"You're not looking well, Virginia. These last three months have told on you."
The young woman nodded. With a weary sigh she replied:
"Yes—I know it."
Thus encouraged, he continued:
"I guess you don't like it any better than we do."
"Like it!" she exclaimed. "Like working under tremendous pressure from morning till night in a public hotel corridor at the beck and call of the first comer, exposed to all kinds of insult and indignity? Like to have two dollars a week pocket money out of which I must pay my carfare and buy whatever I need? Like to come home every night so tired I can scarcely walk and with my head aching till I can hardly see? Like it! Like it, indeed!"
Quietly he replied:
"Then why don't you quit It? Why don't you go back to your husband?"
Virginia started. In spite of herself, her face changed color. Abruptly she said:
"I've asked you not to—"