"You implied it."

There was a silence; Catharine lounged on the sofa, watching and

listening with interest. After a moment Doris shrugged her young

shoulders.

"Does it matter so much, anyway?" she said with a short, unpleasant

laugh.

"Does what matter--you little ninny!"

"Whether a girl is straight."

"Is that the philosophy you learn in your theatrical agencies?"

demanded Athalie fiercely. "What nauseating rot you do talk, Doris!"

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"Very well. It may be nauseating. But what is a girl to do in a world

run entirely by men?"

"You know well enough what a girl is not to do, don't you? All right

then,--leave that undone and do what's left."

"What is left?" demanded Doris with a mirthless laugh. "There's

scarcely a job that a girl can hold unless she squares some man to

keep it--and keep--her!"

"Shame on you! I held mine for over five years," said Athalie with hot

contempt.

"Yes, and then along came the junior partner. You wouldn't square him:

you lost your job! There's always a junior partner in every

business--when there isn't a senior. There's nothing to it if you

stand in with the firm. If you don't--good night!"

"You managed to remain at the Egyptian Garden during the entire

season."

"But the fights I had, my dear, and the tricks I employed and the lies

I told and the promises I made! Oh, it's sickening--sickening! But--"

she shrugged--"what are you to do? Thousands of girls go queer

because they're forced to by starvation--"

"Nonsense!" cried Athalie hotly, "that is all stage twaddle and

exaggerated sentimentalism! I don't believe that one girl in a

thousand is forced into a dishonourable life!"

"Then why do girls go queer?"

"Because they want to; that's why! When they don't want to they

don't!"

Catharine, very wide-eyed, said solemnly: "But think of all the white

slaves--"

"They'd be that if they had been born to millions!" retorted Athalie.

"Ignorance and aptitude, that is white slavery. It's absolutely

nothing else. And in cases where the ignorance is absent, the aptitude

is there. If a girl has an aptitude for becoming some man's mistress

she'll probably do it whether she's ignorant or educated."

Doris, who had taken to chewing-gum furtively and in private,

discreetly rolled a morsel under her tongue.

"All I know is that your salary is advanced and you're given a part at

the Egyptian Garden if you stand in with Lewenbein or go to supper

with Shemsky. Of course," she added, "there are theatres where you

don't have to be horrid in order to succeed."




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