w what I mean, Saxon. They
ain't no use wastin' words over it. You know. I know. Everybody knows.
An' it's a hell of a world if men an' women sometimes can't talk to each
other about such things." His manner was almost apologetic yet it was
defiantly and assertively right. "I never talk this way to other girls.
They'd think I'm workin up to designs on 'em. They make me sick the way
they're always lookin' for them designs. But you're different I can talk
to you that way. I know I've got to. It's the square thing. You're like
Billy Murphy, or any other man a man can talk to."

She sighed with a great happiness, and looked at him with unconscious,
love-shining eyes.

"It's the same way with me," she said. "The fellows I've run with I've
never dared let talk about such things, because I knew they'd take
advantage of it. Why, all the time, with them, I've a feeling that we're
cheating and lying to each other, playing a game like at a masquerade
ball." She paused for a moment, hesitant and debating, then went on in
a queer low voice. "I haven't been asleep. I've seen... and heard.
I've had my chances, when I was that tired of the laundry I'd have done
almost anything. I could have got those fancy shirtwaists... an' all the
rest... and maybe a horse to ride. There was a bank cashier... married,
too, if you please. He talked to me straight out. I didn't count,
you know. I wasn't a girl, with a girl's feelings, or anything. I was
nobody. It was just like a business talk. I learned about men from him.
He told me what he'd do. He..."

Her voice died away in sadness, and in the silence she could hear Billy
grit his teeth.

"You can't tell me," he cried. "I know. It's a dirty world--an unfair,
lousy world. I can't make it out. They's no squareness in it.--Women,
with the best that's in 'em, bought an' sold like horses. I don't
understand women that way. I don't understand men that way. I can't
see how a man gets anything but cheated when he buys such things. It's
funny, ain't it? Take my boss an' his horses. He owns women, too. He
might a-owned you, just because he's got the price. An', Saxon, you was
made for fancy shirtwaists an' all that, but, honest to God, I can't see
you payin' for them that way. It'd be a crime--"

He broke off abruptly and reined in the horses. Around a sharp turn,
speeding down the grade upon them, had appeared an automobile. With
slamming of brakes it was brought to a stop, while the faces of the
occ