n don't change their minds about one another
often: they make it quite an event when they do, and talk about it as
if something important had happened. But a girl only has to go down-town
with a shoe-string unfastened, and every man who sees her will change
his mind about her. Don't you know that's true?"

"Not of myself, I think."

"There!" she cried. "That's precisely what every man in the world would
say!"

"So you wouldn't trust me?"

"Well--I'll be awfully worried if you give 'em a chance to tell you that
I'm too lazy to tie my shoe-strings!"

He laughed delightedly. "Is that what they do say?" he asked.

"Just about! Whatever they hope will get results." She shook her head
wisely. "Oh, yes; we do that here!"

"But I don't mind loose shoe-strings," he said. "Not if they're yours."

"They'll find out what you do mind."

"But suppose," he said, looking at her whimsically; "suppose I wouldn't
mind anything--so long as it's yours?"

She courtesied. "Oh, pretty enough! But a girl who's talked about has a
weakness that's often a fatal one."

"What is it?"

"It's this: when she's talked about she isn't THERE. That's how they
kill her."

"I'm afraid I don't follow you."

"Don't you see? If Henrietta--or Mildred--or any of 'em--or some of
their mothers--oh, we ALL do it! Well, if any of 'em told you I didn't
tie my shoe-strings, and if I were there, so that you could see me,
you'd know it wasn't true. Even if I were sitting so that you couldn't
see my feet, and couldn't tell whether the strings were tied or not just
then, still you could look at me, and see that I wasn't the sort of girl
to neglect my shoe-strings. But that isn't the way it happens: they'll
get at you when I'm nowhere around and can't remind you of the sort of
girl I really am."

"But you don't do that," he complained. "You don't remind me you don't
even tell me--the sort of girl you really are! I'd like to know."

"Let's be serious then," she said, and looked serious enough herself.
"Would you honestly like to know?"

"Yes."

"Well, then, you must be careful."

"'Careful?'" The word amused him.

"I mean careful not to get me mixed up," she said. "Careful not to mix
up the girl you might hear somebody talking about with the me I honestly
try to make you see. If you do get those two mixed up--well, the whole
show'll be spoiled!"

"What makes you think so?"

"Because it's----" She checked herself, having begun to speak too
impul