“I was a young girl when I first came among you—to the dance here, into this very room. I was ignorant, unsophisticated. I met you with my hand outstretched, yearning for your friendship; and you would as well have struck me in my upturned face as do what you did.
“I had no mother, no woman friend to tell me that I was absurd in my paper flowers and the dress that I had made with my inexperienced fingers, and you could find no excuse for my ridiculous appearance, but enjoyed it openly.
“When you laughed in my face you had not yet inflicted pain enough to satisfy you—you had to turn the knife to see me quiver. And you did—mercilessly—relishing my humiliation when I had to leave.
“There was not one among you generous enough to make allowance for my youth and inexperience, and spare me. You saw only that I was absurd in my fantastic clothes, and overly anxious to be friendly. I was the daughter of 'Jezebel of the Sand Coulee' and the protegée of a ‘sheepherder.’
“I did not know you then as I do now and your pose of superiority impressed me; I took you at your own valuation and overestimated you; so I was all but crushed by your condemnation. I was like a child that is whipped without knowing for what it is being punished.”
She paused a moment before going on.
“Worse things came to me afterwards, but none from which I suffered more keenly—in a different way, perhaps, but not more acutely. The wounds you inflicted that night left scars that never have healed entirely.
“The turning-point in my life came when 'Mormon Joe' was murdered. He was more than a guardian and a benefactor—he had been father, mother, teacher, to me, but with no other grounds than that I benefited by his death, the stigma of murder was placed upon me. There was not evidence to hold me, so I remained a suspect, proven neither guilty nor innocent.
“The murder was little more than an agreeable break in the monotony to most of you, but it revolutionized the world for me—changed the whole scheme of my life—and,” with a smile that was tinged with bitterness, “demonstrated to my entire satisfaction the extent to which character is affected by environment.”
She went on thoughtfully: