“Because it’s the only place in this state where they send drunks...  I know plenty who’ve been through that game...  You can’t tell me anything about that.”

He stared at her in silence and presently she said: 

“What are they doing to you, anyway?  Railroading you?  I don’t believe you know where you are going.”

He shrugged wearily.  “No; you’re right.  And I don’t much care.”

“Why didn’t you send for me?” she demanded.  “That night when they got you I told you I had a pull...  I’m not a Hilmer, but I can work a few people myself...  I haven’t always been a cheap skate.  There was a time when I had them fighting over me.  And that wasn’t so long ago, either...  I’m still young—­younger than a lot that get by.  But, anyway, I’ve got a lot of old-memory stuff up my sleeve that can make some people step about pretty lively...  There’s more than one man in this town who would just as soon I kept my mouth shut...  I could even run Hilmer around the ring once or twice if I wanted to.”

He felt a bit tremulous, but he put a tight rein upon his emotions.

“It’s very good of you,” he said, “but, really, I couldn’t quite have that, you know...  I don’t mean to be ungrateful or unkind, but there are some things that—­”

She laughed.  “Oh yes, I know...  You feel that way now, of course...  You’re a gentleman; I understand that...  And I haven’t run up against many gentlemen in my day...  Oh, there were a lot who had plenty of money and they were polite enough when it didn’t matter ... but ...  Well, I know the real thing when I see it...  You’re going to that hell hole, too, just for that very reason...  Because you haven’t got the face to be nasty...”

He crumpled the unlighted cigarette in his hand and flung it from him.

“What do you know about me?” he asked.

“Women aren’t fools!” she retorted.  “And least of all women like me! ...  I wish to God I’d known you sooner!”

He watched the quivering revelations run in startled flight across her face, hiding themselves as swiftly behind the dull shadows of indifference.  For a moment the room seemed flooded in a truant flash of sunshine.  She seemed at once incredibly old and as incredibly touched with a vagrant youth.  How eagerly she must have given herself!  How eagerly she could give herself again!

He rose in his seat, confused.  She seemed to have taken it for a sign of dismissal, for she followed his example.

“Maybe it isn’t too late,” she faltered.  “Maybe I could work that pull I’ve got ... if you want me to.”

He shook his head.  “It’s out of my hands,” he answered.  She moved to the door, as if to place a proper distance between them.

“What does your wife think about it?”

He shrugged.

“You won’t like what I’m going to say,” she flung out, defiantly.  “But that night when I saw your wife I knew.”