Belle Carpenter is a strong young woman who works in a hat shop and lives with her angry father who works at the bank. Her father used to have more power over her, but she is older now and can take care of herself against him. Belle is interested in one man, a bartender named Ed Handby, but she walks often with another man named George Willard because she doesn’t feel like she can be with Ed because of his social status as a bartender. Ed had made a lot of money by selling a farm he inherited, but had wasted the money on prostitutes and gambling and is the main talk of the small town. Ed had gone on a date with Belle one night and promised her that she would be his one day. One night George is playing pool with his friends and brags about his times with some women. He leaves them and walks in the night and, being alone, pretends that he is a drunken man and then a soldier who must practice order. He says out loud that nothing hard can be done without order and he wonders where that thought had come from. He feels like it comes from an external source and he begins to think about life as he walks to a part of town where the day laborers live. He walks into a dark alleyway and stays there for a while and suddenly begins to feel very large and detached from life. He is briefly attacked by a dog and leaves the alleyway and begins to feel like everyone is his brother and sister. He thinks about running around with a woman and decides to go visit Belle and ask her to walk with him. At Belle’s house, Ed Handby is there going to ask Belle to be his wife, but he loses his nerve. He tells Belle instead that if she goes along with George Willard that he will hurt both of them. He goes across the street and sits down in sorrow at threatening the woman he loves. George approaches the house and asks Belle to walk with him, who readily agrees in hopes that Ed will see them and feel jealous. As the two walk, George tells Belle that he is a changed man and that he won’t be used anymore and that he wants Belle. They get to a secluded spot in some bushes and he decides that he wants to have sex with Belle whether she wants it or not. He kisses her and she does not pull away. However, he feels as though she is waiting for something. Suddenly out of the forest, Ed comes and pushes George into the bushes and confronts Belle. George tries to attack Ed, but Ed continually pushes George down. Ed escorts Belle back home and George is left longing for the feeling that possessed him in the dark alleyway.