I was alone in it and in danger.

Disaster and ruin were looking for me around the corner.

I was like a child, helpless and homeless.

I could not call upon God, for I did not believe in Him.
It came home to me, as I stood there in the night upon the open street, that there was not one soul among all the city's sleeping millions who owed me aught but harm, and that even those who had drunk the wine of my hospitality had done so more in fear than in friendship.

I had no friends but those who were bound to me in some devil's bargain--no kith, no kin, nor the memory of a mother's love.