"Does not justify a man of your position in taking a 'department store
saleswoman' to drive on Sunday through public places."
"Perhaps you are right. Then I shall efface myself promptly, and you and
Leighton can keep the carriage as long as you like."
"Such favors I accept from no man."
"Not even to help your sick boy?"
She put her hand on the child's shining curls, and a world of tenderness
glorified her velvet eyes.
"Not even for my very own baby could I incur such an obligation."
"Smell them, mother--like spice! Don't they make you think of the
carnation garden in San Francisco, where Uncle Dane used to carry us?"
"How long ago was that, Leighton?" asked Mr. Herriott, watching the
woman's face.
"Oh, it was when I was a little chap and wore frocks."
"Were you born in San Francisco?"
"No. He was born in ---- Territory."
"Mrs. Dane, can you tell me what became of the artist Belmont?"
"Why do you ask me that question?"
"In order to get an answer. He painted your face for his 'Aurora,' and
the picture was photographed."
"Yes; I needed money, and Mr. Dane permitted him to come to our house
for the sittings. That was my first and last experience as a model."
"I have met you before."
She straightened herself, and answered defiantly:
"Probably I have sold you gloves, or socks, or handkerchiefs--certainly
not the right to meddle with my personal affairs."
"I went with a San Francisco friend to see a night school for women,
which his mother had established. You were there."
"Yes, I was there two winters. Now, sir, have you a police badge hidden
inside your coat? Are you playing reporter--disguised as a benevolent
gentleman--hunting up the details of last night's meeting and riot at
Newark? You know, of course, that I made a speech there?"
"Indeed? I had imagined you sat up all night with your sick boy."
"There is a strike on down there, and I spoke against arbitrating labor
grievances, and against the ghastly sham of getting the rights of the
poor from a picked judge and a packed jury. Bombs and boycott make the
best mill for grinding out justice to starving, over-worked men and
women."
"How long have you been an 'anarchist,' or perhaps you prefer the term
'socialist'?"
"From the day I was sixteen years old, and learned how rich men trample
and betray and despise and insult the ignorant, helpless poor."
"It must have been a terribly cruel grievance that transformed into a
fury one who was intended for a loving, gentle woman."
She laughed, and her beautiful teeth took hold of the glowing under lip.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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