She's just a common adventuress with a big, com-
mon, striking daughter for sale. It's a case of a
girl for sale, that's all. It's written all over both
of them. One calls out and auctioneers and the
other poses. I've seen hundreds just like them."

"The woman's common enough," said Ella Ar-
mitage. "You see her all over the South."

"But there's nothing common about that girl,"



18 WHITE SHOULDERS

stated Belle Davis. "Don't you fool yourself. I
never saw anything like her in all my life. She
sits there — day after day — like a girl cf ivory."

"Not an idea in her head."

"No. That isn't it."

"Not an expression — not a particle of expres-
sion in her face."

"That's more it," said Belle Davis. "That'*
what I was trying to say."

"What?"

"That it isn't whatt's there so much tthat'sj
strange — as what isn't there — what's lacking."

"Brains," suggested Julia Blakelock.
"No."

"What isf it, then?"

"I don't know. I can't tell you exactly. Only
it isn't natural — for a girl of that age. I can't
explain it exactly. But it's like all the life— all
the spring — had gone out of her."

"That's perfectly true," said Ella Armitage,
"but what's strange about it?"

"It's terrible, I think," said Belle Davis ; "per-
fectly terrible."

"Terrible?"

"That expression on her face. I sit and study
it. Do you know what I think it is sometimes?"
Belle Davis asked them.
"What?"




WHITE SHOULDERS 19

"Fear."

"Fear?"

"Yes — in both of them. But in that gi$ — that
pale-faced girl — especially. Did you ever notice
them," she asked — "especially the Cockatoo —
just before the postman comes every day?"

"I don't know as I have," skid Julia Blakelock.
