I bought it only the other day after a friend of mine told me about it." Mrs.Palmer was watching her closely.
"You--you are a wonderful woman," she burst out finally.

"It isn't good business, it isn't good sense." Constance stopped short in her preparations for the search.

"What are business and sense compared to the--the life of--" She checked herself on the very point of revealing the girl's real name.
"Nothing," replied Mrs.Palmer.

"I had already made up my mind to go with you before I spoke--if you will let me." In a moment the two understood each other better than after years of casual acquaintance.
Back and forth through the mazes of streets and car lines of the city across the river the two women traveled, asking veiled questions of every wearer of a uniform, until at last they found such a place as Florence had described in her note.
There, it seemed, had sprung up a little center of vice.

While reformers were trying to clamp down tight the "lid" in New York, all the vicious elements were prying it up here.