ave her become friendly with him?"
said Felix, his simple clean mind horrified at the apparent indifference
of Walter to Van Shaw's general looseness of moral habits as they knew
him in Burrton.

"Well, what can I do?" said Walter with some show of irritation. "Do you
want me to go back there, politely ask Van Shaw to stop the team, and
say to Helen in his hearing: 'Dear sister, the young man who is amusing
you so finely this afternoon is the son of the greatest and most
notorious railroad wrecker in America. He himself is known in the school
at Burrton as the fastest and most vulgar youth in the institution. He
drinks, he gambles, he is famous for the number of indecent stories he
can tell, he has his rooms adorned with pictures of variety actresses,
he has no high aims in life and never earned a cent since he was born,
although he spends several thousands of dollars every year which his
father makes for him by ruining other people. In short, sister, he is
the last young man in all the universe with whom I, your brother, would
desire you to become acquainted. Therefore, I am going to ask Mr. Van
Shaw to wait until with the help of Mr. Bauer who knows all these facts
about Mr. Van Shaw as well as I do, we transfer you from this wagon to
one of ours, although owing to our comparative poverty as measured by
this Pittsburgh outfit our wagons are not at all fitted to carry
beautiful young ladies who have sustained severe ankle sprains.' Do you
want me to go over to Van Shaw and get off a speech like that in order
to save Helen?"

Bauer stared at Walter in solemn surprise. Then to Walter's surprise he
said curtly:

"Every word of it is true."

"Yes, but you can't always say everything that's true. I wish for the
life of me that Van Shaw had never put in an appearance. It has spoiled
the trip for me. Besides, you never can tell what a girl will do.
They're all romantic and above all, unreasonable. Van Shaw is good
looking and he's got money coming to him like the sand of this desert.
And I don't forget a story Clifford was telling us this morning. It was
about some American girl very much like Helen, in a book, who said to
another girl that all she wanted of a husband in New York was a man to
go down town in the morning to earn enough money for her to spend up
town in the afternoon."

"You don't mean to say that your sister has any such ambition as that,
do you?" asked Felix even slower than usual.

Walter looked at h