anger her a little.

[Illustration: '"Why, girls, I couldn't hold down a job in a candy
factory'"]

"I guess you think I'm a bad one, clear through, don't you? Well, I
ain't. I don't hurt anybody but myself. Len's wife--that's what I call
bad."

"But I _don't_ think you're bad clear through," tried Emma McChesney.
"I don't. That's why I made that proposition to you. That's why I want
you to get away from all this, and start over again."

"Me?" laughed Blanche LeHaye. "Me! In a office! With ledgers, and sale
bills, and accounts, and all that stuff! Why, girls, I couldn't hold
down a job in a candy factory. I ain't got any intelligence. I never
had. You don't find women with brains in a burlesque troupe. If they
had 'em they wouldn't be there. Why, we're the dumbest, most ignorant
bunch there is. Most of us are just hired girls, dressed up. That's
why you find the Woman's Uplift Union having such a blamed hard time
savin' souls. The souls they try to save know just enough to be wise
to the fact that they couldn't hold down a five-per-week job. Don't
you feel sorry for me. I'm doing the only thing I'm good for."

Emma McChesney put out her hand. "I'm sorry," she said. "I only meant
it for--"

"Why, of course," agreed Blanche LeHaye, heartily. "And you, too." She
turned so that her broad, good-natured smile included Ethel Morrissey.
"I've had a whale of a time. My fingers are all stained up with new