ou right."

"Get out of here!" cried Susan. "I'm going to leave this
house. They drugged me and brought me here."

"Oh, come now. I've got nothing to do with your quarrels with
the landlady. Cut those fairy tales out. You treat me right
and----"

A few minutes later in came the madam. Susan, exhausted, sick,
lay inert in the middle of the bed. She fixed her gaze upon
the eyes looking through the hideous mask of paint and powder
partially concealing the madam's face.

"Well, are you going to be a good girl now?" said the madam.

"I want to sleep," said Susan.

"All right, my dear." She saw and snatched the five-dollar
bill from the pillow. "It'll go toward paying your board and
for the parlor dress. God, but you was drunk when they brought
you up from the bar!"

"When was that?" asked Susan.

"About midnight. It's nearly four now. We've shut the house
for the night. You're in a first-rate house, my dear, and if
you behave yourself, you'll make money--a lot more than you
ever could at a dive like Zeist's. If you don't behave well,
we'll teach you how. This building belongs to one of the big
men in politics, and he looks after my interests--and he ought
to, considering the rent I pay--five hundred a month--for the
three upper floors. The bar's let separate. Would you like a
nice drink?"

"No," said Susan. Trapped! Hopelessly trapped! And she would
never escape until, diseased, her looks gone, ruined in body
and soul, she was cast out into the hospital and the gutter.

"As I was saying," ventured the madam, "you might as well
settle down quietly."

"I'm very well satisfied," said Susan. "I suppose you'll give
me a square deal on what I make." She laughed quietly as if
secretly amused at something. "In fact, I know you will," she
added in a tone of amused confidence.

"As soon as you've paid up your twenty-five a week for room and
board and the fifty for the parlor dress----"

Susan interrupted her with a laugh. "Oh, come off," said she.
"I'll not stand for that. I'll go back to Jim Finnegan."

The old woman's eyes pounced for her face instantly. "Do you
know Finnegan?"

"I'm his girl," said Susan carelessly. She stretched herself
and yawned. "I got mad at him and started out for some fun.
He's a regular damn fool about me. But I'm sick of him.
Anything but a jealous man! And spied on everywhere I go. How
much can I make here?"

"Ain't you from Zeist's?" demanded the ma