was young and thinking about getting
married. Later on it was 'Jen,' and now it is 'Jane'--just 'Jane.' 'Old
Jane' next! Huh! if I had long to live you don't think I'd keep on here
in this rotten, tattling town, do you? I've had my fill of it. You know
what they all say about you and me, don't you? They say you ruined
John's life, and that I was heading Dora for the dives when John stepped
in out of pity and kidnapped her--took her 'way off somewhere to get her
away from me and you, and--"

"Hush!" Lizzie Trott, white with fury, cried, brandishing a heavy
silver-plated hair-brush in her hand and towering over Jane.

But, leaning on her sunshade, Jane only laughed recklessly and
satirically. "Pull in your horns, Liz, old girl," she said. "I'm not
giving you any worse medicine than I'm taking myself. Huh! I guess not!
Huh! I'm only telling you what's being said in this darned town. They
all say, judging from her looks, that John's wife was as decent a
country girl as ever lived, and that if her father had met you the day
he came loaded for bear he would have put daylight through you. As for
me, they say John did my duty for me. Huh! it is a hell of a mix-up,
isn't it? But I don't care. I believe I'm all in. I feel it in my bones,
and I don't give a damn when I keel over. I hope I won't suffer, though.
Whew! I don't like to think of that! Look how Mag Sebastian faced the
music in Atlanta. When that fool shoe-drummer got married last week it
was piff! bang! and Mag gave a coroner's jury a job. Huh! They all say
who saw Mag in her fine casket that she looked like she was asleep. You
see, they combed her red bangs down so as to hide the bullet-hole, and
dressed her up nice. And flowers! Gosh! every girl on the town piled 'em
in and heaped 'em over her. But Mag couldn't smell 'em. Huh! I guess
not!"

"What ails you?" Lizzie asked, her lips trembling, her eyes wide with
grim inquiry, her tone one of anxious appeal, rather than that of her
earlier resentment.

"Huh! Nothing, Liz, old girl!" Jane replied, doggedly. "I guess I am
having different thoughts from you, that's all. I think certain things
all day long, no matter who I'm with--laughing, dancing, drinking,
shuffling a deck, or giving taffy to a man. Huh! Maybe it is because I
know something--huh! something that you don't know."

"What do you mean now?" Lizzie demanded, suspiciously.

"Never mind what I mean," was the stubborn retort, as Jane stabbed at
the straw ma