Oldham, can't you tell me what it is that's wrong?"

She made no answer.

"Come, let me take you to the Hotel," he urged; "it's only a step."

"No--no," she moaned, "I can't go there. I don't live there any more."

"Well where do you live now?" he asked.

"Over in Old Town."

"But why did you leave your place at the Hotel?"

"A--a man there said something that I didn't like, and then the
proprietor told me that I must go, because some of the people were
talking about me, and I was giving the Hotel a bad name. Oh, Doctor, I
ain't a bad girl, I ain't never been, but folks are driving me to it.
That or--or--" she hesitated.

What could he say?

"It's the same everywhere I try to work," she continued in a hopeless
tone. "At the canning factory the other girls said their folks wouldn't
let them work there if I didn't go. I haven't been able to earn a cent
since I left the Hotel. I don't know what to do,--oh, I don't know what
to do!" She broke down crying.

"Look here, why didn't you come to me?" the Doctor asked roughly. "You
knew you could come to me. Didn't I tell you to?"