"Perhaps."

"When will that be?" he went on eagerly.

She shook her head, irritated at his persistence at such a moment.

"I do not know," she replied coldly.

Thus far, Stafford had succeeded in keeping from his friends any
intimation of his matrimonial plans, but it was hardly possible to
keep the secret much longer. He and Virginia had been seen together in
public places; his many visits to her house were known. Her sudden
resignation from the hotel also had excited comment. People began to
connect their names in a way unflattering to both. Such slanderous
rumors must be stopped at any cost, thought Stafford to himself, and
one evening at Delmonico's, while in a jovial, communicative mood, an
opportunity came to unbosom himself freely to his friend Hadley. It
was the latter's birthday and they were duly celebrating the occasion
as three bottles of _Veuve Clicquot_, standing empty on the
table, bore mute witness.

Stafford had been drinking freely. His face was flushed and his voice
was thick, familiar symptoms when he had imbibed more wine than was
good for him. The secret came out suddenly owing to a chance remark
dropped by Hadley, who, sober himself and speaking of women in
general, argued that girls who were compelled by necessity to earn
their own living formed a class by themselves. They could not be
classed with the domesticated girl of good family because they were
open to temptations and contaminating influences which the latter
escaped. Coming in close contact with the busy, feverish world,
associating on terms of daily intimacy with all kinds of men, the
naturally high moral sense of the virtuous woman must necessarily
become blunted in her new business surroundings.

"Once the bloom is off a woman's moral sense," he argued, "it is only
a step to the undermining of her virtue. It's inevitable," he went on
as he sat back in his chair idly enjoying his cigar. "The home is the
young girl's only protection. Take her out of it and you expose her to
the manoeuvres of the first scoundrel who comes along. If she's
temperamentally cold, she'll resist the seducer successfully; but if
she's weak and pleasure-loving, she'll succumb and the devil will have
won over another convert. Take, for instance, those stenographers in
your hotel. That Miss Blaine--she's as pretty as--"

Crash!

There was a blow of a heavy fist falling on the table. The dishes
danced, glasses fell in splinters on to the floor. Hadley, s