, I
guess. I done wrong--I done wrong! I'd oughtn't never to of went out
there yesterday."

She checked herself sharply, but, after a moment's pause, continued,
encouraged by the grave kindliness of the delicate face in the shadow
of the wide white hat. "I'd oughtn't to of went," she repeated. "Oh,
I reckon I'll never, never learn enough to keep out o' trouble, even
when I see it comin'! But that gentleman friend of mine--Mr. Nashville
Cory's his name--he kind o' coaxed me into it, and he's right comical
when he's with ladies, and he's good company--and he says, 'Claudine,
we'll dance the light fantastic,' he says, and I kind o' wanted
something cheerful--I'd be'n workin' steady quite a spell, and it
looked like he wanted to show me a good time, so I went, and that's
what started it." Now that she had begun, she babbled on with her
story, at times incoherently; full of excuses, made to herself more
than to Ariel, pitifully endeavoring to convince herself that the
responsibility for the muddle she had made was not hers.

"Mr. Cory told me my husband was drinkin' and wouldn't know about it,
and, 'Besides,' he says, 'what's the odds?' Of course I knowed there
was trouble between him and Mr. Fear--that's my husband--a good while
ago, when Mr. Fear up and laid him out. That was before me and Mr.
Fear got married; I hadn't even be'n to Canaan then; I was on the
stage. I was on the stage quite a while in Chicago before I got
acquainted with my husband."

"You were on the stage?" Ariel exclaimed, involuntarily.

"Yes, ma'am. Livin' pitchers at Goldberg's Rat'skeller, and amunchoor
nights I nearly always done a sketch with a gen'leman friend. That's
the way I met Mr. Fear; he seemed to be real struck with me right away,
and soon as I got through my turn he ast me to order whatever I wanted.
He's always gen'lemanlike when he ain't had too much, and even then he
vurry, vurry seldom acks rough unless he's jealous. That was the
trouble yesterday. I never would of gone to the Beach if I'd dreamed
what was comin'! When we got there I saw Mike--that's the gen'leman
that runs the Beach--lookin' at my company and me kind of anxious, and
pretty soon he got me away from Mr. Cory and told me what's what.
Seems this Cory only wanted me to go with him to make my husband mad,
and he'd took good care that Mr. Fear heard I'd be there with him! And
he'd be'n hangin' around me, every time he struck town, jest to make
Mr. Fear ma