The works of Edgar Allan Poe; newly collected and edited, with a memoir, critical introductions, and notes, by Edmund Clarence Stedman and George Edward Woodberry; the illustrations by Albert Edward Sterner.

THE MAN OF THE CROWD

apparently very feeble. His clothes, generally, were
filthy and ragged; but as he came, now and then,
within the strong glare of a lamp, I perceived that his
linen, although dirty, was of beautiful texture; and
my vision deceived me, or, through a rent in a closelybuttoned and evidently second-handed roquelaire
which enveloped him, I caught a glimpse both of a
diamond and of a dagger. These observations heightened my curiosity, and I resolved to follow the
stranger whithersoever he should go.
It was now fully nightfall, and a thick humid fog
hung over the city, soon ending in a settled and heavy
rain. This change of weather had an odd effect upon
the crowd, the whole of which was at once put into
new commotion, and overshadowed by a world of
umbrellas. The waver, the jostle, and the hum increased in a tenfold degree. For my own part I did
not much regard the rain - the lurking of an old fever
in my system rendering the moisture somewhat too
dangerously pleasant. Tying a handkerchief about
my mouth, I kept on. For half an hour the old man
held his way with difficulty along the great thoroughfare; and I here walked close at his elbow through
fear of losing sight of him. Never once turning his
head to look back, he did not observe me. By-andby he passed into a cross street, which, although
densely filled with people, was not quite so much
thronged as the main one he had quitted. Here a
change in his demeanor became evident. He walked
more slowly and with less object than before - more
hesitatingly. He crossed and re-crossed the way repeatedly without apparent aim; and the press was
still so thick, that, at every such movement, I was
obliged to follow him closely. The street was a nar69