when he saw that she had her head set on the stage and we couldn't keep
her off it, it's in her blood, you see, why her Pop says: 'Well, there's
one thing, till she's of age, legal, on or off the stage, she's going to
have a mother's care and a father showing up every now and then
unexpected.' He's got awful Spanish ideas, you know. 'I don't want her
kept innocent,' he says. 'My Lord, no. It's the innocent ones that have
got to pay, and pay big in a world of bad knowledge where ignorance is
not forgave and is punished worse than any crime. Let her see the seamy
side,' he says, 'she's no fool. Let her see what those who thinks to
live easy and gives themselves away easy gets.'

"And Pearl saw right off. You see, she ain't so soft-hearted like me,"
again she wiped the furtive tear from her eye. "Pearl's hard. She ain't
no conscience about some things. She'll lead a man on and on, when she
don't care beans for him, and take all he'll give her, not money, you
know, but awful handsome presents. I've seen her let some poor boy that
was crazy about her blow in all the dust that he'd saved for a year. Oh,
yes, she's like her father in more'n one way, both awful ambitious and
terrible fond of making money. Why," she added naïvely, "I've seen Pearl
look at a bank note like I never saw her look at a love letter."

"Well, she won't make much money up in those mountains, not dancing,
anyway," he laughed briefly and unmirthfully.

"It surprised me a lot, her going," admitted Mrs. Gallito; "she hates
the mountains."

"Then she won't stay long," put in Hanson quickly.

Mrs. Gallito was uncertain about this. "But," she confided presently,