! Women are
devils! I wish--"

Sadie Corn leaned forward, placed her hand on Julia's arm, and turned
the girl about so that she faced her. Julia tried miserably to escape
her keen eyes and failed.

"What's the trouble between you and Jo?" she demanded for the fourth
time. "Out with it or I'll telephone down to the engine room and ask him
myself."

"Oh, well, if you want to know--" She paused, her eyelids drooping
again; then, with a rush: "Me and Jo have quarrelled again--for good,
this time. I'm through!"

"What about?"

"I s'pose you'll say I'm to blame. Jo's mother's sick again. She's got
to go to the hospital and have another operation. You know what that
means--putting off the wedding again until God knows when! I'm sick of
it--putting off and putting off! I told him we might as well quit and be
done with it. We'll never get married at this rate. Soon's Jo gets
enough put by to start us on, something happens. Last three times it's
been his ma. Pretty soon I'll be as old and wrinkled and homely as--"

"As me!" put in Sadie calmly. "Well, I don't know's that's the worst
thing that can happen to you. I'm happy. I had my plans, too, when I was
a girl like you--not that I was ever pretty; but I had my trials. Funny
how the thing that's easy and the thing that's right never seem to be
the same!"

"Oh, I'm fond of Jo's ma," said Julia, a little shamefacedly. "We get
along all right. She knows how it is, I guess; and feels--well, in the
way. But when Jo told me, I was tired I guess. We had words. I told him
there were plenty waiting for me if he was through. I told him I could
have gone out with a real swell only last Saturday if I'd wanted to.
What's a girl got her looks for if not to have a good time?"

"Who's this you were invited out by?" asked Sadie Corn.

"You must have noticed him," said Julia, dimpling. "He's as handsome as
an actor. Name's Venner. He's in two-twenty-three."

There came the look of steel into Sadie Corn's eyes.

"Look here, Julia! You've been here long enough to know that you're not
to listen to the talk of the men guests round here. Two-twenty-three
isn't your kind--and you know it! If I catch you talking to him again
I'll--"

The telephone at her elbow sounded sharply. She answered it absently,
her eyes, with their expression of pain and remonstrance, still
unshrinking before the onslaught of Julia's glare. Then her expression
changed. A look of consternation came into her face.