nd
very good-looking indeed in a way. She had well-cut features, a strong
chin, blue eyes under dark lashes, and a great deal of vitality. So
far as looks went, I might have met her anywhere.

{110}

"The big room was strewn with her things, for she had expected to be
burned out, too; but she began to put them away at once, offering me
closet room, and talking excitedly as she moved about.

"The place was full of department-store luxury, if you know what I
mean. Her toilet-table was loaded with silver in a pattern of
flamboyant, curly cupids,--I've often wondered who bought such
things,--and there were gorgeous, gaudy garments lying about. Her
belongings, all but a few frocks, were expensive and tasteless to the
last degree. So much extravagance and so little beauty! It seemed so
strange to me that it was interesting.

"She talked a good deal, showing me this and that. Her slangy speech
had a certain piquancy, because she looked finer than her words. She
was {111} absolutely sure of herself, and at ease. I made out that
this was because she was conscious of no standards save those of
money, and there, as she would have said, she could 'deliver the
goods.' Were n't the evidences of her worth right under my eyes?

"I talked, too, as effusively as I knew how. I tried to meet her
halfway. She was evidently a perfectly well-placed and admired person
in her own world. I was excited and tired and lonely. It seemed good
just to speak to some one.

"Presently the room was cleared, and we began to think of sleeping. I
have n't forgotten a word of the conversation that followed.

"'It's very good of you to take me in. I hope I shan't disturb you very
much,' I said.

"'Oh, I'm glad to have somebody to talk to. I think this living in Reno
{112} is deadly, but it seems to be the easiest way to get results,'
she answered. 'How long you been here?'

"I told her.

"'Well, I'm a good deal nearer my freedom than you are. Don't it seem
perfectly ridiculous that when you want to shake a man you can't just
_shake_ him, without all this to-do?' she said. 'It makes me so mad to
think I've got to stay down here six months by myself, just to get rid
of Jim Marshall! Say, what does your husband do?'

"What could I say, Uncle Ben? It seemed sacrilegious to mention Arnold
in that room, but I was her guest and dependent upon her for shelter
and a bed.

"'He is a doctor,' I said.

"'That so? Jim's superintendent of a mine. Up in the