“Daren, I promised I’d tell you all about myself,” she said.

“I shouldn’t have asked you to give away one of your friends,” he returned.  “Some other time I’ll talk to you about Lorna.  Tell you what I know, and ask you to help me save her——­”

“Save her!  What do you mean, Daren?” she interrupted, with surprise.

“Bessy, I’ve paid you the compliment of believing you have intelligence.  Hasn’t it occurred to you that Lorna—­or other of her friends or yours—­might be going straight to ruin?”

“Ruin!  No, that hadn’t occurred to me.  I heard Doctor Wallace make a crack like yours.  Mother hauled me to church the Sunday after you broke up Fanchon Smith’s dance.  Doctor Wallace didn’t impress me.  These old people make me sick anyhow.  They don’t understand....  But Daren, I think I get your drift.  So snow some more.”

All in a moment, it seemed to Lane, this girl passed from surprise to gravity, then to contempt, and finally to humor.  She was fascinating.

“To go back to the club,” resumed Lane.  “Bessy, what did you do there?”

“Oh, we toddled and shimmied.  Cut up!  Had an immense time, I’ll say.”

“What do you mean by cut up?”

“Why, we just ran wild, you know.  Fool stunts!...  Once Roy was sore because I kicked cigarettes out of Bob’s mouth.  But the boob was tickled stiff when I kicked for him.  Jealous!  It’s all right with any one of the boys what you do for him.  But if you do the same for another boy—­good night!”

Bessy had no divination of the fact that her words for Lane had a clarifying significance.

“I suppose you played what we used to call kissing games?” queried Lane.

A sweet, high trill of laughter escaped Bessy’s red lips.

“Daren, you are funny.  Those games are as dead as Caesar....  This bunch of boys and girls paired off by themselves to spoon....  As for myself, I don’t mind spooning if I like the fellow—­and he hasn’t been drinking.  But otherwise I hate it.  All the same I got what was coming to me from some of the boys of the Strong Arm Club.”

“Why do they give it that name?” asked Lane, remembering Colonel Pepper’s remarks.

“Why, if a girl doesn’t come across she gets the strong arm....  I had to fight like the devil that last afternoon I went there.”

“Did you fight, Bessy?”

“I’ll say I did....  Roy Vancey is sore as a pup.  He hasn’t been near me or called me up since.”

“Bessy, will you promise to stay away from that place—­and not to go joy-riding with any of those boys—­day or night—­if I meet you, and tell you all about my experience in the war?  I’ll do my best to keep the time you spend with me from being tedious.”

“It’s another bargain,” she returned deliberately, “if you just don’t spend enough time with me to make me stuck on you—­then throw me down.  On the level, now, Daren?”