Page:The Breath of Scandal (1922).djvu/250

 to you. Of course, that don't make it more simple for you, though I do understand that even your nice little boys have been treatin' you nice home girls some rough lately. Even the society columns been talkin' about it; and the 'chaperone'; you been checkin' your corsets between leavin' mother and startin' the waltz with Willy. Naughty, naughty! And you been motorin' out after dark in a Packard roadster all alone in a seat beside a boy who you ain't known more than all your life and who wouldn't do nothin' to himself, if he actually did anything to you, but have to skip the State and force his family to sell out and move. They're all duds when they're out with you, and you know it; you go through the motions of playin' with fire and actin' up reckless; but you know those boys ain't actually goin' to do any damage to you. If they were, you'd have begun to suspect it, wearin' that dress, before my friends begun judgin' by appearance to-night. What'd you want me to tell 'em?"

"Nothing," said Marjorie, humbly.

"Kid," cried Clara, with sudden emotion and clasping her roommate's hand. "You're up against something you ain't told to me. That's all right! Gawd, I don't mean to jump on you; just the opposite, dearie. I've had all the advantages in this game. Nine of us, where I come from—seven grew up, too; or growin'. A few miles over that way," she nodded vaguely west and cityward, as she let go of Marjorie's hand. "Ever hear of Augusta Street? Oh, sure you have, if you come from Evanston; Northwestern Settlement's on it. Well, the Selitz family—that's us—used to be just off Augusta; and I don't believe there was a bunch that visitin' ladies used to get more worked up about than us. We had two rooms to live in—the