y life it had rained bad luck--pitchforks, tines down. And why?"

"Yes, why?" said Mildred. She did not understand how it was, but Mrs.
Belloc seemed to be saying the exact things she needed to hear.

"I'll tell you why. Because I didn't work. Drudging along isn't work
any more than dawdling along. Work means purpose, means head. And my
luck began just as anybody's does--when I rose up and got busy. You
may say it wasn't very creditable, the way I began; but it was the best
_I_ could do. I know it isn't good morals, but I'm willing to bet that
many a man has laid the foundations of a big fine career by doing
something that wasn't at all nice or right. He had to do it, to 'get
through.' If he hadn't done it, he'd never have 'got through.' Anyhow,
whether that's so or not, everyone's got to make a fight to break into
the part of the world where living's really worth living. But I needn't
tell YOU that. You're doing it."

"No, I'm not," replied Mildred. "I'm ashamed to say so, but I'm not.
I've been bluffing--and wasting time."

"That's bad, that's bad," said Mrs. Belloc. "Especially, as you've got
it in you to get there. What's been the trouble? The wrong kind of
associations?"

"Partly," said Mildred.

Mrs. Belloc, watching her interestedly, suddenly lighted up. "Why not
come back here to live?" said she. "Now, please don't refuse till I
explain. You remember what kind of people I had here?"

Mildred smiled. "Rather--unconventional?"

"That's polite. Well, I've cleared 'em out. Not that I minded their
unconventionality; I liked it. It was so different from the
straight-jackets and the hypocrisy I'd been living among and hating.
But I soon found out that--well, Miss Stevens, the average human being
ought to be pretty conventional in his morals of a certain kind. If
he--or SHE--isn't, they begin to get unconventional in every way--about
paying their bills, for instance, and about drinking. I got sick and
tired of those people. So, I put 'em all out--made a sweep. And now
I've become quite as respectable as I care to be--or as is necessary.
The couples in the house are married, and they're nice people of good
families. It was Mrs. Dyckman--she's got the whole second floor front,
she and her husband and the daughter--it was Mrs. Dyckman who
interested me in the suffrage movement. You must hear her speak. And
the daughter does well at it, too--and keeps a fashionable
millinery-shop--and she