"Since Miss Moloof appears to hold claims upon you, Mr. Vanderlip, and is
in too great haste to grant me a few seconds of your time, I am forced to
appeal directly to you. May I speak with you, alone, and now?"
Mrs. McFee's jaws brought together with a snap. That settled the
disgraceful situation.
"Why, er--that is, certainly," the man stammered. "Of course, of
course," growing more effusive at the prospect of deliverance.
Men are only gregarious vertebrates, domesticated and evolved, and the
chances are large that it was because the Greek girl had in her time
dealt with wilder masculine beasts of the human sort; for she turned upon
the man with hell's tides aflood in her blazing eyes, much as a
bespangled lady upon a lion which has suddenly imbibed the pernicious
theory that he is a free agent. The beast in him fawned to the lash.
"That is to say, ah, afterward. To-morrow, Mrs. Eppingwell; yes,
to-morrow. That is what I meant." He solaced himself with the fact,
should he remain, that more embarrassment awaited. Also, he had an
engagement which he must keep shortly, down by the water-hole off the
hospital.
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