"Now, please," cried Lola impatiently, "please don't begin that all over again. You have been scolding about that all the afternoon."
"But, if you have known this woman for months, why is it that you have never spoken of her? Would you have spoken of her at all if you had not known that I saw you with her?"
"If she is such a terrible person, how is it that you know her so well?"
"Lola! I am a man. Men are different! Surely you must see that?"
"Why are they different? I am not a child. I am a woman! Why shouldn't I have a little fun once in a while? Why should men have everything?"
"Do you call it fun to live the life that woman lives? You don't know what she is; if you did you would rather stay shut up in this room as long as you were alive than call yourself a friend of hers."
"No! I am not absurd. A girl like you, Lola, doesn't even know what such women as that Mrs. Harlan are. It is your very innocence, dear, that makes you so bold."
"I'm tired of being a fool." She spoke with a fierce impatience that frightened him. "She is a woman, isn't she, made of the same flesh and blood, living in the same world. Why should I avoid her? She is the only person I know who cares for anything but work, and worry, and duty! Life isn't all drudgery to her; she loves laughter, and happiness, and gayety, and good clothes, and beautiful surroundings! If that is a sin, then I am a sinner, too, and I'm glad of it."
"I want to understand! I must understand! I cannot, will not, go on any longer like an ostrich, my head hidden, pretending not to see the things that are all around me. If you love me you will help me, you will stop this absurd pretence. You will help me to know what this world I live in really is. I am warning you, John, just this once. If you do not listen to what I am saying it will be your own fault; I won't speak like this again."
"My dear," said John in much distress, "I want to help you. Surely you know that. I am going to be your husband, and all our lives I am going to stand between you and everything that is evil. I am going to do all that a man can do to protect you from all the sorrow, and suffering, and sin of the world."
Lola looked at him, as he stood before her, gravely, his fine young face flushed with embarrassment and earnest with his strong intention to do his best to make her life all innocent happiness. She looked at him, and laughed, laughed so heartily, and with such real merriment, that after a moment's indignation he was reassured. "Surely," he thought, "everything is all right now; she is laughing at me because I took her innocent girlish talk too seriously," and he resolved in future to avoid such discussions; but because he was worried at his discovery of her acquaintance with this really objectionable woman he felt that he must not stop until he had secured an earnest promise that she would avoid her as much as possible, so he continued. "Lola, Mrs. Harlan's greatest friend, the man who has helped to give her a reputation that a decent woman can hardly envy, is Dick Fenway."