me 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."

"Knew what?"

"That she wasn't playing fair..." Her face was lighted with a
primitive malevolence. "She isn't straight!"

He tried to pull himself up in prideful refutation, but the effort
failed. He was turning away defeated when a knock sounded on the door.
Watson entered. Ginger drew herself flatly against the wall. The
attorney gave a significant glance in her direction as he said to
Starratt:

"Your wife is waiting in the hall ... just around the cor