Marija paused for a moment or two, and then she
added: "Most of the women here are pretty decent --
you'd be surprised. I used to think they did it because
they liked to; but fancy a woman selling herself to every
kind of man that comes, old or young, black or white --
and doing it because she likes to!"

"Some of them say they do," said Jurgis.

"I know," said she; "they say anything. They're in,
and they know they can't get out. But they didn't like it
when they began -- you'd find out -- it's always misery!
There's a little Jewish girl here who used to run errands
for a milliner, and got sick and lost her place; and she
was four days on the streets without a mouthful of food,
and then she went to a place just around the corner and
offered herself, and they made her give up her clothes
before they would give her a bite to eat!"

Marija sat for a minute or two, brooding somberly.
"Tell me about yourself, Jurgis," she said, suddenly.
"Where have you been?"

So he told her the long story of his adventures since his
flight from home; his life as a tramp, and his work in the
freight tunnels, and the accident; and then of Jack Duane,
and of his political career in the stockyards, and his down~
fall and subsequent failures. Marija listened with sym~
pathy; it was easy to believe the tale of his late starvation,
for his face showed it all. "You found me just in the
nick of time," she said. "I'll stand by you -- I'll help you
till you can get some work."

"I don't like to let you--" he began.

"Why not? Because I'm here?"

"No, not that," he said. "But I went off and left you--"

"Nonsense!" said Marija. "Don't think about it. I
don't blame you."

"You must be hungry," she said, after a minute or
two. "You stay here to lunch -- I'll have something up
in the room."

She pressed a button, and a colored woman came to the
door and took her order. "It's nice to have somebody to
wait on you," she observed, with a laugh, as she lay back
on the bed.

[[354]]

p353 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p354w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p355

v?