"Oh, as for cheering people up—I don't know ... A woman wants more than anything else in the world to feel that she's needed; and when she discovers she isn't—"

ILLUSTRATIONS

"Oh, as for cheering people up—I don't know....A woman wants more than anythingelse in the world to feel that she's needed;and when she discovers she isn't—" . . . Frontispiece

She turned on me with a new flash in her blueeyes. "Look here! Tell me honest, now.Are you a swell crook—or ain't you?""Suppose I say that—that I ain't." "Say,kid!" she responded, coldly, "talk likeyourself, will you? ... If you're not aswell crook I can't make you out"

All these minutes she had been observing me,with that queer, half-choked cry as theresult: "Oh, Billy, is this you?"

I had begun on collars and neckties when Viosaid, "What kind of a girl was that whowas here this afternoon?"

PART I

THE THREAD OF FLAME

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