She shed her rain-coat, shaking her skirts and glancing at her muddy shoes in delicate disgust. Then she advanced in a businesslike manner to the seat which Blainey, contrary to his customary bluff indifference, was presenting to her with extreme deference. "Blainey, I've come to the end of my rope!" she said, folding her arms over her breast. "I'm through with playing and cutting up. I'm going to make up my mind to something serious now! I've got to talk to some one about it; that's why I've come to you!" "Good eye!" he said, nodding and reaching for a cigar. "I, too, have got something to thrash out. Well, kid, what's annoyin' you?" "Things have been getting mixed up, Blainey," she told him seriously. "I guess I'm not as clever as I thought!" She stopped, thinking of the legion that had fallen away: of Peavey, who had gone; of Massingale, who was still a mystery; and of Nebbins, a present menace. "Either that, or I'm getting tired of fooling!" He nodded wisely, waiting for her to continue. She noted the rough sympathetic cut of visage,--the mouth, which had changed its grimness for a tolerant humor, the eyes, which were fixed on her with keen perception, softened by a homely adoration,--and she felt that she could talk to him as to no one else. He would understand everything, the good and the bad in her. He was nearer to her, to her kind, to an understanding of her longings and her temptations, than those other men who had never known the struggle of a self-made life. "Blainey, it's awfully hard to decide," she said, leaning forward and clutching her knee. "I'm in a fix; I don't know what I'll do!" "Well, first," he asked, with an encouraging nod, "how's the heart?" She sat silent a moment, her hands locked, staring at the floor. "I wish I knew!" she said slowly. "Marriage?" "No!" "Sure of the man?" he said abruptly. "That's it; I'm not sure of him!" "And yourself?" She tried conscientiously to see herself. "Even of that--I don't know." "Pretty hard hit, eh?" She nodded. "Go slow! Be sure!" "I'm going to, Blainey!" "What else? Marriage?" She made a gesture of irritation. "No; that's not for me!" "You're wrong, kid," he said energetically. "You don't know the game!" "What! You advise me to marry?" she exclaimed, in astonishment. "You? Every time!" he said, straightening up. "However, we'll discuss that later!" He looked at her shrewdly and said abruptly: "How about Sassoon?" A fantastic idea came into her head--to try to what extent his advice could be disinterested. "Sassoon's the point," she said quietly. "What do you think he offered me this very morning?" She detailed the terms, the proffered marriage and the contract, while Blainey, craning forward, listened with intense curiosity. When she had finished, he rose abruptly, eased the grip of his collar and moved heavily to the window. Then he made her repeat all that she had said, word for word. "You're giving me a straight story?" "Honest to God!"