I was publicly
disgraced. It doesn't matter what I do now, and when I sit in that
sort of place I can imagine that he is in similar ones on the other
side of the continent. I told you that I intended to be no better
than he--and of course as I am a woman I am worse."
"I suppose you would not be half so charming if you were not so
completely feminine. But just how many of these night hells have you
been to?"
"I can't tell. I've been to far worse dives than that. I've even
been in saloons over on Barbary Coast. But although I've been hurt
accidentally several times in scuffles, and a bullet nearly hit me
once, I seem to bear a charmed life. I suppose those do that want to
die. And although they treat me with no respect they seem to regard
me as a harmless lunatic, and--and--I take very little when I am out.
I have just enough pride left not to care to be taken to the
calaboose by a policeman."
"Good God! How can you even talk of such things? Some day you will
regret all this horribly."
"I'll never regret anything except that I was born."
"Well, here we are. I'll not take you up to your rooms. Don't give
them a chance at that sort of scandal whatever you do. It's lucky for
you that alcohol doesn't send you along a still livelier road to
perdition.
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