was announced, and looking up he encountered the meretricious smile of
the courtesan with whom he had forgotten himself. She had taken a fancy
to her victim, and having learned that he was well to do, she had come
in order to establish, if possible, on a more permanent basis, her
relations with him. She was a young woman, who had been drifting from
place to place, and whose professional inclination for a protector was
heightened by the liking which she had conceived for him. Babcock
recalled in her smile merely his shame, and regarded her reappearance as
effrontery. He was blind to her prettiness and her sentimental mood. He
asked her roughly what she wanted, and rising from his chair, he bade
her be gone before she had time to answer. Nine out of ten women of her
class would have taken their dismissal lightly. Some might have answered
back in tones loud enough to enlighten the clerks, and thus have
accomplished a pretty revenge in the course of retreat. This particular
Lesbian was in no humor to be harshly treated. She was a little
desperate and Babcock had pleased her. It piqued her to be treated in
such a fashion; accordingly, she held her ground and sat down. She tried
upon him, alternately, irony and pathos. He was angry but confused under
the first, he became savage and merciless under the second, throwing
back in her teeth the suggestion of her fondness, and stigmatizing her
coarsely. Then she became angry in her turn--angry as a woman whose
proffered love is spurned. The method for revenge was obvious, and she
told him plainly what she intended. His wife should know at once how her
husband passed his time during her absence. She had posted herself, and
she saw that her shaft hurt. Babcock winced, but mad and incredulous, he
threatened her with arrest and drove her from the room. She went out
smiling, but with an ominous look in her eyes, the remembrance of which
made him ask himself now and again if she could be vicious enough, or
fool enough, to keep her promise. He dismissed the idea as improbable;
still the bare chance worried him. Selma was to arrive early the next