"Do they ever speak of me? I—wonder," she mused, aloud.
"Yes. They know, of course, what a clever girl you have turned into. It isn't usual, you know, to graduate from a girlie show into the legit. And I was talking to Schindler the other evening; and he had to admit that he had seen nothing extraordinary in you when you were with his noisy shows. It's funny, isn't it?"
"Slightly."
"Besides, you were such a wild little thing—don't you remember what crazy things we used to do, you and I——"
"Did I? Yes, I remember. In those days a good dinner acted on me like champagne. You see I was very often hungry, and when I wasn't starved it went to my head."
"You need not have wanted for anything!" he said sharply.
"Oh, no! But I preferred the pangs of hunger to the pangs of conscience," she retorted gaily.
"I didn't mean that. There was no string to what I offered you, and you know it! And you know it now!"
"Certainly I do," she said calmly. "You mean to be very kind, Jack."
"Then why the devil didn't——"