"Live!" she said scornfully. "I don’t care how; I don’t care if I have to carry the banner--I’ll get a bowl of sky-blue once in a while--and I’ll wash dishes--anything!" She struck the table, and Gibbs’s eyes fastened on her white, plump little fist as it lay there; then he laughed, thinking of it in a dish-pan, where it had never been. "Well, I’ll do it!" she persisted, reading his thought and hastily withdrawing the fist. "I’m going to get him!" She looked at Gibbs for emphasis. "Jane," he said quietly, "you want to cut that out. This is no place for you now--this town’s getting on the bum; they’ve put it to the bad. It’s time to rip it. This rapper--" "Oh, yes, I’ve heard--what’s this his name is now?" "Eades." "What kind is he?" "Oh, he’s a swell lobster." "They tell me he’s strong." "He’s the limit." Her eyes lighted up suddenly and she sat upright. "Then I’ll go see him!" "Jane!" Gibbs exclaimed with as much feeling as he ever showed. He saw by the flashes of her eyes that her mind was working rapidly, though he could not follow the quick and surprising turns her intentions would take. He had a sudden vision, however, of her sitting in Eades’s office, talking to him, passing herself off, doubtless, for the respectable and devoted wife of Jackson; he knew how easily she could impose on Eades; he knew how Eades would be impressed by a woman who wore the good clothes Jane knew how to wear so well, and he felt, too, that in his utter ignorance of the world from which Jane came, in his utter ignorance of life in general, Eades would believe anything she told him; and becoming thus prejudiced in the very beginning, make untold work for him to do in order to save his friend. "Jane," he said severely, "you let him alone; you hear?" She had risen and was drawing on her gloves. She stood there an instant, smiling as if her new notion pleased her, while she pressed down the fingers of her glove on her left hand. Then she said pleasantly: "Good-by, Dan. Give my love to Kate." And she turned and was gone. XXIV