room, which she rightly suspected
had been put there by her friend. For all Lil's entreaties, Mavis
insisted on returning the money. Lil constantly wore a frock to which
Mavis took exception because it was garish. One day she spoke to Lil
about it.

"Why do you so often wear that dress?" she asked.

"Don't you like it?"

"Not a bit. It's much too loud for you."

"I don't like it myself."

"Then why wear it?"

"It's my 'lucky dress.'"

"Your what?"

"'Lucky' dress. Don't you know all we girls have their 'lucky' dresses?"

This was news to Mavis.

"You mean a dress that--"

"Brings us luck with the gentlemen," interrupted Lil.

The subject thus opened, Lil became eloquent upon many aspects of her
occupation. Presently she said:

"It isn't always the worst girls who are 'on the game.'"

"Indeed!"

"So many are there through no fault of their own."

"How is that?" asked Mavis.

"They get starved into it. It's all these big shops and places. They
pay sweating wages, and to get food the girls pick up men. That's the
beginning."

Mavis nodded assent. She remembered all she had heard and seen on this
matter when at "Dawes'."

"And the small employers are getting just as bad. And of them the women
are the worst. They don't care how much they grind poor girls down. If
anything, I b'lieve they enjoy it. And if once a girl goes wrong,
they're the ones to see she don't get back. Why is it they hate us so?"

"Give it up," replied Mavis, who added, "I should think it wanted an
awful lot of courage."

"Courage! courage! You simply mustn't think. And that's where drink
comes in."

Mavis sighed.

"Don't you ever take to the life," admonished Lil.

"I'm not likely to," shuddered Mavis.

"'Cause you ain't the least built that way. And thank God you ain't."

"I do; I do," said Mavis fervently.

"It's easy enough to blame, I know; but if you've a little one and no
one in the wide world to turn to for help, and the little one's crying
for food, what can a poor girl do?" asked Lil, as she became thoughtful
and sad-looking.

A time came when Mavis was sorely pressed for money to buy the bare
necessaries of life. She could not even afford soap with which to wash
her own and her baby's clothes. Of late, she had made frequent visits
to Mrs Scatchard's, where she had left many of her belongings. All of
these that were saleable she had brought away and had disposed of
either at pawnshops or at second-hand dea