Prepared as Clyde was to dislike all this, so steeped had he been in the moods and maxims antipathetic toanything of its kind, still so innately sensual and romantic was his own disposition and so starved where sex wasconcerned, that instead of being sickened, he was quite fascinated. The very fleshly sumptuousness of most ofthese figures, dull and unromantic as might be the brains that directed them, interested him for the time being.

　　After all, here was beauty of a gross, fleshly character, revealed and purchasable. And there were no difficultiesof mood or inhibitions to overcome in connection with any of these girls. One of them, a quite pretty brunette ina black and red costume with a band of red ribbon across her forehead, seemed to be decidedly at home withHigby, for already she was dancing with him in the back room to a jazz melody most irrationally hammered outupon the piano.

　　And Ratterer, to Clyde's surprise, was already seated upon one of the gilt chairs and upon his knees was lounginga tall young girl with very light hair and blue eyes. And she was smoking a cigarette and tapping her goldslippers to the melody of the piano. It was really quite an amazing and Aladdin-like scene to him. And here wasHegglund, before whom was standing a German or Scandinavian type, plump and pretty, her arms akimbo andher feet wide apart. And she was asking--with an upward swell of the voice, as Clyde could hear: "You makelove to me to-night?" But Hegglund, apparently not very much taken with these overtures, calmly shook hishead, after which she went on to Kinsella.

　　And even as he was looking and thinking, a quite attractive blonde girl of not less than twenty-four, but whoseemed younger to Clyde, drew up a chair beside him and seating herself, said: "Don't you dance?" He shook hishead nervously. "Want me to show you?""Oh, I wouldn't want to try here," he said.

　　"Oh, it's easy," she continued. "Come on!" But since he would not, though he was rather pleased with her for being agreeable to him, she added: "Well, how about something to drink then?""Sure," he agreed, gallantly, and forthwith she signaled the young Negress who had returned as waitress, and in amoment a small table was put before them and a bottle of whisky with soda on the side--a sight that soastonished and troubled Clyde that he could scarcely speak. He had forty dollars in his pocket, and the cost ofdrinks here, as he had heard from the others, would not be less than two dollars each, but even so, think of himbuying drinks for such a woman at such a price! And his mother and sisters and brother at home with scarcelythe means to make ends meet. And yet he bought and paid for several, feeling all the while that he had let himselfin for a terrifying bit of extravagance, if not an orgy, but now that he was here, he must go through with it.

　　And besides, as he now saw, this girl was really pretty. She had on a Delft blue evening gown of velvet, withslippers and stockings to match. In her ears were blue earrings and her neck and shoulders and arms were plumpand smooth. The most disturbing thing about her was that her bodice was cut very low--he dared scarcely look ather there--and her cheeks and lips were painted-- most assuredly the marks of the scarlet woman. Yet she did notseem very aggressive, in fact quite human, and she kept looking rather interestedly at his deep and dark andnervous eyes.

　　"You work over at the Green-Davidson, too, don't you?" she asked.

　　"Yes," replied Clyde trying to appear as if all this were not new to him--as if he had often been in just such aplace as this, amid such scenes. "How did you know?""Oh, I know Oscar Hegglund," she replied. "He comes around here once in a while. Is he a friend of yours?""Yes. That is, he works over at the hotel with me.""But you haven't been here before.""No," said Clyde, swiftly, and yet with a trace of inquiry in his own mood. Why should she say he hadn't beenhere before?

　　"I thought you hadn't. I've seen most of these other boys before, but I never saw you. You haven't been workingover at the hotel very long, have you?""No," said Clyde, a little irritated by this, his eyebrows and the skin of his forehead rising and falling as hetalked--a form of contraction and expansion that went on involuntarily whenever he was nervous or thoughtdeeply. "What of it?""Oh, nothing. I just knew you hadn't. You don't l............