"I've been to the matinee this afternoon." "Oh, you have ?" said Hurstwood.

"What was it ?" "A Gold Mine." "How was it ?" "Pretty good," said Carrie.
"And you don't want to go again to night ?" "I don't think I do," she said.
Nevertheless, wakened out of her melancholia and called to the dinner table, she changed her mind.

A little food in the stomach does wonders.
She went again, and in so doing temporarily recovered her equanimity.
The great awakening blow had, however, been delivered.

As often as she might recover from these discontented thoughts now, they would occur again.

Time and repetition--ah, the wonder of it! The dropping water and the solid stone--how utterly it yields at last! Not long after this matinee experience--perhaps a month--Mrs.Vance invited Carrie to an evening at the theatre with them.