Just then, Kelson, happening to look behind him, saw a young woman of prepossessing appearance ascending the steps of a dive in Clay Street.  He was instantly attracted, as he always was attracted by a pretty woman, and something—­a kind of intuition he had never had before—­told him that she was a waitress; that she was discontented with her present situation; that she was engaged to be married to a pen driver at Hastings & Hastings in Sacramento Street; and that she had a mother, of over seventy, whom she kept.  All this came to Kelson like a flash of lightning.

Yielding to an impulse which he did not stay to analyse, he gripped Hamar and Curtis, each too astonished even to remonstrate, by the arm, and, dragging them along with him, followed the girl.

The dive had only just been opened, and was being dusted and swept by two slatternly women with dago complexions, and voices like hyenas.  It still reeked of stale drink and tobacco.

“What’s the good of coming to a place like this?” Hamar demanded, as soon as he had freed himself from Kelson’s clutches.  “We can’t get breakfast here.”

“Matt’s mad, that’s what’s the matter with him,” Curtis added in disgust.  “Let’s get out.”

He turned to go—­then, halted—­and stood still.  He appeared to be listening.  “What’s up with you?” Hamar asked.  “Both you fellows are behaving like lunatics this morning—­there’s not a pin to choose between you.”

“They’re playing cards, that’s all,” Curtis said.  “Can’t you hear them?”

Hamar shook his head.  “Not a sound,” he said.  “Just look at Matt!”

While the other two were talking, Kelson had followed the girl to the bar, and catching her up, just as she entered it, said in a manner that was peculiar to him—­a manner seldom without effect upon girls of his class—­“I beg your pardon, miss, are we too early to be served?  Jerusalem!  Haven’t I met you somewhere before?”

The girl looked him square in the eyes and then smiled.  “As like as not,” she said.  “I go pretty near everywhere!  What do you want?”

“Well!” Kelson soliloquized; “breakfast is what we are particularly anxious for—­but I suppose that is out of the question in a dive!”

“Then why did you come here?” the girl queried.

“Because of you!  Simply because of you,” Kelson replied.  “You hypnotized me!”

“That being so, then I reckon you can have your breakfast,” the girl laughed, “though we don’t provide them as a rule before nine.  Indeed, the management have only just decided—­this morning—­on providing them at all.”

“How odd!”

“Why odd?” the girl questioned, taking off her hat and arranging her curls before a mirror.

“Why, that I should have happened to strike the right moment!  Had I come here yesterday it would have been useless.  As I said, you hypnotized me.  Evidently fate intended us to meet.”

“Do you believe in fate?” the girl asked, shrugging her shoulders.  “I believe in nothing—­least of all in men!”