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“You’re on the road to hell!” he said, in a voice that was very low, but it reached her. It was full of pain and grave reprimand and gentleness. “You’ve been poisoned. You’re in need of a good man’s help. You need the companionship of good, earnest women instead of painted harlots.”

Her voice shook painfully as she replied:

“You don’t think I’m all bad?”

“You’re not bad at all–you’re simply reckless. You are not to blame. It depends upon yourself now, though, whether you keep a true woman or go to hell with Mrs. Shellberg.”

The conductor eyed them as he passed, with an unpleasant light in his eyes, and the drummers a few seats ahead turned to look at them. The tip had passed along from lip to lip. They were like wild beasts roused by the presence of prey. Their eyes gleamed with relentless lust. They eyed the little creature with ravening eyes. Her helplessness was their opportunity.

Allen, sitting there, saw the terror and tragedy of the girl’s life. Her reckless, prodigal girlhood; the coarse, rich father; the marriage, when a thoughtless girl, with a drunken, dissolute boy; the quarrels, brutal beatings; the haste to secure a divorce; the contamination of the crowded hotels in Heron Lake–and this slender young girl, naturally pure, alert, quick of impulse–she was like a lamb among lustful wolves. His heart ached for her.

The deep, slow voice of the lawyer sounded on. His eyes turned toward her had no equivocal look. He was a brother speaking to a younger sister. The tears fell down her cheeks, upon her folded hands. Her widely opened eyes seemed to look out into a night of storms.

“Oh, what shall I do?” she moaned. “I wish I was dead–and baby too!”

“Live for the baby–let him help you out.”

“Oh, he can’t! I don’t care enough for him. I wish I was like other mothers; but I’m not. I can’t shut myself up with a baby. I’m too young.”

He saw that. She was seeking the love of a man, not the care of a child. She had the wifely passion, but not the mother’s love. He was silent; the case baffled him.

“Oh, I wish you could help me. I wish I had you all the time. I do! I don’t care what you think, I do, I do!”

“Our home is open to you and baby, too,” he said slowly. “My wife knows about you, and—-“

“Who told her–did you?” she flashed out again, angrily, jealously.

“Yes. My wife is my other self,” he replied quietly.

She stared at him, breathing heavily, then looked out of the window again. At last she turned to him. She seemed to refer to his invitation.

“Oh, this terrible land! Oh, I couldn’t stay here. I’d go insane. Perhaps I’m going insane anyway. Don’t you think so?”

“No, I think you’re a little nervous, that’s all.”

“Oh! Do you think I’ll get my divorce?”

“Certainly, without question.”

“Can I wait and go back with you?”

“I shall not return for several days. Perhaps you couldn’t bear the wait in this little town; it’s not much like the city.”

“Oh, dear! But I can’t go about alone. I hate these men, they stare at me so! I wish I was a man. It’s awful to be a woman, don’t you think so? Please don’t laugh.”

The young lawyer was far from laughing, but this was her only way of defending herself. These pert, birdlike ways formed her shield against ridicule and misprision.

He said slowly, “Yes, it’s an awful thing to be a woman, but it’s an awful responsibility to be a man.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that we are responsible as the dominant sex for every tragic, incomplete woman’s life.”

“Don’t you blame Mrs. Shellberg?” she said, forcing him to a concrete example with savage swiftness.

“No. She had a poor father and a poor husband, and she must earn her own living some way.”

“She could cook, or nurse, or something like that.”