Page:Barbour--Peggy in the rain.djvu/243

 cognate letters!" And what little the reporter had said of her tallied so well with what Gordon knew!" She'd have turned you inside out if she had wanted to!" Gordon groaned. She had already done that!

He had all along imagined, for no special reason apparently, that Peggy was in Philadelphia. Now he became certain that she was right here in Chicago. There was breathless excitement in the thought. He was in the same town with her, perhaps only a block away for all he knew! To-morrow he might meet her face to face on the street! He had agreed not to search for her, but should they meet by accident she could lay no blame on him. And if they did meet— All the old longing surged up in him imperiously, chokingly, leaving him dizzy for a moment.

A corner light proclaimed Fifteenth Street, but he kept on with no thought of distance nor direction. The boulevard was fairly empty. Now and then a carriage pattered by or an automobile swept past in a glare of light, but there were few pedestrians. The silence grew with the blocks traversed and the city seemed hushed in expectancy. The air had grown lifeless. Far off