--to the dance here, into
this very room. I was ignorant, unsophisticated. I met you with my hand
outstretched, yearning for your friendship; and you would as well have
struck me in my upturned face as do what you did.

"I had no mother, no woman friend to tell me that I was absurd in my
paper flowers and the dress that I had made with my inexperienced
fingers, and you could find no excuse for my ridiculous appearance, but
enjoyed it openly.

"When you laughed in my face you had not yet inflicted pain enough to
satisfy you--you had to turn the knife to see me quiver. And you
did--mercilessly--relishing my humiliation when I had to leave.

"There was not one among you generous enough to make allowance for my
youth and inexperience, and spare me. You saw only that I was absurd in
my fantastic clothes, and overly anxious to be friendly. I was the
daughter of 'Jezebel of the Sand Coulee' and the protegee of a
'sheepherder.'

"I did not know you then as I do now and your pose of superiority
impressed me; I took you at your own valuation and overestimated you; so
I was all but crushed by your condemnation. I was like a child that is
whipped without knowing for what it is being punished."

She paused a moment before going on.

"Worse things came to me afterwards, but none from which I suffered more
keenly--in a different way, perhaps, but not more acutely. The wounds
you inflicted that night left scars that never have healed entirely.

"The turning-point in my life came when 'Mormon Joe' was murdered. He
was more than a guardian and a benefactor--he had been father, mother,
teacher, to me, but with no other grounds than that I benefited by his
death, the stigma of murder was placed upon me. There was not evidence
to hold me, so I remained a suspect, proven neither guilty nor innocent.

"The murder was little more than an agreeable break in the monotony to
most of you, but it revolutionized the world for me--changed the whole
scheme of my life--and," with a smile that was tinged with bitterness,
"demonstrated to my entire satisfaction the extent to which character is
affected by environment."

She went on thoughtfully:

"I have come to believe that to know human nature--at least to know it
as its worst--one must be the victim of some discreditable misfortune in
a small community. Moral cowardice, ingratitude, the greed which is
ready to take advantage of some one unable to make an effective protest,
the gratuitous i