, when he had persuaded her not to run away, she became sad and
just a little tearful.

"It's terrible," she confided. "Just because I have to make my own
living.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} It's not fair. I ought never to speak to you again.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} And yet, I
do care for you.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}"

Ramon was touched. The pathos of her situation appealed strongly to his
tipsy consciousness. Why not do it? After all, the girl was respectable.
As she said, nobody "had anything on her." The dance was a public affair.
Any one could go. He had been too timid. Not three people there knew who
she was. By God, he would do it!

At first they did not attract much attention. Dora was pretty and fairly
well dressed, in no way conspicuous. They danced exclusively with each
other, as did some other couples present, and nothing was thought of that.

But soon he became aware of glances, hostile, disapproving. Probably it
was true that only a few of the men at first knew who Dora was, but they
told other men, and some of the men told the women. Soon it was known to
all that he had brought "one of those awful eating house girls" to the
dance! The enormity of the mistake he had made was borne in upon him
gradually. Some of the men he knew smiled at him, generally with an
eye-brow raised, or with a shake of the head. Sidney Felberg, who was a
real friend, took him aside.

"For the love of God, Ramon, what did you bring that Flusey here for?
You're queering yourself at a mile a minute. And you're drunk, too. For
Heaven's sake, cart her away while the going's good!"

Ramon had not realized how drunk he was until he heard this warning.

"O, go to hell, Sid!" he countered. "She's as good as anybody {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} I guess I
can bring anybody I want here.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}"

Sidney shook his head.

"No use, no use," he observed philosophically. "But it's too bad!"

Ramon's own words sounded hollow to him. He was in that peculiar condition
when a man knows that he is making an ass of himself, and knows that he is
going right ahead doing it. He was more attentive to Dora than ever. He
brought her a glass of water, talked to her continually with his back to
the hostile room. He was fully capable of carrying the thing through, even
though girls he had known all his life were refusing to meet his eyes.

It was Dora who weakened. She became quiet and sad, and looked infinitely
forlorn. When a couple of women got up