yself? How do you know? You're th' only one, I s'pose," her tone
was suddenly mocking, "that knows how t' think! No"--as Rose-Marie
started to interrupt--"don't try t' pull any alibi on me! I know th' way
you Settlement House _ladies_"--she accented the word--"feel about _us_.
You have clubs for us, an' parties, an' uplift meetin's. You pray fer
us--an' with us. You tell us who t' marry, an' how t' bring up our
children, an' what butcher t' buy our meat off of. But when it comes t'
understandin' us--an' likin' us! Well, you're too good, that's all." She
paused, staring at Rose-Marie's incredulous face with insolent eyes.

"You're like all th' rest," she went on, after a moment, "just like
all th' rest. I was beginnin' t' think that you was diff'rent. You've
been so white about Bennie. An' you washed Ma's hair--I wouldn't 'a'
done that myself! But now--now it sticks out all over you; th'
I'm-better-'n-you-are stuff. I never could think of a thing, _I_
couldn't. But you--you're smart, you are. You could think--"

Rose-Marie's cheeks were flushed with a very real resentment, as she
interrupted the girl's flow of half-articulate speech.

"Ella," she said, and her words, too, came rapidly, "you know that you're
not being fair--you know it! I've never held apart from you in any way.
Oh, I realize that we've been brought up in different--surroundings. And
it's made us different from each other in the unimportant things. But
we're both girls, Ella--we're both young and we've both got all of life
before us. And so, perhaps, we can understand each other"--she was
fumbling mentally for words, in an effort to make clear her
meaning--"more than either of us realize. I wasn't, for one moment,
trying to patronize you when I said what I did. I was only wondering how
you happened to say something that I wouldn't ever dream of saying--that
no nice girl, who had a real understanding of life"--she wondered, even
as she spoke the words, what the Young Doctor would think if he could
hear them issuing from her lips--"would dream of saying. You're a nice
girl, Ella--or you wouldn't be in the same family with Bennie and Lily.
And you're a sensible girl, so you must realize how important and sacred
marriage is. Who told you that it was a mistake, Ella? Who," her childish
face was very grave, indeed, "who told you such a terrible thing?"

Ella's eyes were blazing--Rose-Marie almost thought that the girl
was going to strike her! But the blazing