an's attention for the first time.

"Do you know why women don't get on?"

"Tell me," said she. "That's what I want to hear."

"Because they don't play the game under the rules. Now, what
does a man do? Why, he stakes everything he's got--does
whatever's necessary, don't stop at _nothing_ to help him get
there. How is it with women? Some try to be virtuous--when
their bodies are their best assets. God! I wish I'd 'a' had
your looks and your advantages as a woman to help me. I'd be
a millionaire this minute, with a house facing this Park and a
yacht and all the rest of it. A woman that's squeamish about
her virtue can't hope to win--unless she's in a position to
make a good marriage. As for the loose ones, they are as big
fools as the virtuous ones. The virtuous ones lock away their
best asset; the loose ones throw it away. Neither one _use_ it.
Do you follow me?"

"I think so." Susan was listening with a mind made abnormally
acute by the champagne she had freely drunk. The coarse
bluntness and directness of the man did not offend her. It
made what he said the more effective, producing a rude
arresting effect upon her nerves. It made the man himself seem
more of a person. Susan was beginning to have a kind of
respect for him, to change her first opinion that he was merely
a vulgar, pushing commonplace.

"Never thought of that before?"

"Yes--I've thought of it. But----" She paused.

"But--what?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Never mind. Some womanish heart nonsense, I suppose. Do you
see the application of what I've said to you and me?"

"Go on." She was leaning forward, her elbows on the closed
doors of the hansom, her eyes gazing dreamily into the moonlit
dimness of the cool woods through which they were driving.

"You don't want to stick at ten per?"

"No."

"It'll be less in a little while. Models don't last. The
work's too hard."

"I can see that."

"And anyhow it means tenement house."

"Yes. Tenement house."

"Well--what then? What's your plan?"

"I haven't any."

"Haven't a plan--yet want to get on! Is that good sense?
Did ever anybody get anywhere without a plan?"

"I'm willing to work. I'm going to work. I _am_ working."

"Work, of course. Nobody can keep alive without working. You
might as well say you're going to breathe and eat--Work don't
amount to anything, for getting on. It's the kind of
work--working in a certain direction--working with a plan."

"I'v