THE FAREWELL 



ward. The Englishman shouted a warning and a 

 threat, indicating in pantomime for whom the coin 

 was intended. To our surprise that evil-looking 

 wharf rat smiled and waved his hand reassuringly; 

 then took the old woman by the arm to show her 

 where the coin had fallen. She hobbled to it with 

 a haste eloquent of the horrible Marseillaise poverty- 

 stricken alleys, picked it up joyously, turned — 

 and with a delightful grace kissed her finger-tips 

 toward the ship. 



Apparently we all of us had a few remaining 

 French coins; and certainly we were all grateful to 

 the young Englishman for his happy thought. 

 The sous descended as fast as the woman could get 

 to where they fell. So numerous were they that 

 she had no time to express her gratitude except in 

 broken snatches of gesture, in interrupted attitudes 

 of the most complete thanksgiving. The day of 

 miracles for her had come; and from the humble 

 poverty that valued tiny and infrequent splinters of 

 wood she had suddenly come into great wealth. 

 Everybody was laughing, but in a very kindly sort 

 of way, it seemed to me; and the very wharf rats and 

 gamins, wolfish and fierce in their everyday life of 

 the waterfront, seemed to take a genuine pleasure 

 in pointing out to her the resting place of those her 

 dim old eyes had not seen. Silver pieces followed. 



13 



