de Jarvis's plate.

"Do you mind my paying it? Would you rather do it?"

"Certainly not. It's your money. Why should I pretend about it?"

She could have hugged him for it. Instead, she overfed the waiter.

"It's too heavenly, out of doors, for pictures, after all," she said, as
they came out on to the drive. "What shall we do?"

"Let's get that double-decker again, and ride until we come to the end
of the world."

"Righto. Here it comes, now."

Downtown they went, to Washington Square, where they dismounted, to
wander off at random. All at once they were in another world. It was
like an Alice in Wonderland adventure. They stepped out of the quiet of
the green, shady quadrangle into a narrow street, swarming with life.

Innumerable children, everywhere, shrieking and running at games. Fat
mothers and babies along the curb, bargaining with pushcart men. A
wheezing hurdy-gurdy, with every other note gone to the limbo of lost
chords, rasped and leaked jerky tunes. All the shops had foreign names
on the windows--not even an "English spoken here" sign. The fresh wind
blew down the dirty street, and peppered everything with dust.
Newspapers increased their circulation in a most irritating manner under
foot. The place was hideous, lifting its raucous cry to the fair
spring sky.

Jarvis looked at Bambi, silenced, for once. Her face registered a loud
protest.

"Well?" he challenged her.

"Oh, I hate ugliness so. It's like pain. Is it very weak of me to hate
ugliness?" she begged.

"It's very natural, and no doubt weak."

"I wouldn't mind the thought of poverty so much--not hunger, nor thirst,
nor cold--but dirt and hideousness--they are too terrible."

"This is life in the raw. You like it dressed for Fifth Avenue better,"
he taunted.

"Do you prefer this?"

"Infinitely."

She looked about again, with a sense of having missed his point.

"Because it's fight, hand-to-throat fight?"

"Yes. You can teach these people. They don't know anything. They are
dumb beasts. You can give them tongue. It's too late to teach your
Upper End."

A woman passed close, with a baby, covered with great sores. Bambi
caught at Jarvis's sleeve and tottered a step.

"I feel a little sick," she faltered.

He caught her hand through his arm, and hurried her quickly back the way
they had come. As they mounted the stage, he looked at her white face.

"We will have to expurgate life for you, Miss Mite."

"No, no. I want it all.