I'd never known a woman then who
was a man's mistress, really, and I didn't see why he should be so angry
over my using the word. I thought it was fair enough. And the day I left
his house I came to you and got a job in the chorus in _The Girl
Up-stairs_. I thought that by earning my own way, building a life that
he didn't--surround, as you say--I could win his friendship. And have
his love besides. I don't suppose you would have believed there could be
such a fool in the world as I was to do that."
He took a while digesting this truly amazing statement of hers, a
half-mile perhaps of steady silent tramping. But at last he said, "No, I
wouldn't call you a fool. I call a fool a person who thinks he can get
something for nothing. You didn't think that. You were willing to pay--a
heavy price it must have been, too--for what you wanted. And I've an
idea, you know, that you never really pay without getting something;
though you don't always get what you expect. You've got something now. A
knowledge of what you can do; of what you are worth; and I don't believe
you'd trade it for what you had the day before you came to me for a
job.
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