Page:The Breath of Scandal (1922).djvu/256



PON several occasions previous to the next day, Marjorie had approached strange men at their places of business and she had induced many of them to do what, proverbially, was most difficult for them; she made them give up good money for nothing tangible or visibly profitable to themselves; for Marjorie always had performed her part in the incessant "drives" for the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Russians, devastated France and the similar objects of emotion which, during the war and afterwards, had agitated Evanston. So, more than most girls of her position, she was accustomed to approach men. Of course, in her drives, she had unpleasant experiences when now and then she encountered a man who was "rude" to her; but never had rudeness taken a bolder form with Marjorie Hale than indifference to her or curtness in shutting off her solicitation. Occasionally she had been aware, when talking with tradesmen, that a man expected her to make some return for money contributed to her fund,—reward in the shape of patronage from the Hale family. No other sort of return could occur to her as expected by any man, because no other could possibly enter the heads of the men Marjorie Hale solicited. Consequently, she embarked upon wholly strange seas of experience with men in their business places when, upon the morning after her visit with Mr. Saltro to Sennen's Hall, she set out to earn