shrieking to see me stagger. ''You,'' I say, holding my hand against my side, ''will you tell me, where is Holywell Street? Which way, to Holywell Street?''—but at the sound of my voice, they fall back.