times--she
thought she was in love and all that sort of thing. I soon knocked that
nonsense out of her head. 'Laura' I said--'you've no time to fool. You
won't be fresh and pretty all your life. Make hay while the sun shines.
It's time to fall in love when you get old and faded and wrinkled.
Business before pleasure every time.' You know, Brockton has been very
good to her. She was lucky to find such a steady. She has money to
burn, a luxurious apartment, automobiles, influence with the managers.
What more could she want? She'd be a fool to give up all that." Raising
her glass to her lips, she looked with a smile towards Madison.

"Here's how!" she said with mock courtesy.

But the big Westerner was paying no attention to them. Silent,
engrossed, he was intent watching the gay crowd around him, studying
with deep interest the faces of these painted courtesans, who brazenly
came to this place to offer themselves. He wondered what their
childhood had been, to what disastrous home influences they had been
subjected to bring them to such degradation as this. Most of them were
coarse and vulgar-looking wantons, with rouged cheeks and pencilled
eyebrows, but others seemed to be modest girls, refined and well bred.
These were plainly in their novitiate. Surely, he pondered, such a
shameless calling must be revolting to them; the better instincts of
their womanhood must rebel at the very shame of it. He believed that
here and there, behind the rouge and forced hilarity, he could detect
signs of an aching heart, a woman secretly filled with anguish. It gave
him a sickening feeling of repulsion. Others saw only the outward
gaiety of the scene; but he saw still deeper. He realized its tragic
significance and it filled him with disgust and horror.

Suddenly his attention was attracted to a young girl who had just
entered the restaurant. She was gowned magnificently enough even to be
conspicuous among that crowd of well-dressed women, and she wore a
large picture hat, crowned by expensive plumes. Close behind was her
escort, a middle-aged, stockily built man, with iron-gray hair, also
immaculately dressed. As the couple passed, the people at the tables
turned and whispered. When the newcomer drew nearer, Madison could see
that she was very young, and he was struck by her laughing, dimpled
beauty. She appeared little more than a child, and the manner in which
she was dressed--girlish fashion, with her wealth of blonde hair caught