"Well, if he didn't, he meant it. He wanted to know what the big, big D-e-v, dev, I was doing there, anyway."
"Norrie Elliot! Tell me the truth."
"Very well," said Miss Elliot, aggrieved. "You report the conversation, then, since you won't accept my version."
"If you would give me a start—"
"Just what he wouldn't do for me," interrupted Esmé. "I went in there to explain something and he pointed the finger of scorn at me and accused me of frequenting low and disreputable localities."
"Norrie!"
"Well," replied the girl brazenly, "he said he'd seen me about the Rookeries district; and if that isn't a low—"
"Had he?"
"Nothing more probable, though I didn't happen to see him there."
"What were you doing there?"