"And—what—what are you doing—in this part of town!" the other exclaimed, now regarding her suspiciously.
"This part of town?" she echoed bewilderingly. "I—I—don't understand. Why this part of town?"
"Yes, this part of town." She paused a moment and surveyed Mildred in wonder, and then went on: "Why, didn't you know? This part of town—is the restricted district!"
"Oh—Miss Jones!" she wailed. "Heaven help me! I didn't know!"
The other looked at her keenly and a little dubious, and then she said, with a toss of her head, as something seemed to have occurred to her when the other looked at her strangely:
"I guess you wonder what I am doing down here, too."
The other started, and her lips opened to say she had not, but before she could say anything, the other continued:
"Well, I don't mind admitting what I am doing down here, since I see you here, also; but I have been coming down here for a long time. Yes, you see this is not the first time. I have been down here before," and she laughed a hard laugh, as she ended with another toss of her head.
Mildred stood frozen. She could not collect her shattered wits to say anything, but she was thinking. Miss Jones was a member of Wilson Jacobs' church and sang in the choir. "It can't be possible!" she murmured inaudibly. "It can't be possible!" And then, all of a sudden, she felt sorry for Miss Jones, because she had liked her, and thought her very sweet. And now she met her face to face in the worst part of the city! How could this be explained! Miss Jones being encountered in the worst part of the city!... And Miss Jones had, with her own lips, admitted that 'she had been there before. She had been coming there for a long time.' "Oh, God," Mildred cried almost aloud: "This is terrible!" Why did Miss Jones come to this part of town?... Miss Jones came to this part of town and knew she was doing so.... Then, if that were true—which it surely was—Miss Jones was a bad girl.... Miss Jones a bad girl? She could not believe it; and yet, before she could get all this through her whirling brain, she heard Miss Jones speaking again. What was she saying? It couldn't be true! Surely Miss Jones could not mean what she was saying. Oh, horrors! If Miss Jones meant what she was saying, then, Miss Jones regarded her as a bad girl, too. "Miss Jones, Miss Jones!" Something in her now was crying, although her lips moved not. "Please don't, please don't! I am not that way. I am not a bad girl, oh, no, please, please!" And still her lips had not moved. She stood like a dumb person; but she heard Miss Jones clearly:
"Let's go over here to a place I know," she said. "It's safe—nobody but a swell bunch goes there, no tramps or talkers."