''
``What an idea! It's a man's place to support a
woman!''
``I was speaking only of myself. _I_ can't do it.
And it's absurd for you and me to be talking about love
and marriage when anyone can see I'd be marrying you
only because I was afraid to face poverty and a struggle.''
Her manner calmed him somewhat. ``Of course it's
obvious that you've got to have money,'' said he, ``and
that the only way you can get it is by marriage. But
there's something else, too, and in my opinion it's the
principal thing--we care for each other. Why not be
sensible, Mildred? Why not thank God that as long as
you have to marry, you can marry someone you care for.''
``Could you feel that I cared for you, if I married
you now?'' inquired she.
``Why not? I'm not so entirely lacking in self-
esteem. I feel that I must count for something.''
Mildred sat silently wondering at this phenomenon so
astounding, yet a commonplace of masculine egotism.
She had no conception of this vanity which causes the
man, at whom the street woman smiles, to feel flattered,
though he knows full well what she is and her dire ne-
cessity.
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