en the police
come to her door in their search for the culprit, she pretends that
the man opposite her at the table is her brother.

Later she learns that he has told her a falsehood, but she does not
deliver him to justice, and when she finds that the man who was shot
is not fatally injured, she sends the shielded one away in safety; for
which display of her fine sense of loyalty he becomes a veritable
watchdog, never intruding his presence upon her, but being always near
to observe the quality of the companions she still allows herself.

Blinker meets her by appointment the next evening, and the faithful
Watchdog follows them to Coney Island, vigilant, feeling sure than a
man of the evident social status of Blinker can mean no good to a girl
in Florence's station.

On the boat, coming home, Blinker tells Florence that he loves her. So
accustomed is she to this display of sentimentality in her cavaliers
that she merely laughs. He persists, and she indicates a belief that
he is just like the rest. Mention of "the rest" awakes question in
Blinker. He learns that she meets men indiscriminately. He has a
horror of this evidence of what he considers to be moral laxity, and
when Florence sees this she is amazed. _He_ has met her in the same
way, yet he is shocked that she should meet others! In justifying her
course she explains what sort of place "Brickdust Row" is, and how the
girls are driven out.

A fire is discovered on the boat, and in the excitement Blinker and
Florence are separated and the Watchdog is unable to find the girl he
worships. She has jumped into the water as the flames drew too close
to her.

Later she is found at home by the Watchdog, safe though suffering from
shock. He discovers that the shock is less from exposure than from her
discovery that Blinker was serious, and that he refused to condone her
mode of meeting men.

Blinker is visited by his lawyer, and in their conversation, a
reference to "Brickdust Row" gives Blinker the knowledge that he is
the owner of that tenement--that it is his own fault which gives rise
to such unconventional practices as Florence has innocently indulged
in. It is too late, he thinks, now--too late to change things. His
dream of love is rudely dispelled.

However, after a visit from the Watchdog, in which the gangster
loyally champions Florence's character and "lays down the law" to
Blinker, the latter sees Florence again, realizing his own great fault
in being