Free Stranger within the Gates by Grace Livingston Hill Page A

luck!" said Rex pleasantly. "It doesn't seem as if one could half live without a mother."
    "Ain't it the truth!" said the girl.
    "Has your mother been dead long?" asked Rex, because she still lingered around, and it didn't seem kind to not say something.
    "Yeah. She's been dead since I was a little kid. My aunt brought me up, and she wasn't very motherly. We lived in one room, and she went to work in a department store every day, so, you see, I really never had a home at all."
    "That's bad!" said Rex between hot mouthfuls of soup. "Your father dead, too?"
    "I don't know," said the girl shyly, wiping a furtive tear. "He went away when my mother was very sick, and we never heard from him again. I don't suppose he was worth much. He was the son of a rich man, but it just about killed my mother, having him go off like that."
    "Well, that must have been pretty terrible," said Rex, reaching for another handful of crackers. "Haven't you ever heard from him?"
    "No," said the girl sadly. "Well, only just once after he went away, he sent me a little locket and chain, but that's all. And we don't even know he sent that. It was after my mother died, and we weren't sure it was his handwriting. But there wasn't anybody else who could have sent it, so we gave him the credit of it. But after my aunt died that was the end, I guess. He probably thought I'd try to get supported by him. But, you know, it's awfully hard. Being all alone in the world that way and having to earn my living."
    "It must be," said Rex sympathetically. "I think you deserve a great deal of credit the way you've got along. I guess they think a lot of you here."
    "Oh, well, it's not so hot here, you know," said the girl with a toss of her head and a contemptuous look on her very red lips. "You know, in a place like this where so many men come in, you have to watch your step. They aren't always so respectful as they might be, either, and a girl has to run all sorts of risks to keep on going from day to day. There's a fellow now that's got me on the spot. He's been trying to make me go with him, but I don't like him. And anyway, he's already married. At least I think he is, and he gets so mad when I don't accept his invitations. He's got so now he watches for me when I go home at night, and three times already I've had to change my rooming house because he follows me and just hounds me to go to dances and things with him. I'm afraid to stir anywhere for fear I'll meet him. He carries a gun, too. He told me that, and sometimes he gets it out and fools around with it and scares me out of my life."
    "Who is this fellow? Does he live around here?" Rex asked angrily.
    "He says his name is Rehobeth. Harry Rehobeth, but I'm not all that sure that's right. I think he just changes his name on occasion, if you know what I mean. And he might be hiding from justice for all I know. The first time he came in here to get something to eat was way late at night. They had asked me to keep open here till midnight that night, and when he came in he was wound up, if you know what I mean, really wound up! And when I brought him his order, he just reached over and caught my wrist and kissed me, just like that! Well, I wasn't used to that sort of thing and I told him so, and I shied off him and kept in the background. But the next day he came in again and said he was going to take me to a nightclub in the city, and he wouldn't take no for an answer. And he got furious when I wouldn't promise to go. A few nights after that he met me halfway home and grabbed me and tried to kiss me hard, but I screamed, and we heard a policeman coming, so he beat it. But I've been deathly afraid of him ever since. He declares he's going to get me yet. And I've always been respectable, even if I was poor and alone."
    By this time the girl was crying. Great crystal tears like beads rolling down her cheeks. She put up her hand and tried to wipe them off and turned her head away to hide them from him.
    "Say!" said Rex.