Page:Glitter (1926).pdf/174

it. Letters from men, making all sorts of proposals, and from crazy girls, and people wanting help. And one from a woman who said I ought to be locked up somewhere. . . . I've always remembered that. Sometimes, you know, I almost get myself to thinking that she was right.

"I'd put away a little money, but not much, and I had to make my living again. So I was hostess at the Twelve-to-Five Club. You've been there, haven't you?—you know the sort of place it is. Just like a hundred other supper clubs. That's where I ran on to some of the people I know—college boys, for instance. I met 'a lot of college boys. One reason I wouldn't come down to the games you asked me to last fall was because I was afraid I'd meet some of them again and they'd tell you about me. I didn't want you to know. I don't now, but I've got to tell you. Something is making me tell you. Don't think I'm enjoying this, Jock Hamill!

"Of course I had grown very hard and cynical—and mercenary—by that time. New York does that to a girl alone, and losing the only thing you really cared about does it. I wanted money. . . . See, I told you! Glitter. . . . I'd made up my mind that money was more important than anything else in the world, a lot more important than a fickle will-o'-the-wisp like happiness. Money was so tangible. So—so there. A thing you could hold in your hand. I wanted lots of it. And it didn't matter much how I got it. Do you understand, Jock Hamill? It didn't matter how I got it.

"Well, there was a man who used to come to the club often, named Parke Demorest——"

"I know," said Jock unexpectedly.

The sound of his voice surprised him. He had