“Oh, people think I’m fly, and I can’t change their minds now. I’ve got the name, whether I deserve it or not.”
“Who is to blame? You must have given them reasons for thinking so.”
“Perhaps I have!” she exclaimed, defiantly, all the laughter gone from her face in a moment. “But I did it because they began to talk about me.”
“What did you do to make them talk about you?”
“Oh, I didn’t die! I was ready to have some harmless sport, and they began to say I was gay. That made me mad. I said I would give them something to talk about—and I did!”
“And there was where you made your greatest mistake, my dear girl.”
“Now, don’t talk to me that way. I’ve heard enough of it from other people! I didn’t want to get acquainted with you to be preached at—not by a long shot.”
“Miss Blaney, have you no thought for others? Is there no person whose heart you are breaking by your recklessness? Your mother——”
“Don’t—don’t talk to me about her!”
“Why not?”