Wherein we are shown an Emotional Hairdresser at Loggerheads with Destiny
It was close upon midnight when Noll, baffled in his attempt to find Gomme, his feet jigging restlessly to a new music that was in his ears, stepped it out through London town, as a man will go on the eve of momentous decision in his life, to visit the old haunts of his boyhood.
As he came into the street where had been his old home, he wondered whether his mother lay asleep—what she was doing—what thinking.
He saw a light in her rooms; walked across the street; halted before the door, half inclined to take her into his delight——
In the black shadows flung by the street lamp there sat in a huddle on the topmost doorstep the silent figure of a man.
Noll bent forward and peered at him:
“Devlin?”
The barber nodded; he was very pale.
He attempted to speak—uttered a rending hiccup—and was still.
“What are you doing here?”