David wondered what was coming next, but did not answer. A fear that had been creeping into his mind suddenly grew into definiteness. "People around here think I've got a rich old lover," she said. He felt a sinking at his heart. This had been his sudden fear. And she took the shame in such a matter-of-fact way! "I let 'em think so, for that explains everything to them. But they're wrong." The queer smile broadened. "What do you think?" "I could never guess," said David. She leaned forward, and her voice lowered to a whisper. "You and me--we're in the same trade." "What! You're a----" He hesitated. "That's it," she said. "A nurse girl or a maid in a rich house sees a lot of things lying around. Or, if she wants to, she can stay for two or three weeks or a month, learn where the valuables are kept, make a plan of the house, get hold of keys. Then she gets a pal, and they clean the place out. That's me." There was a glow of excitement in her eyes, and pride, and a triumphant sense of having startled him. For the moment he merely stared at her, could make no response. "There, we know each other now," she said, and took several puffs at her cigarette. "But ain't you tired of the honesty life at five per?" "No." "You soon will be!" she declared. "Then you'll go back to the old thing. All the other boys that try the honesty stunt do. They're up against too stiff a proposition. You're way out of my class, but when you get tired, mebbe I can put something in your way that won't be so bad. By-the-by, you ain't ready for something now, are you?" A vindictive look came into her face. "Mrs. Make-Up-Box gets it next. And she'll get it, too!" "I'm going to stick it out," said David. She gave a little sniff. "We'll see!" Her eyes swept the room, fell upon the little heap of photographs and prints lying on the box in which he had stacked his books. "Why don't you put those things up?" "I don't know--I just haven't." "We'll do it now." She slipped to her feet, went out the door, and two minutes later reappeared with a handful of tacks, a hammer, and a white curtain. She took off her hat and coat, and for the next half hour she was tacking the pictures upon the scaling walls--first trying them here and there, occasionally asking David's advice and ignoring it if it did not please her. Then she ordered him upon the chair, and made him, under her direction, fasten the curtain into place. "Well, things look a little better," she said when all was done, surveying the room. Then, without so much as "by your leave," she washed her hands in his wash-bowl and arranged her hair before his mirror, chatting all the while. Hat and coat on again, she opened the door. "Mister," she said, nodding her head and smiling a keen little smile, "I give you two months. Then--the old way!" She closed the door and was gone.