r, and I saw a tear on her
cheek.

"'Honest?' I said again.

"'Yes;' she said. '_Honest_, and I never knew before what it was to be
honest.'

"I didn't know what she meant, but we had got to Chicago now. It wasn't
very late and I asked her should we go to Reilly's again, and she said it
would spoil the day. I thought so, too. On the way to where I'd left her
the night before, there was a little park. We went in and sat on one of
the benches. It was only a little clump of trees, but it made a nice place
to visit, because there was no one around. People in cities don't act like
they were seasoned to outdoors except when it's hot weather.

"I was booked to leave the next morning, so I couldn't let any grass grow.
I asked her to marry me.

"'I wish you hadn't asked me,' she said, and her voice sounded like there
were tears in her eyes.

"'Why?' I asked.

"'I wish,' she went on without taking any notice of me--just like she was
talking to herself--'that I dared love a man like you.'

"That was all I cared to know. For the ghost of a second I held her in my
arms, but she slipped out of them, and I saw her face was pale.

"'You _do_ love me!' I said.

"'I do,' she repeated after me. 'A lot. If it was a little bit, I'd marry
you, but I love you so much, I'll tell you why I can never marry you.
You're the first man that ever treated me like I was white. I'm pretty
bad, I know, but I am not so bad as to do you wrong.'

"I told her I didn't know what she meant, but there was nothing in the
world that should come between us.

"'I tried to tell you to-night on the boat, when you asked me to tell you
how much I had enjoyed the day,' she went on just as though I hadn't
spoken, 'when you said "_Honest_." But I couldn't. I was afraid to tell
you I couldn't do anything _honest_.'

"Then she told me she was a thief. She didn't try to make any excuses for
herself, but when I heard her little hard luck story and knew what she'd
always been up against, I didn't wonder that she stole or committed any
crime. She had had a regular Cinderella stepmother who had licked her when
she was a kid because she took food from the pantry when she was hungry.
The old hag called it stealing and warned the school teacher, and the
other kids got hold of it and of course you know what it does to any one
to get a black eye. She had the name of a thief wished on her until she
got to be one. She was expelled from school; put in a reformatory; ran