"If you don't mind, Miss Rayefsky," he said, when they had dodged the cars and had safely reached City Hall Park, "I'd like to give you a little advice. Perhaps I'm butting in where I'm not wanted. But you see, my youngest daughter is older than you are. And I guess breaking into a new job and a new crowd isn't the easiest thing in the world for a girl. I won't mind if you do snub me."
"Let's sit down a minute," Yetta said. "I'd like to talk to you. I certainly do feel lost."
"Well—" He was evidently embarrassed. He seemed to give up hope of being tactful and dove into his subject. "I overheard one of the men say that you'd been to a dinner at Maud Ripley's. She's a clever woman. But I'd not like to see one of my daughters tie up with her."
"I didn't enjoy myself," Yetta said. "I'm not going again."
"Good. That's all I had to say. She probably wouldn't do you any harm—certainly wouldn't try to. But newspaper men don't think much of her—except her brain. Excuse me for butting in."
He started to get up, but Yetta detained him. She was very deeply touched by his kindly interest in her.
"There are a lot of things I would like to ask you, if you've the time."
She began on the affair of the Ex-Governor. Why did not Cowan and O'Rourke and the others use their knowledge against him? The answer to that was simple. They would lose their jobs. Karner and Billings were friends. But this did not satisfy Yetta. They argued it out for half an hour. Nobody saw the defects and limitations of journalism more clearly than Cowan, and yet he was utterly loyal.
"If my son doesn't turn out a newspaper man, I'll disown him," he said emphatically. "Now don't you go and get sore on newspaper work because it isn't all honest. It's one whole lot better than when I began. The Press is the hope of Democracy, and it is also its measure. Of course Karner's ethics are a bit queer. But no crookeder than the people will stand for. He'd be honest if it paid.
"The people can have just as good and clean a paper as they really want. They get better and more democratic ones to-day than they did twenty years ago, and when they want one that is really straight, they'll get that.