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 deal of cause, I know—he's like that; but then he's—just fine."

Clara was brushing her hair and she gave it several vigorous strokes. "You said he was a bad actor for him to-night, kid? That's the worst of him you ever see? Kid, then why in hell don't you marry him? Grab him off quick, I'm tellin' you; grab him off!" And Clara went to brushing more rapidly and vehemently than before.

She surprised Marjorie so that she went a few steps nearer and then, with something of Clara's tact, Marjorie withdrew to her own toilet table.

"Kid," said Clara, and her use of this address was a return to a manner which she had dropped recently, and which expressed to Marjorie that Clara felt now that her roommate had not become as sophisticated as she had thought, "I said somethin' to you once right here about there not bein' any of one sort of animal. I take it back; I was wrong; you had one up your sleeve; you've shown me."

"You mean—a—a," Marjorie hesitated, trying to recall Clara's exact words, "a pure man."

"What d' I care about purity? Gawd, Marjorie, I ain't askin' the sky to fall. If I can see a man who actually forgets himself when seein' a girl—who don't think about himself at all but just her, who don't care what show he makes of himself, who don't even know whether they're laughin' at him, and who couldn't think of carin' a damn if they was or not, so long as he could maybe, perhaps do a little thing for her, that's enough for me! Plenty, I'm tellin' you; 'bout ten thousand times more'n I ever thought to live to see! And pure! Gawd, I bet you he's just been fool enough—that man