"Me?" she said dreamily. "I don't know what to tell you! I come from nothing—a little town way out in Ohio. Never had a home—sort of turned over to an aunt and uncle. I've shifted for myself, but I've never lost my nerve. I was bound to get into a bigger life, to do something—if only to be free, to live! I've done a lot of foolish things, I suppose, because I'm a little crazy myself—can't resist excitement!"
"You shouldn't have gone to that party at Sassoon's," he said. "You are too innocent to understand what it meant!"
"I'm not living in a sheltered house!" she protested. "I'm hurting no one. I face the world by myself, stand on my own feet, and I can take care of myself. I'm not ignorant!"
"Yes, you are. You can't know. You think you can, but you can't know! No girl can, until—until she's caught!" He looked at her steadily. "You know, at bottom you are a child. That's the danger! What the devil sent you out here to-night?"
"A good angel, perhaps," she said evasively.
He laughed obstinately, but with less resistance.
"No, that isn't it!" she said impulsively. "I am in a reckless mood myself. I am hurt—oh, so hurt! Disappointed in a man. You see, we are comrades, in a way!"
"Good God! Who could have hurt you!" he said roughly.
"It was all a mistake; it wasn't meant, perhaps, but that doesn't help much!"
He reached out his hand and laid it comfortingly over her shoulder, surprising her with the tenderness in his touch and in his voice.