Page:Frank Owen - Woman Without Love (1949 reprint).djvu/90

 to run the risk of having it discovered that their dignity and refinement was only a thin veneer.

So Madame rode in dignity through the streets, and her own small army of veterans who had been with her to the wars, saluted and paid homage. It was a distinct tonic to her vanity. She was a successful woman, a credit to the community.

In choosing her girls, Madame exercised extreme care. They must be beautiful, in perfect health. Their bodies must be without blemish. They must use good English and conduct themselves in a decorous manner.

In one thing she was strict. No innocent girl must start on the downroad through her house. Frequently girls she knew could be saved, drifted to her establishment. To these girls she talked like a mother. She told them of all the heartaches, the sorrows, the horrors which they would find along their chosen road.

For business reasons she posed as an ardent Christian. She attended church regularly. Sometimes she enjoyed the services. More often she declared they bored her to hell. But perhaps some of this religious environment did seep into her body and she held to her original intention to be a good Samaritan to wayward girls. In any event to many a poor broken girl whose greatest sin was that she had been a fool, trusted a man, Madame Leota was a Madonna of Mercy. Until the girl got back her courage, her strength, her hope again, Madame kept her in that private apartment of her own at the top of the huge stone house. Here the girl was as safe as in a convent. Woe betide the man who mounted that final flight of stairs without a direct invitation from Madame Leota. The house was a "Palace of Joy," but Madame's private apartment was a quiet peaceful home. Madame was a strong woman and it was rumored that on several occasions she had seized intruders bodily and tossed them down that great flight of heavy-carpeted stairs.

For almost twenty years Madame Leota ruled her establishment like an empress and a strange twenty years they were. For the first time in her life she had girls working for her. She grew stout and her famed beauty deteriorated. Lines and wrinkles