" he was sincere enough now, "and
honest, Mrs. Gallito, it was all up with me then, right from the first
minute, and I was so plumb crazy about her that I guess I lost my head.
I knew all the time that I ought to tell you and her just how I was
fixed, I knew it, but, someways, try as I would, I couldn't. I didn't
have the nerve, so I just waited and let the cards fall as they would.
Maybe I was a fool and a coward. The way things have turned out, it sure
looks like I was, but I just couldn't help it."

"I guess you ain't any different from most men," she answered, weakly
sympathetic, "but you see Pearl has her notions, and they're mighty
strong ones. It's the way she's been brought up," this with some pride.
"You see, me and her pop started out with the idea that we wasn't going
to have the Pearl live one of those hand to mouth lives that we'd seen
girls in the circus that didn't have much training or much ability live.
We saw right from the first that she was awful smart and awful pretty,
and her Pop he had the knack of making money and holding on to it. Well,
when he saw that she had her head set on the stage and we couldn't keep
her off it, it's in her blood, you see, why her Pop says: 'Well, there's
one thing, till she's of age, legal, on or off the stage, she's going to
have a mother's care and a father showing up every now and then
unexpected.' He's got awful Spanish ideas, you know. 'I don't want her
kept innocent,' he says. 'My Lord, no. It's the innocent ones that have
got to pay, and pay big in a world of bad knowledge where ignorance is
not forgave and is punished worse than any crime. Let her see the seamy
side,' he says, 'she's no fool. Let her see what those who thinks to
live easy and gives themselves away easy gets.'

"And Pearl saw right off. You see, she ain't so soft-hearted like me,"
again she wiped the furtive tear from her eye. "Pearl's hard. She ain't
no conscience about some things. She'll lead a man on and on, when she
don't care beans for him, and take all he'll give her, not money, you
know, but awful handsome presents. I've seen her let some poor boy that
was crazy about her blow in all the dust that he'd saved for a year. Oh,
yes, she's like her father in more'n one way, both awful ambitious and
terrible fond of making money. Why," she added naively, "I've seen Pearl
look at a bank note like I never saw her look at a love letter."

"Well, she won't make much money up in those mountains, not