John Fleming Wilson

“ But women don't understand other women, I guess. That excellent matron did not know that Gertrude wouldn't, couldn't go to Tantor. She had put the stain on their pure and lovely relations. The girl was sickened at the thought that she was unworthy of Tantor—that she had soiled the pure character she must have to be his wife. She thought—it's the way women think—that what that matron had said was true: she was not fit to be the wife of a good man. ”

“ She was as fresh and wholesome as a breeze across an orchard, and she was beautiful, too, with that strange loveliness that changes and has little shadows of sadness about it, and little lights of passion and all very girlish and natural and innocent. ”

“ Good mate, Tantor. I got to appreciate him. And when he'd been with me six months this girl wanders down to the wharf while we're lying here in San Pedro, and Tantor sees her and the affair begins.
She was a lovely creature. Name of Laws—Gertrude Laws. From up the country, she was. She'd been to school and had come down to Los Angeles to study to be a teacher. One afternoon she thought she'd like to see a ship, and took the trolley down here. The Witch of Endor's masts are sticking up into the blue sky and she traipses down to see her. ”

“ I told Tantor. "Remember that every man's love is his own affair. Leave it to her."
So we sat there—forgetting the papers—and listened. I suppose Burton's black heart really beat for her, she was so pure and kind and gentle. ”

“ He invited her on board the Hazel and she went, like a friendly child. There he said more, the things that burned and scorched the girl. She said nothing but went to her boarding place in Los Angeles and confided in the matron. Some good women unlock the doors of hell without knowing it. She dragged the whole story of Gertrude's engagement to Tantor out and said the single thing: "You have compromised yourself. No good girl would go down to a ship and meet a sailor without being a bad woman. ”