any family brush and coats of arms, and don't belong to the inside
set, and marrying me wouldn't give Madeleine what she wants her to
have. Madeleine don't want it. She wants--"

"You. I understand. Does Mrs. Swink want her to marry some one
else?" I hated my pretended ignorance, but I must know just what he
knew. Know if Madeleine had told him of her engagement. "Who is it
she wants her to marry?"

"Harrie Thorne. If she knew what others knew of Harrie--" Tom bit
his lip. "I don't want to go into that, however. Not my business.
But if she was told she wouldn't believe. She don't want to believe.
She wants her daughter to marry what Harrie can give her. An honored
name which he has dishonored."

Tom took out his handkerchief and wiped his forehead, in his eyes
boyish incomprehension of incomprehensible things. "Men are wicked,
Miss Dandridge, but they wouldn't do what some women do. They've got
it in their hands to do a lot they don't do--women have--and if it
wasn't for some of them, for those we believe in, the world would go
smash in certain ways as far as men are concerned. What's the use of
keeping straight and living clean when plenty of women don't seem to
care, or certainly don't ask too much about a man if he's got money,
or anything else they want for their daughters? Mrs. Swink is
determined that Madeleine shall marry Harrie."

"But has Madeleine no will of her own? If she permits her mother to
dispose of her--"

"She's been disposed of since she was a baby, and resistance wears