Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the city room.djvu/28

 of me. It is less interesting; occasionally it wearies me. And I always abuse people and institutions when I am weary."

If there was a personal application in this, Miss Herrick passed it by with the smiling calmness of the trained reporter. "You are quite right," she said cheerfully. "But it would be infinitely more interesting to talk about you than about anything else. I should think you would be forced to turn your eyes inward occasionally, as a refreshing change from the things which weary you."

"The inner view is no longer pleasant."

Mrs. Brandow's smile, as she spoke, was not particularly pleasant, either. The reporter's thoughts flew suddenly to a certain Mary Bird, who had lost her reason under peculiarly depressing circumstances, which Miss Herrick had been unfortunate enough to witness. Mary had smiled on the newspaper woman once or twice, and the latter, though not imaginative, remembered the smiles too vividly for her own comfort. When the prisoner spoke again, however, the resemblance, if there had been one, vanished.

"I have often felt that I should go mad in