criticizing your elder sister, I should like to ask you a few questions. Do
you smoke and drink cocktails?"

"No, I don't. But I should if I liked them, and if they didn't make me feel
queer."

"You--you--" Mrs. Abbot's clear crisp voice sank to an agonized whisper.
For the first time she was really terrified. "Do you gamble?"

"Why, of course not. I have too much fun to think of anything so stupid."

"Does Aileen Lawton gamble?"

"She just doesn't, and don't you insinuate such a thing."

"She has bad blood in her. Her mother--"

"I thought her mother was your best friend."

"She was. But she went to pieces, poor dear, and Judge Lawton wisely sent
her East. I can't tell you why. There are things you don't understand."

"Oh, don't I? Don't you fool yourself."

Mrs. Abbott leaned back on the cot and pressed it hard with either hand.

"Alexina, I have never been as disturbed as I am at this moment. When
Sally and I were your age, we were beautifully innocent. If I thought that
Joan--"