They saw a great flare of fire arise from the direction of the Bowery, where Gretchen’s children were. Gretchen gasped, and Theodore looked grave. Mary thought it best to say nothing.

The sun was coming grimly down over the harbor when an old man walked up to them.

“I got a boat. Wife’s over there.” He indicated the area by South Street. “Soon as it’s dark, I’ll be going over. I can take you if you want.”

It was strange, being rowed across the East River in the dark. Ahead, the houses of the city were mostly shuttered, therefore dark. Many of the gas lamps in the street were also out—though leaking dangerous gas, no doubt. All over the city, the glow of fires could be seen, and the faint crackling sounds and the smell of their smoke drifted over the water.

But the South Street waterfront was quiet now, and they were able to tie up the boat and clamber out. Theodore gave the old man several dollars for his kindness. Though Gretchen protested, Theodore and Mary persuaded her to let him go to her house near the Bowery, while Mary took her to Sean’s saloon, which was not far off. “If there’s one place that will be safe down there, it’ll be Sean’s,” Mary pointed out.

Sean was just locking up when they reached him, and he ushered them quickly inside, not best pleased to see them.

“I thought you were safe on Coney Island,” he said. But he understood. “A mother goes to her children,” he said to Gretchen with a shrug. “What can you do?”

Half an hour later, Theodore arrived. The children were at their grandparents’ house. “I can get you there safely,” he told his sister.

As they left, he turned to Mary.

“We’ll be speaking again, Mary, when this is all over,” he said softly.

“Perhaps,” she said.

Not that he wouldn’t go through with it. If she went round to his studio, she was sure he would. But things had been different, out on Coney Island, and she was back in the city now. Back in her usual world. Well, she’d see.

The immediate question was, where should she go now?

“You’d better stay here,” Sean told her. When she said she wanted to go to Gramercy Park, he reiterated: “I don’t know what’s going on up there, but you’re definitely safer with your own family here.”