CHAPTER VI

To Kedzie Thropp the waiting-room of the Grand Central Terminal was
the terminus of human splendor. It was the waiting-room to heaven.
And indeed it is a majestic chamber.

The girl walked with her face high, staring at the loftily columned
recesses with the bay-trees set between the huge square pillars,
and above all the feigned blue sky and the monsters of the zodiac
in powdered gold.

Kedzie could hardly breathe--it was so beautiful, so much superior
to the plain every-night sky she was used to, with stars of tin
instead of gold like these.

Even her mother said "Well!" and Adna paid the architects the tribute
of an exclamation: "Humph! So this is the new station we was readin'
about. Some bigger'n ours at home, eh, Kedzie?"

But Kedzie was not there. They had lost her and had to turn back. She
was in a trance. When they snatched her down to earth again and pulled
her through the crowds she began to adore the people. They were
dressed in unbelievable splendor--millions, she guessed, in far better
than the best Sunday best she had ever seen. She wondered if she would
ever have nice clothes. She vowed that she would if she had to murder
somebody to get them.

The porter led the way from the vastitude of a corridor under