Page:Bambi (1914).djvu/229

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BAMBI
207

“That’s about the case,” she replied.

“How can we live and endure such things?” Jarvis demanded passionately.

“I used to feel that way about it. I used to be sick through and through with it, but I have grown to see that there is improvement, that there is a new social sense growing among us. Uptown women of leisure come to our night courts, take part in our working-girls’ strikes, and women, mind you, are always slowest to feel and react to new forces. Don’t be discouraged,” she smiled at him, stopping at the door.

“May I come and see you, some time? Are you ever free, or would that be asking too much?”

“No. Come! Come in Sunday afternoon if you like.”

She held out her hand, and he grasped it warmly.

“You’re great,” he said boyishly, at which she laughed.

“We need you young enthusiasts,” she said.

As he walked uptown to his lodgings Jarvis faced the fact that up to this present moment he had been on the wrong track. He had tried to pull from the top. That was all right, if only he also tried to push from the bottom. The world needed idealists, but