ine I say this just to please you--I have always thought so,
since--well, since I grew up. Besides, fleshy men generally look young,
because they are so good natured, perhaps. How old are you, Doctor?"

"It isn't the gray hairs I mind, either," he admitted hesitatingly,
"but I'm too darned bald-headed. Oh, I ain't so old, for I was only
thirty-five when the war broke out. I was so thin then I could hardly
cast a shadow. I've changed some since," casting his eyes admiringly
downward, "and got quite a figure. I was forty-three last month."

"That isn't old; that's just right."

"I've been afraid you looked on me as being an old fogy!"

"I should say not," indignantly. "Why should you ever think that?"

"Well, there were so many young fellows hanging about."

"Who?"

"Oh, Keith, and Hawley, and that bunch of officers from the fort; you
never had any time to give me."

She laughed again, her fingers tightening in their clasp on his hand.

"Why, how foolish; Hawley is older than you are, and I was only playing
with Keith. Surely you must know that now. And as to the officers, they
were just fun. You see, in my profession, one has to be awfully nice to
everybody."

"But didn't you really care for Hawley?" he insisted, bluntly probing
for facts.

"He--he interested me," admitted the girl, hesitatingly, her eyes
darkening with sudden anger. "He lied and I believed him--I would have
believed any one who came with such a story. Oh, Dr. Fairbain," and she
clung to him now eagerly, "you cannot realize how hungry I have been
for what he brought me. I wanted so to know the truth of my birth. Oh,
I hated this life!" She flung her disengaged hand into the air, with a
gesture expressive of disgust. "I was crazy to get away from it. That
was what made the man look good to me--he--he promised so much. You
will believe me, won't you? Oh, you must; I am going to make you. I am a
singer in music halls; I was brought up to that life from a little
girl, and of course, I know what you Western men think of us as a class.
Hawley showed it in his whole manner toward me, and I resented it; just
for that, deep down in my heart, I hated him. I know it now, now that
I really understand his purpose; but some way, when I was with him he
seemed to fascinate me, to make me do just as he willed. But you
have never been that way; you--you have acted as though I was
somebody--somebody nice, and not just a music-hall singer. Perhaps it's
just you