He had turned the key. "Lord! you do keep it up!" he laughed, his hand
suddenly about her arm.

Then she knew, and dragged back, sweating with the horror of the
thing.

"Ah, let me go--let me go!"

"Oh, chuck it, you little ass!" His arm was about her waist now,
dragging her; his face close.

With a sudden twist and thrust that took him by surprise she wrenched
from his grasp; was a flight of stairs away before he had recovered
his wits; across the hall and running--shaking, hysterical--down the
street.



XIV.

Thereafter men were a constant horror to her--adding a new and most
savage beast to the wolves of noise, of desolation and of despair that
bayed about her in this grinding city. Unable longer to face them, she
went again to Miss Ram at the Agency--almost upon her knees, crying,
trembling, pitching her tale from the man with the dent in his hat to
the man in Wilton Road.

Miss Ram was moved to the original depths that lay beneath her grim
exterior; had never realised the actual circumstances; would do what
she could; no need to be frightened.