She scribbled on a slip of
paper and fluttered it into his hand. "Sara Juke! Some little name. Gee!
I know right where you live. I know a lot of cases that come from round
there. I used to live near there myself, round on Henry Street. I'll
call round at nine, little missy. I'm going to introduce you to the
country, eh?"

"They won't hurt at the clinic, will they, Mr. Blaney? I'm losing my
nerve again."

"Shame on a pretty little thing like you losing her nerve! Gee! I've
seen 'em come in here all pale round the gills and with nothing but
the whooping cough. There was a little girl in here last week who
thought she was ready for Arizona on a canvas bed; and it wasn't nothing
but her rubber skirt-band had stretched. Shame on you, little missy!
Don't you get scared! Wait till you see what I'm going to show you out
in the country to-morrow--leaves turning red and all. We're going to
have a heart-to-heart talk out there--eh? A regular lung-to-lung talk!"

"Aw, Mr. Blaney! Ain't you killing!"

She hurried down the room, laughing.

* * * * *

At Sharkey's on Saturday night the entire basement cafe and dance hall
assumed a hebdomadal air of expectancy; extra marble-topped tables were
crowded about the polished square of dancing space; the odor of hops and
sawdust and cookery hung in visible mists over the bar.

Girls, with white faces and red lips and bare throats, sat alone at
tables or tete-a-tete with men too old or too young, and ate; but drank
with keener appetite.

A self-playing piano performed beneath a large painting of an undraped
Psyche; a youth with yellow fingers sang of Love. A woman whose shame
was gone acquired a sudden hysteria at her lone table over her
milky-green drink, and a waiter hustled her out none too gently.

In the foyer at seven o'clock Sara Juke met Charley Chubb, and he slid
up quite frankly behind her and kissed her on the lips. At Sharkey's a
miss is as good as her kiss!

"You--you quit! You mustn't!"

She sprang back, quivering, her face cold-looking and blue; and he
regarded her with his mouth quirking.

"Huh! Hoity-toity, ain't you? Hoity-toity and white-faced and late, all
at once, ain't you? Say, them airs don't get across with me. Come on!
I'm hungry."

"I didn't mean to yell, Charley--only you scared me. I thought maybe it
was one of them fresh guys that hang round here; all of 'em look so
dopey and all. I--you know I never was strong for