who led me there looked at me and smiled and questioned and
bedeviled me with those mad, black, tired-scholar's eyes of his, I knew
that that was no way for my dear clay. Dear it is, my clay to me; dear
it has been to others. La la, the salt vat is no place for my kissed
lips and love-lavished body." Mercedes lifted the lid of the chest and
gazed fondly at her burial pretties. "So I have made my bed. So I shall
lie in it. Some old philosopher said we know we must die; we do not
believe it. But the old do believe. I believe.

"My dear, remember the salt vats, and do not be angry with me because my
commissions have been heavy. To escape the vats I would stop at nothing
steal the widow's mite, the orphan's crust, and pennies from a dead
man's eyes."

"Do you believe in God?" Saxon asked abruptly, holding herself together
despite cold horror.

Mercedes dropped the lid and shrugged her shoulders.

"Who knows? I shall rest well."

"And punishment?" Saxon probed, remembering the unthinkable tale of the
other's life.

"Impossible, my dear. As some old poet said, 'God's a good fellow.' Some
time I shall talk to you about God. Never be afraid of him. Be afraid
only of the salt vats and the things men may do with your pretty flesh
after you are dead."

CHAPTER VII

Billy quarreled with good fortune. He suspected he was too prosperous on
the wages he received. What with the accumulating savings account, the
paying of the monthly furniture installment and the house rent, the
spending money in pocket, and the good fare he was eating, he was
puzzled as to how Saxon managed to pay for the goods used in her fancy
work. Several times he had suggested his inability to see how she did
it, and been baffled each time by Saxon's mysterious laugh.

"I can't see how you do it on the money," he was contending one evening.

He opened his mouth to speak further, then closed it and for five
minutes thought with knitted brows.

"Say," he said, "what's become of that frilly breakfast cap you was
workin' on so hard, I ain't never seen you wear it, and it was sure too
big for the kid."

Saxon hesitated, with pursed lips and teasing eyes. With her,
untruthfulness had always been a difficult matter. To Billy it was
impossible. She could see the cloud-drift in his eyes deepening and his
face hardening in the way she knew so well when he was vexed.

"Say, Saxon, you ain't... you ain't... sellin' your work?"

And thereat she related ev