talks about things I don't understand, for drivelling women to
listen to, and I still have the creature comforts of life. I pawn my
self-respect for them--that's all. Such a little price to pay, isn't
it, Billy?"
She spoke in a sort of frenzy. I dare say that at the outset she
wanted Mr. Woods to know the worst of her, knowing he could not fail
to discover it in time. Billy brought memories with him, you see; and
this shrewd, hard woman wanted, somehow, more than anything else in
the world, that he should think well of her. So she babbled out the
whole pitiful story, waiting in a kind of terror to see contempt and