“Well, you see, it was this way: I married young, married a man who was as handsome as he was mean. I was considered a beautiful girl and he thought he loved me, but he was so jealous that he was miserable. We lived happy for two years. I may as well say right here that I had a sister who was a beautiful blonde, and I being dark we were a great contrast. I loved my sister so devotedly that when we discovered that sooner or later I would become a mother we asked her to come and live with us. She had a friend who called frequently, a perfect gentleman, but my husband grew so jealous and finally became so enraged that he drove him from the house. Then my sister left. The rest of the time, up to the birth of my child, I spent in tears. I was almost killed to think my husband would be so brutal and so ill treat my dear sister. “At last the little fairy came, and with her came more suffering and misery for me. My husband flew into a vicious rage, for my baby was a blonde, as perfect as an angel. My husband was neither light nor dark. My sister’s friend was light. My husband charged me with infidelity, disowned the child, and one day in a fit of anger, he threw her from me hurling her against a red hot stove. The burn caused a scar on her little back, which she carries to this day.” Great tears rolled down the scarred face and splashed on those long talon shaped fingers. Then, with a shiver, she continued: “The Bible says something about, if one marries a man to stick to him. My people all tried to get me to leave him, but woman-like I left them and my baby. I proposed to go where no one knew us and begin life over. He said if I would leave the ‘brat,’ he would go. “We came to Chicago, but the same bitter feeling still existed in him. The evil mind brooded and the heart became affected until our lives were the lives of beasts. He lost one position after another. He began to drink and beat me terribly. Oh, sir, I would have stood all that, if he had only loved me. I would have willingly starved for bread if my heart could have had one morsel on which it might be sustained. “Finally we took a large house and began to take roomers. We did well for a while; then things began to go wrong and he suggested that we rent rooms to people for immoral purposes. My soul revolted against it, sir; indeed it did, but I consented! Oh, sir, many’s the time I’ve cried when I would see some sweet faced girl come to our house, for, sir, I could not help thinking that some day my baby would grow up and she might become the prey of some vulture.” As she progressed with her narrative she dropped the uncouth language of the locality in which she lived. The hot soup and the light, together with the living over the better times, seemed to have taken her out of herself for the time being.