"She comes from a house just around the corner."

"But who is she?"

"Why--she's a street-walker."

"A street-walker!"

This brought to Thyrsis' mind a problem that had been haunting him
for a year or two. Always when he walked about the streets at night
there were women who smiled at him and whispered. And he knew that
these were bad women, and shrunk from them. But just what did they
mean?

"What does she do?" he asked again.

"Why, don't you know what a street-walker is?"

"Not very well," said Thyrsis.

It took some time for him to get the desired information, because
the other could not realize the depths of his ignorance. "They sell
themselves to men," he said.

"But what for?" asked Thyrsis. "You don't mean that they--they let
them---"

"They have intercourse together. Of course."

Thyrsis was almost dumb with dismay. "But I should think they would