He was a workman in a factory, with one accumulative interest in life--coal-stoves.

He bought and traded and swapped coal-stoves every winter with keenest enthusiasm.

Now he had one in his mind which he had just viewed in a window with the rapture of an artist.

It had a little nickel statuette on the top, and that quite crowded Ellen out of his mind, which had but narrow accommodations.
So Ellen kept on unmolested, though her heart was beating loud with fright.

When she came into the brilliantly lighted stretch of Main Street, which was the business centre of the city, her childish mind was partly diverted from herself.