really have no idea!" Miss Saunders said.

"You may be sure she knew just where to go, a creature like that!" old
Mrs. Thayer said wisely. "How de do, Peter, Auntie here?" she called to
a smiling man who went by.

"Oh, she wouldn't go utterly bad," Julia protested; "you can't tell, she
may have been decent for years. It may have been years ago--"

"Still, me dear," old Mrs. Thayer said comfortably, "one doesn't like
the idea--one can't overlook that, ye know."

"Of course, it's too bad," Miss Saunders added briskly, "and it's a
great pity, and things ought to be different from what they are, and all
_that_; but at the same time you couldn't have a girl like that in the
house, now could you?"

"Oh, yes, I could!" said Julia, scarlet cheeked, "I was just thinking
how glad I would be to give her a trial!"

She stopped because Jim, very handsome in evening dress and with his
pretty partner beside him, had come up to them.

"Tired, dear?" Jim said, smiling approval of the little figure in white
lace, and the earnest eyes under loosened bright hair.

"Just about time you came up, Jim!" Ella Saunders said cheerfully,
"here's your wife championing the cause of unfortunate girls--_she_
wouldn't care what they'd done, she'd take them right into her home!"

"And very sweet and nice of her," Mrs. Thayer observed, with a
consolatory pat on Julia's arm, "only it isn't quite practical, me dear,
is it, Jim?"

"Julia'd like to take in every cat and dog and beggar and newsboy she
sees," said Jim, with his bright smile. But Julia knew he was not
pleased. "Do you want to come speak to Mother and the girls, dear,
before I take you home?" he added, offering his arm. Julia stood up and
said her good-nights, and crossed the room, a slender and most
captivating little figure, at his side. It was not until she was bundled
into furs and in the motor car that she could say, with an appealing
hand on his arm:

"Don't blame me, Jimmy. I didn't start that topic. Miss Saunders
happened to tell of a poor girl who--"

"I don't care to discuss it," Jim said, removing her hand by the
faintest gesture of withdrawing.

Julia sighed and was silent. The limousine ran smoothly past one lighted
corner after another; turned into Van Ness Avenue. After a while she
said, a little indignation burning through her quiet tone:

"I've said I was not responsible for the conversation, Jim. And it seems
to me merely childish in you to let a casual remark