human
If only you weren't so young!--I suppose you think I'm a bad lot--bad as they make 'em. But I'm not. I never was. Oh, I know I've done things ladies don't do!--but then ladies ain't often asked to do 'em, dearie. You got to remember that.
gpt
I guess you know I wasn't born a lady, nor raised like one, though I've tried.... Well, never mind that!--Pa had a little cash-and-carry grocer store over to Indianapolis, and we lived upstairs, all of us in two rooms.... It was the dirt I couldn't stand, and the crowding. It ain't _right_ for a whole lot of children to live like that, all mixed in so! The others didn't seem to mind, but I was always sort of nice in my ways. Maybe because I was born before Mom took to the coke.
human
The what?
gpt
Coke--dope, you know. It was the only thing that seemed to keep her going, poor Mom! and I'm glad she had it.
human
Was your mother an invalid?
gpt
Oh, no. But kids come along once a year regular, and she wasn't ever, so to speak, well. I made up my mind when I wasn't more than ten never to get myself in the fix Ma was in!... My two older sisters felt that way, too, I guess. They always had fellows, but not the sort that'd do to marry. Men like Pa, you know. No 'count--One of the girls worked at a dressmaker's, and sewed till her eyes were red all the time, and her shoulders stooped and she coughed. The other--well, the other didn't keep straight, dearie. Awful few of the girls I knew did keep straight. But Mame went into one of those houses--you know?--and had a lot of swell clothes, and jewelry and all. I remember all us younger ones used to envy her. But she didn't last long at it, and she died--horrible.