"
This ought not to have made Fritzing, a person of stainless life and
noble principles, start, but it did. He started; and he listened
anxiously for more.
"Yes," said the other, who had a newspaper under his arm, "they
deserve about as bad as they'll--"
He was out of ear-shot; but Fritzing mechanically finished the
sentence himself. Who had been infamous? And what were they going to
get? It was at this point that he laid hold of the handrail to steady
himself till the two men should pass again.
"You can tell, of course, what steps our Government will take," was
the next snatch.
"I shall be curious to see the attitude of the foreign papers," was
the next.
"Anything more wanton I never heard of," was the next.
"Of all the harmless, innocent creatures--" was the next.
And the last snatch of all--for though they went on walking Fritzing
heard no more after it--was the brief and singular expression
"Devils."
Devils? _What_ were they talking about? Devils? Was that, then, how
the public stigmatized blameless persons in search of peace? Devils?
What, himself and--no, never Priscilla.
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