"We do the best we can, Mary," she repeated, more confidently. "When we have investigated the case and are sure such a girl is sorry, or wasn't entirely to blame, and that she means to do what is right in the future, we make her our personal friend. We encourage her to come here and talk to us and get all the help possible. We have her around to all the entertainments——"
"Can she learn?" asked Mary.
"Learn?" Marian's voice was puzzled.
"Can she go to the clubs and the classes they talked about when I was here first?" explained Mary.
Marian shook a doubtful head.
"You see that wouldn't do, right away, Mary," she said. "We have to think of the other girls, and we have to protect the girls that are straight as well as help those that haven't been. These are their clubs, after all, and they wouldn't like it, if they knew. It wouldn't be just for us to deceive them, and they have the first claim on our protection."
"Why?"
It was the hardest question that Marian Lennox had ever had put to her. She tried to form an answer, but though she could think of many that seemed to her logical, she could think of none that seemed kind. Sympathy sprang to her eyes. She put out her hands.
"Mary!" she said.
But Mary had received her reply.